L Lower Leg, Fracture
2010-08-11 – 2011-07-27
Grade: 4
I fell while roller blading to work while moving at a very slow speed; unfortunately, all my weight came down on the medial anterior edge of my left calf. Superficially, there is no more damage than a bad contusion and some swelling, but my range of pain-free motion is minimal. Walking is more difficult even than with the calf strain I suffered recently.
Update - I decided to go to the hospital because the pain in my leg was not subsiding, even with the application of ice. It turns out that I had a stress fracture in my tibia from 4 July that broke completely through in this incident. The alignment of the break is very good, so hopefully I will not need surgery. It looks unlikely I will be able to go to Croatia for the ARDF champs, which is tremendously frustrating.
X-ray of the injury
Recovering from the fracture took much time. I was on crutches for about 8 weeks, limited walking for 4, then varying degrees of impaired activity for the remaining 9 months. The leg was sensitive from Injury+3 - Injury+9 months. The only way to recover from a fracture is rest, then to rebuild atrophied muscles with a diligent PT schedule.