Returning to Golf After Broken Right Ankle

[arbitrage]

Hey guys,

 

To make a long story short. Friday, March 11th I snuck out for a quick 9 and lost my balance on acorns hitting my approach on 5 (first round of the year!) I fell with all my weight on my right leg and broke my tibia/fibula. I had ORIF surgery on March 21st (2 plates and 20 screws - I'm not kidding) and I am now two months out. I've been working with my PT for the last 6 weeks and things are going well. I am currently at 25% weight bearing and can now drive (freeeeeeedom!!!) and finally got back to the gym this past weekend.

 

My question: What should I be expecting in the coming months. My PT doesn't think I'll be able to play until September (Kill me now!). I would love to hear some war stories. When did you go back to the range? When did you play? How long until you were walking the course again (I hate riding)? How did it affect your swing?

 

I've been thinking about that fateful day since it happened. Two things that I keep on coming back to: 1. Ecco Street Premieres are not good on a. wet turf b. acorns - I have to wear proper footwear. No more hybrid shoes. 2. My quick tempo - Would it have happened if I had a slower tempo?

 

Thank you for reading.

 

Danny

[ALIF]

If you want to second opinion, post your x-rays and I'll tell you what I think.

[27x10.5]

My girlfriend just slipped at a pool and broke her tib/fib and ankle and needed a rod and plate put in, I almost posted on here to see if there were other people that had the injury to see how their recovery went.

 

Rough week for her she just had the surgery last Sunday, good to hear you're doing well man.

[arbitrage]

Chiva,

 

Thank you for getting back to me. Here is the before and after. The first x-ray was done at the ortho clinic that day. The tibia slid about 1" total before I had the surgery. The surgeon had to pull my leg apart and set it to the proper slot before starting to put the plates/screws in. Unfortunately, I don't have the followup x-rays taken at the hospital. I can say that at the last appointment, the calcification started but was slow (not much progress from the post-surgery x-ray attached. I won't see him again until the middle of June.

 

A few things:

 

- I am 41

- I had severe nerve damage in my 20's (C6 discectomy for radial nerve impingement) and only discovered that I had atrophy on my right side when I started lose fat with my trainer.

- I did not feel pain when I suffered the break (probably also due to this nerve damage).

 

I really appreciate the feedback.

 

Danny

[ALIF]

First off, looks like it was fixed pretty well. I would be satisfied with that work. These take a while to heal. The tibia doesn't have the best blood supply. So it is a slow healer. That being said, you are 10 weeks post op. You have rigid internal fixation. The fibula will be 100% healed by now. The tibia will take some more time but I think I would let you play golf on it and another couple of weeks. I think 12 weeks would be reasonable to allow you to play golf. I don't mean go out and walk 18 holes, putt, chip, and hit a few wedge shots. Since this is your right leg and you're right-handed it shouldn't be too big of a deal. If you were left-handed I would want you to wait maybe another month. Remember, just take it slow.

[arbitrage]

Thank you so much for your input. I am assuming that I shouldn't be walking this year. Is that correct? Could I walk with a push cart? Or is that overdoing it?

[arbitrage]

My girlfriend just slipped at a pool and broke her tib/fib and ankle and needed a rod and plate put in, I almost posted on here to see if there were other people that had the injury to see how their recovery went.

 

Rough week for her she just had the surgery last Sunday, good to hear you're doing well man.

 

I am sorry to hear about your girlfriend. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. The loss of independence is the worst part of it. I finally got back to driving at the end of last week. Based on input from my docs and my PT, it's a 3 month process to be fully weight bearing and it takes 6 months to a year for it to fully heal and for the swelling to stop. PT is super important. I go twice a week and have to do exercises at home every day. I am not sure if it's actually helping, but my doc also got me a bone stimulator. I use it 20

minutes a night. It supposedly increase the stimulation of bone growth by up to 38%. I wish you her the best of luck in her recovery.

[royourboat]

I did a small tear in my hammy a few months ago, this lead to muscle tightness through the leg. As I have scar tissue in that ankle from a poorly treated sprain it got snagged. Physio looked at it (for an appt which was to look at my shoulder originally) and felt I would be back playing in a week, so 6 days later I played and it was ok. Did some driver practise 2 days later and it felt ok also but it didn't stay that way. The twisting action was terrible for it. 3 weeks later I was still getting worse. Started ice baths 3 times a day to relieve myself of the discomfort of walking from the carpark to work.

 

I had gone from a minor hamstring strain to an ankle sprain that I didn't even notice the swelling of, to not being able to bear weight or walk for periods of time. So frustrating, as I had spent 8 years fixing many lower body movement pattern problems/injuries and getting to the most functional and strong I had ever been. The injury and my subsequently stupidity fast tracked 8 years of progress down the gurgler in 2 months. I had to learn A LOT through failed experiments in improving my movement patterns to maintain functionality, this is just another.

 

As I had been getting worse and not better, physio thought we should try shock wave therapy. It's a pneumatic hammer basically. 2000 hits to the tendon in 6.5minutes. It was basically turned down only so much so that I didn't cry. It was literally torturous. 90min afterwards it feels like new. The dorsiflexion is still limited probably due to calf tightness, but the ankle joint feels as it did 3 months ago. Honestly have trouble believing that a sore tendon being belted with a hammer 2000 times makes it better that quickly.

 

You wanted a war story and this is my latest. Previously I spent 4 years in a row dislocating the same knee and that is when I had hurt the opposite ankle. The dislocations sometimes look 3 months to straighten the leg again, so they led to significant motor pattern problems. Moral that is understated here is twofold..

1. If you enjoy your movement, ie. want to play golf at your highest potential, take your medicine. Commit yourself to your improvement of the absolute basics. Doing heavy weights and other activities are pretty much fun and get you to high level activities like golf faster, don't try and stack them on top of faulty movement patterns that you will now have developed due to the inactivity in recovery. You must master the absolute fundamental patterns your Physio gives you, but those exercises will be much more mentally demanding.

2. Maintain it. Flexibility and basic movement patterns are easy to maintain and if you find losing your capabilities through this injury mentally depressing, regaining them and then keeping them will also keep your mind in good stead. You don't know what you have until it is taken from you.

[royourboat]

I lie, the dorsiflexion is also limited by something in there, the scar tissue maybe. However I am actually looking forward to the shock wave therapy again considering how well it works. High strength pain killers recommended.

[arbitrage]

Wow! Quite the war story! I think I do a variation of the shockwave therapy for about 20 minutes each PT session The issue I have is, because of my nerve damage, I don't feel anything. I didn't feel pain when it happened. I didn't feel pain waiting for surgery nor after surgery. I often wonder when I have the treatment if a "normal human being" would be in a world of hurt. I have not taken any pain Meds this whole time.

 

The most depressing part of this whole ordeal, aside from missing most of this golf season, is that I missed two months of going to the gym. I lost 60 lbs and was in the best shape of my life right before the injury. Going to the gym this weekend made me realize how much muscle mass and strength I lost over the last two months. I am pretty much back at square one. I am wondering how my game will be affected when I get back.

 

It's going to be a long road.

 

 

[royourboat]

Do yourself a favour and take some photos and know the numbers. At one stage in my life my right leg was about the size of my right arm as it was immobile for months due to the swelling surrounding the knee. Left leg wasnt very big either, but had alot of muscle tone. A photo and various numbers recorded each month will show you the progression to keep you motivated.

[arbitrage]

Thank you for the feedback. I started taking pictures on a monthly basis when I started working out with a trainer in December 2014. I kept on taking pictures while I was bedridden and I definitely see the deterioration. I am back in the gym now, with the knowledge that I got from the trainer, so I am not flying blind. I know this is a marathon, not a sprint, but I miss the pre-injury me.

[grant2145]

On February 6th of this year, I broke my ankle and had a displaced medial malleolus fracture or in other words had a break in my fibula and tibia. Went in for ORIF surgery about a week later where they put a plate and pins in the ankle. Mid-March I was weight bearing with crutches, and by mid-April I was out of the boot for good.

 

After getting out of the boot I started PT with the goal of not missing any of the golf season which starts late April here in Minnesota. When golfing I prefer to walk the course but understood that would be out of the question for a while. The PT was extremely helpful and gave me confidence in pushing myself to build the strength and flexibility back in my leg/ankle. April 28th, just shy of 3 months since the injury, I got out for my first round of the year playing 18 with a cart. Going from a treadmill and walking flat grounds to the hills and terrain of the course was a struggle but I was able to finish the round with no problem other than a lot of swelling.

 

In May I played 11 rounds all with a cart. There were 3 days I played back to back to back whereby the end of the 3rd round my ankle swelled up to the size of a softball. After that, I started wearing a heavy-duty compression sleeve when I play and icing after the round. Since then the swelling hasn’t been as much of an issue.

 

After my PT appointment on June 4th, my therapist told me that my progress was going well and that we didn’t need to schedule another appointment. Yesterday, June 5th I walked 9 holes for the first time this season without any issue.

 

Today is 4 months since my injury and while I’m not at 100% yet I do feel good enough that I can walk 18 with no issue. When I was researching online about recovery times at the beginning of this journey there were a lot of horror stories about people 6 months later still unable to walk which had me thinking I would miss a good part of the short golf season. Fortunately, my injury happened during the winter and I didn’t miss any of the season. Hopefully, this timeline gives anyone else that has to deal with a broken ankle some hope that it isn’t the end of the world.

[dlygrisse]

I had almost the exact same injury in 2007, from slipping on ice, your X-rays look very familiar. :(

 

I probably started back too quickly, right after 12 weeks, I played a few rounds where I was basically swinging from my left leg and using my wedge as a cane. I of course didn't hit the ball all that well for a couple of months but the pain and stiffness will go away once you are able to put 100% of the weight back on the leg. I found that after about 6 months I was mostly back to normal, with some pain, stiffness and weakness, but totally tolerable if I didn't go overboard. It did take about a year before I was thinking about it and compensating some though.

 

I will say that mine is a injury that I know I will feel for the rest of my life, weather changes, excessive activity will still cause some swelling, and if I roll it a bit....ouch....at 53 years old I have quit activities like playing basketball where I might roll it, but still play golf, bike, and do most other activities.

 

Just know that your ankle will feel very weak for a while, be careful but golf shouldn't be too far away, just ease back in to it. Start with some putting, short game, wedges, short irons and work your way up to full swings. Once I was told I was healed my biggest concern was rolling it while walking the course, even while using a cart. slight undulations with a weak ankle and you can roll it easily.

 

Use common sense, wear a brace if if playing for a while, ease your way back into it, your body will tell you when you are ready.

[cardoustie]

I did a post on a swing working with my bad right leg. Might help

Learned to swing with more weight pre-set left into my left arse cheek and a shallower hand path ...

[Cjmarine75]

I broke my ankle November 9th playing golf, fibula in 5 places, tibia came out through the skin, shredded all cartilage and ligaments. Just had my third surgery July 1st. Haven't been able to play golf yet. I could really use some encouragement..

[hilya]

On 6/6/2018 at 12:08 PM, cardoustie said:

I did a post on a swing working with my bad right leg. Might help

Learned to swing with more weight pre-set left into my left arse cheek and a shallower hand path ...

How did this work out? I've been recently trying to figure out how to stop my right ankle collapsing in on downswing following a break to fibula. I have had some success recently with stack and tilt like elements where i preload my left side but it's been a real struggle to figure out how to get a consistent low point. 

[kiwigolf72]

I feel for you all, I hope you have a speedy recovery.

Put in the work the physio has set, trust the process.

As soon as you can weight bear and walk ok, I would pick up that putter and practice, same with chipping-limited speed and rotation.

while you are waiting to get back there's no reason why you can't have a deadly short game.

Good lick on your recovery I hope you all make it back on the course soon.

[kiwigolf72]

On 7/12/2019 at 1:00 PM, Cjmarine75 said:

I broke my ankle November 9th playing golf, fibula in 5 places, tibia came out through the skin, shredded all cartilage and ligaments. Just had my third surgery July 1st. Haven't been able to play golf yet. I could really use some encouragement..

Hang in there mate