Intro
Martin Francis suffered a horrific injury in May 2006 whilst windsurfing at his home beach. Last month he talked through the mental anguish of dealing with the injury. This month he tells us about the physical trauma to his body and how he began to piece himself back together.
Once all the helicopter and hospital drama was over and done, I was packed off home with a pimp pair of crutches and welcomed by a very concerned mother. Having gone through the emotions of the impact the injury would have on my life, I decided to attack my recovery; do as much as I possibly could and more importantly do it the right way. I was told the projected time to full recovery was two years from the initial injury (17th May 2006). Due to persistence and a lot of good support I have managed to reduce this time scale by almost half. On May 15th this year I am having all the scaffolding which held my bone together taken out and should be fully recovered a month later. So in this article I am going to take you through what I did from getting home to being able to do light training in the gym.
Note: I want to stress this is what I did. All the exercises and routines I went through were very specific to my injury and were devised for me by professionals.
Rest
This is probably the most important thing of all. When your body has taken a knock it needs time to recover. Getting good nights sleep and resting where appropriate does a massive amount to aid your recovery. Just like when you’re unwell your body uses a lot of its energy fixing whatever the problem is. So trying not to overexert myself was a must. I tried my hardest to tuck myself in early and sleep well (not the easiest task with 39 staple stitches on the side I sleep on).
Being an active person, spending a lot of time sat on my behind was really difficult. I felt very helpless not being able to do anything and did try and push myself a little too much to begin with. I found that it would knock me for six for a couple of days so it wasn’t really worth it. It was much better to do a little each day rather than waste time getting over just one.
Icing
Unfortunately not the stuff covering Christmas cakes but using ice to try and reduce the inflammation. I iced my injured area through most of my recovery to help keep any inflammation at bay whilst I was exercising. I applied the ice for the optimum period of seven minutes every 1½ hrs sometimes using heat packs in between. However soothing it was I had to restrict myself as you can leave ice packs on for too long. If I was getting any discomfort doing a certain exercise I’d ice it for 7 min, wait 1 1/2 hrs then try again. If it still felt uncomfortable I’d stop and ice again and so on.
Mobility
After my first visit to the physio I was sent home with a list of mobility exercises to get my damaged limb moving again. As I smashed my leg up out at sea, I was literally swum in by fellow sailor Ruth Elliot. This long swim in through quite big surf with my lower leg swinging around caused a lot of muscle damage. It was important to get those muscles moving as quickly as possible so they wouldn’t switch off completely. Also the sooner I could put weight on my bad leg, the quicker the bone would heal apparently.
The first exercise was to be performed in the water giving maximum support for my muscles. Out of the water I could hardly move my leg at all, I had to use my arms to man handle it around and putting on socks was a complete no no. On the other hand with my leg been supported by water been able to move it was less of a problem. My parents’ house had a rather large bath so I was able to do all of these exercise without having to go to the local swimming pool.
Knowing that the quicker I got my muscles in working order so I could put weight on my leg to speed up the bone healing process was like waving a red rag to a bull. A week later I arrived for my next physio appointment the cleanest I have ever been and actually being able to get some movement in my leg without having to manhandle it. My mum commented that she spent my entire childhood trying to get me in the bath and now couldn’t get me out! My physio was really impressed with my progress and gave me further exercises to do until the swelling went down completely.
Beginning to re-build the muscle
After a few more weeks thrashing around in the bath the swelling had completely disappeared and I had a good range of movement in my leg. It was now time to start working the leg out of the water so the muscle could start re-building itself. To start I did a combination of non resistance exercises (any resistance could still cause damage at this stage). Just simple things like flexing my foot backwards and forwards whilst elevated, or sat on the floor lifting my knee sliding my heel backwards as far as I could towards me. The real killer was sitting on a chair with both feet on the floor and lifting my lower leg so the leg was straight. I had to make sure I didn’t do too much as well as too little.
The times which I would be resting, like in front of the TV, reading a book etc, I’d make sure that I was trying all my exercises. As soon as it became uncomfortable I’d stop, slap on the ice for 7 mins then do some later in the day. If it was still sore then I would just abandon the exercise. No pain, no gain just didn’t apply in this case.
Now that the swelling had gone down it was also time for me to get about a bit. It wasn’t just my leg that was suffering but the rest of me as well. Sitting on your backside isn’t really healthy. I had lost a lot of weight since my accident so needed to get some exercise to make sure I didn’t put it back on as fat. Thankfully my course of strong iron tablets had sorted my blood levels and hence my dizziness so I’d take myself for crutch walks around the garden or down the road.
Another added bonus to the swelling going down was massages. There was a lot of scar tissue from all the movement of fractured bone so the more massages the better. All good by me (with the right person of course)!
Resistance Exercises
As soon as I was managing all the non-resistance exercises with ease I began using a resistance band. If I could meet the person who invented these things I would get down on one knee and propose immediately - these things are excellent! The results I got from using these bands where absolutely amazing. In weeks I went from been just able to do small movements to been able to lift my leg from lying down to pointing straight up at 90 degrees to my body and I could put socks on all by myself!
My physio set me a progressive training program where I would perform a number of exercises twice a day, which I increased to three a day to relieve boredom. I just made sure that again if I felt any pain I would stop.
One important point that I was made aware of was muscle balance. To try and get both my legs to the same strength once recovered I was made to do the same exercises on my good leg too. There were all really easy but I keep doing them as it was drummed into me that imbalance would cause future problems which would be very hard to rectify.
The Rest Of My Body
I only had a few months rest from general exercise but it was noticeable how much my muscle mass had decreased. I had actually lost a significant amount of weight and was only 9 ½ stone compared to my usual 11 ½. With advice from my physio I was set a simple routine using light free weights and the amazing resistance bands to start building up my upper body strength. For the moment cardio work was near impossible but a least I was doing something. I also had to think quite hard about my diet. I ate a balanced diet and between meals I tried to eat things which would speed any rebuilding of muscles and bones like foods high in calcium, vitamin E+D and protein. I drank lots of goat’s milk (not that tasty) and started using a whey protein sports supplement when I started training again. I also had to take on extra iron but that was due to my low blood levels from losing so much blood at the time of injury.
Walking
So far all of my efforts had been put into getting my muscles in my leg working again. It got to the stage where I had enough strength to start transferring weight through the leg and I could get to work repairing the bone. When I initially snapped the bone I had it reconstructed with metal pins; one hammered (literally) through the inside of my femur then four screws holding it in place, two by the hip and two by the knee. These screws meant that the bone couldn’t move at all and could start to repair. By pushing the bone together it encouraged bone growth but also meant the size of the new bone growth would be minimal as no one wants one leg bigger than the other. It was a quick trip back to the operating table to remove one of the screws by my hip so the top part of the femur could slowly move down the large pin.
On my return from hospital I was sat down and given a stern talking to by my physio on the best ways to get me walking again and how to make sure I did not disturb any of the work I had already done. The biggest key was not to limp. Limping is less painful but uses the muscles in a way they are not meant for. I could have been doing more damage than good dumping my crutches straight away. A gradual process starting with toe touching then progressively putting more and more weight on my leg till I could walk normally but still using crutches. Once I felt comfortable enough I could try without over a short distance till it became uncomfortable.
Desperate to get back in the water I took myself to the local swimming baths and did a lot of supported wading. Using a large foam sausage wrapped around my chest I’d wade from side to side in the shallow end using the sausage for support. I got some funny looks but at the end of the day who cares.
As I gained a bit more strength I was advised to start using a cycling machine to help as a mobility exercise. This felt fantastic to be able to do, I wouldn’t have believed it when I was still in hospital that in 4 ½ months I would have been able to get on a gym bike. It was only on the lowest resistance and I wasn’t exactly going for it but it was so nice to be doing some exercise again.
It wasn’t long before I was out and about able to go for a short stroll and more importantly go and see all my mates. The mental boost it gave me to be half active again was amazing and got me motivated to start getting my fitness levels back up. I did more pool and cycling work till I was able to swim properly and step off the bike on to a cross trainer machine.
Overall
So there we have it – from hospital bed to a light workout in the gym! It was a long, hard process to get myself this far but by approaching the tasks the way I did got me walking properly within 4 ½ months of breaking my leg. I think the most important things which I did was listen to all the advise I was given, not be to stubborn and think that I knew better and also to listen to my body. Pain is the body saying no and although it is all well and good when you are fully fit pushing yourself in the gym, when you are damaged no pain no gain couldn’t be further from the truth.
Before finishing I must stress again that this is what I did. By all means if you have the misfortune of an injury follow my approach but seek professional advice.
Finally I would like to say a massive thanks to the people who helped me get through these early stages; Zac my physio at Sports Resource for all his hard work which is still ongoing, all my close mates for keeping me happy and especially my Mum who I couldn’t have done it without.
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"Due to persistence and a lot of good support I have managed to reduce this time scale by almost half"
" when you’re unwell your body uses a lot of its energy fixing whatever the problem is "
"I iced my injured area through most of my recovery to help keep any inflammation at bay whilst I was exercising"
"The first exercise was to be performed in the water giving maximum support for my muscles. Out of the water I could hardly move my leg at all..."
"It wasn’t just my leg that was suffering but the rest of me as well"
"I just made sure that again if I felt any pain I would stop"
"I had actually lost a significant amount of weight and was only 9 ½ stone compared to my usual 11 ½"
"The biggest key was not to limp. Limping is less painful but uses the muscles in a way they are not meant for"
"Pain is the body saying no and although it is all well and good when you are fully fit pushing yourself in the gym, when you are damaged, no pain no gain couldn’t be further from the truth"
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