trikerdad Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 I tried to force a heelside to avoid hitting the berm on the side of a narrow run today and broke my ankle. The board just stopped in the soft groomed (Sierra Cement) and it felt like I hyper flexed my front ankle although I can't figure how that's possible without breaking the boot. The Doc said it looked like a break you get from jumping. With me leaning hard and my forward momentem coming to an abrupt halt maybe it was similar to landing hard. Oh well, it just means another season cut short by a snowboarding related broken bone. That brings the count to 6 but I must be getting better because it's getting longer and longer between breaks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Good thing your doc caught this now...mine (the first one) missed mine and I had to have surgery to excise the dead bone resulting from an incorrectly treated fracture 10/6-still having problems and facing either a cartilage transplant from my knee or an ankle fusion...... Stay off it as long as he/she says...if I'd been correctly diagnosed and treated, I wouldn't be having the problems I'm having now... BTW, talus fractures result from a high speed forced hyperextension and either inversion(for a lateral fracture) or eversion(for a medial fracture). Supposedly there is an equal occurence of the fracture with hard and soft boots, although my doc who operated on me says he's never read about the fracture being described in hardbooters. I'll tell him about you.... If you have any problems and need to vent/ask an opinion, email me....My biggest frustration has been that so few people have had this problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe D Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Actually my orthopedist said it's the most common ankle/foot injury in snowboarders. Hyperflexion resulted in a subtalar fracture for me last year, althoug it took 9 months and a high-res CT scan to diagnose it. Too late to do anything about it, despite fair bit of crushed cartilage in the subtalar articular surface. My buddy did his this year; his was more obvious, you could see it across the room on plain films. Best of luck. JD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Yes, it is the most common ankle injury to snowboarders-BUT, wrist/clavicle/shoulder injuries outnumber them by about 20-1! Google talar neck fractures and check out the paucity of info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trikerdad Posted March 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 This was the second one for me. The first was in soft boots, years ago, that I never had looked at thinking it was a sprain. The scar was noticed during the treatment of a shattered tibia. (I thought this one might be a sprain also until I tried to make another run.) It wasn't clear in the xrays either. It was the presence of some blood that sent me for a ct. Even then it wasn't obvious until they changed the view a couple of times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Varsava Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Just had a half day on snow after my late Jan injury and it was sore but bearable. I ended up with the front outside corner fractured off the tibia and misdiagnosis had me weightbearing when I should not have been. Also there is some locking on the inside no doubt from some bone chips. Doc said hopefully no surgery req'd if things stay out of the way but driving my car today had the bone chip making me nearly miss a few shifts. May get some good relaxing times at the cottage this summer :) In my case ( classic board stoppage in soft snow to front flip) seems the tibia got driven back over the Talus from the boot pressure and the Talus won that battle. Good news I guess as that Talus is pretty deep in there. Oh yeah, stickers going out soon!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trikerdad Posted March 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Bruce, I've been looking for those stickers. After doing a little research, I think you're right about being lucky. It looks like a broken talus can be very serious indeed. Now I wish I hadn't tried to make another run. Though the Doc said it was in good alignment I could have made it much worse. I've been told I have a high tollerance for pain and it has gotten me in trouble before. Pain is an indicator of a problem and just because you can bear it doesn't mean it's okay to keep going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Varsava Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Once I read about the Talus , how it gets very little blood supply and fractured pieces could die off, that was enough to get my attention. Stickers are on my to do list!! BV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ar(angel Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Hope you get well soon. Thanks for the pointers this season, I was hoping to ride with you and Robert a few more times, guess it will have to wait 'til next season. Stay in touch, Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 What's this about stickers? Bruce, are you going to generate some Coiler schwag? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr. sandman Posted March 23, 2006 Report Share Posted March 23, 2006 Hey Bill, Talus fractures. Not good. Period. The common medical term for this type of injury is "Snowboarder's Fracture"!! Mine was fractured early feb 05. Was misdiagnosed, walked, worked and rode (some) for 6 months before having it correctly diagnosed (see posts in http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=6311&highlight=ankle+injury ) Now I'm almost 6 months post surgery (bone couldn't be realigned, only removal of scar tissue in sub-talar joint) and I still have pain and can not flex forward in my snowboard boots without considerable pain. Maybe I'll be good enough to ride next season - didn't ride a day this year. Sounds like you were diagnosed accurately which is a big plus (are you casted & non-weight bearing??) If you didn't see it, here is a link to a great article regarding these types of injuries: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020901/785.html Hoping your recovery goes well, and hoping to ride w/ you, Paul and Robert next season. Best wishes, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe D Posted March 23, 2006 Report Share Posted March 23, 2006 Great AAFP article, sandman, very interesting. Especially since the authors are out of Hawaii - I wonder how many snowboarders they see with injuries from riding Mauna Kea? It's unbelievable how common this seems to be. I keep hearing of more and more cases, and chances of getting it diagnosed properly without CT are nil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trikerdad Posted March 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2006 Just got back from my orthopedist. Got to look at the CT pictures of an aligned talus fracture. Prognosis is good if I keep off it for 90 days. Was given a lecture about how lucky I was to not have caused futher damage by my "post injury actions" and in the future, if I even suspect that I've done it again, to let the ski patrol take me down instead of carving to the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 I just had my repeat MRI today-I had a large area of osteonecrosis in my talus resulting from an untreated fracture from Feb 2005. I went to a sports medicine orthopod who mistakenly put me in a ortho boot for 4 weeks. When it started to hurt again in 9/05, I had the MRI which showed I had a 1.5 cm lesion of dead bone-the bone breaks right where the artery comes into the bone and the inflammation of the fracture disrupts the blood supply. I had the dead bone drilled out and got put on crutches for 6 weeks-I'd already been on crutches due to pain for 2 weeks before the surgery. Anyway, my ankle still hurts when I'm not wearing my hardboots(cure obviously is to only wear the hardboots ;) ) The MRI today showed a area of no bone under the articular cartilage with an area of cartilage collapse right where it hurts the worse... Obviously more surgery in the future for me.... I can remember exactly when I must have collapsed the articular cartilage-my hubby was in the ICU following his wreck. He'd just come out of surgery and I had been standing up most of the day prior to his surgery while he got an emergency echocardiogram. I went up on tiptoe to lean over the bedrail and give him a kiss and it felt like a got stabbed in the ankle-jeez louise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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