I was out in front of my house on Saturday, just practicing a few hops on my 29er. I lost my balance (not unusual for me) and came off to the side of the uni, landed on my right foot and the ankle rolled over with a sickening “crunch.” Hurt like crazy. I laid there for a good 3 minutes, writhing in pain and saying, “ohsht, ohsht, ohsh*t” over and over again. By the next day it was still hurting and it looked like somebody had surgically removed my ankle and implanted a baseball in it’s place so I decided to go in to the clinic and see if I had broken it. The good news is, it’s only a sprained ankle. The bad news is that the doc said not to do anything that might re-injure it for 2 weeks. So, I’ve gotta try to stay off the uni for a couple of weeks and be sure this thing heals OK. Man, it’s gonna be hard, being as hopelessly addicted to this thing as I am. I know that many of you have injured yourselves worse and have been out of commission for longer times but it still sucks. Lately, I’ve felt like I’m really improving daily and I hate to take even one day off.
I’m right there with you, bro-ski. I sprained my ankle (though I didn’t replace it with a softball) riding muni this Saturday. I didn’t even get to finish my first run down the hill… and I was planning two runs! Ack. That’s what we get for playing hard.
While I don’t ride every single day I do hate having to stay off the wheel. I feel like I’m grounded or something. After seeing Tomsey’s new video I just want to quit work for the day and go to the park… but noooooo… stupid ankle.
When my foot gets better I’m going to take out my frustrations on the rails at my local skate parks. That’ll get me back in shape, if it doesn’t re-injure me first 
(ears covered)
LaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLa!
Say it isn’t so. Riders in in their 50’s aren’t suppose to get hurt.
Sorry to hear about the injury. I hope it heals quickly.
I’m just getting over an ankle sprain myself. The good news is that in 2 weeks or so the ankle should feel good enough to do basic riding. The bad news for maestro8 is that it could be 6 to 8 weeks before the ankle will feel good enough to do things that involve jumping and drops and rough terrain. Use the time off from the aggressive riding to work on some freestyle. I used the down time from muni to work on my one foot wheel walking.
I landed square on my knee today…Im going to give it two days to see if the swelling goes down before I get it X-rayed.
I never thought that I would need knee pads, but as soon as I got injured, I ran into the house and put a bid on some knee pads on Ebay
(hopefully it’s not too late).
Get well!
I landed badley on my right hand this spring while practising to ride my ultimate wheel…
I fell forward, my right foot that was ment to land on was stuck in the wheel, and i took the fall on my right hand, palm down fingers forward, i kept my forward momentum and my hand stayed on the spot it landed… my hip landed on the wrist/palm of my hand, pushing it forward/downwards with lots of force… making the top of my hand allmost touch with the top of my fingers, a pretty wierd angle.
Went to the hospital, and got it x-rayed, nothing broken, and nothing sevearly damaged… My doctor said i could have broken a fair number of things in my hand… off the uni (ang juggling, and writing) for a few weeks…
And i still can’t ride my ultimate wheel.
mouse pointer hovers over “bad rep” button
maestro8 starts crying
Okay, doc, if you think it’ll make me get better, then I’ll take your medicine.
sniffle
I had a similar incident when I was first learning to ride. I came off the uni and my right foot somehow got wedged between the crank and the spokes. Uni continued forward and I went back. I landed hard on my elbow. From your description, you’re really lucky you didn’t do more damage.
If it makes you feel ANY better
I’m 35 and in the last stretch of an 8 month (now thankfully reduced to 6 month - I was a good girl about my exercises) lay-off from anything potentially involving falling off due to almost detatching a tendon.
Guess how I did this (it had nothing to do with unicycling - I have yet to satisfactorily learn to ride - something else that bugs me no end). GILD is excluded as he has already been told.
Jayne
P S I hope the rest of you heal quickly and well.
Re: Dang! Outa commission for a couple of weeks.
On Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:56:57 -0600, Jayne ZA wrote:
>almost detatching a tendon.
>
>Guess how I did this
Please remind us: which tendon is it?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“erectile function trumps public image - David Stone, commenting on the importance of seat comfort”
Sorry - assumed you’d all work out it was something to do with the legs.
It is the big one down the outside of my left leg. Initially they thought I’d broken one of the bones in my foot but the x-ray a month after the injury showed that I’d ripped off the bit of bone that the tendon connects to, and that it was re-attaching. Changed recovery time from 2 months to 6 months with a possible extra 2 months (which I thankfully don’t need but must still be careful when falling off unicycles) to recover full muscle strength.
I have x-rays somewhere and a pic of my bruise if anybody in interested.
Jayne
certainly while performing some zulu dancing before your computer in the hope it will cure it from wrong convergence using double calculations for your stats! 
aww man, I’m sorry…I know how you feel, earlier this fall I broke my foot and had a cast on for six weeks, it SUCKED!!
What a bummer! I know how much I hate it when I cant unicycle even a little bit everyday.
I have to ask, though, why were you hopping on a 29er? 
All of you guys (and girls if there are any) are really unlucky and i hope you all recover soon, if you already have not, my worst acident was when i was learning and all of a sudden i came to a complete stop, well the unicycle did and i didn’t!!! i front fliped off the uni and landed on my back!!! nothing serious tho, just took the wind out of me, could of been a lot worst tho, luckly for me it wasn’t tho!!
thanks
ollie
Re: Dang! Outa commission for a couple of weeks.
On Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:56:57 -0600, Jayne ZA wrote:
>Guess how I did this
You were climbing a giant apebroodboom to reach to the moon. When you
were almost there, a branch (merely a twig really) broke off, and you
overstretched your left leg as a result of the lack of support.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“erectile function trumps public image - David Stone, commenting on the importance of seat comfort”
Just practicing. Hopping’s a new skill for me and I like to practice it no matter which uni I’m riding.
Sounds plausible.
BTW, Jayne ZA, good to see you back on the forum.
I’m now 5 days post injury and the ankle still hurts so I’m trying to keep off of it and let it heal. Hope all of your injuries are healing well.
Well, I’ve been scarce due to a pretty crap end to 2004, a pretty hectic start to 2005, and due to getting myself a 6 to 8 month layoff in the stupidest possible way.
I nearly detached a tendon by stepping off my porch, standing on a dog toy, and going right over on my ankle. I guess the sole of my foot was never intended to be parallel to the inside of my thigh. To add insult to injury, when I hobbled into the clinic at work the next day the physiotherapist and the receptionist were giggling and pointing and barely managing to ask “Were you unicycling or belly-dancing this time?”. Last year I hurt my left foot falling off a unicycle. Had just recovered from that when I stood on a bee during a bely dancing class and discovered that I’m allergic to bee stings, so I guess they have a bit of a point.
As far as the porch thing goes I still feel like a total twit! Millions of people step off porches every day with no injury at all - NOT ME! If I’d been drunk I wouldn’t feel so bad, actually that is the question I got asked most while I was hobbling around in the ankle brace. I got a bit sick of seeing people disintegrate into hysterical laughter when I said “NO - I was sober - If I’d been drunk I probably wouldn’t have hurt myself”
Jayne
OK, this reminds me of a story that’s definitely pushing this thread into the realm of the JC forum; the worst I ever trashed an ankle was stepping off of a porch. I was drunk. It was nearly a 30 inch drop. I had just built the porch and hadn’t finished the rail yet.:o
I’m also a member of the step-diving club; back when I was but a wee nipper I tripped over a metal doorstep and flew headfirst down four concrete steps, landing on the concrete driveway below.
I can’t remember anything about it, but every time I look at the drop from the door to the unforgiving ground below I can’t help but think that I must have made a hell of a racket afterwards…
Phil