Go to an orthopedist. Preferably one that understands athletes too.
Listen to what he says.
If you want to have a quality of life later, FOLLOW what he says.
I havent skated, started unicycling really due to a serious broken radial bone (3 places) for 7 months. After 3 surgeries I refuse to risk losing my arm due to my impatience. I also refuse to ruin my future due to my impatience. I already learned from a small knee injury that some injuries get WORSE if you dont let them heal. I had a minor surgery for it so later I wont have to get total knee replacement. My arm took so long to heal because I didnt received medical treatment right away.
Still no FUN activities for 7 months. Do I like it, NO. But will I be able to go back to full activity very soon, YES. That my answer. Most kids would rather look cool then they have to quit altogether or they create permanent damage to themselves. With knees, many injuries will give you arthritis if tissue is damaged and rubs against other tissue. Arthritis is permanent. So I would rest to reduce the chance of possible permanent damage or at least to minimize it.
If you must take OTC to do activities, to me that means you should let it heal and see a dr. I dont take OTC because if something hurts, for me that means something is really wrong.
Thank’s for those sobering thoughts CBS. Talking from experience always comes across more intensly. I am visiting my doctor tomorrow. Earlier I was depressed at the thought of having to rest but the feedback on this thread has been quite convincing.
I’ve had three injuries that have kept my from unicycling, and they all sucked. One was just before Uninam, while I was training and I ended up doing one footed skipping to train my cardeo. The second was a resprain of the same ankle, and that happened in Hong Kong where I actually rode the injury out, but then wasn’t able to ride at all in China, which was a huge bummer as it was supposed to be my training for Unicon. Then finally I had an injury a few years ago which was a repetitive impact injury, chipping my heelbone. Fortunately I didn’t miss much of the season as the worst part of the injury was just before winter.
That was a pretty poorly organized list of my major injuries, but I hope that your knee is better soon.
Sorry to hear about your injury; was it uni-related? I’ve had many myself and it’s really hard for me to wait to heal before I jump back in the saddle. So I usually don’t lol! But I’ve hurt my back a few times, my palm, and various other scrapes and bruises, but luckily nothing to debilitating. I wish you a full & speedy recovery!
Hmmm Well I haven’t broken any bones yet but I’ve sprained both ankles repeatedly and had a testicular injury that anyone in MR can recount in fairly good detail… it’s a sort of running joke. The First sprained ankle kept me off the uni for 8 weeks the second one kept me off for a few days, and now I’m getting back on within a day(as soon as the swelling recedes after the sprain) The testicle injury required surgery and kept me off the uni for several months and on pain meds for most of that time. If you’d like me to go into detail about the injury I can but I’m going to keep this post family friendly for now.
Reminds me of the time several years ago they recruited a band of MUnicyclists for Black Ops missions in the rough mountain terrain of Afghanistan. The whole gang of us were hopping around the mountain in hot pursuit of bin Laden, when I snapped a “bombproof” crank on a 14 foot drop, and my ankle along with it. I splinted both my ankle and the crank with a stick ad rejoined the pursuit. We probably would have had him except some Australians and Canadians got in the way, I’ve already said too much, if you read this, it’s classified, and now we have to kill you.
Do like Harper says: Don’t be a sissy. Get out and ride. Quit whining.
Like cbs says, go see an orthopedist, general practitioners rarely know what they are talking about when it comes to sports injuries, I saw 6 before one knew what was wrong with my knee.
Definately go to the orthipedist. The practisioner gave me a huge splint that was none to good and told me to stay off my ankle for a week. The orthipedist gave me a nice splint, told me how bad it was, told me exercises to do, and gave me a very nice splint among other thing. An orthopedist specializes in bones to so go figure whos better.
I’ve ripped my sack, fallen on my side onto a tranny ramp from five feet up at a pretty quick speed and fallen on my head from seven feet, but I’ve always been riding again within a week.
Once I fell part way into a fountain, and my leg got all wet. I uni’d for a while after, but not long. It was really uncomfortable, and totally put a DAMPER on my night! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
That really did happen though. I wasn’t just setting it up for a joke.
I also smack my ankle every time I unispin, and it’s beggining to become more painful each time. I’ve scarred up my ankle, and even splattered my shoes with blood last time…
I messed up my ankle 5 years ago this June playing hurling. I had an opperation on it 2 years ago and since then its been worse. I am still getting many different scans (MRI, XRAYS, waiting for PET and CAT, ultrasound, etc.) done 5 years down the line to determine the problem.
Basically i was told to give up all sport. Mush to the dislike of some doctors i still continue to ride. I can do about 10 mins trial practice before im forced to go inside and sit down. It can then take anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days before my next attempt. It Sucks.
I did give up ridding for about 6 months and it didn’t help so thats why i still decide to ride. Distance riding isnt as big a problem as long as i dont make a very sudden turn which can realy hurt and take sometimes 2 weeks to properly heal. Hills also suck and as i live inbetween two really steep hillls the first 5 mins of my ride are hellish. Plus im now extreamly unfit. I have free gym membership as i work there but even lifting weights hurts the ankle. However my local swimming pool has just reopened and i also get free access to it. Every doctor has agreed that swimming is the one thig i should do , so heres hoping that i do not have to wait another 5 years:D
Hey I read your post on that seperated shoulder. From what you said it sounded like a full-width tear of the rotator-cuff? I have just recovered from a partial tear of that ligament so not as bad.
Yeah the GP lived up to expectations - keep off it, take it easy, give it chance to heal and here’s some ibuprofen. To be fair, the doc at least pulled and prodded my knee around and I came aways thankful someone had looked at it. Still, no unicycling