My Forum

I suffered a transverse fracture of my acetabular 7th March 2012 in a freak running accident where I managed to put my right trainer through the loop of the laces of my left trainer.  As I was falling forwards my left foot pulled free and shot out sideways splitiing my pelvis through the hip socket.  I managed to stand but could not lift  my foot off the ground so went to A&E for a check up.  Following xrays and cat scan the orthapaedic surgeon came to see me and advised that my hip socket (acetabular) was shattered.  I was still in my running gear so when I asked him about the outcome the first thing he said was that I wouldn't be able to run but may be able to cycle as an alternative.  I was completely devestated, at the time I was 16 weeks into a training programme for my 10th marathon and was on target for achieving a good for age time after missing out by less than 4 minutes at Edinburgh last year. 

 I was lucky enough to have Bupa cover and managed to get transferred to a BMI hospital under one of the UK's leading hip surgeons.  He discussed surgery but advised that if it was his injury he would let it heal naturally as although it was badly broken it was minimally displaced.  My treatment involved 6 weeks of bed rest followed by 3 weeks not weight bearing on crutches and a further 3 weeks partial weight bearing.  I talked to my consultant about running and he had a different outlook.  He advised that there was no evidence  that running would worsen my long term outcome and actually sugested that after 6 months I should forget that I ever had the injury.

I worked hard in the early stages, initially swimming, then static cycling progressing to walking with gradual speed and distance increase all of this mixed in with strength balance training and stretching.  My physiotherapist cleared me for treadmill running in June starting with 5 minutes.  I was very excited at the prospect but unfortunately I could not run more than 1 miute without getting very sore and then being in pain for days afterwards.  I kept trying and eventually I had a break through session where I was able to run for 1 mile.  A week later I had increased to 3 miles and last weekend I managed to run 10 miles continuously.  I do have a little discomfort while running and I'm not yet running at my pre-injury pace but I am optimistic that it will come with patience and hard work.  I have booked into the Bupa Birmingham half in October and have entered the ballot for London.  I guess everyone's injury is different but I do think that many surgeons are conservative with their advice.  In my opinion it's a case of working hard and listening to your body, easing off when it tells you that you have done too much. 

I would be good to hear how you are getting on and what yiu have decided to do.