I broke my leg
Squatting. It was a light weight for me: 130kg. I am training for a 145kg mark at the next championship. Or rather, “was”… It’s ok: I’ll be fine. At the third rep I heard the bone breaking, like a little “cleck” inside the leg. Weird… Then it became painful to step.
I went to the emergency room at a fancy hospital and they wanted to push me to surgery, immediately. I wasn’t on my best mood, you may figure: pretty upset about losing championships, some pain (funny… I don’t FEEL too much pain at all) and confusion about how to organize my life without a functional leg. Frustration, insecurity and pain. Real nice combo.
So I had no patience to handle the stupid physicians. They sent me home without the RMN I had the right to, no matter how much I argued. Either I agreed with THEIR surgery, or no RMN. Which meant scheduling it by my own, taking days or even a week to find a date. Wow…
What I really felt nervous about is that my cell phone was losing battery (with all those equipments around) and I didn’t have my own orthopedist cell with me.
Finally I gave up, with too much pain killer to think. Went home and next day called my “ortho guru” Fabiano. He called me to his hospital and saw me between one surgery and the next – he’s a big shot. He called and older and simply too-nice-to be true doctor, the general director of Orthopedics to help the DX. They said there was no need for surgery at that moment, no ligament commitment and if – and only if – surgery was required, it would be because of the bone. They didn’t believe it, though.
Now: why did it happen?
Too many hypothesis… I feel extremely stronger after this 4 week rest – like 20% stronger in my raw BP and who knows how stronger in the squat. Reason? Wild guesses. But neural adaptation and strong muscles don’t go side-by-side with bone and ligaments, necessarily. Maybe…
The physicians think the knee wrap was possibly wrapped wrongly, because it was towards the outside and the tibia might have twisted against the fibula and broken it. I saw many lifters using it that way and nothing happened. However, I have a crooked kneecap – it is already somewhat twisted and usually I wrap my knees towards the inside.
A third opinion says the knee wrap was too tight. The friend who wrapped me is extremely strong and I feel very little pain. So I just grabbed the bar and squatted.
Who knows?
But I’m ok: many BP championships, I’ll do my best on them and let’s see next year.
http://www.japmaonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/4/340 -
http://www.mc.uky.edu/Surgery/sportsmedicine/healthInfo/Fibular_Fracture.html -
http://www.orthopaedicweblinks.com/Orthopedic_Topics/Trauma/Tibia_and_Fibula/Tibia_Fibula_Fracture_Abstracts/index.html - http://www.hwbf.org/ota/am/ota02/otapa/OTA02745.htm -
July 3, 2007 at 4:15 pm
That sounded really scary. I’m very glad that you are doing okay now. I’m looking forward to seeing you set some more records. Very smart to not go straight into the surgery and get a hold of your own ortho guru to get another look at it. I wouldn’t know any better or have the ability to do that and would of probably had surgery done.