Originally Posted by
iTrek
Yesterday while MTBing my wife broke ankle. No gnarly MTB stories, she had made it through the technical stuff and was doing great and then had a tip-over in sand. They say it was a clean break, but broke both sides.
I know in the past I've read some have had ankle surgery, how long is typical recovery until back on bike? As she typically rides 4-6 days a week she is really BUMMED by this.
Just a concerned husband trying to encourage his wife.
If it required screws and surgery, expect crutches for 12 weeks and no bike for 6 months. I broke my femur a few years ago and that was the deal.
12 weeks on crutches may have been due to my femur break being at a right angle to load bearing, I snapped the head off that sucker. I believe I was instructed to put no weight on it for the first 6 weeks and 25% weight for the remaining 6.
The 6 months was because the bone could not take another shock until then, and bike riding posed too high a risk of said shock. This was according to the orthopedic surgeon. I believe I began doing some light, slow road riding after the fourth month, IIRC. But, I imagine MTB would be much more risky. I really did not start logging real miles again until after the 6th month, as he instructed. It basically cost me a full season.
What I did instead was a lot of hiking. Even while on crutches, I walked at least 5 miles a day.