shattered my patella, what now?

**jspeedy** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 8:06am

So I was walking through a circle pit (moshpit for you oldskools) as it was winding down and I took an unexpected hit from behind. I landed in a perfet kneeling position with all weight on my right knee. I tried to stand up and felt my knee instantly I knew my patella was broken and that i'd most likely need surgery.

Just got out of surgery yesterday and the doc said I have to keep all weight off of my right leg for 6 f-ing weeks! This is a colossal inconvenience for me. I was planning on attending a Royce Gracie seminar in NOLA this month in addition to a stick fighting comp in ohio. Not to mention i was planning on testing for completion of the art in Balintawak FMA. I was also working stronglifts and loving all the squats.

WTF do I do now? Can't really train BJJ or FMA.Should I still go and watch some BJJ classes. I'm pretty sure even limited participation will be out of the question. I've been wanting to achieve my goal of 20 pullups in one set, so I may use my time away from stronglifts to do a greasing the groove routine with pullups. Any bullies have any thoughts of options for my situation?

Also, I just finished school and am looking for work as a radiation therapist, but there is no local work so it may be a while before I can travel and interview. Currently I was waiting tables but as of yesterday, that's out. I suppose i'll if my buddies can get me a desk job for now but my point is money will be tight.

Sorry, for the long thread i'm on some good pain meds and have been in bed at the hospital for the last two days.

**erezb** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 9:02am

just be patient, let your knee heal completely before you go back to training! especially bjj. I dont know what FMA is but im pretty sure its out of the question too. I dislocated my shoulder once in judo, and was so eager to go back that i returned a month later and dislocated it again.. obviously you really want to stay ahead in your training, but if you wont be patient and mature about it, you will end up wasting more time and with permanent injuries for life. Maybe start swimming a bit while holding a small buoy between your legs (after you heal).

**Snake Plissken** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 9:39am

First, reorder your post to the most important priority (work and paying your bills) to the least important (training). I know work isn't fun, but work is necessary.

See if your buddy can get you a desk job and get off your feet and get some money into your pocket. While at the desk, you can start getting your resume out there and can check job sites and start making a database of hospitals, imaging centers, physicians to start getting that resume out there.

Next, resign yourself to this fact:
you are going to lose tons of gains. It will happen and it sux but you are going to lost them. Follow your rehab schedule religiously.....but this doesn't mean you can't punch the edges a little. If you are prescribed some light exercises, you can try to do one extra of each. One more knee bend, one more foot of walking, one more knee raise.

If it hurts, stop, but a small extra can possibly shave a few days or a week off rehab. But time will be needed to rebuild strength and stability.

Next, your legs are out but your arms aren't. Work your upper body lifts to make you feel active and not passive. If you are doing escrima, work on transitions, blocks, disarms. In BJJ, see if you can find a partner or two who will be willing to let you work strictly gripfighting.

Good luck and sorry to hear of your troubles.

**No.1_Son** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 3:48pm

I have recently been looking at natural anti-inflammatory foods and such because of my frequent minor injuries in bjj. I definitely want to avoid long-term NSAID use. If you like curry, have lots of that. I've been adding lots of powdered ginger to my water recently. I also ate lots of blueberries, which are also supposed to be good for this. I sprained my finger on Thursday night and by yesterday (Saturday) morning, it was back to normal size.

I'm not suggesting you go off your meds, but adding these and other anti-inflammatory foods, and laying off inflammatory ones, you might recover a bit faster. I've been using http://nutritiondata.self.com/ to look up different foods.

Anyways good luck. I know how you feel- I hate not being able to train. Also listen to Snake.

**W. Rabbit** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 4:10pm

You can still train right? Just not on that one leg....

It seems there are a lot of exercises/training you can do, yeah full contact is out but strength training is in.

I'd use this time to focus on your upper body. That seems pretty obvious.

Paraplegics still train and they have no legs to put weight on for the rest of their lives. You just have to sweat a few weeks, but you can minimize your lost gains by keeping active.

Here's some inspiration:

**captainbirdseye** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 4:46pm

Originally Posted by No.1_Son

I have recently been looking at natural anti-inflammatory foods and such because of my frequent minor injuries in bjj. I definitely want to avoid long-term NSAID use. If you like curry, have lots of that. I've been adding lots of powdered ginger to my water recently.

Plus one for the ginger suggestion, it helps.

I fucked my ankle recently and spent my off time smashing my pullup record, so go for it.

As for watching classes, do if you can handle it, I found it pretty depressing.

**jspeedy** · Posted On: 9/04/2011 5:14pm

Originally Posted by Snake Plissken

First, reorder your post to the most important priority (work and paying your bills) to the least important (training). I know work isn't fun, but work is necessary.

See if your buddy can get you a desk job and get off your feet and get some money into your pocket. While at the desk, you can start getting your resume out there and can check job sites and start making a database of hospitals, imaging centers, physicians to start getting that resume out there.

Next, resign yourself to this fact:
you are going to lose tons of gains. It will happen and it sux but you are going to lost them. Follow your rehab schedule religiously.....but this doesn't mean you can't punch the edges a little. If you are prescribed some light exercises, you can try to do one extra of each. One more knee bend, one more foot of walking, one more knee raise.

If it hurts, stop, but a small extra can possibly shave a few days or a week off rehab. But time will be needed to rebuild strength and stability.

Next, your legs are out but your arms aren't. Work your upper body lifts to make you feel active and not passive. If you are doing escrima, work on transitions, blocks, disarms. In BJJ, see if you can find a partner or two who will be willing to let you work strictly gripfighting.

Good luck and sorry to hear of your troubles.

Good advice snake. I suppose I should rethink how to approach this. One step at a time, and once i get going with rehab i'll be sure to see how much extra I can do. Today for example the physical therapist wanted to see how well I'm getting around before they released me. She told me to walk down the hall but not to push it too far. So I walked down the hall and circled around the corridor back to my room. I asked her if I should walk more and she said that was plenty. It hurt like hell but if it was bad for me i'm sure she would have stepped in.

Rabbit i'm interested in the para-pull ups and stuff. I don't know about drills just yet i'd hate to have to stab somone because they fell on my knee, but that may be a starting point down the line.

THanks bullies.