Hey look it matches my red Bikilas!
I’m torn up pretty good – but VFFs prevented it from being worse.
Part of the Father’s Day weekend plans for the family was to do some very technical trail running and hiking. We had set off to Turkey Run State Park. This is one of my favorite state parks. The terrain is like no other park in the state. It easily has the most rugged trails I’ve been on in any state park.
I reconstructed the fall posture I went through by hacking up a Yoga pose in MS Paint.
And here is me shooting a little film about 3 minutes before it happened.
We were descending down a sandstone waterfall that lead to a sandy/rocky creek bed. My son had already made it down to the creek bed and was looking around in the water. I was about 20 inches from the bottom of the waterfall. In my mind I had planned to simply hop down onto the soft sandy creek bed instead of continuing to risk slipping on the waterfall slope. I was being careful and thoughtful of what I was doing.
As soon as I lifted my left foot to initiate my hope downward, my right foot immediately slipped forward causing the automatic “back arch balance check” movement. As I tried to land my left foot back down to regain traction and balance I slid down the rest of the way to the creek bed. The toes of my right foot stuck into the sandy gravel of the creek bed and my body continued to fall backward. This caused a hyper extension of my right ankle to the point my heel touched my calf. I heard a loud crack and then an intense sensation of heat and pain in the top of my right foot. The crack was so loud my son heard it from 15 feet away. He ran right to me and with very concerned and worried eyes and he asked me “Dad are you okay!”
I told my son to give me a minute to see if I could shake this off or if I was really hurt. I tried to put some weight on my right foot and that was defiantly not happening. After the initial shock wore off, then it really started to hurt. It had to be the worst pain I’ve ever had. It was so bad it almost made me physically ill.
With help from my daughter on one side, and the wife on the other, we limped close to the trail head. Two strong men volunteered to carry me up the 90 steps to the parking area. Thank God for good people. It would have been hell trying to get up all those steps.
So, what’s the damage? Due to the use of VFFs the ligaments in my feet were so strong that the bone gave way before the ligaments did. On the side of the first (Big toe) metatarsal I had a ligament pull out a chunk of bone from the side. I also cracked the fourth metatarsal bone. However, the main area of concern was the Lis Franc ligament. The Lis Franc held too! See all the red lines where there are fractures.
The initial X-ray showed some bone fragments at the base of the first and second metatarsals where they meet the cuneiform bones (area that is beneath the Lis Franc ligament). Its hard to see in my x-ray, but it was very clear on the CT scan.
The Doc believed the fragments should take care of their selves. He did ask about what footwear I had on at the time. After describing my fall posture, he was amazed I didn’t receive a compound fracture of both the tibia and fibula. The Doc said with that much energy and leverage, the relief point 95% of the time is the thinnest area right above the ankle. Usually what happens with hiking boots is the ankle support prevents ankle articulation and ends up transferring the energy up the leg fracturing the tibia and fibula. Thank God I had VFFs on.
The Doc was in amazement how strong my ligaments were. In 17 years of practice, he said he had never seen anything like it. I told him that my ligaments were normal strength and all his other patients had weak and atrophied feet. It took him a minute to process what I was telling him. He then said “You know, there has to be something to those shoes”.
I’ll be in the cast for about 3 weeks and getting weekly x-rays to ensure the Lis Franc joint stays aligned. After that will come a walking boot for about another 3 to 5 weeks. So, I should be back into VFFs in about 8 weeks. I’ll start walking at first and by winter I should be back jogging again.
Looking back, the stress fracture I got back in February has really prepared me to deal with this injury both mentally and physically. As much of a PITA the stress fracture was, it appears to been a blessing in disguise.
Rgs, Jeepman
