by Sylvia Woodham

Created on: October 19, 2008   Last Updated: October 30, 2008

I broke my ankle, and they inserted a pin. It was the kind of fracture that involved the ankle twisting and tearing many of the ligaments in addition to cracking my leg, less than an inch above the knob of the ankle joint. It was my left ankle, and I was 27 and fractured it while ice-skating. Unknown to me, my mother had fractured her left ankle playing broom ball at 27, 35 years earlier.

Thankfully, the kinds of non-plaster, removable casts allowed me to start working on range of motion recovery within the first few weeks of surgery. However, I could not begin official physical therapy until the removal of the cast in the traditional 6-8 week healing time. I was told that I had already made significant progress over most patients, and we began the long process of "use it but don't overuse it" which for me felt like agony. Walking slowing was far worse than the speed I had gained on crutches, despite the icy winter climate.

Despite the frustration on days when I did too much that it was getting worse, instead of better, I did actually continue to make progress. The weight-bearing pressure actually helped the bone to heal faster. I was a diligent patient of my physical therapy routine, eager to get back to my active lifestyle. When I was finally released, the only instruction I was given was to increase the activity gradually, and try to include as much running as possible.

Less than sixth months later, I entered a 5k. It was my first official road race ever. I had been running three miles on the beach in the Bahamas while I was on vacation, which greatly increased the strength of my ankle. I figured if I could run three miles on sand, I could probably roll out of bed and enter a 5k race. At my follow-up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, he found my leg stronger than most of the patients he treats.

I have heard that the best way to reduce the risk of osteoporosis for women is to take in a lot of calcium and keep a high level of weight-bearing exercise in the post-puberty, early adult years. If that is the case, after four years of a high cottage cheese diet and steady running for cross-training during college, I hope I have built, rather than worn down, my bone density. Perhaps it is what felicitated the quick healing of my broken ankle in my late twenties.

Hopefully it will also be what will keep my bone density at high levels throughout my life. If I were to advise other women how to "treat" the onset of osteoporosis, it would be the advice of prevention to maintain a similar regime. Unfortunately, for many women, that window has passed, and they may reach a point where they are trying to replenish a deficit that could have been stock-piled in earlier years. However, even my older, non-athletic mother has seen vast improvement in the deterioration of her ailing hip from the adaptation of an exercise routine.

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