on the off chance that anyone here is a medical person i am looking for some advice.
i fell (sober) a week and a half ago and broke the 5th metatarsal on my foot. its in a walking cast that after three weeks can be taken off. so the question is..... in two weeks when the cast comes off will i have to wait long before i can go windsurfing. i plan to go away at easter (donegall) and have a new board to use - its making me cry with fustration.
i am concerned because when you look at the x-ray the fracture is just where the foot strap would go.

i'm no voice of authority by any means but it sounds to me as though you'd be best staying off it!!

i know how you feel wanting to get out there and we all do it sometimes - but some guy wanted to get out on the water a couple of weeks ago with too big a kite for the wind, ended up being taken to hospital in an ambulance! not that this has anything to do with a broken foot at all... and i'm rambling now... just my opinion!!

hope it gets better soon though - the weather's picking up all the time now!!

rob

Hi Liam.

A year or so back I broke both my heels. Ouch!!!!

What I discovered is that your looking at around 6 weeks for the bones to heal properly, if you mess around and try and force it, you'll only end up slowing down the healing process.

One other thing to consider is when it comes out of the cast your foot will be weaker. Its amazing how quickly muscle disapears.

Anyway.. at the end of the day your body will tell you! If it hurts stop what your doing! Its your body's way of telling you that something is wrong!

Why not try sitting in your front room on a nice comfy armchair, with yer trusty board - then ram yer foot in the strap and give it a good wiggle about as though you were on the water - if it brings tears to your eyes I'd give it a bit longer before sailing - at least this way it saves a trip to the beach and rigging up.....
I've also asked my sister for ya - she knows about this sort of stuff - i expect she'll reply later today....

If its out of plaster, unless you rebreak, it you should be ok.

Then its a matter of how much pain you can stand. I agree with Shawn, check it out in your living room first, if the pain is bad you could 'pass out' ....

When I started again after I broke a finger, I was ok until I hit it against the mast/boom/whatever... I generally fell off when that happened.