broken ankle

Hi Tony.

I have had the same problem with my surgeon. I broke my ankle on 20/1 when I fell thru our deck (a plank snapped). I have a broken tibia and fibia,have 1 plate and no idea how many screws, think just a couple. I wasn't in as much pain as you but this week I have been feeling much better. Doesn't feel so much that there is a piece of metal sticking in my foot!
I have xrays on 3/3 and will then find out about the next stage, am desperate to drive as am feeling v isolated. Only thing I was told was that it would be 12 months before it would feel right.
Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for replying crumbiecrusader.
Like you say, I guess I'm feeling isolated. It,s nice to hear from somebody who's going through the same type of experience.
I can tell you that some of the worst pain has passed and I've been able to cut back on the drugs a bit. It's still a race to get my foot raised if I have to get up though. I go back to the surgeon on Mar 5/09 to have the temp cast removed and a regular cast put on. I am curious to see what they did to my leg, it's starting to get itchy every once in a while. I've been told by my family doctor that I'll be in a cast for at least 8 weeks.
I'm a little concerned about long term effects because I'm a cabinetmaker and on my feet most of the day. Will I still be able to stand most of the time?, or should I start looking at a change in duties to programming or something?
Anyways, thanks again for replying and I'll be sure to post again after I see the surgeon and hopefully get some answers.

Hi

I was quite shocked when I saw my foot, it was really swollen, black and blue with 2 v unattractive scars. BUT....... 2 weeks down the line, it looks so much better. Scars are healing, sweling is right down , so is bruising. it is feeling a whole lot better too.
Good luck.

Hey

I saw my foot today! It sure was ugly. I ended up down at the hospital because my temp surgery cast was pinching a section on the bridge of my foot, very painful. They took the cast off and wow was it a surprise, just full of dried, crumbly blood, kind of felt like sand. It felt very, very good to let the air get at it while they X-rayed it and cleaned it up. Three nasty looking cuts full of staples and lots of blue.
It's kind of funny, while it's nice and safe in a cast you just want to move your ankle to work out the stiffness and yet when I was there without the cast on for a while I was scared to move it at all.
I still have to see the surgeon this Tuesday to get the staples taken out and I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say about how it's healing and how long I'll have to keep the weight off of it.

Hello All,
I am so happy to have found the site. I feel like no one really understands what I am going through. I slipped on some black ice getting into my car at the end of a "first date" this past Saturday night. I fell straight back, didn't even break my fall. I sat up and tried to recover my dignity then I saw my foot laying to the side while my knee was still pointed up. I didn't feel any pain at first, in extreme shock the doctor explained. My date heard me fall and came to my rescue. He picked me up and he nearly slipped with me in his arms. I jerked my leg up to avoid further injury and then I passed out. Next thing I know he somehow got me into the back seat of the car and drove me to the nearest ER. I woke up in extreme pain so much that I could barely concentrate to hear what they were asking me at the EM checking. My foot (ankle) was dislocated and broken in 3 places. They sedated me and performed the reduction to line the bones back up best they could (the first part of putting humpty dumpty back together). Then they put me in a soft cast and took more x-rays. They didn't have an orthopedic doctor that could operate so they sent me home with orders to see a orthopedic doctor as soon as I could get an appointment. So two days later I did and I will have surgery on Monday, March 9th. I am worried, and a little scared. I mom is flying in today to stay with me for a few days. I didn't want her to come but I needed the help. Hang in there everyone, I am going to try and do the same!

Hello,

Sounds like a bad break, I,m thinking most of the members on this forum are from the U.K.? I'm from Canada(Calgary) and I think our doctors do things differently than yours. I broke my ankle on Feb 13, went to the hospital and stayed there for three days until after the surgery was completed. I can't imagine going home while everything was still flopping around or loose, I hope you have some good painkillers. They were giving me lots of morphine in the hospital before and after the operation and I went home with percocet. The surgeon told me last Tuesday he might let me put weight on it starting in mid April.

Krisitie,

You will need lots of help in the first couple weeks so I'm glad your Mom is coming to look after you.

Hi TonyL,

I broke mine a year ago this month. It was not as bad as yours by the sound I only have one plate and 9 pins in the tibia but I broke right down into the joint. I still have pain in it the odd days and discomfort most days. If I sit for any length of time I limp when I get up and it always takes a while for it to warm up in the morning. It is badly affected by damp weather which doesn’t help living in Ireland.

I was out of work for 4-5 months and on crutches for another month after that. All I can say is that recovery is very slow and the better job they do on it the slower the recovery will be. My break is apparently healing very well but it is much weaker and will remain so compared to what it was like before the break. The only real problem I have now is that the screws are starting to rub a bit and making it a bit tender.

It is not all bad news though as I am back horse riding and was riding for 3-3.5 hours straight the other day with no real effects.

Peter

Hello Peter,

I sincerely hope my recovery doesn't take upwards of 4 or 5 months. My breaks are in the joint like yours are, the doctors called it an intra-articular(inside the joint) distal tib-fib + y45, whatever that all means. Three bones in all were broken.

Can you tell me how long it was before you could stand all day? I'm a little worried about how long it will be before I can effectively go back to work.

You also said that you have some screws rubbing, is this making your skin tender on the outside, or is it an inside pain? I already have a sharp kind of bump on my ankle, maybe it's the bottom of a plate or the head of a screw, I wonder if that's going to be a problem as well with the skin getting rubbed raw.

This whole thing is just bad, worse than I thought it would be. Good thing I'm a fast healer with a positive attitude most of the time.

Tony

Hi Tony,

I cant remember what they called it. I only broke my tibia but I broke my ankle bone off had 3 other large chips that had to be screwed back together and finally split my tibia up the center. My break was an impact break so it may be slightly worse than yours. I also bruised the bone badly and the surgery weakened it further. They thought it would take half an hour to fix but it took two and a half hours in the end. The problem with my recovery was that as I was told not to put weight on it for so long the bone starts to loose density. Therefore it takes longer to heal as you have to heal the break and build the bone back up but this can only be done once full weight bearing begins.

I would say I couldn't stand all day for at least 6 months. Having said that I didn't try as half of my day is in an office with the other half on building sites.

The rubbing really depends on what shoes I wear now. But in the early days it would get sore from rubbing in the cast and then rubbing on the bed sheets. This doesn't seem to bother me anymore its is just the foot wear now.

Don't worry though, there are ways around things if you cant stand. I would get a stool and stand on my good leg and kneel on the stool so as I could stand at a counter. The most important thing is to do your physio religiously. The more you do the quicker you will heal.

Hope this is of some help.

Peter