Hello Everyone,

I am huge fan of running, I have run four marathons so far and tons of half marathons. Right before my surgery I was running 80 miles per week. Un-beknowst to me, I was born with a deformed foot, two extra bones that werent supposed ot be there. I had surgery to remove them, but the doc also had to stick pins in my foot and re-position a lot of my tendons. Dang!, I didnt get Vicodin, I only got a few lousy Lortabs!! Like you, I absolutley HATE sitting around the house watching court shows all day. I got a walking boot 5 days ago. I am suppose to be walking with one crutch. I feel like I am losing my mind! My foot feels almost perfect, but my doc told me to wait another 3 weeks before even trying to walk on my foot without the boot. I have been walking around with no crutch, against doctors orders! If he found out, I sure I would get an earful! I weighed 115 lbs before surgery, now I am up to 128. Being 5'7, I guess its not a horrible weight to be at, but I am just going crazy! I dont want to do any damage to my foot, but I decided to go to the gym and workout on the elliptical machine and do some upper body weights.

Original poster, how have you been doing? Is your ankle and foot fully recovered? Does everything feel like it did before your accident? Are you back to playing football? My feet are very important to me, I feel like my life would be meaningless if I couldnt run anymore.

Hello, I am looking for some advice and support

I suffered a severe ankle break and dislocation in Mid April, damaging both the tibia and fibula. Due to swelling the open reduction and internal fixation was delayed for two weeks and i was placed in traction. I now have one plate and seven screws in there, and the cast came off three weeks ago

I realised there would be a hefty rehabiliation but I am finding my progress disapointing, and the mental side of it is almost too much for me. I was very active before the accident and cant see my way through to full recovery. I am doing all my exercises religiously but am not seeing an improvement. My doctor states I need more confidence, but I just dont trust that the ankle will hold, or that i wont experience the excruitiating pain that usually accompanies any activity.

I would appreciate any words of wisdom from fellow sufferers, as I certainly didnt realise how isolating this sort of break is

Most of you are suffering from some major breaks and tendon/ligiment damage. Which all take a very long time to heal. I have learned through my experience that sports injuries can sometimes be very serious. Especially when tendon and ligiment damage is done. If you pull one of them or more, they can usually heal pretty well. But if you tear or rip one or more, it may need surgery and if not, takes much long to heal then a break does. When the ankle is effected it is the most hardest place as far a time wise goes for healing. Do everything your doctor tells you to do to a tee. This is very important that you follow through with his or her orders. This will help the healing process for you. If you are taking steroids, make sure you take them as perscribed, no more, no less. Recovery on these injuries healing is what you do to help it.
Follow your doctors orders, I can't stress how important that is.

Hi, I had a Trimalleolar fracture of my left ankle with complete dislocation of my tibia and fibula last August, and additionally had a minor break of my tibia (right leg) at the same time. It took me 4 months before I was able to go back to work (being on my feet all day working in a hospital). In the beginning I thought I wasn't progressing enough and it was very frustrating and discouraging, but it does get better. I am almost at my year anniversary and am about to book my surgery for removal of my plate, pin and screws as the pin moved shortly after surgery and I have been in constant discomfort, and recently two of the screws appear to have moved. I still cannot run (not that I was a big runner before) but the time off was frustrating considering I was working 90-100 hours every week. Now I'm looking at another 4-6 weeks recovery once I have the hardware removed! I'm just hoping that once everything is out I'll eventually get back to my old self and I can stop being a predictor of rain (can anyone else sense in their leg when rain is coming?).

Hello everyone,
I too broke and dislocated my ankle in a golf cart accident on August 15th!! I was at a golf tournament my husband's work was putting on for the UC Davis burn center. One of the fireman I was riding around with decided to make a 360 turn at mock speed and I was thrown out. (My husband said I should have tucked and rolled and I would have been fine.(Ha Ha!!) I was in the middle of a golf course, but at least I was surrounded by people (firemen, flight medic, and an RN. They constructed this pretty creative splint out of signs we had made for the event and t-shirts and what not. I have never broken anything and strangely enough had always been curious as to what it felt like. (sick, sick, sick). I was not nervous or worried about the surgery at all, but I was definately not prepared for the amount of PAIN that came afterwards. They kept me in recovery for 4 hours because they couldnt get the pain under control. I cant believe they gave only Tramadol to the person in one of the posts I read. The nurse told my husband that the first thing I said when I woke up from the anesthesia was that I had not just low tolerance for pain, but NO tolerance for it. I too was a runner but only about 20 miles a week, and I cried in the doctors office when he said that I could forget about running for a long time. ! To the marathon runner: how long did it take for you to start running again? I told the nurse that something was wrong because I should not be feeling this much pain and the B$%## told me "well the Doctors can go in and cut you open and see if they did something wrong." I later found out that my Orthopedist (who is awesome) was never even informed that I stayed in the hospital after surgery. He thought I went home. I could go on and on about the care I received at Doctors Medical center in Modesto Ca, but needless to say its been 17 days since my surgery and I cry almost every day!! I am miserable. I was in good shape before this and I cant believe how sore every muscle in my body is. Did anyone else expeirence the same thing, and I can not believe how much my calf muscle has already atropheid. It is so nasty to look at. At1 how are you doing now? Does it get any easier?

WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE WITH THIS KIND OF OPERATION HAS GOTTEN AN INFECTION IN ANYWAY,WE ARE NOW AT THE POINT OF HAVING THE HARDWARE TAKEN OUT BECASUE OF THE ANTIBIOTIC NOT BEING ABLE TO CURE AN INFECTION ON THE PLATE,LONG STORY ABOUT HOW THE INFECTION GOT THERE,BUT AM OPEN TO HEAR OTHER STORIES
THANKS!

i wanted to let you know i feel for you and the place you are in right now,my husband is a surfer who has been out of the water for 5 months now (due to alot of misjudgement by a bad dr) his muscle also got so small in is leg it looked like two dif. legs, now that he is up and walking,well his kind of half walk,the muscle and leg look much better and am sure yours will too especially if you were in good shape to begin with,is very hard not to be doing what makes you feel good and healthy and i cried for him all summer ,we would go down to the beach to watch the surfers and my heart would sink for him while he is going through all the problems he has encounted because of a drs mistake,hope you get to a better place soon!

Thanks for the reply!! Not that I would wish this upon anyone, but it helps to know that others are going through the same thing. I just was not ready for this. When it happened I thought okay, deal with it, get the surgery, and move on. WOW was I in for a rude awakening. I know exactly how your husband feels. Your life becomes something totally different and it is sooo hard. I wish my husband was as compassionate for me as you sound towards yours. Don't get me wrong, he is there for me physically but not mentally!! I think you are the same one that asked about the infection as well, but I did get an infection. However, I work in a hospital lab so I knew the signs and went in right away! So the infection never reached the surgery site. My feet particularly my toes were itching so bad I was constantly putting benadryl anti-itch cream on it. I should have known better, but I created the perfect environment for bacteria to grow. I scartched so much that I actually cut the skin and Wah Lah, infection. I have an awesome doctor and he prescribed 3 different antibiotics in which staph infections are usually susceptible too, one of them was likely to work. Not that we knew it was a staph, but more than likely. How is the infection and do you know what type it is? I swear I don't know if I could have handled having to go through all that again. I am sooo sorry!

gee didnt know you had an infection also,,he was on cubicin iv for 6 weeks which i had to learn how to do an iv! scared me to death to do but i did get the hang of it ,but he has been off of it for 3 weeks just about and now his ankle blew up and the wound care dr put him back on zyvox and am applying silver bandages to wound,its been a nightmare,just glad he is off crutches ,went to a cane but he gave that up too ,still cant fit into a reg sneaker so has to wear the orthopedic shoe on his one foot,all i pray for now is to get an appt. for the dr we heard of that specializes in this and he is able to help,cant go back to the dr we had, is where the problems began,see you said you work in a lab and knew the signs ,the dr saw my husbands foot blow up get red and swollen and still didnt believe he needed antibiotic! Sorry your husband isnt there mentally for you,is he a runner also?he may not realize what you are missing,i didnt surf but knew what it means to him,we both use to also walk the boardwalk by our home but i wont go without him now so the pounds are coming on ! lol another bad side effect!.
if you need to talk im here ,it helps.

Oh my god!!! I had my surgery on August 20th, and that saturday I woke up and had more pain than usual, it was a weird distinct hot localiazed pain coming from the bottom of my foot. I asked my husband to look at the bottom to see if he saw anything different, and he said he saw a new red spot. We both said lets go to urgent care. We went and by the time we got to the doctors the redness had already gotten bigger. I freaked cause I know the deadly affects of infections. But my surgery sites looked fine, so I calmed down. The doctor wanted to give me a shot of antibiotics right then, but I am allergic to penicillin and all injectable antibiotics are derived from penicillin. So he gave me 3 different kinds. One of them worked cause the infection is totally gone, and never reached my surgery site. THANK GOD!! When did your husband have his surgery? Did they do a culture (take a sample of the infected area) and send it to the lab to find out what type of infection he has? will they have to put a new plate in? My husband is just used to being able to do what he wants, (we dont have any kids yet) and being a fireman he only works 10 days out of the month. (He works 24 hour shifts). He golfs, bikes, plays poker alot and I am normally the one who takes care of everything as far as the house goes. So he is frustrated because he has to be here with me and cant go out and play (WaaWaaa). The first week he was really awesome but now he just gets irritated. I was and still am really depressed about the running. Just thinking about it makes me sooo sad. My aunt is a physical therapist and I kept thinking it won't take as long as they say, but she told me I had to be realistic and that I am looking at months of PT. Both her and my husband said well just start biking. They dont understand is that I LOVED to run. I didnt just do it because I wanted the exercise. I enjoyed it. When can your husband start surfing again?

Hi...I am glad I found this website. I have been recovering from an ankle injury since Sept. 4th. I was bucked off a 16.3 hand horse. landed on the edge of the driveway and rolled my ankle breaking both the tibia and fibula; dislocated my foot; ruptured a ligament and stretched the other ligaments. It is my first bone breakage...I have done a good one. I had a plate and 7 screws on my outside ankle bone, 2 screw on my inside ankle bone and wire connecting the bones to replace the ruptured ligament. I am supposed to be able to put partial weight on it next week. I have been finding it to be mentally draining, being so inactive. I am usually a very active person. I am a teacher, mother, wife and love horseback riding. This injury is really testing my patience! I am sure you all know how little you can do with crutches! I also am unable to drive because I broke my right ankle.
I actually felt much relief after my surgery was done (almost 24 hours after the break). My pain was cut in half once the bones were stabilized. So far I haven't had any infection thank goodness. I started physical therapy 3 weeks ago. The doctor has told me that the bones will heal long before the ligaments will. I am looking at a few months of physical therapy. He claims it can take up to a year for the ankle to feel stable. I am currently working part-time and would love to go back to work full time. I have a wheelchair at school to move around in. Keeps my leg elevated and allows me to carry items in my lap. drea742...did you also have ligament damage? I feel the damage to the ligaments causes much more pain than the area of my legs where the bones broke because the "hardware" holds them in place. (I also have a large removable air cast...boot.)

HELP!!! I think I'm going out of my mind. I am 3 weeks post op. I go to the doctor December 30th to get plaster cast off and a boot. What can I expect? I have 3 young children: ages 5, 3 and 6 weeks old. I have to have somebody with me 24/7. Doctor said I could be walking for New Years. Though I know it won't be "normal" walking, how did you all walk that first day? Were you full weight bearing? I have never broken a bone before....this is so DEPRESSING. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Dear aj377 - here is my path, currently in Month 6.

July 21st - tri mal fracture when jumping of my Trikke - it was angulated outward at probably 75 degrees or more. Every doc (nurse and volunteers) in the ER took a look at it.

July 31st - open reduction internal fixation (2 plates, 3 screws - both sides of ankle). No weight bearing! (You know what that means by now)

Sept. 12th - start weight bearing, onset of Physical Therapy, took me until Oct. 15th to walk completely w/o crutches

October 28th - the book finally came off
January 2nd - end of Physical Therapy

Status (Jan 8th): Walking with slight limp, still slow (cannot even think about running), trying to get the limp away. Stairs (down) still an issue and don't have the full rolling motion yet (but much better than fresh out of the cast when it felt like putting a stiff board on a stair).

Actions: Exercises at home AND I was recommended to check into MBT shoes. So I went to an Orthotics store today and was not suprised to see my weight distribution etc. is all off. I bought a pair today and even though it hurts I can feel how it really challenges the bad foot. I wore them for about 1 hour and will gradually increase. They feel excellent on the good leg (like walking on moss) but since they force a full rolling motion of the foot with every step.. and my ankle and foot cracks quite a bit.. I think this will help.

One thing I can only recommend and that I believe helped me with swelling issues - I got an EMS unit that also does lymphdrainage and TENS as soon as the boot came off. I only used the lymphdrainage feature though I am going to start EMS now as well as my left leg is still much thinner than the right one.

Hope I don't scare you, this has been the most frustrating injury I have ever had. Besides the excrutiating pain in the first 2 weeks the mental side is quite hard to deal with.

According to the doc I should be all healed by the 1 year anniversary of the accident. Some people are recovering faster others slower but anywhere between 6 months and a year. The good news is that I can really feel a difference when I walk down a flight of stairs so I can tell if it goes a teeny bit better and it continues to do so.

This was long, sorry for rambling.

All the best!

I slipped on the ice on Dec. 15 and broke both sides of my ankle (my husband knows the bones' names) and on Dec. 16 went into surgery. Received a plate and some screws on one side and screws in the other. The scariest part was that I was 24 weeks pregnant. I did not have a hard cast on but rather the boot. The funny thing was that when I first was in the ER they kept asking me if I wanted any aspirin (I declined before I could get more information on effects on the baby) and then once I was in my hospital room the nurse wouldn't give me anything without a prescription. Finally 7 hours post-slippage I received some morphine which didn't help too much becuase I was past the point of no-return. The surgery went great though and the baby and I came through with flying colors. I was lucky because I was kept in the delivery wing rather than the orhtopedic wing (delivery rooms are great!) The first week home I was scared to do anything on my own - they had made use a walker since I had a big belly growing in front of me and my center of gravity was off). I made my husband follow me to the bathroom. Luckily it was Christmas and time spent with family made it go by fast. Pain was bearable. Second week was hell. I started to get shooting pains in my foot on Sunday. The next day I was up a night crying due to foot pain. This was the worst thing I have had. Hard to explain but just constant pain. I was feeling more confident though with my ability to do things on my own. Third week was slightly better than the second week. I hardly kept my foot in the ace bandage (maybe should have more to reduce the blood pooling in my foot). I only wore my hard boot when I went outside. I also borrowed my Grandma's wheelchair (don't worry - she didn't need it at the time). The wheelchair made a huge difference in my spirits. I kept a bag on the back and then was able to "drive" around and get things (clothes to get dressed, paperwork at my desk (I worked from home during recovery, etc.) Fourth week was great - most of my foot pain had disappeared. The pain in my ankles went to a dullness around the 3-4 week. Now that I am in the fifth week I am hitting my wall. My foot is not doing to hot. Visited my ob-gyn today and she thinks it is blood pooling. I go to my surgeon on Thursday. I have no idea what to expect. The recovery of the ankle has been okay but the blood pooling has been awful. Here are some of my sypmtoms: wrinkled bottom foot, bruising of foot that is a brownish color, constant pain with increase when foot is moved, swelling, white and red spots. Anyone else had a similar experience with the foot? If anything, this was very therapuetic for me and hopefully will helpful for others

Hi My names Andrea...I am glad I am not the only one. It was 4 years ago when I first broke my ankle. I went to the emergency room and they told me it was just a really bad sprain, we looked at the xray and My mom and I knew that it was broken and the doctor just kept saying it was a really bad sprain he told me what to do and that we didn't need to schedule a follow up. So we did what the doctor said. We got an apt with the Orthepdics on the Military Hospitals and it took us 4 months to get an apt I ended up walking on a broken ankle for 7 months. I have undergone 3 surgies, was diagnosed with Arthritis at the age of 16. This happened my last 3 years of high school and also first year in college. I feel like this is never going to end and its fustrating because I have gained a few pounds (just a few) I used to be really active but its hard to now because the pain no matter what it hurts I lost 4 years of my life because of this and it sucks especially being a tean when your suppose to go and have fun. It's not getting any better and I don't know what to do I have seen different doctors and they say there isn't much they can do. I feel like there has to be something that someone can do. Its just really irritating.

Hi My names Andrea...I am glad I am not the only one. It was 4 years ago when I first broke my ankle. I went to the emergency room and they told me it was just a really bad sprain, we looked at the xray and My mom and I knew that it was broken and the doctor just kept saying it was a really bad sprain he told me what to do and that we didn't need to schedule a follow up. So we did what the doctor said. We got an apt with the Orthepdics on the Military Hospitals and it took us 4 months to get an apt I ended up walking on a broken ankle for 7 months. I have undergone 3 surgies, was diagnosed with Arthritis at the age of 16. This happened my last 3 years of high school and also first year in college. I feel like this is never going to end and its fustrating because I have gained a few pounds (just a few) I used to be really active but its hard to now because the pain no matter what it hurts I lost 4 years of my life because of this and it sucks especially being a tean when your suppose to go and have fun. It's not getting any better and I don't know what to do I have seen different doctors and they say there isn't much they can do. I feel like there has to be something that someone can do. Its just really irritating.

broke my ankle(the fibula, the smaller leg bone) and tore several tendons Jan 17th. Had surgery(a plate and 6 screws) Jan. 20th. Yes,
the pain after surgery was excruciating. I am also a marathon runner and skier and am determined to do whatever it takes to get back to 100% asap. I did have an infection after surgery, but antibiotics took care of it.My Doc says NO weight bearing activities for 3 months, can't drive either. I'm doing a lot of sit-ups and upper body work along with my PT. At 58 I've been told it could take up to a year to heal, but mark my word;"I WILL be biking this summer and skiing next winter!"

Hi... I am reading your posts less than a week after badly breaking 2 bones and tearing at least one ligament (or is it a tendon??) in my right ankle. I just missed a step going into my garage, rolled my ankle and ended up unable to put any weight on that leg at all. I knew as soon as I went down that I really messed it up badly, but our insurance is poor and I didn't want to go to the ER. Guess that was stupid, as I ended up there anyway after the dr. in the walk-in clinic saw me the next morning and spent next 3 days in the hospital getting metal plate and screws to stabalize my ankle. I feel like Humpty Dumpty...

Anyway, I can see from these posts that I am just at the beginning of a long, hard journey, and I hope my husband and I have the patience for this (and for each other and all that is ahead!)

Anyway, all I know so far is that the surgeon said he had trouble getting the screws to hold because my bones are "mushy". Pretty discouraging, huh? I am 56 and had been told a few years ago that I had osteopenia (very early stage in just the spine, not the hip) but I didn't want to take Fosamax due to the association with jaw bone death side effects... Said I'd do weight-bearing exercises and increase calcium, etc., but I guess it wasn't enough. Just went through menopause, and dr. said that really makes you lose bone mass very quickly... So, I'm mad at myself for not catching this before I really hurt myself (as is my husband!)and dealing with all the pain and mental/emotional aspects of looking at a long period of inactivity and dependence on others (not easy for someone as active and independent as I used to be).

So I look forward to reading your posts, getting and giving "words of wisdom" and learning what to expect. The dr. sure hasn't told me much yet, but I guess I have another week until I go back to get staples/stitches out and learn what comes next. I know he said at least 6 weeks with NO weight on it...Now it is excrutiating to even touch the ground with my heel, so that is one order I'll have no trouble following ; )

Sorry this is so long.... It's 4 a.m., and I'm unable to sleep! I know though (at least I hope!) that each day/week will get better, God-willing, and I hope to find and give support to others who are similarly "side-lined" this winter. Hey, it could be worse.... I'd go even more nuts with this cast/splint/inactivity if it was summertime!

Well I broke my fibula and tibia in 5 places on Feb 5. I had an external fixator on for 2 weeks (bad bad swelling) and was laid up in the hospital then Feb 17 finally got my 2 plates and 12 screws put in.

I realize it has only been 4 days since the surgery (I'm getting restless tho b/c I've been laid up for 3 weeks now so it seems a lot longer) but did anyone else have trouble just having their foot down? Whenever my foot isn't elevated the pain is pretty unbearable. Who else has this happened to? and how long does it take to go away? I ask because this is really the only thing keeping me from getting back to work because otherwise I could just sit in my wheelchair at my desk all day. How long is this going to take before I can sit comfortably?

Thanks all and god bless.