Update-Broken Ankle-1 Year later
So its been about a 1 year (and a month) since I completely broke my ankle (broke every bone and dislocated it) and I’m proud to say my ankle is basically healed. I have scars on both sides of my ankle and it still swells bigger than my non-broken ankle but overall I can do everything again that I could do before I broke it. In fact I have started running at the Gym and it holds up well. Every so often my ankle will tell me if I’ve done too much by causing some pain or if the weather is changing. I still have all of the metal in my ankle as I figure that I’m going to at least enjoy the summer before deciding if I want to get the metal removed or not. Any of you out there who have broken an ankle before do you still have the metal or not? Is it as simple a procedure as the doctor says to remove it? Do I have to go back on crutches at all?
Thanks Ana,
I’m sorry to hear you have to undergo a 3rd operation, hope it goes well it relieves some of the pain.
I am trying hard to get better. My mistake was to ‘ignore’ my therapy for some time as my wife and I had our first baby in february. The change that brought was so much I had very little time for myself. Now I am fighting a stiff joint which is proving to be a hard and painful battle.
As regards returning to soccer I am a bit negative. Apart from the pain and the fact that its impossible for now to run etc, I think mentally I’m too scared after the injury. Seeing my foot so out of place has left a scar that won’t heal easily. I must admit I’m quite a baby when concerning hospitals and the time I spent there was horrible, especially the 2 and a half days waiting for my operation. Also, and I’d love to hear opinions about this, I feel that if I go back and god forbid get injured again I will feel very guilty towards the people around me, especially my wife. It’s a battle between the fear of another injury and the craving for a sport I’ve been doing all my life.
Dear Mario,
I am a soccer coach for my little one who is 4. I broke my ankle 6 years ago. 6 screws, a plate and 2 pins. Two years ago I had the hardware removed and arthritis is building including osteophytes which I will be removing soon for the 3rd operation. I am in pain a lot, and I receive cortisone shots every now and then which helps tremendously. What you are feeling is normal, it’s not the break but the recovery afterwards. Physical therapy is the best remedy, it helps with the tightness you feel. Try and do the excersies while you are watching tv, or day to day activities. Don’t give up. During soccer practice I run with them, I do everything I tell them to do, jump,sit ups. I wear a brace and it hurts but I never show that to my kids. I am never giving up and even though I obviously can never play like I did in high school, I really try to. Don’t give up if soccer is your passion, healing takes time, but if you give up it will never happen. Please keep me posted, I would love to hear about your recovery. Thanks to this site, you can see you are not alone.
I’m just browsing, looking for other people who also have my problem. I broke my ankle on the 27th December 2008, during a soccer game (the ankle was pointing the wrong way). It’s 6 months now and though I am able to work and do most things I’m still in a lot of pain. I’m trying to do as much phisio as possible but every morning my ankle is stiff and sore, so I have to start over again. I don’t have 100% mobility either. If I put my foot flat on the floor I can only move my knee outwards a few centimeters. I’m really frustrated and nearly sure I’ll never play soccer again.
When does it end?
Hi all. I usually post on the other site (broken ankle - 2 years later). I was just catching up here. I broke my right ankle - 3 places - screws and a plate on September 23, 2007. One year later, on Nov. 4th 2008 I had the hardware removed and don’t regret it for a second.
Just 2 weeks ago, I fell and broke my LEFT ankle! No surgery - only broke the fibula in one place (only lol). So, here I am again, on the couch feeling sorry for myself :). Anyway, at 3 am this morning when I could not sleep, I wrote a poem and thought I would share. Hope it makes you smile:
It all started with going for a walk in the park.
Then my foot met a hole and everything went dark.
The pain was intense, as I looked at my foot.
“Go get the car”. I will stay put.
The ambulance comes – oh, what a scene.
But I don’t care – just give me morphine.
The lights are blaring - the bumps hurt so much.
You need an x-ray – my foot – please don’t touch!
You have a bad break they tell me with care.
Go home – here’s some crutches – they give me a pair.
We go home in the car. The ride is hard – “Oh my”.
Every bump and curve makes me want to cry.
We finally get home and I try to walk to the door.
After 3 steps with the crutches-I want no more.
I look up all the stairs. I feel so dumb.
I then decide, I’ll go up on my bum.
At the top of the stairs I say ouch.
Then I look for my destination and start for the couch.
For the next few weeks, the couch is my home.
While I sit and wait to heal my bone.
I can’t get my coffee. I can’t get my lunch.
Someone cleans my kitchen – thanks a bunch!
Sometimes I feel that I am so alone – so stressed.
Then I see a picture of an amputee and I feel so blessed.
My friends come to visit – they call and they talk.
Soon I’ll be up and able to walk.
It seems so far away – but I know it will come.
Soon I’ll be up and this all will be done.
Erika
Hello everyone and especially the person who said that her or his (sorry I deleted the letter from my inbox and it is no longer on the site) ankle was not healing. When I was in hospital nearly two years ago after my car accident and my ankle was half severed I was in a ward with a young woman of 23. She had had her ankle all but severed two years before and was having her 20 something surgery as it had not healed and there had been lots of complications. It was so hard for her and I am grateful that my ankle and knee, while they still give me quite a bit of pain have healed fairly well - but at 48 I know that healing is slower and perhaps not as good as when you are younger - also the severity of the injury can make things harder as one can see from the young woman I met in hospital.
So all I have to offer you is sympathy and my prayers that your bones will heal. They young womans last surgery proved successful and she is much better now.
It does make it hard for your loved ones when you take a long time to heal. I unashamedly kept my wheelchair for a longer time so that I could do things like clean a bit, even do some cooking, shop -I did all my 2007 Christmas shopping from presents and food in my wheelchair - something immpossible on two crustches with two gammy legs. I have even made changes to my work so that I can spend more time sitting.
It can be difficult when your exeperience is still so closely with you. People not in your situation can get a bit impatient and just expect you to be fine. It can make one feel a bit lonely, frustrated and even like a wimp - but I promise you you are not a wimp - it takes courage to cope with all this pain and trauma!
My 18 year old daughter who was also badly injured in the crash wrote this poem.
Afterwards by Ruth Kruger
Crash
Glass, metal, blood, pain, confusion…
Everyone
Cares, helps, cooks, visits,
at the beginning.
You move on,
Or are pushed.
No one likes to see self-pity’
Afterwards.
So you tell yourself
It’s over.
When it isn’t
Youre strong, you’re fine, you’re over it,
When you’not.
No-one
Likes to see self-pity,
Afterwards.
(This is not to say we are not deeply grateful to all our friends and other peopel who gave us so much help and support. We had a survivor party a year later to thank everyone.)
What happens to us matters less than how we cope with it! Be proud of your survival and coping skills.
Thanks for the replies. Very interesting. I find the meds work but they seem to wear off quickly due to the body getting used to them. I, was, of course on IV morphine from the time of accident Jan 2 up until several days of leaving the hospital and going to the skilled nursing facility. Then it was percocet and a 30 MG slow release morphine pill every 12 hours.
I gradually got down to 15 MG slow release morphine and percocets every 4 as called for. Since I had an external fixator in my pelvis I had to remain bed ridden and largely immobile for 3 months. Often I would go long stretches with no percocets or would take them at night.
Now when I am up and working that ankle it seems to hurt worse despite being first released for PT at the end of March. The initial physical therapy effort went so well that I was released on 16 April.
Oh….a great idea for icing an ankle that is cheap and easy….purchase a large bag of frozen peas and use that as your ice bag ..or several. Use and place back in the freezer much cheaper than all those pricy speacial made icing devices sold at the pharmacy.
I thought I posted but I dont know where it went.
When I still had my cast, I had oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and motrin. I took myself off because there would be times when the meds would wear off and my leg would randomly jerk and I could not control it and I would be in more pain then after that. It always seemed to happen when I would find a comfortable position to sleep or lay in while elevating my leg. That random jerk always woke me and and the pain always resume. It felt I was being stuck over and over on my leg with needles.
I also took many pain meds too. Lyreca is used after the bones are completely healed, but the pain is still there due to nerve issues. My guess is you are still at the pain med stage. Another advantage of Lyreca is it makes you very tired, so I really sleep soundly. I had not done that since pre-accident.
Lyreca. I will have to remember that. I was taking Oxycodone but have been downgraded to Vicodin.
Sometimes that seems inadequate or only lasts for a short time and I can only take eight a day.
I know too much of the narcotic stuff is not good due to a prpensity for addiction or at minimum mild dependency.
I’d sure like to be pain free enough to function for an full nine or ten hour period without taking more than the recommended dosage over that period.
(I dont do that but its tempting at times)
It has been almost 9 months since I fractured my ankle in 3 places and my knee in 2. The Dr. kept telling me that my bones were healed, but I kept telling him I was in too much pain to walk without crutches. Since I started Lyreca a couple weeks ago, I have really progressed. I barely use my crutches and my pain is so infrequent compared to before. Lyreca is used to calm the nerves. I am finally believing that I will walk with a more normal gait some day. I also think pool therapy has helped.
Thanks Niko. I am just sick and tired of being a gimp and was looking forward to a quick progressive healing.
I sit in front of my computer at work (just started back last week) I intend to sit longer and spend less time walking around starting tomorrow.
Yes Kevin, you are still very early in the healing stage, so it will take time. Everything basically has to repair and regrow such as tissue and veins because your ankle bone was not the only thing that suffered damage. Especially if you had a bad break you will need time. You must remember to keep you leg elevated (As my good friends of this board has informed me :). I broke my ankle July 5, 2008 and I still swell and limp from time to time. Dont rush it though, the healing of bones is something we cant control. My doc said the swelling is because the veins are in repair mode to be able to carry blood normally, but since they are healing it only so much they can take which causes the blood to collect in one area instead of moving along.
I was finally able to run up some steps on the ball of my feet as of two months ago. I too have two plates and lots of screws..I know it seems like its a bad situation with the pain on and off.
Trust me it will get better. I was very frustrated with my ankle and just wanted everything to be the way it was. Since I have found this site….my progress is getting better and I know it takes time. It hasnt even been a year for me yet!
Its a slow process Kevin, but hang in there and you will do ok!
Hello everyone. I broke my ankle badly on Jan 2, 2009. Surgery was done about three four days later due to extreme swelling. They put an internal fixator through the ankle in the interim I believe. I had many other injuries ..broken neck two vertebrae at C7, My pelvis was dislocated and broken, the right shoulderblade was broken, tendons on the right wrist were cut and surgically repaired.
At this point in time the ankle is my limiting injury.
I guess bad ankle breaks take forever to heal completely? I have two plates one for the tibia and another for the fibula and an even dozen pins and screws.
I was immobile for three months and then allowed weight bearing PT. I progressed quickly to just using a cane but in the last few days the ankle seems to be more sore,swollen and painful. Is this a norm for bad breaks?
I have heard some folks have pretty good degrees of pain for up to nearly a year. I am only at 4.5 months. Today it seems I need to regress to a walker.
For the last four days I ice the ankle every evening twice over two three hours for 15 to 20 minutes each.
Is it normal to have good periods and bad periods like this?
Katherine,
I am so sorry for all the pain you have been through.
My prayers go out to you. I do hope this last option does the trick.