ORIF surgery after trimalleolar fracture, a bit of a success story?
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Hi everyone! I thought I'd share my story a bit because I broke my ankle in South Korea and I lurked the forum quite a bit to see how my 'future' would look like. I broke my ankle on Dec 12 and was sent to an emergency room of an 'international' hospital where no one really spoke English (while on the ambulance, I was asked if I wanted to go to a local hospital or one that caters to foreigners. I was told they would speak English for sure, but it turns out there was no difference). I mention this just because I was not allowed visits and the doctor would just pop in or call me at random times, so getting a friend on a call to translate was basically impossible. My Korean is good but not great, so half the things I didn't quite understand - you can imagine the stress. This forum helped a lot.
I compared myself with many cases to see how I was doing. I'm a big runner and not running has been hard for me, I thought I would share this in case someone wants a bit of hope.
Background: I'm 29. I run 10km every single day and do a bit of weight training a few times a week. I walk around 20-30K steps a day. I had injured my ankle twice before and it was a bit unstable already.
12 Dec - emergency room and I am told I need surgery;
13 Dec - ORIF surgery (8 screws and a metal plaque on one side, one screw on the other one). Night is awful, the pain made me faint at some point.
15 Dec - After this day, I stop feeling any sort of pain.
19 Dec - I am supposed to be discharged but the foot has a strange color, so I am told to stay more with strong antibiotics (two IVs a day of them and 3 pills) that make me sick. I guess I have an infection but he never says.
29 Dec - I am told I should stay more but the hospital is making me depressed. Doc is aware of it and sends me back home for a week. Non weight bearing (NWB).
6 Jan - Visit with the doc. Color is good so we lower antibiotics.
18 Jan (week 5) - Another visit. I am told I can go partial weight bearing (PWB). Doc says no PT is needed and to do a few exercises on my own.
27 Jan (week 6) - I go full weight bearing (FWB) and drop the walking boot. No pain but the front of my foot HURTS.
8 Feb - Last check up. Doc insists I do not need PT. He says pain in the front of the foot will go away quickly and move to the heel, that will last longer but that's it. He says that I can probably run mid March, but to be safe, to do 22 March or after. He says we can schedule date to take the screws out if I want to and to come back for a check up in 4 months.
20 Feb (week 9) - I walk without a limp and around 5,000 steps total a day (I do two walks in the morning and in the evening). I can lift my body weight (not as much as normal) and the pain from the front of the foot is gone, but my heel hurts after 10 minutes of walking. I walk slower than usual.
22 Feb to 2 March - I go to Japan for a trip (nonrefundable, i had booked it 4 months before) and end up walking 15,000-25,000 steps a day. Pain at night is awful and I need to take breaks after every 7-10,000 steps, but I walk faster and every day I walk longer. If I force it, there's a bit of a limp. All the pain is at the heel, it's so bad I cannot do stretches and I can't sleep.
4 March (today, week 10) - after resting for a whole day, the pain is almost gone and I can do my stretches without a problem. I needed to rest, clearly. I'll take it slowly now that I'm not on a trip, but I can now lift myself totally with the 'bad' foot with no pain. I'm sure the heel will be a problem for at least a week more though.
(expected) 22 March - back to running.
While I was NWB I did leg exercises for mobility to avoid atrophy. I didn't quite manage, but I think it helped me. One of the exercises I did was to imitate my walking stride, I read that it helps not having a limp and it may have helped.
The pin in my heel leaves me winded half the time, I've been applying arnica cream and resting since I've been back from Japan and the pain has gone from a 9/10 to a 1/10, so it seems it needed rest. It's been a tough journey and I've had my worries about having no PT and my Korean not being good enough to communicate the concerns, but I lucked out with the doctor I had.
Again, this post isn't to give any advice, just to share a recovery that seems sort of fast in comparison to what I have read.
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