4 weeks post ankle surgery, learning to walk again

HI Emma, 

   I'm still limping. I had my surgery November 13 of 17. I still get burning sensations and pulling when I walk. Hell, I'm not even 100% as of yet and I think there aren't to many in such a short time like you. Or even months in. It takes a long time to heal an ankle and all the breaks, ligaments, tendons and so on. What ever you have done with ankle /feet its a long recover. 

Keep doing what your doing but take it slow. Not a race, thats for sure. I've learned that a lot through this! 

Good luck!

Rose

Hi, Emma, 7 weeks post surgery and 5days after I stopped wearing the air boit, I am walking without crutches putting full weight on my ankle (except when I go down the stairs). I do walk with a limp though and my foot swells up pretty quickly and becomes more painful. Ice and elevation help and reduce the swelling but then I start walking and it all starts again. I have not yet had any physio or advice as to how much I should walk. The hospital doctor just said that I was ok to walk...

Hi Emma-

I’m now 17 weeks from surgery with plate and screws on one side and 2 screws on the other. I didn’t start weight bearing in the boot at all until 6 weeks, once they had taken X-rays to insure healing. Went from partial weight bearing with both crutches, to partial weight bearing with one crutch(opposite side of injury) to full weight bearing. It was a process of 3-4 weeks.  

I returned to full time work, 12 hour shifts, right before 12 weeks. Swelling and discomfort/pain at night to ankle and lower leg which has gradually lessened. I still have a bit of limp, noticeable more at night when I’m tired . It’s more of a stiffness and that too is getting better. I’m back to walking my dog, but only about a half mile so far. 

Honestly ,the turning point where my ankle looks like my ankle and feels like my ankle( most of the time)only happened about a week ago.

The best advice I can give you is follow your doctor AND physical therapist ‘s directions. Let pain be your guide as far as your activity, realizing that some of the exercises, etc are going to be uncomfortable for a while. It gets better but it takes way more time than you think.  At four months I’m finally doing what I used to do- a bit slower still but that’s improving, too. It’s hard to be patient (especially for me-type A) but the patience pays off.

My physio stressed the importance of walking "evenly," said it was better to walk without limp with crutches than with limp without crutches. I was still using crutches with normal shoes, first two, then one crutch. 3-4 weeks from when I was told to stop wearing boot/brace I gave up with crutches. ( but still used them when walking in town...just to make drivers have more patiencd when I crossed road slowly etc) Very important to keep up the excercises and concentrate n "heel--toe" when walking. Almost 5 months on, I still have slight limp occasionally especially if I try to walk fast.