Bimalleolar ankle fracture
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hello to everyone who ever suffered a broken ankle. I have joined this site to help others who are presently suffering or whom will go on to one day fracture an ankle.
Firstly I want to tell you that I was a nursing sister in the NHS and worked 26 years in the NHS. i sustained an open (ie bones sticking out of the leg) left ankle fracture on 4 May 2018. I was dealt with initially in A & E and underwent a procedure under sedation to have an ankle reduction. This places the foot and ankle back where it should be and then a back slab plaster cast is fitted. The following day I had to have emergency surgery to debride ie wash out the open wound and then to have a plate and a screw inserted. I WAS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED GOING TO THEATRE!!! I ADMIT I WAS SO SCARED I NEARLY CRIED............MY LIFE IN THE HANDS OF THE NHS I HAD WORKED SO HARD FOR........ The staff in theatre were truly fantastice and when I got to theatre the consultant was waiting for me. WOW I thought I have a consultant to work on my ankle. I had a spinal anaesthetic, but also was put to sleep.....I woke up in Recovery relieved to wake up but what a journey laid ahead of me I could never anticipate despite all my nursing knowledge...for now I am the patient not the nurse!!
0 likes, 14 replies
annabelrose
Posted
So home I am with a full hard thick plaster cast to my lower leg !...... The pain was there but I took the drugs and it relieved it somewhat...... At first I was just relieved to be home. It never dawned on me that I was now alone. Yes alone for 24 hours of every day and every single thing I wanted to do every single movement I wanted to make would be come impossible due to the pain and the non weight bearing predicament I was now in.
I have a daughter age 12 - who became my nurse......She ran around before school and after school and occassionally I would have to wake the poor princess during the night. Not ONCE did she grumble.......
Well let me cheer you up if you are suffering out there I am thinking of you right NOW!
iT IS NOW 7 AND A HALF WEEKS since my injury and operation and I am now walking around the house in a pir of trainers without any crutches. I am actually sat thinking how on earth have I manged this miracle?
annabelrose
Posted
I am going to be honest....I read other peoples stories....some on here... If you break your ankle YOU WILL TOO.... Some stories made me laugh out loud as I sat alone and the reason for this is I GOT IT I GOT WHAT THESE PEOPLE WERE SAYING. Such as you will find a way to do most hings. You will sit on that settee planning how to spend a penny. How to get water to take with your pain killers.... How to hop around on 2 crutches...Which I would not wish on anyone. I was never fit ....more a bit plump and lazy with exercise and here I am with 2 wobbly crutches......and a broken ankle and oh boy if I fall on these crutches will I break the other ankle (the good one) or will I damage further the all ready broken one).
I read stories about people crwling on the carpet like a baby and YES I DID THAT TOO FOR HOURS....Every night I dragged myself up those 15 stairs to bed on my arse cheeks!!!! step by step and dragging that painfulleg with me. When I made it to the top of the stairs feeling exhausted I cheek bum walked to my bedroom and then rolled over getting onto one knee, whilst clutching the bed frame and pulling with every bit of strenght I had to get in that bed!!!!!!!!
Every morning the first week I woke with burning pain which at times MADE ME CRY it hurt so much. YET i dragged myself down the stairs every day doing the reverse movements to get back to my settee.....
Today I am walking around the house in my trainers without crutches.
I have achieved this not by pitying myself but taking slow steady steps each day to help myself out of this horrific hole I got into..........
annabelrose
Posted
CRUTCHES------- OMG.....WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. LET'S ALL HAVE A LAUGH TO CHEER US UP!
The morning after my surgery, the physio arrives in my room and I have been out of theatre only 15 hours......In she breezes with a serious look on her face....RIGHT THEN LET'S HAVE YOU UP OUT OF THAT BED! Jesus .....helpp me please I am thinking is this women mad? Then I am given a lifeline....She tells me if I can manage to walk on those crutches right NOW..... I CAN GO HOME! home.....sweet home...
I somehow tell myself that if I get home all will be much better I love home, I have my own fridge, my won bed.............BUT I HAVE NEVER WALKED ON CRUTCHES IN MY LIFE WITH 2 WORKING ANKLES AND NOW I HAVE ONE IN AGONY SWOLLEN TOES AND A HEAVY POT..........I gaze at those crutches as she lowers my bed and smiles....I WILL WALK ON THOSE CRUTCHES IF IT KILLS ME I TELL MYSELF .....The stamina and the adrenalin kicked in and I make it around the bedroom yes without breaking any more bones...I make it I bludy well make it and back to the bed...where I put on a brave face and say can I go home now.YES YOU CAN! I say to myself YES OHHH YES YES YES I AM GETTING OUT OF ThIS PRISON CAMP HOME BOUND............I get home with my crutches and out of the car I shuffle...THEN I SEE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT ENEMY FACING ME THAT MOUNTAIN I HAVE TO CLIMB OVER??????? THE FRONT DOOR STEP!!!!!! I cant do it mum, I cant go over that step. I cant and then reality dawns crutches and steps they don't mix!!! Then I have a brain storm ....get me the kitchen chair bring it to the door and I will flop back on the chair and somehow I managed it...swinging my legs over that Mountain the step...........Inside the house my daughter and my mum would love to tidy up my crutches....propping them up in the corner of the room or putting them in the cupboard.............WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THEM I WONDER......How am I going to get my crutches out the corner of the room or the cupboard...I need them to move an inch............... It took them about 3 weeks to stop tidying my crutches away and realise those crutches were now my spare ankle!!!!!!! People would pop round...crutches oh what fun can I have a go...FUN? FUN? I can tell you I have had more fun with the tax man or the VAT man than those crutches ever gave me. The cruthches would carry me to the kitchen and I would go there for coffee...realising on arrival when I got there I could not make coffee as I could not stand without the crutches.............JUST TODAY FOR THE FIRST TIME I CARRIED A CUP OF COFFEE WHILST WALKING WITHOUT THEM ! CAFE A LAIT!
annabelrose
Posted
I never imagined how a pot (cast) would stop my left leg working all together, how the calf would no longer want to move. I never imagined how when that cast first came off after 2 weeks the pain of having it back on would feel like giving birth....yet it was so painful I told my family I would rather give birth every day for a week than have the pain of a broken ankle...After 6 weeks in pot and it came off MY FOOT DID NOT FEEL LIKE IT WAS ATTACHED TO MY LEG.....you will feel that too.... I put my foot on the floor and the sensation was horrible. How can it be that a carpet on your foot feels so strange when I have been walking on carpet for 50 years. YES i AM 50.... I had days when my mind was getting the better of me...I CRIED AND i PITIED MYSELF AND i TOLD MYSELF I WOULD NEVER WALK AGAIN...I think this is normal to feel this way normal to fear not walking again normal to cry....and no I did not feel better for crying I then had saw eyes and felt 90 years old/
i TRIED TO EAT HEALTHY as in not 10 bags of crisps just 3 per day...Crisps are easy you dont have to cook them right as you will not be cooking any time soon when your ankle breaks!
I had to have fragmin injections daily and still do and my stomach looked like a boxers face at times...bruised swollen, black, green and blue...not pretty!
I went to see the Dr in orthopeadics and trauma last week and he told me to walk bareffot across the room to the bed. I looked at him and I thought are you mad I cant walk without my crutches..I was terrified go on he said just a few steps.... No I said I need my crutches and I grabbed them and walked with my crutches. I WAS TERRIFIED I WAS GINT TO HEAR THE CRACK OF A BONE BREAKING AGAIN i felt sick with fear to walk on that ankle....... But I did it.
annabelrose
Posted
Once I got that pot off ----I got home and I got (WELL MY DAUGHTER DID I CANT WALK THEN REMEMBER) 2 bowls of lovely warm water...luxury feet in water after 6 weeks in pot...that was better than any hot tub or spa I ever visited in my life.... I then cleaned all the horrible skin from my 2 wounds all the frail flesh that was hanging around on the leg i scrubbed it off...gently exfoliating them horrible looking wound sites...... I had bought the day before on line of course VASELINE! GOOD OLD FASHIONED VASELINE... I applied this to the wounds in a plentiful amount...vaseline helped protect that wound and made the skin feel more supple....I rubbed the dry skin with towels for hours on end and I massaged emolient into all the other parts of my legs.....In the first few days I did the hot and cold plunging in buckets I had read about. I applied frozen peas to the swelling on top of a thin tea towel of course....boy that felt good..I never realised the power of a pack of frozen peas and yes I even bought birds eye peas...my ankles worth it right LOL !
annabelrose
Posted
My journey continues -- but today as I walked out of my kitchen in a pair of sketches memory foam trainers I carrie dmy coffee and I thought nothing is ever going to bring me down if I have the power to bring myself back up then I will drive myself and my mind to be positive and not to slip across a bridge of despair into what would have become a swap of defeat and misery for ever. So to anyone who goes on to read my blog.....please know there are people like me who no your pain.....people like me who will try to answer back to your pleas for support and help....people like me who did bludy well walk after a horrific ankle fracture that unless you ever have one you can not begin to imagine how debilitations, painful and life changing this will be.
God bless to any one suffering remember the power in in your mind...your attitude...you courage...your determination.
I have my own business and I will walk around my shop again.....I will I promise you one day soon.
Next week I will start my physiotherapy and I am feeling like the bionic woman right now.... I honestly feel SO ELATED TO WALK....I will push and push myself each day...one day I may run and I never could run before if you no what I mean...
Jude1959 annabelrose
Posted
annabelrose Jude1959
Posted
Hi Jude.
Blimey 2 nurses with poorly ankles! Knowledge is not a friend when in that position is it? I hope you are doing well? Do chat if you want support....there is nothing worse than lying impeded on the couch feeling like the only soul who will not walk again. I gotta help anyone who goes through this. I never in my career thought about ankle fractures....I never worked in orthopaedics and do not really remember nursing anyone with one. The ability of the plaster cast to put an adult in a position where they physically have to learn to walk again is a real challenge. I hung on anything that looked like I could swing on it to learn to walk again! LOL! I would have swung from the chandeliers if I had any>>> I HOPE THIS WILL MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH AND SMILE THAT ALL WEILL BE UP AND ABOUT AGAIN ONE DAY !
anna62340 annabelrose
Posted
anna62340 annabelrose
Posted
Hello Annabelrose, I have just typed my answer to your question about screws removal but I dropped my phone and the answer had disappeared into infinity of the internet! So here goes again: orthopedists' reasons: sometimes screws break and thus create problems, the two horizontal screws might impinge on ankle moving fully. My physio lady is of the opinion that screw removal does help with regaining full movement. I had general anaesthetic although at some earlier stage there was a talk of a local one .😢It was done 3 months after the op..All the best. You have a super daughter !
Tituscanby1 anna62340
Posted
My screws are sticking out. And I am having a reaction like electric shocks to them and plate. And I can't get full movement.
annabelrose anna62340
Posted
Yes I think having the screws etc removed is a must too! I am definately going to insist mine are removed. Just because I agree with the full ankle mobility theory. Being patient ie patience was hard for me too as I am a hard working woman. I guess you are too and I understand how you feel and felt. Regarding your walking holiday - it will happen remember that and tell yourself that too. Never forget how far you have come so far and how determined you have been to come this far. Thank you for sharing your story and if you need a friend who gets it I am here!
anna62340 annabelrose
Posted
Tituscanby1 annabelrose
Posted
I'll tell my story another day. But my break and dislocation nearly 3 years has been a disaster. I used this sight to get me thru religiously.
In 6 weeks I will be having the plate and 6 screws removed with a Spinal Tap anesthetic. Same as I had when they went in with bone graft.
Other side has a meniscus tear for 2 years which seems unimportant to everyone but me.
I will be pleased to hear and share