nondisplaced distal fibula fracture
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Day 0 (04/28/2016), Fell on a very steep concrete slope when fishing. Very intense and severe pain, but managed to walk
to my car (using my toe) and drove home in pain. Wife drove me to ER and diagnozed as nondisplaced distal fibula
fracture (~ half an each above the ankle). Went home with a walking boot and crutches.
(between day 0, I stayed in bed mostly)
Day 4: saw a bone doctor. He reviewed X-ray from the ER and said the fracture was stable. He also said I could put
weight on it immediately. Went home with the same walking boot. Also told that I could take the boot off when sleep.
(between day 5 and 12, no weight bearing at all. Swelling got better, but bruises everywhere on my right foot and quite
a lot of pain on the foot and ankle)
Day 11: I went to the doctor's office in a wheelchair. He was surprised... X-rayed again and no displacement observed.
Went home with the same boot and crutches. Next appointment 06/06/2016.
Day 14: started to bear weight and felt much better.
Day 20: could walk a few steps with limp but without crutches. However, most of the time, I did walk with both crutches.
Pain has been gone.
Day 28: didn't show much progress compared to previous week. when I walked 2 steps without crutches in the both room, I
felt a little bit pain around the injured ankle when limped. Immediately stopped walking. laid in bed for a few hours
and experienced 3-4 times of short, slight pain (each time, the pain lasted ~10-20 second). This really got me concern.
I drove to the doctor's office. He was on vacation.
Day 29 (now): laid in bed mostly and in great fear. similar to yesterday, I experienced several times of short and
slight pain. tried to feel the injured ankle with my hand and the bony place felt a little warm (not sure whether the warm has been there all of the time).
My next appointment is 06/06/2016. Right now, I am really concerned. I don't know whether or not the fracture was
displaced.... (I have been on unpaid leave and have mortgage and bills to pay. I am anxious to go back to work. I don't know whether this would put my recovery back a few weeks).
Any comments are welcome.
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geniusni
Posted
Looking back, I should have wore the walking boot most of the time post injury (I only wore ~20%, since I was in bed most of the time). That might have caused a little bit displacement and might have slowed down bone growing. Looking forward, I will give myself another full week to recover and to train myself walk unassisted, but in the walking boot. I plan to return to work next Monday.
Right now, I can walk unassisted with a limp. After walking, I would experience soreness in the ankle and sometimes some discomfort around the fracture. Not sure whether I need to seek a 2nd opinion.
I wish everyone a speedy and full recovery.
ali73023 geniusni
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patti123 geniusni
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Tituscanby1 geniusni
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1-2 mm displacement is a tricky one. Shouldn't be any. Mine got shoves in place by nurse while fibreglass plaster was setting, under specialist s instructions. Twit was standing propping up door way.
My husband kept seeing that it still wasn't in alignment. I had a 100% non union after 4 months. In the end luckily I was referred to a more experienced surgeon who sad d I needed a bone graft and that he wouldn't certainly align the bone correctly. He said my husband was right. Good luck for you, hope you don't have to go through the extended hell I've been through.
Up to you whether you have a second opinion. But a CT scan would be helpful I'm sure
It gives a more accurate reading of healing in 3D manner. It would show how much you are healing and any other discrepancies.
My husband had a CT scan for his snapped Scaphoid on the same day as me. His xray showed he was healing. CT scan showed only 5% healing. On side where xray was taken. No where else. We both got news we needed surgery from different surgeons on same day. A lot of tears and frustration. I am now 34.5 weeks and have soft bone and reasonable weight baring, but a weak and wasted leg.
He is 31.5 weeks and has very limited flexibility and strength despite intense back to work Physio rehab. He doesn't however have a job to go back to. Was an at work accident, but they couldn't be bothered waiting for him to recover. Just wiped him without contact.
Hope your situation ends better! :+)
®{°¥°}©
geniusni Tituscanby1
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patti123 Tituscanby1
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daphne23784 Tituscanby1
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Tituscanby1 daphne23784
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geniusni
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Tituscanby1 geniusni
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ali73023 geniusni
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patti123 geniusni
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geniusni patti123
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patti123 geniusni
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geniusni
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Another update: today is my 11th week (77 days) post ankle injury. I have been working for almost 5 weeks (1.5 hrs of round trip driving and 8.5 hrs at work). Overall, things have been going well.
Last Dr. visit was 06/06/2016; Dr. said I didn't need the boot any more. I returned to work on 06/13/2016 and had my boot on at work and during driving till 07/08/2016. For the first couple of weeks returning to work, I experienced much discomfort/ache around the ankle area, due mainly to swelling. After about 2 weeks, ankle became better, but I over-did it twice by mowing grass (uneven surface, walked too much...). Anyway, ankle recovered slowly in the boot; limp improved a lot, but still quite obvious with the boot on.
Since 07/08/2016, I have been boot-free. Ankle was sore when walking, and limp was worse than with a boot. However, within a week without the boot, ankle improved very significantly: soreness is a lot less frequent and limp is almost unnoticeable.
I have not achieved full range of motion yet, but is improving. My ankle would still swell in the day, but a lot less significant. Almost no discomfort/ache is experienced now. Ankle returns to normal in the morning with almost no limping at all. I guess it is recovering well.
Here are my suggestings based on my own experience:
1. immobolization. Fractured Bone heals the most quickly when immobilized properly. So in the first 3-4 weeks, try to have the fractured bones immobilized by whatever means the doctor suggests. If I immobilized better, I would even heal much more quickly.
2. pain-killers: A lot of resources say that pain-killers slow down bone growth. so if you can handle the pain without pain-killers, don't take it. I only took pain-killers for 3 days.
3. Diet: a normal diet should do, but do eat some fibers and drink a lot of water. I took ~4000 unit of vitamin D and ~1.2 g of calcium daily. I don't know how much they helped, but they might not do harm to my body.
4. Excercise: Your body will tell you when you are ready. So don't rush and don't oever do it. Because I needed to go back to work as soon as I could, I probably rushed it quite bit. But looking back, it probably did not help at all.
5. Lastly, stay positive.
that's basically my story in a nutshell. If anyone would need more info, please feel free to comment and I will give more info.
I wish everyone a speedy recovery.
Tituscanby1 geniusni
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Very positive. Thanks! I've not heard about problems with pain medication slowing or stopping healing, however I am aware of numerous studies on anti inflammatory meds.
@(*+*)@
geniusni Tituscanby1
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angie18774 geniusni
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