Ankle Breaks: Recovery, Prevention, and Types of Fractures

[Greg Freeman]

So I managed to break my fibula/tibia at the end near my ankle. I managed to do it, while, of all things, dancing. I was just doing my normal thing, doing a turn, I think I hopped just a little bit, heard a SNAP, then I was on the ground immediately. I heard someone freak out (I felt no pain or pressure/torque on my leg at all) and I expected to see bone shooting through my skin or something. Nope, when I looked down, my foot was twisted 90 degrees from the normal, straight position.

My ankle was also bothering me a slight amount, just a little discomfort, for about a week before hand. I've been told by people who witnessed what happened along with paramedics and doctors that I have an unusually high pain tolerance because I never shed a tear or screamed or lost my sense of humor. (There were people that freaked out a lot worse than I did, but I think my joke making at the absurdity of the situation calmed them down a bit) I think I might have had a small fracture in my ankle and I didn't know it, making the final break that much easier.

So now I'm stuck on crutches for about 6 weeks until I get a hard cast, then I don't know how much longer before I can walk normally again. They told me I should have most of the use of my joint back (with the plate and screws I have in my lower leg), but that I'll most likely develop arthritis in that joint.

Anyone else go through something similar? How long did it take to recover? Can you still do the same things you used to do? I'd like to be able to dance again. :-)


On another note, I think I'll take working out more seriously, so that I can strengthen my bones to prevent this or some other break from happening again.

 

[lisab]

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? Having a bad break when you're 18 is quite different from when you're 48.

My mother has a very bad sprain when she was about 45. The doc said it would have been better, at her age, to break the bone. They heal better than tendons and ligaments, especially in older people.

Now she's in her 70s and yes, she does have bad arthritis in that joint.

 

[sas3]

I broke my upper arm (humerus) up by the shoulder joint on 6/10/07 and it is all better now. (I even forget which arm it was; at times now)
When I did it (I flipped my ATV) I did not even know it was broke until I tried to flip the ATV back upright and my arm felt funny (kind of spongy).
I did not have to have a cast and the bone went right back into place and healed up with no problems. I thought that was my first broken bone but when the doc looked the X-rays he said that I had broken my collar bone at some point in my life and it healed a little crooked, but I don't recall any injury to my collar bone.

 

[FredGarvin]

When I was in the Army, I tore quite a few ligaments (or tendons, I can't remember) in my left ankle. I was in a cast for two months. Luckily after the first two weeks, I got to go back and get a walking cast which made things a bit more bearable. Still, two months of a cast pretty much stunk. IIRC, it took me another month after getting the cast off to really feel like I was back to normal and took chances with doing things like harder running workouts.

 

[Astronuc]

So I managed to break my fibula/tibia at the end near my ankle. I managed to do it, while, of all things, dancing. I was just doing my normal thing, doing a turn, I think I hopped just a little bit, heard a SNAP, then I was on the ground immediately. I heard someone freak out (I felt no pain or pressure/torque on my leg at all) and I expected to see bone shooting through my skin or something. Nope, when I looked down, my foot was twisted 90 degrees from the normal, straight position.

A colleague of mine did something similar during a sparring exercise in Kempo. The opponent fell on his foot and pinned it while he was rotating and the tibia or fibula sheared just above the ankle. I need to find the pictures.

I once hyperextended my left foot after falling on it while doing a spinning hook kick. When I brought my left foot down, I landed it sideways, lost balance and basically sat down on top of it and it flexed backward way further than it was designed to. It swelled up and the top of my foot eventually turned various shades of yellow while the sides and toes turned various shades of purple. I didn't break any bones though - just wrenched a lot of ligaments and bruised a lot of tissue.

 

[chrisalviola]

had some injuries too, when I started playing tennis even I never exercise for along time, my advice is stretch those legs first and maybe a warmup exercise when doing something like that.

 

[Greg Freeman]

lisab: I'm almost 24 right now, so yeah, it's not too serious of an injury.

It's hard to imagine I'll be cast up for a another couple months and then I'll have to rehabilitate. I just hope it doesn't mess me up on job interviews.

FredGarvin, ouch, I know someone who did something very similar to that recently. At least they can bear weight on it though. I've been told that's a big no-no for my situation.

Astronuc, I'd love to see the pictures, if you have them. I'll try to hunt down the pictures of my foot twisted in the wrong direction.

 

[Moonbear]

My ankle was also bothering me a slight amount, just a little discomfort, for about a week before hand. ...
I think I might have had a small fracture in my ankle and I didn't know it, making the final break that much easier.

Sounds like a good possibility. It would be pretty unusual to break a leg with just normal dancing, but if you had done something earlier in the week, or were developing some stress fractures from some other activity, then it would make more sense to break it with just jumping around. But, OUCH!

Too bad you're so young. I thought maybe we'd finally found a match for Evo. She still has good legs, but needs someone with good arms left.

 

[Greg Freeman]

Oh no, i just stepped into general discussion and already I've entered the dating auction! haha, just kidding.

24 too young? Evo's not that old, is she? ;-)

 

[Moonbear]

24 too young? Evo's not that old, is she? ;-)

That should earn you a few GOOBF* cards from Evo.

*GOOBF: Get Out Of Banning Free[/size]

 

[turbo]

Oh no, i just stepped into general discussion and already I've entered the dating auction! haha, just kidding.

24 too young? Evo's not that old, is she? ;-)

Well, she's got at least one daughter older than you, but I've tried to get her doweried-up so you'll be interested. (Hint: It involves an nice restored Evinrude Lightwin 3 outboard, a Grumman sport canoe, and some other goodies. I can teach her to tie dry flies and skin a deer, but the internships will cost her extra.)

 

[Evo]

That should earn you a few GOOBF* cards from Evo.

*GOOBF: Get Out Of Banning Free[/size]

<Sticks 5 GOOBF cards and 2 salmon fillets into Greg's computer.>

I'm older than dirt, and as Moonbear put it "dinged up".

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I broke my ankle when I was 10. I scored my first soccer goal and right after the next kick off some dude on the other team cranked me in the ankle. Took me a few months to get back on my feet. I play three times a week now, but I was young and healed quickly.

 

[Greg Freeman]

Greg, do you have any hardware in your ankle?

And you other guys are starting to make my girlfriend nervous. :-)

 

[turbo]

I wish I had broken my ankle in HS. Instead, I suffered a severe sprain on my right ankle after the the last gate going full-out in a regional Giant Slalom competition. I told my coach that I wouldn't be able to show up for the cross-country competition the next day, and he accused me of malingering because he had cut me from the Slalom competition in favor of some kids from prominent families that couldn't match my consistency or times. Since I was the fastest cross-country skier, he threatened to cut me from the team for this "offense". Incredibly, he refused to apologize even after I showed up at school the next Monday on crutches with my ankle as big as my calf. What a jerk.

I still have a network of blue/purple vines there, and pain/sensitivity in that ankle when the weather changes. A good clean break would have been better.

 

[Evo]

Well, she's got at least one daughter older than you, but I've tried to get her doweried-up so you'll be interested. (Hint: It involves an nice restored Evinrude Lightwin 3 outboard, a Grumman sport canoe, and some other goodies. I can teach her to tie dry flies and skin a deer, but the internships will cost her extra.)

No my daughters are younger.

 

[Astronuc]

Greg, do you have any hardware in your ankle?

And you other guys are starting to make my girlfriend nervous. :-)

My friend had several pins placed temporarily in his angle, and they were removed after several months. Geez - I need to find those pics.

 

[turbo]

No my daughters are younger.

I didn't know that! Well maybe I can get you married off without skills at moose-skinning, but you're still going to have to learn to tie fishing flies, along with producing the boat and motor. You can always learn moose-skinning and butchering as you go along, if I can place you with a tolerant mate.

 

[Evo]

I didn't know that! Well maybe I can get you married off without skills at moose-skinning, but you're still going to have to learn to tie fishing flies, along with producing the boat and motor. You can always learn moose-skinning and butchering as you go along, if I can place you with a tolerant mate.

I hope so!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Yeah, I broke an ankle while dancing too. But fortunately it wasn't my own. My wife forgives me though. Ever since we met, she's swept me off her feet.

 

[Greg Freeman]

Whoa, how did you break her ankle?One time I was out of town dancing and I grabbed one of friends that had come along with the group for the trip. I was stringing her behind me, trying to find an open spot on the dance floor. When we arrived, I heard her say that she had bumped into someone. I must've led her right past someone at the end of a swingout, and I looked over to see that poor woman starting to cry. I froze and couldn't dance for an hour, which was how long it took that woman to leave and then come back. I've never apologized so many times for accidentally bumping someone before. She had jarred her shoulder a little on my partner.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Whoa, how did you break her ankle?

By pulling her leg.

 

[Greg Freeman]

http://photos-416.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sctm/v173/61/33/2037416/n2037416_45003148_2439.jpg

There's the hardware. But it's okay because I've been listening to this a lot:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw

 

[turbo]

Woo, woo! You're going to be strip-searched every single time you try to fly. Hope they don't use the anal probe.

 

[Greg Freeman]

Hahaha, actually, I flew just a couple of days after surgery. They just swabbed my cast and I patted me down. Too bad it was a husky TSA type and not a leggy stewardess, though.

 

[devil-fire]

i fractured my ankle playing basketball. i jumped and was nudged in the air and fell on the outside my of foot, as in the sole of my shoe was facing my other foot instead of the ground. i had some tendon/ligament damage and the bone that makes the bump of the outside of the angle was cracked but there were no free fragments.

it felt like an extra bad sprain for a while, to the point i preferred to hop around on my good foot instead of walking/limping. because of the amount of swelling it was fairly apparent that x-rays were called for. i forget if i got a cast that night at the hospital or if they just took the x-rays in the afternoon and i got the cast in the morning.

for me the most annoying part of recovery was adopting a limp in my walking after the cast came off that took quite a while to over come. it wasn't a big problem or anything, but usually after walking for a while my right leg would get tired before my left one.

 

[Greg Freeman]

I'm really mad now. Went for a checkup and I have to have another surgery.

I went to a second doctor and he said that the way I was screwed together should have been done differently, and a separate, longer screw should have been placed through both the tibia and fibula to keep them aligned. My joint has shifted a bit because it wasn't properly held together.

I can't believe in this day and age that something like this can't be done right the first time, when it costs 10's of thousands of dollars, makes me sick.

 

[Evo]

That's terrible, but not surprising. I'm going to have to get my arm re-broken and reset because the orthopedic surgeon I went to when I broke my elbow guessed wrong.

 

[rewebster]

I'm just hoping that the next few procedures on me will avoid having to get Harrington rods.

 

[Greg Freeman]

I'm just hoping that the next few procedures on me will avoid having to get Harrington rods.

I had to google that to know what it was, ouch, yeah I hope you don't have to go through that!

 

[rewebster]

I had to google that to know what it was, ouch, yeah I hope you don't have to go through that!

go through that?-----actually, I've been asking them to do it

 

[Greg Freeman]

go through that?-----actually, I've been asking them to do it

Well then, in that case, best of wishes. Anything related to the back does not sound like fun.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm really mad now. Went for a checkup and I have to have another surgery.

I went to a second doctor and he said that the way I was screwed together should have been done differently, and a separate, longer screw should have been placed through both the tibia and fibula to keep them aligned. My joint has shifted a bit because it wasn't properly held together.

I can't believe in this day and age that something like this can't be done right the first time, when it costs 10's of thousands of dollars, makes me sick.

That's terrible, but not surprising. I'm going to have to get my arm re-broken and reset because the orthopedic surgeon I went to when I broke my elbow guessed wrong.

Sorry to hear that for both of you.

 

[chemisttree]

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! So sorry to hear that. I broke my elbow just a few days before Christmas '07. The worst part was watching my wife do all the Christmas work alone. My break was minor... never even had a cast but I still don't have full mobility and it still hurts every day. Nothing like what I imagine you both are going through though.
Very impressive X-ray, Greg. You should put that image on a card and present it to TSA if you are stopped after the cast comes off.

 

[Evo]

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! So sorry to hear that. I broke my elbow just a few days before Christmas '07. The worst part was watching my wife do all the Christmas work alone. My break was minor... never even had a cast but I still don't have full mobility and it still hurts every day. Nothing like what I imagine you both are going through though.
Very impressive X-ray, Greg. You should put that image on a card and present it to TSA if you are stopped after the cast comes off.

Be careful, I was told a cast was optional and it healed crooked without a cast and the muscles look and feel pulled and it's causing quite a bit of pain, more than when I first broke it.

 

[Greg Freeman]

Be careful, I was told a cast was optional and it healed crooked without a cast and the muscles look and feel pulled and it's causing quite a bit of pain, more than when I first broke it.

I still can't figure out how things like that can be messed up, but I'm used to seeing engineered structures. Can't they measure to make sure it's straight?

And I can't see how someone with enough education to be a surgeon can make enough of a mess so that someone has to go back and clean up the mess with another surgery, delaying recovery additional weeks, not be mention making rehabilitation more difficult because my muscles have had more time to atrophy. Ugh. When they had my cast off today I felt my calf and it felt like jello compared to my functioning calf. Imagining trying to walk with that two months more after my surgery was painful. But I know other people definitely have worse situations.

 

[chemisttree]

Be careful, I was told a cast was optional and it healed crooked without a cast and the muscles look and feel pulled and it's causing quite a bit of pain, more than when I first broke it.

What type of break did you suffer? Mine was a radial head fracture. The doc said to start range of motion exercise as soon as possible (I waited 2 weeks). I've got most of the range back but the pain is still there at the extremes of my range of motion. My pain level is much less than when I first injured it (but I still cry manly tears... so what, I can't be president?) but a day of heavy typing really zings it!

Greg, will the screws and plate prevent you from having an MRI on your lower extremities?

 

[Greg Freeman]

Greg, will the screws and plate prevent you from having an MRI on your lower extremities?

From what I know, surgical (stainless) steel doesn't have good magnetic properties. I think I remember fooling around with stainless and having a hard time getting permanent magnets to hold onto it. I did a quick google check and got this:

Dr. Shellock has also examined the movement/deflection of selected orthopaedic implants in a 3.0 Tesla MRI unit and found that devices fabricated from cobalt, titanium and stainless steel exhibited little or no movement/deflection

http://www.zimmer.com/z/ctl/op/global/action/1/id/9153/template/MP/navid/582

So I don't think it will be an issue. I've heard that accidental or unknown slivers of metals (from welding and machining) can be very dangerous, especially if they are in sensitive areas like the eye. Not stainless, though.

 

[Evo]

What type of break did you suffer? Mine was a radial head fracture.

Mine separated the bones at the elbow and also a fracture straight across the ulna where it goes up.

See the picture of the bent elbow? If you take that bottom white line of 2 and run it straight across instead of curving up, the ulna fracture was there.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...lna&start=20&ndsp=20&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

When I try to hold my arm out straight it looks like this ^ instead of -, it's like the wing of a bird bent in flight.