Broken Ankle Trimalleolar Fracture
a year later
It’s been a year, a month, and 6 days since my trimalleolar ankle fracture. For those that are looking into the hell of having to deal with this right now, beware all the horror stories! Beware! Don’t let them scare you. I sure the hell did. I mean sitting in bed all alone for weeks wondering what will be my fate, lead me to read all the storied (good and bad) online. Let me tell you know, there are mostly bad stories. I suppose for those of us that have good experiences in life, we tend to only tell those near us, if at all. For those that have negative experience, we tend to share in all the gruesome ways we can. So you will fine plenty of those saying years after there trimalleolar fracture surgeries, they are still miserable.
I’m not! I think I know why too. I for one, fear addiction. So I basically took very little of my prescribed pain killers post surgery. The body needs to know it’s pain, so that you don’t unintentionally hurt yourself more. From the stories I read of people with long term pain and discomfort , they seemed to have refilled their pain meds often. So, if you can, avoid that. And two, they seemed to give into the pain instead of embracing it.
You’ve heard it before, “No pain, no gain” I’m not saying to push yourself into tears or anything, but you should recognize the difference between pain and discomfort. As you start to heal, especially after surgery, the scar tissue will be tight and you need to work that out. I found walking on sand, rocky river beds and uneven surfaces pulled my ankle in all directions really working all the tiny muscles, tendons and ligaments in ways therapy stretching couldn’t. I couldn’t walk on sand right away either. I had to wrap my ankle in an ace bandage or later an ankle wrap just to endure the stretching. Trust me, this is worth it.
Late April marked the 1 year from my break and we went hiking in the Ozarks. Walking along the rocky river bed was glorious. It was the final healing remedy I needed to work everything out. We did 22 miles of hiking up and down the hilly woods. I used hiking sticks, as I wouldn’t have been able to do all I did without them. Honestly after that trip, I no longer have any swelling from standing for long periods of time, or walking a lot. I feel I can run again, but will stick to bike riding as I was never much of a runner.
If you are healing, tell yourself you will be normal again. Believe in it and move around, work things out. You can be normal again!
I have left the hardware in so far. I think about getting it removed as it is basically useless. I don’t really look forward to another surgery or crutches again while the bones heal from the screws being removed. I don’t seem to be bother by the hardware. I simply don’t like the idea of it being there for the rest of my life.
If you have recovered, let me know if you kept the hardware or not? Thanks!
