Another broken ankle thread - bone chips

[red_mares]

I finally found out why my sprained ankle wouldn’t heal - it’s broken. Apparently, I sprained the hell out of it sometime (honestly not sure when) and have a bone chip pulled off. It didn’t show up in the x-rays several months ago. Until yesterday, everyone (docs, PT, PA) called it a grade 1 sprain; would have been really stretching things to call it grade 2. When I gave the new script to my PT yesterday he was literally dumb founded.

Doc (ortho surgeon) put me in a hinged brace, PT 2X a week, and minimal weight bearing. I’m not on crutches; this has been going on for several months, so my “good” ankle is in almost as a bad shape as the broken one, besides having unrelated neck/shoulder problems. He mentioned surgery as an option, but wants me to try PT first. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m doing pre-hab, not rehab. I’m having a hard time seeing how a unattached chip is going to heal. Has anyone else dealt with this?

Thankfully, the horse stays with a trainer (who also sprained his ankle 2 wks ago :rolleyes:) so I don’t have to worry about riding any time soon.

[horsekpr]

Sorry about your ankle. I am not a doctor,but it seems logical that the best result would be to get the chip out.

[not_again]

Get several opinions about surgery before you proceed. According to the gurus, my daughter’s ankle is non-surgical as any operation to remove chips will probably make it much worse not better, especially the chronic pain.

[walkers]

Most orthopedic surgeons are not ankle specialists. I’ve been where you are and what saved me is finding a very fine ankle orthopedic surgeon recommended by a professional equestrian . I live in a area with two of the best rated hospitals and perhaps 30 orthopedic surgeons . Yet they were not experienced with the ankle surgery however many were quite glad to do it. I did find one with excellent training but I would have been his first surgery after residency.He wasn’t happy when i declined. I would use him today but interestingly he moved to the practice I did use in Baltimore.
The ankle is the most complicated joint in your body. PT may be damaging the joint, please find a specialist and if you’re on the east coast PM and I can send you a few names.

[Zu_Zu]

Jingles ~ Just Jingles

JUST JINGLES FOR YOU DURING THIS STRUGGLE ~

JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE & AO ~ AO ~ AO ~ ALWAYS OPTIMISTIC

[red_mares]

Thanks for the input & jingles. One week down in this cast/brace, 5 to go. Funny thing is I had no problem vegetating on the couch until I was told I had to.

The surgeon I’m seeing specializes in foot & ankle - I got his name from my PT; he has seen his work before. I actually asked him who NOT to see. I gave up trying to wade through the insurance co. list of 50+ generic ortho guys to see who knew ankles. Given the rep surgeons have for cutting, I was kind of surprised when he recommended therapy first. The PT is treating me with kid gloves right now, which is kind of unnerving. Every other time I’ve been there, it has been more “suck it up & do it” and “are you doing your homework?” The only homework now is to stay off it.

[red_mares]

Another 4-6 weeks… Ughh

Hard for me to believe but the &*@#$%# ankles are actually getting better. Very, VERY Slowly. At least my PT says so. Another 2 weeks for the “good” one, and another 4-6 weeks, with the brace from hell, for the broken one. (“The break was a setback” No Sh#t ?) Who knows someday I may even be fully weight bearing on it. LOL. The thought of running or riding on this thing in 2 months scares the crap out of me though.

Of course the other PT in the office is a little more skeptical that 4 weeks will do it and wouldn’t be surprised if the doc had to scope & debride it. Like horses, everyone has their opinion.

[Graymaresrule]

@walkers;5776644

Most orthopedic surgeons are not ankle specialists. I’ve been where you are and what saved me is finding a very fine ankle orthopedic surgeon recommended by a professional equestrian . I live in a area with two of the best rated hospitals and perhaps 30 orthopedic surgeons . Yet they were not experienced with the ankle surgery however many were quite glad to do it. I did find one with excellent training but I would have been his first surgery after residency.He wasn’t happy when i declined. I would use him today but interestingly he moved to the practice I did use in Baltimore.
The ankle is the most complicated joint in your body. PT may be damaging the joint, please find a specialist and if you’re on the east coast PM and I can send you a few names.

No kidding :eek: I can tell you who NOT to see in Fredericksburg…the ortho who was on call the night my son broke his ankle. And it seems that once you see a doctor for a problem the other doctors in town are reluctant to take you on.

My son broke his ankle May 22, had surgery June 2…that was a saga in itself…and there still is a gap in his fib. The doctor is now saying that it may never heal but given the hardware should be OK

[mickeydoodle]

most “chips” after ankle injuries are just a manifestation of the ligament pulling a little piece of bone off the tibia or fibula (different from an OCD lesion of the talus) they should be treated just as any sprain, physical therapy is the most/best way to get you back to activity and riding. It does not matter if the “chip” does not heal back to the bone, it is encased in scar (assuming that this is not an OCD lesion)

the need for surgery in a fibular or tibial avlusion fragment (chip) is rare, when in doubt go the aofas.org this is the website of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, fellowship trained orthopods who do foot/ankle as more than 75% of their practice

[red_mares]

Update - I got the brace off!

After 4 very long months, I finally got the brace off my ankle! First time in 10 months that it hasn’t been braced, taped or otherwise encased in some sort of external support. The chip did whatever it is that chips do, and the tendons and ligaments are loads stronger. I still have a few more weeks of PT, but it’s moving toward dealing with the long term stuff vice fixing things. The light at the end of the tunnel is looking more like a light instead of an oncoming train.

Just to make life fun, I twisted the good ankle 2 weeks ago. Maybe I should just stick to drinking at home (it was on one of first late night excursions in a long time and I misjudged a couple dark steps) Earned me some :rolleyes: on that one.

[Eskandar004]

Basically wondering does medicinal marijuana like this https://www.bonzaseeds.com/blog/dark-star/ affect the healing process of broken bones?
Background:
So I broke my right ankle at the bottom of my tibia and tore the ligaments in both. (Racing Supercross). I was in a cast on the right for 5 weeks now with more x-rays still broken but doctor gave me a walking cast (instead of regular cast) for an additional 4. I have been smoking rather often to help with pain (in beginning) and now b/c I’m so bored and have nothing else to do.
But I’m beginning to think maybe it’s hurting me in the long run. I did some research and found that cigarette smoking affects you greatly in the healing time of your broken bones. But what about marijuana smoke?