@anemarie

Annie, I have some laxity in the joint. My injury was the fractures, but also a bad sprain and dislocation that happened all at once because of rolling the ankle during the injury. When I stepped on my foot first thing each morning, I used to limp for a few minutes. It helped me to rotate my foot around with my hands which made cracking noises and kind of reset the alignment and position of the ankle joint. The outside of my calf is weaker and there was muscle loss and the inside of the calf would overpower it, and stress the ligaments on the outside of the ankle. It helped to massage out the tight muscles on the inside calf. That is a little better now and I have regained some lost muscle. Moving the foot outward to the side uses the weak muscles and helps to rebuild it. I don't know if there was any nerve damage, but I could feel a nerve firing repetitively right after the injury, so I straightened my ankle just enough to lessen that (but not all the way). I thought leaving it in a stretched state from the trauma would make it worse or could tear through if I left it. That raised a few eyebrows from the medical people, but I have all my sensation in my foot and ankle except some very slight numbness where the incision was during surgery.

I was also weak in pushing off of my toes during walking or stepping down stairs onto my toes. Walking around on my toes was difficult for my weak foot. That has improved too, but there is a point when my strength gives out with fatigue. It used to put me in pain like a sprain for a week, but I have better tolerance now. My dorsi-flexion is not bad. Before the injury, I had a lot of dorsi-flexion because of stretching and horseback riding. Having plates under the tendons in front affects that and limits some movement. Now that my plates are out, it may be slightly better, but it isn't equal to the uninjured leg. It is probably about 4 degrees off.

I find it helpful to use vet wrap on my ankle which is flexible elastic cohesive bandage that sticks to itself but isn't sticky. If I wrap my ankle around the foot and behind the heel (staying off of the Achilles tendon), it gives me some support and my ankle is much better. If I have done too much, wrapping helps, but not too tight or it starts to hurt, and after a couple days, I remove it because it starts to stiffen up. I buy the vet wrap at a farm supply store that sells stuff for livestock and horses.

I know if I am walking stiffly and not moving my foot and ankle normally, it affects the rest of my body and knees. I try to walk gently. I skied some years ago, but I don't know that I should try that again. I can do horseback riding fine on trails, and that takes the place of hiking. The horse I got hurt on was not mine; it was borrowed because my horse got too old and unstable and I wanted to go on a trip with friends. I now have a younger horse who is bonded to me and great on trails. The picture on my profile is my older horse with me.

I lost some cartilage in the joint from the injury. The surgeon said I may need a joint replacement in the future, but I'm doing everything I can to not over stress my ankle. I talked to another doctor who can do stem cell injections in the ankle. It may help clean up some of the ligaments, but it won't replace lost cartilage. That doesn't grow back.

I'm guessing your surgery is tomorrow. I wish you healing and a good recovery and I will be thinking about you. I hope you'll check in from time to time and let me know how you are doing.

Jennifer