Thanks for the link, I seem to be reading a lot of this sort of stuff at the moment. It is sometime difficult on the internet to work out when you are reading facts opinions or adverts giving information(advertation/)
On the link I posted there is a picture of various x-rays and mine looked like the one above this text ” n this fracture the entire body of the talus has dislocated out of the back of the ankle, and AVN develops in 100% of these fractures.”
Human body is capable of remarkable regeneration.If there’s no necrosis in 12 months,and blood vessels regenerate you may well not need the SPD implant.I wouldn’t be rushing them to decide about amputation unless increasing necrosis is present.I’d also ask if you can have an opinion from a vascular surgeon,to see if he feels he can improve the blood supply by grafting.
P.P.S I would show your linked site to your consultant and ask him his opinion,he may move beyond “it’s too early to tell yet” and give you a serious opinion of the likely outcomes.
i am not aiming for amputation, i am aiming for full recovery!
I did the same thing to the same ankle but a bit less dramatically about 7 years ago. That time I got away with 29 weeks in a cast, an arthoscopy and months of bloody physio.
That was followed by 7 years of painful limping. I was actually arranging further physio for the following week until I broke it.
Glad I broke my bad ankle, it would have been agony limping on the bad ankle. It is bad enough using crutches now with a broken/bruised wrist.
P.P.S I would show your linked site to your consultant and ask him his opinion,he may move beyond “it’s too early to tell yet” and give you a serious opinion of the likely outcomes.
I am taking my linked page and the one you sent and asking his opinion on them, what he would recommend and why he would recommend/reject the other approaches.
I had an offer on one of the Maseratis but it was rejected on Friday night thank god. Can you imagine how pi55ed off I would be sat in bed with a Maser parked on the drive!
I wasn’t suggesting that you were aiming for amputation,but you may need to be firm with the surgeons about what you are aiming for,and what you are prepared to accept.To an orthopaedic surgeon amputation is an easy operation with a reliable outcome,and rehab is fairly straightforward,and mostly done as an outpatient,it ticks a lot of boxes for them.
He was basejumping in Patagonia with one of those wingsuits & hit a bird which he thinks might have been a goose of some sort, went out of control somewhat & crash landed into some rocks. He thinks the impact of the bird affected his chute deployment hence the crazy landing & smashed legs. His other leg was actually a worse injury but doesn’t look as dramastic.
He’s an ex Royal Marine though & therefore, as hard as ****.
Can’t ride his bike yet though. 😐
& before anyone asks, yes he was wearing a helmet!
Could be worse I know a guy who’s ladder slipped I guess in quite a similar fashion to yours, he broke both arms quite badly landing hands first. His missus had to wipe his arse for months.
Jeez and there was me feeling all sorry for myself with my arm in a cast with a suspected scaphoid fracture. I have no idea how I would even begin to deal mentally with your injury. Speedy recovery to you and remember there’s always a small army of well wishers, forum strangers and smart arses to provide support/light hearted relief.
Saw the consultant who did the operation yesterday and he is really pleased with the healing rate which is great.
He reckons I should be able to put my foot down but not fully load bearing in the next 12-16 weeks which he was very pleased with but I am slightly less excited by the prospect.
Anyway, more pictures but less gore.
It is like opening presents at Christmas
The dressing is nice and clean
Wow! It doesn’t look like the same ankle as last week
Gone is all the puss and rotting skin and all that is left is a small scar and some dry skin
Amazing how quickly the calf muscle has wasted, this is three weeks
Managed, finally, to get a picture of an x-ray. You will be glad/horrified to know that the bolts are Titanium
Updated x-ray to show the problem area – bone loss
2 big screws will probably stay in place because Doc reckons the most likely outcome at the moment would be to fuse the ankle with some more metalwork joining the heel to the talus and the tibia/fibia.
There is significant bone loss around the fracture (see updated x-ray) so it is unlikely to take my body weight especially as the blood supply to the joint is from the front and has be totally severed by the fracture.
Still, best result I could have hoped for given what I did.
Doc reckons it was the worst injury he has seen all year and a couple of times during the operation when he couldn’t get the bits back together he considered amputation but decided to give it ‘one last try’. I am a really big fan of ‘one last try’ right now. 😉
WCA, that’s looking a lot better than in the last set of photos! Glad to see that things are healing well and that you are staying positive. I’m also glad to see that you have got proper Ti bolts. My wife only had stainless steel which is really not that cool.
Doc reckons it was the worst injury he has seen all year and a couple of times during the operation when he couldn’t get the bits back together he considered amputation
😯
Blimey, well done doc! Bet he’s on your christmas card list now!
From Googling about the fracture it says that the fact that I fully dislocated the rear of the talus including the talar mount(?) means there will always be a loss of blood supply. This suggests there was nothing he could have done.
I am trying to get hold of some pre-op x-rays but as he described it to me, the rear of the talar bone (the bit with the big screws in) was fully dislocated and was stuck behind the heel and the fibia. He had to cut the bottom of the fibia off to be able to get the pliers in to grab the bone and then use some kind of reverse clamp to push the fibia up, the heel down and then pull the big bone fragment back into the gap. He then screwed the bit he had cut off back on which is the two small screws.
I guess most people have (or choose to have) a romantic picture of surgery which is all careful incisions with intricate and delicate work using tweezers and magnifying glasses rather than the reality of hacksaws, pliers, hammers and chisels.
thanks for sharing all this by the way. I find it fascinating in a voyeuristic* way.
Doc reckons it was the worst injury he has seen all year and a couple of times during the operation when he couldn’t get the bits back together he considered amputation but decided to give it ‘one last try’.
Bet you’re glad you weren’t last on the list on a Friday… 😉