Ankle Ligament Op -Time off your feet and Recovery Time?

I had an operation to repair knackered ankle ligaments 3 weeks ago.

I was fitted with a plaster which I had removed, and replaced with an air-cast, at the end of last week.

My notes appear to indicate that I should remain fully non-weight-bearing with the ankle in question for 3 months!!

-Is it impossible that a doctor's hand-written 3/12 and 3/52 could be confused?

Unfortunately, my consultant went on foreign leave after the op and doesn't return for another 2 weeks…

Although "hmmm, that does sound like a long time, but it could be" seems to be the standard response, nobody at the hospital can/will tell me if this is actually correct and insist that only the consultant can clarify this so I must wait. I've also been given no idea about physio/exercising, recovery etc. etc.

Hopping on crutches has now lost its novelty value and I'd hate to think that I was doing it unnecessarily, as it really does hinder me doing things like the small matter of ….earning money.

Has anybody experienced similar surgery? Did you have to stay off your leg for 3 months? What was the recovery period and the outcome?

Hi there I had the peroneal tendon (outside of ankle) re attached and placed under some of the smaller ankle ligaments and theose screwed back into place.

And yes, I was 3 months non weight bearing! It takes time for the cut ligaments to re bond to the bone around the screws due to the poor blood supply! Air-cast, think yerself lucky, I had a full cast on for that time my calf shrunk soo much it was crasy when they took it off!

On the plus note the ankle has been solid ever since and niever given way ot the tendon moved out of place. Meant I could put enough training in to do an ironman and go snowboarding without any pain.

Only bike issue I was that I ran without SPD's for a few months before I got the ankle upto strength.

Oh and get to love yer stairs, excentric calf raises are where its at!! 😆

Your recovery sounds encouraging, although I was hoping for a lot less than 3 months hopping on crutches. I could cope vastly better with some partial weight bearing and, with a baby on the way, this is possibly the worst timing for such incapacity.

The doctor I have spoken to was suitably vague about what exactly had been done to the ankle, but there was some ligament repair done. There was no mention of tendons or harvesting of tissue from elsewhere.

Having had doubt put in my mind, I had a look on www (what else can I do whilst cooped-up?) and found numerous accounts of much shorter timetables for recovery.

An air cast is actually a pain as it is very large and cumbersome. It's also designed for walking on, which also confused me. Why fit a walking cast at 3 weeks if I can't put my foot down for another 10 weeks?

I used to train in karate quite seriously. One of the students was due to take her fifth Dan test at the end of a weeks training camp. She'd been specifically training for this test for six months, basically sessions six times a week for at least two hours a time, five hours weekend etc, all very serious).

Anyway, on the fourth day of the week long camp, she was warming up and her Achilles tendon just let go without warning. We all heard the crack that it made and she went down like a sack of spuds screaming in agony.

She was non-weight bearing for three months also. But **** me if she wasn't back in the dojo doing upper body work three times a week within a month of surgery and her leg from the knee down still in a cast.

She was one serious mother f****er.

I can understand an Achilles Tendon injury taking a long time to recover as it can be under a lot of tension from the calf muscle.

With the foot held very securely in an air-cast, the ankle ligaments (basically elastic bands to aid joint stability) are under little or no tension. so after say 3-4 weeks surely there's no reason not to put the foot down gently a bit to aid motion and exercise the leg slighty?

Depends on what you actually had done… I'd seek further medical advice if I were you… Been given a physio yet? Ask them? Like I said mine involved cutting and so needed the time to recover properly..

Oh and 3 months on crutches REALLY builds upper body strength, (but also gave me a bit of hand nerve damage. Long car jourenys and I still get buzzy hand syndrome) but the op was well over 6-7 years ago now).

Lateral ligament reconstruction here as well as getting a small bone fragment taken out of the front of the ankle but was told that the ligament reconstruction doubled the recovery time.

Had the op at the end of June

Plaster for 2 weeks and told to keep the leg elevated as much as possible.

Got the plaster off and was given a 'walking boot' and encouraged to go partial weight bearing from then. It was weird/sore/scary to begin with but I got down to 1 crutch within a couple of weeks then I had another couple of weeks walking with the boot on but no crutches before I ditched the boot.

Road riding 6 weeks after op, MTB another few weeks after that with SPD's slackened off a bit.

Got my first game of footie tonight and I'm bricking it.

e-mail if you've any more questions
smithmtb at googlemail dot com

I've phoned every dept. of the hospital and everyone I know in the medical world. As I said,
"it sounds like a long time, but it could be" seems to be the view from people not directly involved and,
"3/12 is what it says on the notes" from the people who are involved.

Nobody will stick their neck out to comment on a consultant's notes.

I've not been given a physio or any sort of timetable for recovery other than 3 months non-weight-bearing from the surgeon's hand-written notes (not from the surgeon himself).

I'm off to the GP later and want to be armed with as much info as possible.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the op done a few years back when I had BUPA.

There is either some fundamental difference between the treatment that "Dr_UpGrade" and "ss" received or some surgeons are much more conservative in their views on recovery.

It's interesting that "Dr_UpGrade" had treatment a few years ago and "ss" had treatment this year. Maybe weight bearing sooner is being tried by some surgeons?

Perhaps it also depends on 'which' ligament/tendon… mine was the pretty big one down the side of yer leg and ankle…
Like I said, seek further medical advice, yer GP should be relatively 'informed' (I hope!)..

Good luck!

Three years later, and I can run on mine with little pain now, though I do have to be careful and will get a shooting pain two or three times each say hour of running. More than an hour and it hurts constantly.

Having said that, mine was mis-diagnosed as a sprain initially (much to mine and the second hospitals surprise!!!) and I was told to use it as much as possible… (this was an interesting concept, as using it wasn't really feasible)… a week later it was worse & I was given crutches and told to keep it raised with frozen peas as much as poss, along with popping anti-inflamms. It wasn't potted though, but was on crutches and told not to weight it.

I had a few sessions of physio too.

Follow-up:

I returned again to the hospital today and saw the Consultant this time. He apologized for not having been there on the previous visit, although not for the vague notes left for others. He spent a good while explaining everything, which was good.

I had no grafting, just removal of some 'impingement lesions' and re-attachment/tightening of the ligaments.

There is apparently no consensus on post-op recovery. Some surgeons require NWB for 3 months and some only a few weeks.

He had a look at my ankle and said that,
"in your case, putting weight on the ankle, if you're careful, shouldn't cause any problems."

Hmmm. So, just what I suspected then…. Not a full 3 months non-weight bearing.

From 6 weeks I shall be visiting the physio to be shown exercises to move my foot up and down, avoiding lateral movement (I shall ask the physio about gentle cycling)

The air-cast will be required until mid-February.

All-in-all, not as bad as it could have been.