WCA ankle picture update – chicks dig scars?

What is the current practise?

Slather it in flamazine cream*, I believe

*No Dez – it’s not a euphemism

Just found a cheerful website

http://www.mdmercy.com/footandankle/conditions/trauma/fractures_talus.html

The make a lot of mention about how avascular necrosis (AVN) is a bad thing and talk about worse case scenarios with greatly reduce blood flow etc.

Just re-read my operation notes “Serious nature, limb threatening nature and risk of AVM(100%) explained”

Does anyone have a positive spin on “risk of SVN(100%)” meaning anything other than I will definitely have AVN?

I guess it then comes down to how it manifests itself. Oh well, here’s hopping

I’m guessing it means what % of the bone will be involved

seen this ?

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.S. I thought the wound doesn’t look too bad at the moment,I’ve seen much much worse,but that’s another thread entirely.

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.

Have you bought that bloody Maserati yet?

That is cool.as.tits.

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’ll look after it for you ’till you’re mended.

In fact, buy it, then have an auction temporary ownership, a week at a time. 🙂

And I do believe that pets aid recovery from traumatic injuries.
Have you considered a cat?

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.

ah, pig’s trotters! I knew there was something I was meant to get from the butchers.

Pah, thats nothing look at my mates leg….
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Stu’s leg 3[/url] by jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

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Stu’s leg 4[/url] by jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

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Stu’s leg 2[/url] by jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

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!

is that tattoo what I think it is?

is that tattoo what I think it is?

Ha ha, no but I know what your’e thinking. It’s a sword handle or something.

yeah, I was thinking sword handle. what did you think I was thinking?

Cos you wouldn’t have said, ‘is that tattoo what I think it is’ if you thought it was a sword handle!

I’m wondering if a few of us can use this thread as very good reason to not do any DIY.

Especially ‘at height’

and esselgruntfuttock, why does Stu’s leg look like its got a red coloured haggis on it?

Dunno what that is, hang on a bit & I’ll find out………

Right, that ‘red haggis’ is a lump of muscle taken off Stu’s back as he had a bit of calf muscle missing. The mesh looking thing is a skin graft.

Thanks for letting me know,

I think 🙄

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.

Dezb for post of the week!?

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.

Could be worse I know a guy who’s ladder slipped I guess in quite a similar fashion to yours

Thought you were going somewhere else with that, somewhere that might also have ended with

His missus had to wipe his arse for months

😯

another good reason to stay indoors.

Good luck mate!

Ooof.

That’s all really.

my arm in a cast with a suspected scaphoid fracture.

I have one of those too but didn’t like to mention it as I couldn’t use crutches properly with a cast on. Wrist strap and pain pills all the way…

**** LATEST UPDATE *****

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

wow, some improvement in looks at least.

The 2 largest screws, are they going to come out before weight bearing?

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!

could he not have reconnected the bloody supply?

Apparently not.

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.

*the non-fwappy type

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… 😉

DrP