Round two of ankle/leg issues began for me on the evening of May 11, 2011 around 730-800pm. I left work and came home and decided to cut the grass before going to get some excersize. Grass cut after about 45 minutes and I thought "o.k. lets go!" I changed into casual clothing and threw a leg over my Single Speed Road Bike.
I went to a local park and rode between 6 & 8 laps and decided to leave the park. When I left the park I felt like I hadn't had enough (little did I know what I was in for). I then all of a sudden felt like I didn't get enough in the park. I rode out of the way towards home and ended up going through a parking lot and lost my front wheel and crashed.
In the process of crashing my foot stayed attached to the pedal (with my lovely Egg Beater pedals) while my leg began to rotate around it. When I finally stopped I found that my foot was pretty much dangling from the rest of my leg. When I started to move my leg, the foot just stayed in place. The next photo is of the first x-ray I decided to take a picture of. Obviously this is a picture of my foot after surgery.
I ended up with what they call a 'Trimalleolar Ankle Fracture'. Yes I was sort of like what is that. Well I came to find out that its a combination of three broken (tri) bones in my ankle. I already knew what had happened was no good. I mean when your foot (or any other part of your body for that matter) is simply dangling from your leg, you know its pretty bad. You can search the type of break and get a multitude of views and opinions if you like, but this image that I found sort of shows it in its best viewable way:
So they wanted to have me go into surgery the very next day, but I was opposed to having a certain doctor operate on my foot. I asked that they find someone else to do the surgery, but it seemed as though everyone was away on this week that I did it and would not be back until the following Tuesday. I opted to go with a doctor and get it scheduled for that Tuesday. They did however decide that I was going to stay overnight.
I should back up a bit. I was not really in all that much pain at the time of wrecking, or perhaps that was the shock aspect of things? I really dont know. I stabilized my foot as soon as I knew that there was a major problem and began to call for help. When I spoke with my parents they said you need ambulance! So they called it in for me. When all the helped arrived (parents first) I began to fall apart. Perhaps a little bit was pain, but the majority was that I couldn't believe this happened to me and what had I just done for the summer time for my daughter?
The emt/paramedics were more than nice and helpful, but why there was three police cruisers present I will never know. I denied any pain meds, almost in an attempt to punish myself I guess. They loaded me in the vehicle and I still refused pain meds. As soon as the vehicle moved and inch I was like "maybe you might give me something". At that moment, and up until they removed the pins, every stinking little bump anywhere in a vehicle hurt more than I can describe.
So we got to the ER and luckily for me they brought in a mobile X-ray device and I didn't have to move. Long and short of the ER visit they kept me to monitor the situation I guess. The next day I met with the PA from the doctors office and agreed to go ahead with Surgery the following Tuesday the 17th. I must say that during that night I slept not a single wink. I think that they gave me some morphine, and then dalodid through the remainder of the night till early on the next morning. That stuff was bad news for me. I had nothing to eat, well my definition of something to eat....not crackers and ice cream.
Next day they let me go home and rest, no weight on my leg, keep it elevated and use ice. They gave me pain meds and I took them. We went for a second opinion because there was uncertainty about whether or not waiting almost a week was a good thing or a bad thing. As it turns out sometimes they do not operate for two weeks if the swelling is too much. So more pain meds and back home to wait it out (turns out waiting would be a very frequent thing for me to experience over the course of the six weeks).
So surgery on the 17th of May. Like all OR's they are cold, you get to remember about 90 seconds of the experience and then its all lights out. I woke in that groggy stage in the recovery room where it always seems like you are from mars and everyone else has been here on earth for an eternity. Then off to my room for my next overnight stay. After the anesthesia starts to wear off the pain begins to settle in. Although I can honestly say that about 90% of the hospital staff was more than helpful in all realms.
They were to give me pain medication every hour on the hour and I think that for the first 48 hours I was up the whole time. I dont know if its a good thing to state but you sort of start to rely on that medication to make the hurt go away. Then when they try to ween you off you really start to bugger out for them to give it to you, because of how fast it comes back and hurts. All said I understand why they have to do what they have to do. I wasn't sure of how well I would tolerate being at home immobile after the first day so they allowed/kept me for a second day.
I had a couple days off of work and spent two weeks without my daughter, because of the mobility issues. They also had me come in every two or three days to have the bandages changed on my foot. I ended up with some necrotic tissue where they state that the bones almost penetrated my skin. So this had to be watched carefully so that it did not get infected and cause gang-green. Of course everyone can assume the final result after an infection of that nature. Here are a couple of pictures from the first two weeks of visits for bandage changes:
Going in for these bandage changes wasn't bad on the outside looking in. I had no idea the security I felt in having the splint on my foot. It was almost like a security blanket and when they took it off I felt so vulnerable. I thought my foot looked horrible, while the people that see this stuff on a regular basis thought that it looked very good? As you can see to the laypersons eyes it looked nasty.
Having the pins outside the skin was probably the most painful irritating thing that I have experienced in a very long time. Like I mentioned previously the bumps in the car and the normal movements on a daily basis were so painful because with every move they also moved.
So initially they say 6-8 weeks with the pins in, then possibly 6 more weeks of therapy. Well at week five they have removed the pins and two more weeks on crutches. He says by then he will have me walking? What exactly that means is yet to be known. Is that with a cane, with crutches or is it full on just walking? I dont know but can mention that with my foot out of the splint I dont see how I could walk on this thing....here is the metal they took out:
I asked the question, "how bad is this going to hurt me?", and the response I got was "I wont feel a thing!" At least he was able to get me to laugh. It did hurt, and quite possibly because of the angle that the pins were exiting through my skin. After they were out and he stopped pressing on the exit wound, the relief was immediate. They wrapped the foot back up and put me back into the splint and immediately I could not believe the amount of relief that I had, amazing.
My ride began to drive me home afterword and not a single bump in the road hurt me at all. I still have some bruising (which puzzles me but if they are not concerned I feel that I probably shouldn't be either) and a little discomfort here and there, but for the most part I have been better since that day. Here are a couple more pics from inbetween the first couple weeks and the removal of the pins:
These photos above were actually the day that they removed the pins. At five weeks I am wondering if it was a little premature, but there was a little issue with one of the pin sites and I think that he just didn't want to risk them being in any longer. He also put me back on a heavy antibiotic, at least it appears to be heavy.
At this point I haven't read alot about other people that have had this same injury and their experiences, but did begin to look into it this evening. Thing is that there are so many different circumstances that this has happened to people in, that I dont think that making a conclusion to how my rehabilitation is going to go based on theirs is an accurate way to assess it. If the bones are healed with no gaps between the breaks and the pins are out early, then perhaps I am a little ahead of the game.
When I asked the question, how likely is it that I will fully recover (during one of the bandage changes), it was stated to me that depending on how bad the damage was to the ligaments and tendons around the area will dictate how fast and fully you recover... I understand what they were saying but if someone could tell me, that was in there, how bad it was that could help a little bit.
In any case, anyone who knows me knows that this time of the year is my time to thrive and being down like this is a pretty tough thing to tackle. Winter is defiinitely a more appropriate time in which to have to be laid up, but of course that wouldn't be the time to do something like this. As it appears I am just one of many people that go through things like this in their lifetime. I have been through other injuries and made it out o.k. I just have to keep the chin high and remember that it will pass! The trouble is that its very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are still on the front side of the injury.
Hopefully this will all pass and I will be back to what I know in no time!
