I will be 4 weeks post-op tomorrow from my ankle ligament reconstruction and arthroscopic debridement. I went to the OS this morning and got my cast off. It feels great not to have that thing on my leg any more. I am now in an Aircast boot until I go back May 26. My OS wants me to ditch the crutches, I think I will be able to soon because most of the pain is gone. I start PT Friday. I have been many times before, but not after surgery. My ROM now is nothing, my foot and ankle won't move. I hope my PT really starts out slow!

It felt so great to be able to wash and shave my leg. It was looking pretty nasty, still covered in surgical pen and dead skin and all. I have more incisions that I previously thought. I have 4 small ones from the arthroscope (2 on the medial side, 2 on the lateral side) and the bigger one (3" or so) on the lateral side. Also, it looks like I have another smaller one (1" or so) right in front of, anterior to the big one. Who knows! It was cool being able to really inspect the incision area. My foot and ankle are still swollen and pretty bruised, but hopefully being out of the cast will help that.

My OS is so thrilled by the results of the surgery. My ankle was so loose beforehand and now it is very tight. I am thrilled too..I can't wait to be able to go hiking and mountain biking again! :bouncing:

Congrats! It is very nice to get the cast off.
I wore mine for six weeks but then just wore an ankle brace.
It is funny how proud the OS's are of their work. After taking my cast off my OS examined me and said "Wow, I did a really good job."

I got my ROM back relatively quickly and only went to PT four times.
While you will still experience pain from time to time and it will stiffen up and you will get frustrated, in general, its all downhill from here.

I was cleared to run at week eleven. My first run I ran .2 miles. By week 12 post op I was up to one mile. I'm at week 22 now. I ran seven miles this morning.

The PT will start slow, so don't worry about that. They will focus on getting rid of residual swelling and also ROM. At the beginning, it was kind of like I was at the spa or something, because I'd just sit back and relax and they'd do all the work (soaking, ultrasound, massage, stretching). Just take your time, but you'll be surprised at how fast the ROM comes back. Especially now that you aren't as immobilized. Good luck.

My surgery was over a year ago, and I STILL cant run 7 miles (although I was very proud of my 4.5 miles yesterday). I had the same procedure with an additional osteochondral lesion repair. I was a very strict NWB for 5 weeks (he threatened me with a repeat surgery because of the new cartilege) and then PWB for 2 weeks. I was in a cast for the NWB, then just an aircast. My ROM was ok coming back... plantar and dorsiflexion came rather quickly, but I wasnt allowed to even try to invert my ankle for the first 4 weeks of therapy. I think therapy started about 7 weeks post op. My surgery was last March 5, started therapy mid april, was allowed to invert sometime in may (that was the highlight for a while, I also lost the aircast and got a lace-up brace), was allowed to run in I think in late july. I was still in therapy at the end of the summer, but I had to stop to go back to school. They kept me in longer than normal because I wanted to get back to playing Rugby which required extra strengthening to make sure i woudlnt kill myself. So far everything is good. I often forget that one foot has been surgically reattached :) (except when i run a lot... then i get a reminder). I am very happy with the results of my surgery. My foot used to feel like it wasnt attached, and that problem is gone. the only remaining problems I have are associated with the giant crater in my ankle joint, but I was told that will only ever get so good. The recovery will be slow, but the results are worth it! Keep us posted on how things are going!! Good luck!

Yeah.. I'm over a year after surgery and I can't run 7 miles, either. Of course, I couldn't do it before surgery! But I can walk 8 miles. :)

It's amazing how something so simple as taking a shower without having to wrap your leg up in plastic can lift your mood so much! I have taken 3 showers today and scrubbed my leg to death. lol

It's feeling pretty good as I speak, but it will probably give me grief all night as I have to sleep in this huge bulky aircast boot. I've had insomnia and trouble sleeping since I had the surgery because it is impossible to get comfortable having your leg all immobilized.

I am actually looking forward to PT on Friday. I've become good friends with my therapist since I see him so often (not that I like to have injuries and to go therapy...lol) so we have a good time. He also happens to be best friends with my OS so he is always on top of my condition b/c they are often in communication with each other. Even though my OS only prescribed therapy 2x weekly for 4 weeks, I speculate I will have to go more beyond the end of May, when I see my OS again.

Bigdog: It is really funny how proud doctors seem to be of their work...especially in the field of orthopedics. They fix what is broken, or torn or whatever, and you can see or feel the results. The first time I saw my OS after surgery he was so happy about how tight he got my ankle, because it was soooo loose before. I am sure he walked out of the room and gave himself a pat on the back, and said to himself "Mark, you're the man". His nurse was telling me that the specialty of orthopedic surgery is kind of a "gentleman's club" and they are always trying to outdo each other on stuff...like the complexity of surgery, results of surgery, etc..

About being able to run or exercise afterwards: I have not done a thing since I had my stress fracture on my other ankle in Feb. '04. I was running 3-4 miles a day and doing some weight training. I had just started running in Jan. so thats what caused my fracture--too much too soon! My leg muscles have turned to jello from disuse. I am determined to get back in shape when I am all healed up.

Anyways, I have rambled enough...I suppose I will try to go catch a few winks.

Megan

Megan:

You got a stress fracture from running?

I have mainly swam for exercise with some running thrown in. Part of the reason I have not been a big runner is that I was always twisting my ankle when I ran. After my flag football injury this summer and through the surgeries and cast, etc. I kinda wigged out about the fact that our bodies break down and I have worried about not being able to do things in the future. So, I set a goal of doing a few triathlons this summer. I went out and bought a bike and have been training with gusto. My PT said that you don't improve as quick if you just sit around and has told me to push it and train thru pain. It has totally worked. I now run with virtually no pain. It was very painful at first to run.

Anywho, I read this book called ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer. It is amazing. He teaches you to change your running form so that you can run without getting injured. He claims that you will no longer suffer knee, shin, hip and ankle pain by changing how you run. There are countless testimonal letters in his book and on amazon. After running using his methods for a few weeks now I am a total believer. If you start running again I highly recommend this book.

Yup, I got a really bad stress fracture from running. I took up running in Jan. 04. I really hadn't ever run any distance before that...I had been overweight so running wasn't really an option. Anyways, I have lost about 80 pounds in the past 3 years and decided to take up running to tone up a bit. I went from walking a mile to running a mile to running 3 miles a day within a 6 week span. I began having pretty intense pain over my right medial malleolus while running, but being stupid me, I ran through the pain. The pain became so bad that it would throb all the time.

So, in Feb. 04 I went to an OS (not the one who just did my surgery) and he took an x-ray and it showed a faint fracture line. Put me in a boot for a month, pain didn't get any better. A month later had a MRI and CT done to rule out any other problems (benign tumors or cysts). Those were ruled out..continued to have pain, had a nuclear bone scan. Results: slow healing stress fracture. In April, OS put me in a cast for a month to further rest the ankle. Day after I got the cast, fell down the stairs at school...which blew out the ankle I just had fixed. Later found out, I fractured the ankle also.

I really just ignored the second injury because I was having so many problems with my right ankle. Anyways, the right ankle finally healed in May and my OS sent me to PT for it. It was weak from being immobilized for 4 months. At my initial evaluation, my PT noticed gross laxity in my left ankle. So he rehabbed both ankles. Right one healed nicely, but he couldn't help the left one. So back to the first OS...he then referred me to my present foot and ankle OS who did my surgery.

It's a long and confusing story...lol I had never had problems with instability until my fall down the stairs, but after that until the day I had my reconstruction, I couldn't take more than a step without my ankle subluxing and dislocating.

So thats what brought me to my all my problems---running!

Sorry for such a long post

Megan