Long story short, i crushed my heel in a downhill mountain bike crash. compound fracture. had emergency surgery within 7 hours of crash. I stayed in that Hospital for 3 weeks away from home. i got a staph infection and it went unchecked while trying to find & transfer to a local doctor. Long story. A local wound care nurse was changing my bandages (peep hole in cast) and she reached the bone/steel plate while cleaning the wound. She basically said Holy F, you need a surgeon TODAY. I got admited that same day and this is where things got interesting. Within hours i had a top bone doc, a plastic surgeon and a vascular surgeon in the OR working on me. Thru another 3 week stay in the Hospital, I went thru 4 debridement surgeries and then a free flap surgery.

It has been a long road. I can't really separate the heel fracture from he infection complications - it was all just one big ordeal. I was off work for 8+ months with probably 3-4 of those months in bed or on the couch. Thank the Lord for my retired grand parents. I could not have made it without them. when i did go back to work, i was in a wheelchair. then a walker, then crutches then in alot of pain trying to just walk on my own. Then i jsut stayed in a pain ridden state for 2-3 years. It just hurt to walk. I limped and whinced in pain everystep.

Then, ya know, things just gradually got better. My crash was in 2001 and today, sometimes, you'd never know i had a problem. I still have good days and bad days but the good days still out number the bad days. I can't go to the Zoo and walk for hours without limping by the end of the day. I can't do hard manual labor with up and down squats without paying for it the next day. Sometime, without reason, my foot aches and i limp alittle. But most of the time, i feel like i have a good quality of life.

I hope all of you heelies can hang in there. This is a very tough injury. It will bring you to very low lows. You are looking at YEARS to recover, especially with bad, compound fractures. There are NO 6 week recoveries. But in the end, you will have your life back. I have not told this story in a long time. There was no internet back then for me. I thought i was all alone. I had no idea what was happening or what lye ahead for me. THere were many weird happenings in my 6 weeks in those two hospitals. I remember waking up and seeing that thing sown to my leg. I freeked out. They didnt prepare me for that (in laymens terms). I had JP drains everywhere. in the hospital, there was a small wire attached to the newly spliced blood supply so they could hook it up to a speak and listen to the pulse of the new blood vessels. If that splice failed, they would have to do that surgery again. I dont think i pooped for a month from all the drugs. I was on a vancomycin drip for 6 weeks thru a central line. I had wound care nurses coming to my home everday to apply new bandages. After a month of being home, i was instructed to get in the shower and wash my transplant growth thing. i was totally afraid of it at first. i didnt even want to look at it. The idea was to massage it and stumilate blood flow to the lower areas. the skin graph (mesh looking surface) fell off almost immediately cause there was not enough blood flow to grow the skin. The graph bleed like a and always caused a pretty graphic scene in the bathtub. but that was a healthy thing. I needed blood to circulate thur all that new tissue.

All in all, the doctors and nurses were amazing. They really cared about me and i am soo appreciative of them and the healthcare profession. They saved my foot.

Hang in there kids. You will make it.

Did they remove the steel plate from your heel or is it still inside.

all plates and 12 or 14 screws came out. cant recall the screw count and i cant find my Xrays.

joel

What was the reason they removed the steel plate and screws. Was it because you were not able to walk. If you have read my post you would know why i'm asking. Can you let me know. Thanks

by that point, the screws and plate had served their purpose. plus, i was fighting a very bad staph infection and being a foreign body, it was obvious that all the hardware must come out. they give infection a safe place to hide.

From my experience, having the hardware removed is a very good thing. even though it is uncomfortable to have another surgery, especially after dealing with a broken heel, you'll be glad you did years down the road.

joel

Did they remove the steel after six months or between the 2 to 3 years u were in pain. I also caught a staph infection plus another infection that i can not recall the name. In about a month i will be getting injections around thee ankle. Then in about another month he would decide to remove the plate and the 13 screws. Please advise intolerable pain around ankle and down the foot.

my screws and plate were removed probably about 2 months after my accident. they were not in there very long. they were removed during my infection surgeries. they were in there long enought to fuse.

joel

sorry to bother u. But all this stufff that happened to me is getting to my head. On my heel they had 2 use a cadaver bone to rebuild my heel did they do that 2 u. My doc says about 2 months before he would even try to remove it. so yhat is why i'm asking

hey damnjoel how come u haven't repled to my question are u able to walk and run with no pain, or do u just run or walk a little bit. i remember u said that u are mountian biking agian. Can u please reply back

sorry bro.

I have good days and bad days. but i have more GOOD than bad it seems now. I walk without a limp most of the time. You would never know i had a problem. After lots of walking (Zoo trip) or manual labor, the next morning, getting out of bed and standing up on both feet is tough and i hop around on one leg until my foot warms up. After im dressed and i have my shoes on I'll stretch alittle and force myself to walk normal thru the pain. Yes, it is painful. By the time i walk to my truck im only limping alittle bit. My foot warms up pretty good and im good for the rest of the day with a small limp. And by the next day, I'll be walking normally again.

So if you are a supermodel and have a runway show, don't dig a ditch the day before.

My injured foot is now wider than my good foot. i wear normal running shoes all the time without a problem. i have not tried to fit into dress shoes yet. thank goodness my job is casual attire.

Thankfully, my foot gives me NO grief from mountain biking. I can ride the piss out of my XC and downhill bike, jump and do 5-10 foot drops and have ZERO pain. My foot isnt even a conscience thought when biking.

Life aint over dude. you will recover and be normal again. It just takes time, Along time. I would say that after about 2 years, you'll really start living, running and enjoying life again. Life still sucks at 12 months. your heald up pretty good on the outside but man it still hurts and your foot always hurts. But as time goes on, your foot becomes less and less of a problem. it is a very gradual process. But one day it just dawns on you that hey, my foot doesn't hurt. You will learn what works for you and how do adjust. You'll learn your foot limits and everything will work out.

no Joel I do maintenace work electrical, pluming and overall maintenance of the building and equipment i'm still on light duty can even go to the production flloor. One doctor wants to do a nerve block he believes it would take my pain away. i'm scared of that procedure he is called a pain doctor. My foot doc states he would remove the plate and screws sometime in march. which would be really close to my 40th birthday by then it will be six months since hardware was installed. Two of the screw are pertruding the bone and hit a nerve or muscle which i believe is causing my toes not to function like my lef foot cannot crunch toes. I love to bike ride a lot also. but at this point my foot does not feel right if i landed on my foot wrong. hardest thing to due is to walk down the stairs. can you walk down the stairs easy or due u have due one step at a time and extremly slow please respond as soon as possible need information calcaneous fractures are not very common at least not here in chicago.

Please honor your membership agreement.

damnjoel, this will be your third and last reminder.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

--
Moderator2
Healthboards.com

supermod - i have never heard anything from you before now. that's one demerit.

I can walk and run upstairs at will. No problem and no pain. That's what im saying. You're at 6 months now. Aside from your potential hardware/nerve issues, you're still VERY fragile and going to have alot of aches and pains. This isnt like a broken arm or leg. You're still 18 months away from being relatively pain and ache free. I hope this isn't discouraging to you. Like you, i had severe complications. My surgeon wanted to do additional bone surgeries to correct a shift in my place that left my heel in a less than ideal position. Even with that, i healed up and i feel great. You will too. For years, i worried about jumping out of the back of my pickup truck or when i crash on my mountian bike. I can honestly say that my foot isnt the first thing that i think about. Whereas before, my foot was the first and last thought of my day and all my activities were planned and limited to caring for my foot.

Hang in there. You're still in the midst of recovering from a traumatic and life changing break. Best wishes to you. I'm sure that once your body recovers from the initial trauma of the break, you can now concentrate on fixing the nerve issue and removing your hardware. I wish there was a way to private message, i'd sent you my phone number.

Take care,

joel

Hey just wondering like i said i will be forty yo and wondering if at this age would it take longer to heal. like u said about another 18 monthsto at least feel better.

i was about 31 when this happened to me. Im not sure about the difference between a 31 and 39 year old body and its ability to heal. My gut feeling is that there isn't much difference. Im fairy athletic and have good circulation in my legs/feet. I dont have high blood pressure or and diabetic condition. Aside from the fracture/infection, i am fortunately very healthy.

Good blood flow, healthy food, sleep and time is what is going to heal you.

Talk to your doctor first but look into buying or building yourself a good, hydrotherapy tub for your foot. Blood is what makes the healing process possible and the more you can stimulate that process, the better.

joel

I like you am also healthy besides the infection that i caught. otherwise i have no high blood pressure or diabetic. The hard part is that trying to come down the stairs is very difficult going up is not that bad at all walking is difficult also. Joel did they use a cadaver bone on your heel also or they put all yours back together agian. I aprreciate u taking ur time and responding to the messages that i sent u. I'm trying to be patient to getting myself healthy enough to go back to my job but having a wife who lost her job and with 2 babies bills piling up everything seems to be taking a long time.

Well, the part that still pains me to this today is the "gas pedal" effect. What i mean by that is when i lift my body weight with my "special" foot. Im not talking about "lifting" as in working out in the gym either.

Anytime a person takes a normal step, their weight transfers from the heel to the toes and push and lift. Well, when my injured foot is sore or aching, I find myself taking a short step and walking flat footed so not to push/lift normally. It is weird because the pain seems to be coming from the top of my foot, not anywhere near the heel. The calf muscle is radically weaker than my healthy leg. I am sure i constantly compensate, eventhough i do not intend to.

But when i am feeling good and my foot is having a good day, i can run up and down stairs two at a time. You will too !

The surgeons did use donor bone i believe. That is a pretty common practice i believe.

BTW, I gotta go see a wound care specialist i guess. The area on my heel where the muscle/tissue transplant was has still not fully covered with skin. I dont swim or get in the gym hot tub or the river during the summer. This is such a long term battle dealing with the wounds from my surgeries that these days i just put on socks and throw my shoes on and dont even bother with bandages anymore. My gut tells me i need to go back to wearing open shoes like sandals that do not touch the ankle area of my foot, consantly soak and massage my foot in a epsom salts bath and get some medication/bandages. But after doing all that crap for years, i really dont want to. But im about to break down and go see the doc and get on a strict wound care regiment and get this healed completely.

Joel

So joel are your wounds healed or does it still leak out blood. my skin has healed nice but the walking part u descibed is what i feel. in front of my foot and around the ankle prevents me from going down the stairs.

At the time of my accident, i had a compound fracture of my heel just below and just behind my ankle bone. It was on the inside if my foot. THat was not the location of the infection. The infection was on the side of the reconstructive surgery, which was on the outside of my foot. (heel) I have the classic "L" shaped incision scar.

Anyway, after the 4 debridement surgeries, they transplanted alot of donor muscle and blood vessel from my back. this new muscle joined midway down my shin in a large blood supply and ended in the void on my heel. it measured 9" long and was 3" tall and 3" wide. It looked like a python. But it was newly transplanted muscle wrapped in a skin graft. They kept me in the hospital for hourly monitoring for a number of days to make sure that the vascular operation was successful because if the newly joined blood supply that was feeding all the new muslce failed, they would have to perform the operation again. Fortunately, the operation was a success. aver the next few weeks, the color of the muscle changed from purple to a big bloody mess. this was a good thing because the meant that the blood supply was intact and the process of healing and the transplanted tissue shrinking and becoming apart of my foot. This is what has taken soo many years to finally shrink and cover with skin. I did not want another skin graft. those hurt like a MFer.

Today, the uncovered area is probably an inch long and .5" wide. no big deal. it does not bleed but it weeps fluid all the time. again no biggie. it is about .25" deep and it has looked this way for about 2+ years. Im getting tired of it and now im ready to make an effort to get it to finally heal all the way closed.

Looking back, this ordeal was really amazing. The pain, the peril of being given a 50/50 chance of loosing my foot if the infection had reached into the bone. Not really realizing what a Free Flap surgery was until i looked up and saw exactly what they had done to my back and foot. The time recovering with my grand parents to take care of me. the 5 operations. 3 of the operations i stayed completely sedative free prior to surgery so i could clearly talk to all the surgeons and personally thank them for what they were doing for me. then try to "feel" the anesthesia and fight it. LOL. I didn't even feel it kick in. I was out like a light. That is a fun drug.

Heel Up !

Joel

Hey well i'm glad your feeling better. I still do not know if i will be able to do my job as a maintenance person like i said walking is an mf espeacially trying to come down the stairs. My life has changed dramatically. My wife lost her job in May of 06. She still cannot find a job. i have two little kids one is five and the other one is 1 in a half. So i can relate to u how hard it's been for u. I'm just praying that one day i will at least be able to do my job and hopefully my wife will find one 2. Let me know how it goes with u. I will do the same. Thanks a lot.

Hi to everyone. I broke my both heel bone to bad car accident back in may 2006. I had 3 surgery including pinning my both heels,also plastic surgery on my wound complication. early november i developed infection and my doctor debrided it once and put me on antibiotic for 5 weeks. But my infection returned after i was off antibiotic (cefazolin). My doctor now said he can only offer me below knee amputation which is very hard to accept. I on wheelchair for long time still now. But I can walk with walker or crutch in very short distance. I also saw a doctor for second opinion and she said she can remove my heel bone (partially or whole) and have to debrided 3 times. Now I have big problem about hospital bill. I didn't have health insurance.i applied medicaid and they denied me. Now I don't know what to do, i need help,advice whatever could be helpful information .

Hey damnjoel. Doc is going to remove the steel plate and screws on 03/01. Hopefully that will help eliminate the pain i have when walking heel to toe and putting pressure on the front part of the foot. He also is getting an ortho for my foot. I let u know how it going after that. How is it going with your foot just wondering if the wounds are healing.

lo itog tcaa, c hs

Hey Joel just wondering how are you feeling. Hopefully better. I have about a few days before my doc removes the plate and screws from my foot actually on the 1st of march. Let me know how you are doing.

Hey joel u still around out there

Hey joel just wanted to let you know that both doctors agreed on removing the hardware. Just wondering would you go to a speacilist for foot and ankle or would you let a trauma speacialist work on your foot. My Doctor is a trauma speacilist. So I need some advise hope you respond.

Hi I was wondering if you could post how your removal surgery went, if you had it yet. I am having all my plates and screws removed in june 06 and was wondering what im in for, down time and if it feels any betterr now. i have alot of numbness and limited range of motion. june will be 10 months since my injury thanks Steven