Greetings All,
I found this site the other day and it has been very helpful with some of my questions concerning my upcoming surgery. I'm going to Minneapolis on 7 Apr to have these procedures done. My left ankle was destroyed while playing basketball back in 1997 and I have had 9 other surgeries on this ankle (6 for MRSE strain Osteomylitis) I hope that this procedure will be successful since my quality of life has been declining rapidly the last 3 months due to severe locking/pain. I'm still in the Air Force and hope to recover in a timely manner so that I can continue to serve.
If anyone has any additional comments as to the pain/recovery time, please post them.Thanks and wish me luck!
Hi Bill
Best wishes for your upcoming surgeries. I am sorry to say that the pain of this one can be quite severe and recovery long. It sounds like you have already been through the ringer. The first 8 weeks may be non weight bearing. then slowly working to reuse the joint. I did not feel great with my ankle after the OATS until month 8. And I only had the OATS.
Bill,
I had a Brostrom plus a another reconstruction to back the Brostrom up, plus other work on torn tendons plus the OATS, as well as drilling on another OCD lesion and cleaning up the joint in general. This was my second surgery on this ankle and second Brostrom as well as 2nd drilling on the one OCD, and first OATS, of course.
I'm 6 mos out now. The Brostrom/ perosteal flap reconstruction is perfect. I feel a nice tight ankle there for the first time ever. My Brostrom the first time was a breeze to recover from. It was/is the OCD part of the equation that is the hardest part. I encourage you to hang out on our OCD/OATS thread because this will be the biggest part of your surgery and the most painful part to recover from.
My dr. was wild crazy with getting me back to stuff and gave me the okay to run at 3 mos, although I didn't try it until 4 mos out. At 6 mos I'm still very sore. I can run and actually running, because it is in a straight line, on pavement, and not stopping/starting, is easier than pushing a heavy shopping cart around Wal-Mart. The stopping, starting, and cutting from side to side is the worst.
My dr. tells me we have to wait a year before we know if this has worked. I teach karate as well as take. I used to compete up until a year ago when my ankle really started to go downhill. I do plan on getting back into it. So I hope/plan to have a full or near to it recovery. It just takes a year. My dr. has been telling me that every visit.
All,
Thanks for the kind words and I will keep you posted once I come home from at least on night in the hospital after the surgery. I fly out very early tomorrow and return Wednesday. Again, thanks for the well wishes.
Change to the change,
When they started evaluating the tibia during the surgery they realized that it was too damaged for the OATS to be successful so they performed a micro fracture on the tibia and on the talus, rebuilt 3 ligaments and performed a debridement. I had a very rough night in the hospital with the meds, sick every 2-3 minutes until midnight after surgery. The pain is more specific now, not just in the whole ankle so I think it is getting better.
The OS said that the ligament reconstruction might take care of the most all of my problems, including the lesions. He said it is so unstable that the ankle lives constantly inflamed. We'll see.
Thanks again for the well wishes.
Take care,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Ouch to all that! I had the same sick issues. The nurses were running out of my room like they were going to catch it. Keep ahead of the pain, ice, elevate and try to have a happy Easter!
Diane
