A ski-touring and ankle braking episode

[Gazelle]

Yes Harlen I dislocated and shattered my ankle 30 ish years ago. I fell 60 feet. Ended up having 5 surgeries one of which was an external fixature, it is now fused, the 4th, last was to remove any and all hardware. I do well now but it took my almost 5 years to be able to walk on a dirt sidehill with rocks. So in my opinion everything gets better it just takes time and determination! I would take a break over a bad sprain. Kristine

[rlown]

Hmm. I have friend who fell 25 ft off a cliff near Downieville, but he is now a paraplegic and almost quadriplegic. Broke his C3. One of my best backpacking partners ever. Air lifted by two helicopters to get him to Reno hospital. That has to play hell on ones mind who loves to hike and explore.

[Harlen]

As I said, it could have been a lot worse. Sorry to hear about your friend Russ; it can't get a lot worse than that. Hey Gazelle, you're an inspiration.

[LMBSGV]

Harlen, I am so sorry to hear about your ankle. I was away from any computer connection and so missed these posts. I am still trying to visualize WD's hanging upside down and managing to get out of it okay

I can offer no sage advice. I just hope to be reading one of your trip reports in a few months. Good luck!

[Harlen]

Hey Lawrence, thanks for the support. Yes, WD, gazelle, Russ and Russ's friend, Gogd, et.al, all remind us how lucky we are with the basic injuries we've all sustained. Didn't you have a bit of an epic yourself? Anyhow, it's aggravating now, but I expect a full recovery- ever the optimist.
p.s. there's a new TR of mine from this very trip in the Winter Sports section.

[Love the Sierra]

How about we swap, I take your strength, speed and endurance and you can have my pain tolerance.

[Love the Sierra]

One more bit of encouragement, my ortho said, at the time, if I had to break my ankle, it was the best sort of beak to get with full recovery.

[Harlen]

Aura writes:

How about we swap, I take your strength, speed and endurance and you can have my pain tolerance.

It's a deal... but you get the strength of mouse, speed of a sloth, and the endurance of a ....? ? ? an old dog. There you go. Sorry, but I have aged.

[Harlen]

Love the Sierra, seriously this time, above you wrote:

My break was the tip of the fibula. I was told to walk on it because, as the doctor described, the larger piece needed the gravity to help it connect to the broken fragment. At the emergency room, they had given me a boot and crutches. The doc took away the crutches but said to use the boot.... Get an X-ray and a good orthopedic doc to read it. There are some breaks that heal better with walking.

We had the same break, however, my ankle aches and burns whenever I lower it, and this hasn't changed since the first day, which was 11 days ago. I finally got through to my doctor, and she aked if I had been putting weight on it. I said yes, I had been walking a bit on the soft boot, and then on the cast (it came with a shoe), but mostly using the crutches. I had been thinking of what you had said above about needing some pressure to for the bone to bond, but this doctor said absolutely not, the cast and the crutches are so that I will put no pressure on the break in order for it to heal. She said that the reason for my ongoing pain was walking on it.

I'm not blaming you, knowing now that you do not feel pain like us mortals, but after reading further about this kind of break, it just seems to range widely as to severity and recovery time, and perhaps also treatment. Thx, Ian.

[Gogd]

@ Harlen :
If it feels exactly like a heat burn, the sensation is caused by bleeding from the injury making its way into the joint capsule. Nothing to get too worried over, it's just uncomfortable. Sustained aching is from inflammation. Yes, you can experience both at the same time. Keeping the foot elevated will help relieve both sensations.

Some crutch tips:

• Those leg-knee scooters are appealing, unless you have to deal with stairs and similar obstacles. The X-Leg also looks promising, but I have no experience with this device. Otherwise I preferred having the old school, long crutches that go to the arm pit, as you can invert the crutch and use the hand grip to prop up your foot wherever you go. I would not reccomend the X-leg, as I find appliances attached to both tigh and calf parts of the leg are ungainly.
• Short distances are easier to cover by hoping than crutching or scooting.
• Going up stairs, place both crutches in the same hand, gripping them by the arm pit rest, while positioning the other hand forward of you on the stair rail. Position the crutch tips a stair or two under you, and transfer you weight to both arms. Advance, using a smooth controlled motion, lifting both feet to the next stair at the same time. Wash & repeat.
• Going down stairs, you'll use hands and crutches similar to as used to ascend stairs. Place the crutch tips two stairs (or more) lower than your current position, with the other hand on the rail directly above the lower, target stair. transfer weight to both arms and lower yourself to the step, below. I found it more efficient to skip steps, going down. In fact you can clear entire flights of stairs at a time in this manner, but at the risk of breaking crutches or something else...
• AVOID smooth, wet, painted or smooth concrete or polished stone walkways. Even wet grass is safer than water slickened smooth concrete and stone surfaces.
• Lifting the cast foot by bending more at the knee will facilitate more efficient pendulum-like locomotion. In my youth I was able to become proficient enough that I could skip-crutch faster than the average person could run.
• Don't drive if you must use the broken leg to control gas, clutch or break pedals. Your insurance should cover transportation expenses if you need to rent an automatic or hire an Uber.

About not weighting the afflicted limb: You may want to ask for a repeat of the instructions, in case the doc forgot to state some details - or you just plain forgot what regimen to follow until your next visit. Also ask: what the estimated date is when the cast comes off and you may begin to place weight on the leg; and what is Plan B if not healed by that time? Us old dudes take longer to heal, however, certain breaks that routinely heal in our youth may fail to respond to treatment in older folks, because movement of the bones in the fracture zone, even in a cast, may be enough to prevent the bones from fusing permanently. I ended up getting a plate for an ulna break (forearm bone) in my early 50s, because it failed to mend after eight weeks+ in a cast.

Ed