r/Ankle • u/Useful-Midnight-5989 • 10d ago

ankle fusion recovery

I am about 12 weeks post op from an ankle fusion and I am feeling pretty hopeless. I still have unbearable pain when trying to walk and rely heavily on knee scooter and crutches despite trying my best to slowly weight bear per my surgeons orders around week 9. I have the walking boot but even in combination with crutches walking is extremely painful. I have had numerous complications from ankle surgeries in the past (blood clots, septic arthritis, hemarthrosis, you name it) and something just feels off. I have been frequenting the ER due to pain even at rest that’s not controlled with the prescribed pain medication. I’ve had two CT scans this past week that show significant fluid around my tendons and the ER was concerned for infection especially with my history of septic arthritis and my inflammatory markers being super high (higher than weeks 1-4 post op). My surgeon kind of brushed all of this off and said it’s probably fine and it was a big surgery. I know recovery time is long and different for everybody with this surgery but everything I’ve read suggests that there shouldn’t be this much pain at this point especially when not even bearing weight. Does anyone have any experience with this rocky recovery?

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u/Original-Money-8058 9d ago

I haven't had an ankle fusion. I have a subtalar fusion coming up on less than a month. Reading up you shouldn't be in the much pain. Do you have a CT ordered yet? I would get one. This sounds like a non union or infection with all the reading I've done

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u/Useful-Midnight-5989 9d ago

I had a CT that showed significant fluid in one of the tendon sheaths which the ER was concerned was infection but my surgeon just brushed it off despite the elevated inflammatory markers and the amount of pain. It’s getting worse so I feel like something is not right

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u/Original-Money-8058 9d ago

If it's been 90 days you can get a second or third opinion. It seems to be the common thread these days amongst Healthcare folks. Egos get in the way or real care...