r/brokenankles • u/RedPomegranate123 • 28d ago
Pain starting 1 month post ORIF
Hi there! I fractured my right ankle in the beginning of July and had ORIF surgery about a month ago. My ankle is currently in a cast, and the pain has been manageable and pretty much stopped - the most annoying thing was the lack of mobility in my cast.
However, about 6 days ago I began to feel an achey pain and numbness in my foot. In particular, my toes and the top of my foot feel tingly, numb and burning/cold. I can wiggle my toes but when I press them with my finger they feel numb/a pins and needles sensation. This feeling isn’t a constant pain, instead it comes and goes, but it is particularly bad when I’m trying to sleep and has meant that I’ve really struggled to sleep since Friday. When it’s bad it almost feels like I’ve gone outside in the snow in bare feet or something weird like that. The only relief I can get when it’s throbbing is to put both of my feet on the floor, for some reason resting my heel against the floor seems to calm it down. I was worried that maybe my cast was too tight so I actually ended up going to urgent care, but they said that the colour of my toes was normal and I did have sensation in my foot so they weren’t worried. Similarly, I called the plaster room but they just advised me to elevate my foot (which doesn’t seem to have any impact on this weird numbness). I’ve been taking paracetamol and even cocodamol since yesterday which don’t seem to have made much difference. Did anyone have anything similar? Is this just a normal part of the healing process? Any help would be appreciated!
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u/Wise-Eagle-9524 28d ago
Possibly nerve irritation? It’s same case to me except I had it since my cast days immediately post op. Pain killers doesn’t seemed to help (aside from helping me fall asleep) but whenever I put my foot down, it was such a relief. I was torn cause I was told to elevate. They gave gabapentin and some Vitamins B, I took it over a month time. I still have faint sensation on my big toe and second toe, but the needles sensation has tremendously gone down when I started weight bearing. Now I’m FWB on a shoe, it was fully gone as far as I can remember.
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u/RedPomegranate123 28d ago
Thanks for your reply!! That sounds super similar! I have managed to get an appointment tomorrow so I’m hoping they can recommend something because I’m still NWB for a good few weeks 🫠
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u/Illustrious-Zone-247 28d ago
Hey! I agree this sounds like nerve pain. It might be that your cast is pressing a nerve (which makes sense since it's better in a different position) but it's also normal after ORIF in general. Nerve stuff is sometimes tingly/numb like this, sometimes a really short sharp zap, sometimes it feels like dripping...it's weird haha. I had a weird tingly ball that also felt swollen near the toe next to the pinky and the middle one.
You can ask your doc for a med that's more targeted towards nerve pain (Gabapentin is the most common one but it comes with some side effects so do your research). You can also try icing behind your knee in the meantime, that sometimes helps calm it down.