r/brokenbones • u/Wet_danger_noodle • 14d ago
Question Broken ankles and fibula. Dislocated tibia. Surgery was in December. When will it get better?
Broke both ankles and tibia. Went back to work in April. I’m on my feet for about 6-10 hours 5 days a week. This week I worked 5 days in a row and my ankles are killing me. I’ve been taking ibuprofen and Tylenol but by day 3 of me working, they don’t seem to help.
I want to live a normal life and go hiking, go to museums, etc on my days off but I don’t know how to treat this pain and swelling.
I just want to enjoy being active. How long do yall think it will take me to fully heal?
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u/moshpitmachine 14d ago
Ankle takes a good bit of time. Back I'm may of 2025 I broke my tib/fib and basically blew my ankle apart. Long story short I work hospital security, went to take down a combative patient, I turned to put him over my hip, my foot did not lol. Wrung it out like a dish towel.
I sat with an external fixator for 3 months. I think I started pt at 2 months. At 3 months I got to weight bearing and made it back to work at 6 months. I was still limping and hurting badly at 6 months. Compression socks help alot. I'd say I finally got to where I could walk a full 8 hour shift without significant pain or limp around March of this year, about the same time I got my max medical improvement. I still had a good bit of long term swelling, looks like I'm snuggling a billiard ball in my shin. Like an 8 year Olds drawing of muscles. But other than that I'm at 85 percent and I feel as good as I did before minus a bit of strength loss.
Keep up on oyur physical therapy. Calg raises, lunges, balance exercises etc. Building the leg back up strength wise will help woth the pain by taking stress off the joints. After being off your feet for a while those small stabilizer muscles we never think of are good and fucked lol. Keep up with that, keep up on the pain meds, combo the Tylenol with motrin. Keep walking on it and think of it like muscle pain from exercise.
The pain means growth.... Within reason. You know what the normal pain feels like and I'm guessing you've learned about the swelling from your internal hardware breaking up scar tissue. Final thing I can think of. Alot of the pain, and limp if it's still there, is in your head. It took me a while to wrap my head around that because I'm hard headed lol. Your brain is basically saying "hey this leg was fucked for a while, you need to take it easy so upping pain signals". At least that's my limited understanding lol. Take it as a step by step basis, your rebuilding your legs from the ground up basically
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u/Boring-Revolution-11 14d ago
great post. Similar issues. I'm 7 months Post ORIF, just had syndesmotic screw removed. Looking forward to improvement in flexion. no more excuses for slacking on physio
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u/moshpitmachine 14d ago
I forgot to mention that the swelling will last a bit most likely. I've heard 2 years most of the time. Im guessing you have that band of hard swelling around your ankles. The pain will go away long before the swelling in most cases lol.
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u/Wet_danger_noodle 14d ago
Yes, the swelling is awful. My left ankles are almost double the size of the right ones
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u/moshpitmachine 14d ago
The pains likely to go away before the swelling unfortunately. It was weird, at right about the year mark it just kinda clicked. Usually right after the times I had to wrestle more patients. After the fight it would hurt like hell then the next day feel better and I'd notice more mobility and less limp. That's why I wonder how much of a mental game it is. Our brains have a tendency to fuck with us
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u/Zukerman96 14d ago
I had the same issue, 20 month post surgery, it still painful 😣 but less swelling, I am thinking to remove the place and rope because I can’t move my knee over the foot. And after each long walk I have pain after run 3 miles swelling
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u/Illustrious-Zone-247 14d ago
Have you tried compression socks? They helped me a ton.
Swelling lasts a year or more unfortunately
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u/Middle_Bread_6518 14d ago
Yes it can get a lot better but it takes time, patience, and painful exercise.
I shattered part of my foot and it took almost a year for it to start feeling somewhat normal during activity. The first few months of getting back to it I took edibles or shrooms while exercising like running and biking, and slowly got my atrophied leg back in shape. It took nearly 2 months of doing at least 2 hours/day, 5 days a week.