My terrible ankle journey..
Hey guys! Just wanted to share my story.. I am 20 years old and about 2 months ago, I broke all 3 bones of my right ankle. I was walking down my apartment complex's stairs and there was a broken strip on one of the stairs and I tripped over it, falling down all 12 steps and had my ankle and foot going one direction and my leg the opposite direction.. I went to the ER where they put me to sleep so they they could put my bones somewhat in place temporarily and they put me in a splint/cast. The next day, I went to see a pediatrist where I was told I need surgery ASAP. Unfortunately, the ER had wrapped my ankle wayyy to tightly in the splint where my skin was covered in blisters which also caused more swelling! My pediatrist unfortunately had me wait an extra week for the blisters to disappear and the swelling to go down, as it would be hurtful to the skin if she operated on that kind of skin. The next week I went back for a checkup and the swelling had gone down, but the blisters were still there. She decided to do surgery in 2 days from that appointment. During surgery, they put 2 plates and 9 screws in my ankle. They did a nerve block as well as general anesthesia. The nerve block may be the worst things I have ever experienced when it wore off... it felt like my entire leg was in flames! Recovering from surgery did not go as planned. The stitches came out after 2 weeks and my skin was not healing!! At the 4 weeks after surgery, since my skin was not healing, she had me change the wound dressings and put an antibiotic cream on the incisions. It helped the right side of my ankle's incisions, but not the left side. The left side was in fact getting worse. internal sutures were spitting out of the incision. My doctor realized I was allergic to the suture material and clipped out the ones that were spitting out, hoping to solve the issue. It did not solve the issue and once again got worse. One of the screws on the bad incision side, was very close to the surface since i have a pretty boney ankle. 2 days later, there was a hole forming in my ankle. I called my doctor immediately and decided to have an emergency surgery the next day (yesterday on sunday). My doctor says they normally don't remove any screws till at least 6 months- a year. They removed the internal sutures as well as the screw that was close to the surface. I am now 6 weeks post op from surgery #1 and my doctor says if the incisions look good in a couple of days that I can walk soon! My doctor also said that I am going to have some more screws removed in about a year! I am so ready for this bs to be over.. I really hope for the best as I am a college student and this injury has been really hard for me to get to my classes on campus. If anyone has had a similar experience, please share!