16 DAYS POST ANKLE ORIF

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Ive decided, tomorrow, Sunday, first thing I am going to the hospital to tell them about the loose fitting cast now that my ankle swelling has gone down, post opp, also about the slightly burning sensation and slight pain I am experiencing from time to time around the area of the surgical scars either side of my ankle. Lets see what the docs say.

I would hope they would take the existing cast off to inspect the state of the skin around the scaring areas. Hopefully all being well (fingers crossed), it would just be a simple case of a quick clean up of the skin in and around the scar area, a little bit of bandage or whatever then a new more tight fitting plaster cast. Hopefully thats all it is.

I have to admit, my feeling is that I dont think I have an infection down there around the scaring areas, I think what I am feeling is the natural progression of the skin/scar healing process, nothing more than that I think. But as you pointed out in your comment, better to be safe than sorry!

But I would say this, after cutting my skin either side of the ankle to carry out the ORIF 16 days ago, and the bleeding that took place after my cast was put on, as you can see slight blood stains on the outside surface of the cast where the blood has seeped through, under these circumstances, I dont think the surgical skin area should be left in a cast for a month without inspecting the scars to see if they are healing OK. That is my current situation I am in at the moment, as I was told after opp which was 22 Dec to come back on 23 Jan, which means I am to be 1 month in a cast without any follow up of the healing of the scared area. It seems a very long time to me.

I did see a comment by someone the other day which said - his/her doctor "changed thier cast and took an xray every week, for the first 6 or 8 weeks".

What do you guys think?

Was your cast on for a month post ORIF without every having it off for a visual inspection of your scared skin area?
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR RECOVERYS!

[nyknicks4412]

This was kind of hard to follow maybe because I haven't read the original thread.

I had a screw fixation of the 5th metatarsal and a bone graft in my heal done. I can tell you that I was initially put into a splint on my foot/leg following the surgery. Returned within a week for inspection of the wound and put into a hard cast. Was then inspected regularly every week after due to slight complications with blistering of the incision sites. Normally they said it would be inspected every 2 weeks until the wounds were healed.

The burning sensation you are describing did happen to me though. I was told it was a normal part of the healing process. However, the bleeding seems quite extreme. I would go in and request they look at it. They cannot turn you down. It's your body. If you feel something isn't right or you aren't receiving the necessary care then tell them. It's not something to mess around with.