Shattered Talus Report / Analysis
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KenSnow wrote:The real shit kicker here is that I broke it two weeks before going to Yosemite for my wedding (my fiance was none too pleased).Hah, I shattered my talus four days ago. Wedding is in 10 days. So how'd it go? |
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I am happy to report that the wedding did indeed actually happen, and somehow I managed not to destroy my erector set ankle after all the drinking and crutch hopping/dancing. :) |
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Hearing the stories in this thread has helped me deal with my injury, so here my story, in hopes that it might help someone else. This past May (about 3 months ago) I was leading on some rock and took a moderate fall, nothing too large, maybe 12 feet. Two pieces of pro zipped out of the thin crack and the jerks from the gear catching and popping made the fall unclean, causing me to take the brute of the fall on my right foot. I immediately knew something was wrong and couldnt put any weight on the foot. I was lowered and luckily had some great friends with me, who served as my crutches as I hopped and crawled out of the gorge and back to the car. I was out of my home state and about a 4 hour drive from my primary hospital, so I ordered a few pitchers of beer before enduring the long drive to the ER. We got in really late, around 3 am, and I had an X-ray done. The ER Doc came in and told me the X-ray showed no breaks I just sprained my foot and it should be better within a couple weeks. She gave me two days worth of hydrocodone and 14 days worth of 600 mg ibuprofen. I was in an ace bandage and unable to really move my foot for the first week, but gradually I started doing range of motion exercises and kept taking the ibuprofen. Looking back, I wish I never took the ibuprofen, as I have now found out NSAIDs can inhibit bone repair. I was on crutches this whole time and never really had too bad of swelling, just a yellowing of the skin around the injury, and was frustrated with my inability to climb, run, or basically do anything besides upper body and walks on my crutches. I scheduled an appointment with a sports medicine doctor 3 weeks post injury, who gave me a walking boot and ordered an MRI. I got an MRI one month after the injury and promptly received a call later that night, saying to ignore any previous opinions and to not be bearing any weight, even with the new walking boot. Luckily, during this entire month, I listened to my body and decided I would not attempt to walk on my bad ankle, and remained completely non-weight bearing until I got the MRI results. I went in for an appointment with the doctor the next day and was told I had a comminuted (smashed) talar neck fracture, a rare injury. In fact, he was surprised my calcaneus (heel) wasnt also smashed to pieces. I was immediately referred to a orthopedic surgeon. After review from the surgeon, I was told that somehow, even after a month of no cast, the comminuted pieces seemed to have not displaced enough for the need of surgery and started to piece themselves back together. I was non-weight bearing for another month and a month ago I switched to partial weight bearing and am now, 3 months later, full weight bearing, without a boot. Granted I was lucky enough to not have major displacements of the talar neck, however the severe comminution makes my break a questionable Hawkins I case. I am still not able to walk 100% and am on the watch for AVN. Furthermore, the bone is stronger, but to my knowledge the fractures are not completely healed. I should find out this week. |
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Just an update on my shattered talus. Three months ago I shattered the lateral process of my talus into 10+ pieces. This is sometimes called the snowboarders fracture. However the talar head and body were fine so blood flow wasn't a concern. But because the small lateral process was in so many pieces nothing was big enough to put a screw in. |
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Fractured Talus injury 20 minutes after falling 10-12 feet onto lots of rocks
1 week after the accident After searching on Google, talus fractures, I came to this thread and realized my injury must be pretty common for climbers.. So here's my story. Written on DEC 1, 2014 Well, last week, I was in South Africa on a 2 month climbing trip when I fell on the final pitch of a 1000 ft. I was starting off a big ledge, and as the climbing was easy, I had not placed any gear when the big jug I was holding onto broke. Here is what my ankle looked like right after the injury, and 1 week later. Originally they also told me it was just soft tissue and I would be out of a splint in 2 weeks. The second doctor realized there was a fracture and some chipped bones. Now, 9 days later I am finally learning (after flying home and ending my trip over a month early) what happened. I am also just beginning to realize that the talus bones is the worst bone to break.. I have a cat scan tomorrow, and a follow up 4 days later to determine if I need surgery. Any advice on if screws are the way to go or not? My doc was hoping I wouldnt need any surgery, but Ill be able to update tomorrow after the CT.. Any advice that will help me get walking/running/climbing/alpine climbing again ASAP is welcome. Thanks |
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This is the WRONG thread to get psyched on climbing! This thread makes me want to find a new sport altogether...as if I didn't already have enough reasons. |
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Have faith! |
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Caitlin: |
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I have bad arthritis from my accident and I find that Glucosimine helps. I also find that icing my ankle after a big approach or hike helps a lot. I only wear really stiff boots with tons of support. I have a good ankle brace which I wear alot. I make sure to use treking poles on approach. Trad shoes are nice on the ankle. I Mountain Bike like crazy, seems to be much less of an impact. |
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I'm coming up on 6 months post-fall and 2 months post-surgery for my shattered lateral process. The debridement surgery was super helpful, but I'm still a bit limpy. I'm climbing as hard as I have before, but only on toprope. A lead or a boulder fall on pads would be devastatingly painful. Approach hikes are brutal, but I'm still seeing improvement. |
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7 months. I went jogging for the first time this week, one mile uphill with a goofy galloping lope, but still pretty stoked. I top-roped a longtime project that I'd never got cleanly before, so it's safe to say I'm climbing better than I ever have before. I'm still battling down the added weight that I gained whilst being sedentary. |
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Stretch stretch and stretch that foot as much as you can. 11 months since I broke my talus and calcaneus in a lead fall and if I do not stretch before I get on my feet in the morning I am stiff and sore all day. Descending long approaches still take it's toll on me but I am back 90%. Took me a while to get rid of the weight I gained but it will come off. Congratulations of the come back. The mental part was and still is the hardest for me to overcome. |
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8.5 months, first lead sport climb. I was terrified, and honestly a lead fall on my ankle would at the very least be extremely painful. Didn't fall though. 1-2 mile approach hikes, while noticeable that evening, are not painful enough to care. I almost missed the bus the other day and sprinted to it. Only when I got on did I remember my injury. |
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9 months: did a 5 pitch trad climb that included a 2 hour approach both ways. I wore big hiking boots for the approach, then lighter approach shoes for the descent. I certainly wasn't fast on the trail, but it got done, and the pain was manageable for multiple days of climbing. |
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So Im almost 5 months into the accident, and I can still just barely walk. If I walk too much, my foot gets really sore. Sometimes when I walk I have shooting pain in the heel/talus area, and I think it could be a bone chip that was missed. I know I have multiple bone chips in my foot, but I never received surgery because my foot was manually set (without pain killers!) a few hours after the fall in a South African hospital. |
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Caitlin Mac wrote:So Im almost 5 months into the accident, and I can still just barely walk. If I walk too much, my foot gets really sore. Sometimes when I walk I have shooting pain in the heel/talus area, and I think it could be a bone chip that was missed. I know I have multiple bone chips in my foot, but I never received surgery because my foot was manually set (without pain killers!) a few hours after the fall in a South African hospital. Im wondering who received the debridement surgery, how fast you healed from the surgery and how beneficial it was. Im desperate to start working, walking normal, and climbing again. Any advice is wonderful.Sounds similar to what I had. Painful to walk even several months after the break. Definitely go see a good doc right away. I had surgery about 6 months after breaking my talus to get rid of some chips that didn't heal. It took a while to heal (months...although I still feel the injury a decade later....that said, I hike, climb, ski, and occasionally run) |
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Caitlin Mac wrote:Im wondering who received the debridement surgery, how fast you healed from the surgery and how beneficial it was.I had the debridement surgery 5 months after the break, and 5 months ago. I was unweighted in a cast for two weeks after the surgery, but when I got the cast off I walked out of the doctor's office and never used crutches again. Honestly it was better than ever after two weeks, but improvement has been slow and steady since then. The additional benefit from the surgery is your doctor can scope out if there's any cartilage damage. Broken bones heal and small fragments get reabsorbed over time, but cartilage is the only thing that doesn't heal. All long-term issues arise from damaged cartilage causing bone-on-bone friction (and consequent swelling/arthritis). It doesn't really x-ray though, so going in with a scope is the best way to see what's there. After my surgery, my doc said my cartilage was slightly damaged, but on the boundary of whether it will be limiting to what activities I can do. Well, maybe no trail marathons or any long distance running. Hope that info helps. |
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One more thing about the debriedment sugery: it definitely replaced the sharp pains with a more dull achy pain. The after-surgery pain was much easier to avoid than the surprise stabs of a wrong step pre-surgery. This made it easier to exercise and do the PT stuff, and the exercises felt more... correct. Pre-surgery I was always thinking, "Um... this doesn't feel like it's beneficial," as the bone confetti ground around in my ankle. |
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bmdhacks wrote:One more thing about the debriedment sugery: it definitely replaced the sharp pains with a more dull achy pain. The after-surgery pain was much easier to avoid than the surprise stabs of a wrong step pre-surgery. This made it easier to exercise and do the PT stuff, and the exercises felt more... correct. Pre-surgery I was always thinking, "Um... this doesn't feel like it's beneficial," as the bone confetti ground around in my ankle.^^This is exactly how I feel. I just keep telling the PT and docs that it wasn't right. Well turns out it wasnt... My subtalar joint has changed form or healed incorrectly (they dont know) but now my calcaneus sits at an angle so every time I take a step my whole foot colapses to the outside.. They think I need to get a calcaneal osteotomy surgery now, as well as talus debridement surgery.. Huge bummer, but im hopeful that maybe after I can walk without grinding pain.. Where did you get surgery? Do you recommend them? Im looking for the best Ankle/foot surgeon I can find.. |
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ALSO, this is for everyone on this thread, who did your surgery, and do you recommend them? Especially the more complex or delayed surgery... Im looking to travel for surgery as my town isn't that well known for ankle specialist. |