Talus break and recovery report

Going to report my talus fracture here since mountain project seemed to be the one place where the information I was looking for could be found (getting back to climbing and activity ASAP). On August 28th 2019 I broke my talus in a lead climbing accident indoors (I know). I accidentally skipped a clip and fell 2 clips past where my last clip was. I was maybe 6 clips up so my belayer did as good of a job as she could at not letting me deck given the seconds we had to react. Instead I hit the wall pretty hard foot first at an angle. Immediately lowered and assessed as I knew my foot was fucked. At first was hoping it was just a bad sprain, someone from the gym taped me up and I whimpered home. That night my ankle swelled up to a balloon, followed by my entire foot in the coming days.

I got xrays the next day and 2 weeks after because my doctor could not see a fracture, we thought it was just a horrible sprain. Only after an MRI and CT scan did we figure out I had royally fucked myself up.

fractured pretty clean through my talus but it was non displaced. Possible small fracture in my heel but hard to tell. Obvious ligament damage. The orthopedist said that if he had seen this day 1 he would've recommended surgery, but the fact that it wasn't displaced and that it looked like it was starting to heal made him decide against it. We would just see where I was in 8 weeks. He warned me that talus fractures are nasty and there was a small chance I could suffer from AVN and experience some bone loss. I was put in a cast for 6 weeks and then a boot for 2 weeks after with a strict no weightbearing order. Hobbled around on crutches and a knee scooter which was helpful while teaching. That was an extremely difficult two/three months especially because it occurred in prime climbing season and I was climbing something like 5 days a week before. Had a tremendous amount of help from friends, and I even climbed one footed after 6 weeks on top rope.
In December everything looked like it was heeling (hehe) very well, much to my surprise given the grim stories out here on the internet. I started to put weight on the foot only in my boot. I think I hobbled around on the boot for 3 weeks or so, walking further and further every day. I'll say one thing about this injury, I was tremendously motivated which I think accelerated my recovery. Every day I was pushing through discomfort, not pain because pain usually means something bad is happening. But it wasn't comfortable and I checked in with my doctor whenever I could that what I was doing was ok.

In January, 4 months after the injury I started walking on my bare foot. I started doing PT 2 times a week and almost immediately started trying to climb and lead again. I took it slowly and never pushed myself too hard if I didn't think my foot could handle it. Fortunately it could. I wore a velcro ankle brace pretty much all the time except for when I was sleeping. It provided a lot of support and always made me feel like I could trust my ankle and foot on impacts. Here's a pic of my climbing setup. 
Solutions never felt so tight before. I took PT extremely serious and did my exercises every day and told my PTs to push me while I was there. At the same time I started slowly taking lead falls and bouldering a bit, always watching my foot carefuly but pushing myself as much as felt safe. My first couple lead falls were scary to say the least but it turns out they were fine, just like before I hurt myself. By february I was climbing 4/5 days a week again and sent my first 12a in the gym. Since then I'm climbing harder and better than I was even before the injury. If you have a good base of climbing fitness then even 4 months of not climbing or walking won't stop you. Here's a little pic showing the extent of my recovery.



So to everyone going through this stay strong/positive/and motivated. My orthopedist told me I've had one of the most tremendous recoveries he's every seen and it was because of my motivation. 4 months seems like a long time but now I couldn't care less. I'm running, doing hour long approaches to ice climb through snow, sport climbing better than I was before. Of course my ankle and foot still feel a little funny, and I probably will always be able to tell which foot I blew up, but once I'm moving I pretty much forget it happened.

Noah, I love the story and commitment to the process!  I've worked with an individual who was similar to you in that she had a non-displaced fracture of the talus.  Her injury happened when she was going to do a rope swing in Utah.  She did super well with her recovery and is (would be after COVID-19 is over) out crushing.  Keep up the great work :)

Thanks for your experience, Noah, it helps a lot!

 I also fractured my talus, Feb 22 this year (2020). Minimal displacement. I wore a cast for two months and now I'm in a boot, but still can't bear weight. I start physical therapy next week after three months no weight. I'm told it will be another 3 months until I'm 100%--no response to my questions about climbing. I've canceled my climbing trips for June and I'm just hoping I can get on the rocks by July.

Mission Cliffs?

Hey Noah,

I am exactly in the same boat.  I fractured lateral process of talus during snowboarding hit into a tree without control. I am not sure if i can say, luck enough, it was minimally displaced (<=2mm) but communited fracture at the lateral edge.Happened on end of Dec 2019.  I was boot in cast for 7 weeks and in boots for 6 weeks.  About to begin PT soon. Currently, i have a lot of pain in the heel when I start walking.

As of today -  I just have a Doctors visit . Good news is that Fracture is no longer visible on the X-rays. Healing is going well. I am told to get out of all the braces and walk as usual after 20 weeks. That's exciting for me. Need to get PT started. With COVID-19 , i am not sure when will things get cleared up. 

Dude that’s crazy. I’m like five years late to the conversation I just stumbled across your post as I got myself a nice avulsion fracture of the medial side of my talus. It happened around 9 days ago at finals for a bouldering comp literally on my first attempt of the first problem :| 

I slipped off the top hold and landed super funny and knew instantly I cooked my ankle. I will find out if I need surgery or not this week but reading your post was very motivating as I have just got back into my home gym setup to try and keep my upper body strong for the time being so I can return strong. Good to see that you were able to stay stoked and I’m glad you mentioned that it doesn’t bother you after you’ve recovered. I’ve tried to keep that in mind that it won’t feel like it does right now once I’ve healed up, and i feel inclined to be stronger than I was before.