Ankle surgery #5: forge ahead, or continue procrastinating?

To make a 16-year-long story a bit shorter, I had a nasty fall in 1996, which shattered my left tibia and fibula, resulted in 4 rounds of surgery and a lot of rehab, and large chunks of a 3-year period on crutches.

(Disclaimer: I am under the care of one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the Midwest, but he can’t make this decision for me.)

I’ve been doing OK in the walking department for a number of years now, but as a result of the trauma, etc., I have arthritis and a ton of scar tissue in my left ankle joint, plus a greatly reduced range of motion. I wear prescription orthotics and limp when barefoot, but am generally pretty functional with shoes on. I go in to see my orthopedist every couple of years, usually just because I need new orthotics and therefore a prescription for them, and he does X-rays, etc., remarks “whatever you’re doing, keep doing it, because your level of function is much better than the X-rays would suggest,” and sends me on my way.

Last year I procrastinated a bit too long going back for my checkup, and my orthotics were shot to hell, and I was in a fair amount of pain and having trouble walking because of sporadic shooting pains down the top of my foot. When he looked at the new X-rays, he pronounced that I had regrown bone spurs in my ankle joint which were preventing the joint from moving freely (even more so than had already been the case), and offered to “shave them down” for me. He also said that he does a lot of arthroscopic surgery, but that my ankle was in such a condition that there was no way he could do it arthroscopically and would have to slice me open. He also recommended another round of surgically lengthening my Achilles tendon, which has shrunk because of the restricted range of motion in my ankle. (I had that done, oh, ~ 10 years ago. The rehab sucks.)

Not being a fan of Surgery #5, I have been procrastinating, but I know I won’t be able to procrastinate forever; the new orthotics helped my pain level somewhat, but my endurance standing on my feet is starting to suck. (A couple of hours at the zoo yesterday did me in, and I was still sore and needing more ibuprofen and a hot bath this morning.)

So at what point would you throw in the towel and schedule the surgery? I’m not crazy about more surgery, but I’m not crazy about my reduced activity level, either…I’ve got a vacation next week, and we’ll see how I do walking around then, but I know I’m just buying time, because science has not figured out any other way to get rid of bone spurs that I’m aware of. Experiences welcome.

Of course, you’re the only one who can make the best decision for you. Sometimes if I really can’t decide between two unpleasant choices, I flip a coin – and then I immediately know that I wanted the other choice.

The only bit of advice I have is that I usually schedule medical procedures that will have some recovery time so that they interfere as little as possible with my summer activities. I’m much more active in summer.

Oh, what the heck . . . do it now and get it over with. You can recover, enjoy summer activities, and be able to hike, ski, or whatever later in the year.

Procrastination is rarely helpful. It just makes the thing to be done a bigger deal than it already is.

If there was some doubt over whether the surgery is needed or other choices needed to be considered that would be one thing, but it doesnt sound like thats the case for you. Hope it goes as well as possible for you when you get to it.

Otara

Eva Luna-

No demores. Couldn’t a further delay in surgery also extend your recovery/rehab time? You have my sympathy for your situation.

-El Burro

Thanks all - I was beginning to wonder whether anyone was reading this! I’ve been dealing with this injury for ages, and I don’t know how much difference a smallish delay (or, for that matter, a large-ish delay) would make. Also, part of the equation is that I shoudl really figure out how our short-term disability leave works at work, because in addition to next week’s vacation (yay!), I’m hoping to be able to take another short trip over the summer, and a slightly longer one over Thanksgiving for my in-laws’ 50th, for which they are gathering the whole family…and I don’t know whether taking STD earlier in the year would kill my vacation time for the rest of the year, because our employee handbook is, well, written by a bunch of employment lawyers and makes no sense.

And well, surgery is never my idea of a good time, and I don’t hurt all the time, so it’s been easy to procrastinate.

But yeah, the bone spurs aren’t going to go away on their own, or any other way…it’s just a matter of time until I really won’t have a choice because I won’t be able to walk at all without being in excruciating pain.

Blah. Stupid leg.