I’m nine months post-op for hallux valgus (bunion) and hallux rigidus (turf toe!) in the left footsie. Many, many complications. Now heading for a bone graft, a plate and screws, and eight weeks of hard casting and non-weight bearing for a midfoot fusion.
If you’ve any experience with nonunion fractures and/or avascular necrosis (bone death), why don’t you tell me all about it – and specifically, whether the mess in question finally healed, and how you’re functioning as a result.
Sigh.
No personal experience but I did formerly work with a man who suffered bone necrosis due to a botched repair on a badly fractured hip. He walked with a pronounced limp but was mostly pain free and functional.
My SO had double bunion surgery (8 weeks apart) and part of the healing process was a small stimulation machine with four electrodes patched to the foot. This was state of the art 15 years ago so if you don’t have that, you are missing out. She was running withing seven weeks of the second surgery.
I recall the case of a prominent NFL receiver with a broken arm who used the electronic stimulation and was playing after three weeks. I’ve had four broken metatarsal bones over the years and it takes me three weeks to be up and running so you are way behind schedule. The foot has less circulation and yours may be extra weak. Investigate the electronic stimulation machine if not tried already. The machine is very similar to the TENS machine people use for back and leg pan, but the frequencies used are different.
Yes, Al Bundy, I have a portable ultrasonic stimulator. This time it will be embedded in the hard cast. I appreciate your telling me about your SO’s experience.
I’m a figure skater and haven’t been on the ice in more than a year as a result of all this. Don’t know whether I’ll be able to do toe jumps again. Sniff.
(Maybe a mod wants to move this to MPSIMS. It’s not really a General Question.)
Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble.
My sis fell and broke her right wrist a while back. She had problems recovering and it didn’t heal properly and needed to be reset surgically. Turned out she had a Factor 8 Von Willebrand deficiency (as opposed to resistance) and got some clotting factors to help heal before during and after the surgical repair. The two breaks affected her ability to play musical instruments for a long time, but she did get a full recovery.
Make sure you doc checks you for weird stuff and get better soon!
Mod hat on. This one’s a bit of show and tell, not so much a question, so I think you’ll find more apt replies in MPSIMS.
Moved: GQ -> MPSIMS.
Mod hat off.
Don’t know anything about non-union fractures yet and I sure as hell don’t want to, since I’m in my fourth week of recovery from a tibia/fibula break in my right shin. 
All I can say is, hang in there and go shopping for crutch or wheelchair accessories as soon as you can. (Seriously, you know the water-bottle holder you see people using on bikes? That thing fits on crutches, too, and can be a real lifesaver!)
When I was hit on my bicycle, I had a broken femur. 18 months of nonunion as I was unable to bear weight on the leg due to nerve/muscle damage. I was able at that point to start weight bearing/walking(walker) and still took another 6 months for full healing. No necrosis or complications, though.
I walk with a cane due to the nerve/muscle damage.
I recall hearing on Quirks and Quarks (Canadian Science radio program) about a woman whose broken leg had not knit after 13 years! They were going to amputate and give her an artificial leg when, in desperation, they tried some sort of electrical stimulation and it worked! Sorry, I cannot give any cite; this was long before they started putting their archives online, I think.
Mine didn’t. I had my toe amputated in 01. At least it was a pinky toe. Mine was a botched surgery and then a botched repair. There was nothing left to work with.
I tell the kids a shark bit it off!
I had a nonunion that started in 1997 (tibia/fibula, just above the ankle). I initially had a plate, screws, and an Ilizarov fixator installed, and couldn’t bear any weight at all on it for 6 months. I had refused bone grafting surgery for a variety of complicated reasons, mostly involving the fact that it was never really explained well to me that it wasn’t as major a surgery as I had feared - things might have gone differently otherwise. After the 6 months, it took me ~3 years of physical therapy, 2 more surgeries to lengthen my atrophied Achilles tendon, etc. before I was able to really walk halfway decently at all.
Here were are, going on 13 years post-op, and people who don’t know me have no idea anything is wrong with that leg. However, the bone gaps where the fractures were are still plain as day on X-rays, and I never regained normal range of motion in the ankle (post-traumatic arthritis, scar tissue, etc.), and the left calf is still skinnier than the right one because I never got back all my muscle mass. I limp a bit when barefoot and get sore if I’ve been on my feet too long, especially on uneven ground, and of course anything high-impact (and any kind of shoe heel above, say, 1") is out of the question. But prescription orthotics, etc. have been an enormous help in letting me live what, to most appearances, is a pretty normal life.
Good luck.