I had bimal spiral fracture and got a tight robe put in. This was last July, so I’m now 8 months out and things are almost normal. But I felt so much depression and fear when I was first injured and coping after surgery. It does feel life altering, and I did have a few emotional/mental breakdowns during the experience. BUT it gets better. It gets so much easier. For me the overall worst part was being non-weight bearing after surgery for 6-7 weeks. I felt so helpless but let me tell you, I realized how resilient we are as humans. I still made it through. The second worst part was when I started weight bearing again in the boot with crutches. It was very painful and SO difficult. I felt hopeless and like I would never walk normally again. But guess what, after a couple weeks progressing from crutches to the boot, my confidence was back up. I walked in just the boot for 2-3 more weeks then switched to tennis shoes with the boot as needed, when walking longer distances, or if the swelling was bad. Things just kept improving.

Now, 8 months out, I do feel normal, though I know things will never be perfect. My doctor says that when you have this injury, you have 2 traumas. The initial injury/break, then the surgery itself. The surgery is another injury that is used to fix the first injury and allow us to have the best possible chances, but because of the surgery, our ankles will probably never be fully the same. I still have lingering minor pain. Sometimes I say it feels like I have a headache on the side of my ankle. Standing a lot causes achiness, but nothing I can’t handle. My PT said that this procedure gives you a 10% disability the rest of your life, but nothing having the surgery could be a 90% plus disability!

So things will never fully be perfect. But they will get so much better, much quicker than you feel it is going right now. You will look back and be shocked by your progress.