Fused Ankle

I'll let Chris know to check in

slipdog wrote:

I'll let Chris know to check in

Thanks brutha

If you decide to get it done and want to be active again contact Mike over at Biodapt.

He had a snocross accident several years back and he made the decision to cut his leg off. He wasn't satisfied with any of the prosthetics on the market so built his own and it took off.

Went on to be an X-Games medalist in both the summer and winter events and last winter came back as a Paralympic medalist.

Hey man, it absolutely sucks that this happened to you and i hope that you make a full recovery. As for alternative methods, I know that UCSF offers the STAR procedure with Dr. Olson up at Mission Bay. That is a total replacement and from what i can tell, she's an excellent surgeon (She's also the chief of there foot/ankle in their ortho division, which is a HUGE deal when it comes to specialties like this)

I hope you make a full recovery man, pain fucking sucks and I wish you nothing but the best.

Might check with Josh Demuth too...

I thought fusing it would do away with the pain? Why do they say your having so much part after the fusing?

I wish most people would get the fusion done immediately. I struggled with terrible feet pain most of my career when I was at my best, I was lucky I even had a career after the injury and how the doctors let my foot heal dislocated. I had the best foot surgeon fix it and it still was painful, they didn’t want to fuse it when I was 17. Beginning of 2011 sx season my foot joint collapsed as a result of 4 years bone on bone grinding in my subtaylor joint(heal and talus grinding) so I went and saw the Supercross doctor Alexander and he said it was time for a fusion and I thought I was never going to walk after that from what everyone told me, to my surprise after the 8 momthsnoff my foot I was able to run full sprint, I have no issues on a bike and most importantly no pain whatsoever. The fusion is a blessing in my eyes. I went from struggling to wake up and get going to being able to run when I get up.

kkawboy14 wrote:

I thought fusing it would do away with the pain? Why do they say your having so much part after the fusing?

After 18 years it the arthritis in the joints around the ankle that are giving me the most pain. They are doing the work of the ankle and aren’t meant to be. I’m a union carpenter so getting up and down and from standing on a ladder for 8-14hrs a day has taken its toll.

Holy crap guy. You're between a rock and a hard place.

I know I had to kinda change up because of the ladders.
Those red 28 foot extension ladders, the fiberglass ones, after lower back surgery, just setting them up, they hurt it too much.
And you're right, once they're set up, they are hard on the feet after being on them for awhile.

Just a suggestion.
It might be you have to get into something that isn't so labor intensive.
I moved from being mainly a duct guy, and I was a fucking hell of a duct man, to the service side.
I just can't hang with the young guys doing that anymore. The ladder work was killing me.
So, now, I just wire in thermostats, add freon, change out relays. Sure, it was hard at first. Finding that kind of work,
especially when you're known for something else. Hell, I lied at first, told employers I didn't know the first thing about
ductwork, just so I could get in a van and ride around by myself all day, figuring it out.

Before you take the plunge, couldn't you maybe see if you could latch on to just light trim work or something?
I know you union guys are hard core, and take whatever they have. But I know, when Im off the heavy lifting stuff for a few weeks, I feel good. Normal. So, I don't heavy lift crap.

Changing up at this stage of your career, yes, a big, big deal.
But if you get the foot taken off, will they still let you, could you still do, Union carpentry work?
Like it or not, you might have to get into something less physical. Office, driving, estimating, whatever would keep you off that foot.
Who knows, get off that thing for a few months, the pain might subside.

Or go the disability route after having it taken off. Which I hear for some guys, guys that actually build stuff, is hard to do.

Whatever, best of luck brother.

before you decide make sure to check out the hanger clinics, i have a afo brace called a fabtech, there is also one called the exosym.it is a life changer and will make it pretty much pain free.. i also went threw 3 surgeries on a pilon fracture of my right leg... crushed my tib and fib... i will upload some pics of it

Bump... 'cause Ridge can't figure out how to use the scroll feature

slipdog wrote:

Bump... 'cause Ridge can't figure out how to use the scroll feature

???

I'm driving right now (and for the next couple weeks) so give me a call whenever!

Chris 714-402-0129

I would always try a replacement... Are you close to Toronto? Otherwise ask a second opinion there...

You guys are making me nervous. Had a pilon fracture 9 months ago and my x rays look similar to the ones above. I haven’t rode yet or did any type of physical activity other than walking and climbing ladders and stairs at work but at 9 months I still feel I am getting a little better every day. I have a little pain in the morning the first few steps, some days longer duration than others, and for most of the day I have no pain and appear to be normal. In the evenings it will swell and get sore. I am hoping that a year out from my accident I’ll be somewhat back to normal but reading your similar cases makes me wonder if fusion is in my future.

slipdog wrote:

Bump... 'cause Ridge can't figure out how to use the scroll feature

ridge wrote:

???

I'm driving right now (and for the next couple weeks) so give me a call whenever!

Chris 714-402-0129

Chris, I’m meeting with a surgeon on Wednesday. If he doesn’t have any good news for me I will give you a call.

jonboy688 wrote:

before you decide make sure to check out the hanger clinics, i have a afo brace called a fabtech, there is also one called the exosym.it is a life changer and will make it pretty much pain free.. i also went threw 3 surgeries on a pilon fracture of my right leg... crushed my tib and fib... i will upload some pics of it

I have been to the hangar clinic here in Stockton. They have made me 2 braces, an Arizona brace and another just like the Arizona and both didn’t work for me. They were to big and bulky and wouldn’t fit with my work boots. I ruined a $200 pair of Redwing boots trying to make it work.

A friend of mine was in the same situation. He shattered his ankle is an on road motorcycle wreck. Battled constant terrible pain for around 5 years. It's been about 9-10 years since he had it amputated and said he still thinks it was the best decision. He had phantom pains for a while from the amputation, but nothing like the constant pain he was in.

jonboy688 wrote:

before you decide make sure to check out the hanger clinics, i have a afo brace called a fabtech, there is also one called the exosym.it is a life changer and will make it pretty much pain free.. i also went threw 3 surgeries on a pilon fracture of my right leg... crushed my tib and fib... i will upload some pics of it

yzken250x wrote:

I have been to the hangar clinic here in Stockton. They have made me 2 braces, an Arizona brace and another just like the Arizona and both didn’t work for me. They were to big and bulky and wouldn’t fit with my work boots. I ruined a $200 pair of Redwing boots trying to make it work.

the fabtech brace is new, and not all hangers are doing them yet, but they can send the mold off to the ones that do.. and the exosym is only done in washington state.. there is a huge price difference between the two, the fabtech is around $3500ish and the exosym is like $8000.00

both of these braces blow the az brace out of the water

jonboy688 wrote:

So glad to come across your post. I have been looking for a brace for the past couple of years and only knew of the exosym which seems to be a life changer, cost was holding me back. I found the fabtech and my insurance will cover it. Do you think they are about equal? How has it helped you?

jonboy688 wrote:

Adam_Wayne wrote:

So glad to come across your post. I have been looking for a brace for the past couple of years and only knew of the exosym which seems to be a life changer, cost was holding me back. I found the fabtech and my insurance will cover it. Do you think they are about equal? How has it helped you?

the brace is a life saver 100% there is a large group on facebook that i am apart of and i was one of the first ones with the fabtech, lots of good info on both of them, i did a big write up with a comparison on them both from what i have learned, they both achieve the same thing but use different hardware.... the fabtech and exosym both function in the same manor, but i highly advise finding a pt instructor with prosthetic training or better yet afo training as there isnt alot of them out there, and that is ther major difference between the exosym and the fabtech, fabtech doesnt come with training and the exosym does.... feel free to reach out if you have any questions i will try my best to hep out

my email is jonboy688@hotmail.com

Man I sure am glad I found this post. Been looking for pain relief for years.

tackomoto wrote:

Man I sure am glad I found this post. Been looking for pain relief for years.

that sucks!!!!! at the first hospital i went to they told me i would have one of them on and wouldn't walk for a year, well lucky i didn't have to wear one of them, but i was close to a year without walking... i ended up with 23 screws and 4 plates and a rod..... i am going on a year and half now and return to the ortho end of march, i am hoping to have some of my hardware removed as i have a few broken screws... i would say my ankle is roughly 80% normal and doesnt hold me back from a ton of stuff, i feel i lost some balance for sure, and at the end of the day it is taxing, i work on my feet about 50% of the day

After 19 years of having a fused ankle, I just had surgery 2 days ago to do an ankle replacement. Yes they can do an ankle replacement now on a fused ankle. I’m at home recovering from this surgery right now. It’s amazing what new stuff they can come up with.

yzken250x wrote:

After 19 years of having a fused ankle, I just had surgery 2 days ago to do an ankle replacement. Yes they can do an ankle replacement now on a fused ankle. I’m at home recovering from this surgery right now. It’s amazing what new stuff they can come up with.

yes it is amazing what they can do now, my ortho told me a fusion was likely in my future but didn't want to do it at my age as typically it doesn't last? hoping i get away without a fusion... hoping for a speedy recovery with the ankle replacement, would like to know more about it as time passes if you think about updating

yzken250x wrote:

After 19 years of having a fused ankle, I just had surgery 2 days ago to do an ankle replacement. Yes they can do an ankle replacement now on a fused ankle. I’m at home recovering from this surgery right now. It’s amazing what new stuff they can come up with.

Hi Yzken250x.

I was wondering how it all went for you, how is the Ankle replacement going, which type of model did you get? What kind of lifespan is expected from that replacement? Cheers

yzken250x wrote:

After 19 years of having a fused ankle, I just had surgery 2 days ago to do an ankle replacement. Yes they can do an ankle replacement now on a fused ankle. I’m at home recovering from this surgery right now. It’s amazing what new stuff they can come up with.

That’s awesome, my ankle has been fused for 20 years , and was hoping that one day they would be able to do a replacement.
I will look into it👍

yzken250x wrote:

After 19 years of having a fused ankle, I just had surgery 2 days ago to do an ankle replacement. Yes they can do an ankle replacement now on a fused ankle. I’m at home recovering from this surgery right now. It’s amazing what new stuff they can come up with.

snape99 wrote:

That’s awesome, my ankle has been fused for 20 years , and was hoping that one day they would be able to do a replacement.
I will look into it👍

Snappe99.

If you don't mind sharing please, How would you describe life with the Fused ankle? How are your other joints? All the best! Thanks