Thinking about an ankle replacement.

A compound fracture of my left ankle 25 years ago led to an initial repair that left me with bone on bone as you Eelpoutguy now live with. 25 years ago the only choice to end the pain was to have the ankle fused. Since then I have lived a fairly normal life as I was able to walk without pain, even continued downhill skiing. When I asked my orthopedic doc about skiing he said it was risky business but if it were him he’d stick to the groomed runs. While the skiing led to a broken tibia and fibula of the same leg 20 years later after not following the groomer advice, the ankle is still 100% solid and pain free. However the skies are history after I turned 70. Only down side of the fused ankle was not being able to run. If I were in your shoes today, I’d go for a bionic ankle for sure. Best of luck!

Thank you for the advice, i’m leaning to having the new ankle put in late winter.

I am almost 6 months out now. I have ditched my walking stick when pheasant hunting, and I am continuing to improve. I may not be walking at my former speed on rough ground but other than that and steep inclines it really isn’t much of a limiting factor anymore. I was slightly worried about my foot getting cold, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Make sure your surgeon has years of experience in ankle replacement and your PT person has experience also.

I don’t know if they explained it to you or not, but at least part of the reason for the long recovery time is that the implant is made of a porous titanium that your bone has to grow in to.

Candiru,
I’m glad to hear you are re-couping well and thanks for the advice. I’m planning on either late this winter or August depending on my situation. I currently have pain 50% of the time so I know I’m getting close.

Don’t wait if you can help it. Currently 2 weeks into recovery from partial shoulder replacement. So far so good but have a ways to go. Trouble is there is no good time to have these things done.