I am feeling kind of nervous after having all the screws removed from my foot and getting the go ahead to put weight on it. It seems like a lot of money to be just stepping on?

Why take them out? I got two nice shinny titanium bolts in my ankle last spring and they're there for good! I've been out of the walking cast just about three weeks, and the hardest part is not the broken bones, it is the atrophied muscles in the sole of your foot. It hurts like a mofo to walk sometimes, and climbing with a hampered limb teaches you all sorts of fun new techniques. If I had any advice, it would be to NOT wear really supportive shoes, the softer your footwear the faster the muscles will rebuild. And be conscious of how you walk, try your best to put weight down normally, don't roll your foot to one side or the other. It hurts and is frustrating for a while, but it gets much easier by the day. Good luck.

Thanks,My screws were at the joint for the front part of your foot(liz franc). They had to come out before I put weight on it for a lot of different reasons. Have to learn a new way to climb, I can't put any weight on my toes back to my mid foot for awhile like 2 years. A new way to walk too.

Bummer... I broke the 1st metatarsel (the one connecting the big toe to the foot) about 8 weeks ago and just started climbing again. I would agree, the biggest pain in the ass is the atrophied muscles on the sole of the foot, it hurts just to walk sometimes. They are so weak right now, not to mention the complete lack of strength in the big toe, which is where all your power in the foot comes from. I just started climbing again in the gym and it is tough. Nonetheless, I am learning to become a back-stepping master. Good luck with your recovery!

I have had my share of Orthopedic work with metal.

I am all in favor of taking out the hardware. It is a foreign substance.

I have had about half of mine out and looking to do it all. Yes, it is another surgery but usually outpatient and the benefits should be substantial.

Bone is way better that metal. They react differently to stresses. Bone is alive. Metal is not

Even the vibration of riding my motorcycle was noticeable in certain 'metal' areas.

My benefits: much less pain, feel better after heavy exercise and activities, less meds, and less negative effects on muscles, ligaments, and tendons.

I had screws put in for a lizfranc (tarsal-metatarsal)disruption, and, somewhat to my surprise, I had a lot of pain go away once they were out. I didn't realize that the screws themselves were the source of some of my foot pain.

I agree about softer shoes-- though certainly spend the money on orthotics and quality supportive footwear that will align your foot correctly. It just doesn't have to be super-stiff or heavy-duty footwear. The exception to this is the shoes that I wear for trail-running, which have the stiffest front-to-back flex that you can get in a trail-runner and are torsionally very rigid. Trail-running was one of the last things I got back, but I wore the same shoes when I started hiking again. I also got shoes that gave my toes plenty of room to spread out, and this was huge in enabling my foot to flex normally again and avoid day-to-day pain. When I returned to climbing, I bought new, bigger shoes without a 'performance toe' (anasazi lace ups). Anything else would make my foot cramp, and I really didn't feel like I was substantially losing perfomance. I can wear a more hook-toed shoe now, but still don't prefer to.

The most effective therapy that I received for this injury was actually pilates. I hadn't known what pilates really was (kinda has a dancing lineage and is super foot-intensive) until I rehabbed my foot and back injury this way. As a great bonus, pilates made me sick-strong for climbing. Acupuncture, including "newer-school" electrical stimulation was also very effective in getting rid of the long-standing edema that I had developed in my toes and midfoot, and helped enormously with sharp pain early on in the process. Later on, PT helped get rid of some of the remaining hangups. I own every wobble board product under the sun, but the one that was like a rubbery inflatable disc blew them all out of the water, especially for getting the full range-of-motion that climbing requires. Finally, doing cycles of foot-soaking in hot and then cold water was a great way for someone like me with chronically cold feet to get the blood flowing. I was doing this as soon as the incisions healed. Even just icy-cold soaks felt great when cycled. Boulder creek is perfectly situated for icy soaks, and I still do this after climbing or running whenever I can, years later.

Really, the only bad advice I got was from my orthopaedist (read: surgeon), who told me I didn't need to do anything at all, just walk around and do my thing, and it would heal. A total crock of s***. I have known other folks with the same injury and same doctor who also felt like this advice was totally off-base for them.

A lizfranc can be a tough injury for a climber, and not everyone is the same or has the same severity of injury. Be patient, have a progression to your treatment, and get after it with the rehab!

Good luck,

Amy

$70,000 dick.

I'm just sayin'

and you still can't screw right

You would know.

This kid at work had problems with the screws in his leg. His body rejected them. So there was always this puss-filled scab at the site of the screws. Nasty. They took them out later of course, but he had to be on antibiotics the whole time.

You got the go-ahead to put weight on; did you ask your orthopod/surgeon about climbing/running/higher impact? Beware of aggressive high-stepping: high stress (use them tiny intermediate holds instead). Per amy's advice, get some good arch supports/orthotics so as not to further stress your Lisfranc, get a good PT to show you how best to strengthen your foot, & learn to use your foot in "whatever works" mode for climbing. My left ankle is permanently buggered up (just short of needing to be fused), & I do some great edging on the outer side of my foot and heel sides (makes for some weird torso rotations, but WTF-I can climb). BTW, I'm a pedorthist, the adjunct profession to foot doctors, we specialize in the foot to footwear to ground interfacing. Were your screws stainless steel or titanium? Titanium gets used because for most people it doesn't set off immune system reactions, but stainless is cheaper if it's going to be taken out, & causes more problems if left in. Chances are you'll get some arthritis in that joint down the line-with luck a long time down the line. Best of luck.

what happened that required a $40,000 foot?

no weight on your foot...so do you have to use crutches for two years???

mine are still in...going on 14 years installed. 2 plates, 7 screws on the left tib/fib.

run a few miles every-other day with no problems.

HOWEVER- i just fell/jumped from 10' up a climb the other weekend and bruised both heels. Now my hardware kinda hurts and i'm wishing it wasn't in there.

another issue i've heard of with leaving hardware in is that some people experience some degradation(ROT)of the bone structure around the circumfrence of the screws...something to do with the natural linear layout of the bone molecules being at odds with circular re-arrangement of the bone molecules that surround the screw.