Shattered talus/ORIF- How long did it take to boulder/lead

Shattered my talus a week ago at Copper :(

Curious if anyone out there could offer up their experiences regarding recovery time/training, and if you have felt confidence getting back to your pre injury level?

Mine was a 6 pin and 1 plate internal fixation,  and I'm on non weight bearing for at least 1.5-2 months.

I'm probably less concerned about leading than I am about bouldering,  but know it will be a long road either way.

Thanks for listening,  ask away if you have questions!

Ben Eppley wrote: Shattered my talus a week ago at Copper :(

Curious if anyone out there could offer up their experiences regarding recovery time/training, and if you have felt confidence getting back to your pre injury level?

Mine was a 6 pin and 1 plate internal fixation,  and I'm on non weight bearing for at least 1.5-2 months.

I'm probably less concerned about leading than I am about bouldering,  but know it will be a long road either way.

Thanks for listening,  ask away if you have questions!

I just fractured and displaced my talus 2 weeks ago. Doctors orders are non weight bearing, in bed with foot elevated 23 hrs a day. I'm fuckin dying LOL! Some of the worst pain I've ever experienced, and I've shattered my femur before. There were several tendons and some ligaments damaged, as well. Pain that my oxycodone can hardly suppress. My foot is more capable of climbing 5.15 than I'll ever be. I'm already seeing increases in strength and range of motion while I'm living in this splint. I'm 31 with great eating habits. I think I'll have an extraordinary recovery! I hope. I don't do this couch potato bullshit.

pretty much to be expected with modern bouldering.  

Took me around 3 months to be able to run, ski, climb again. 6 months to not think about it while I was doing those things. I could ride a recumbent stationary bike after about a month, which I hated, but it was better than doing nothing. 

If you haven't seen it already, this is a really good thread on calcaneous ORIF stories.

I had a particularly bad case involving shattering both of my feet, the worst of which had a plate and 12 screws. I was non weight-bearing in a wheelchair for 4 months. For recovery, keep the stoke up! Eat right, head to the gym to stay in what shape you can, maybe hangboard if you want. Never a better time to crush some core! After you get weight-bearing back, I found yoga to really help with flexibility and strength. I returned to climbing about a month after I started walking again. It hurt like hell for the first months. It still does, just less all at once and more the longer my session lasts. If you love climbing and want to continue, you'll be back to normal one day.

Just celebrated my 9 month ORIF anniversary by traveling to Mexico to climb some amazing multipitch at EPC. Can't say it was easy or pain-free, but I was able to tick some really spectacular routes and enjoyed the hell out of myself.

Bryan Battles wrote: If you haven't seen it already, this is a really good thread on calcaneous ORIF stories.

I had a particularly bad case involving shattering both of my feet, the worst of which had a plate and 12 screws. I was non weight-bearing in a wheelchair for 4 months. For recovery, keep the stoke up! Eat right, head to the gym to stay in what shape you can, maybe hangboard if you want. Never a better time to crush some core! After you get weight-bearing back, I found yoga to really help with flexibility and strength. I returned to climbing about a month after I started walking again. It hurt like hell for the first months. It still does, just less all at once and more the longer my session lasts. If you love climbing and want to continue, you'll be back to normal one day.

Just celebrated my 9 month ORIF anniversary by traveling to Mexico to climb some amazing multipitch at EPC. Can't say it was easy or pain-free, but I was able to tick some really spectacular routes and enjoyed the hell out of myself.

Dude! I know that when I get back at it, I'm gonna love playing my sports more than ever before! I know this injury has changed me! 

Thanks for sharing your guys’ experiences. How are you feeling, Ben? I’m laying here 2 days post-op repair of my left shattered talus and chipped calcaneous. I stumbled across this at 2 a.m. as I woke up in a tremendous amount of pain and will be non-weight bearing for the next 8 weeks. And you know...misery likes company...

It’s encouraging to read about life after this, I’m looking forward to a long, but hopefully full recovery.

Hope all is well and thanks for letting me share, it’s a bit cathartic. 

Cori Kohlhagen wrote: Thanks for sharing your guys’ experiences. How are you feeling, Ben? I’m laying here 2 days post-op repair of my left shattered talus and chipped calcaneous. I stumbled across this at 2 a.m. as I woke up in a tremendous amount of pain and will be non-weight bearing for the next 8 weeks. And you know...misery likes company...

It’s encouraging to read about life after this, I’m looking forward to a long, but hopefully full recovery.

Hope all is well and thanks for letting me share, it’s a bit cathartic. 

You’re in good company here! Hopefully you can get some PT going as soon as you can, to get the joint moving. Do your PT and stay off it as long as you can, are the common themes I’ve taken away from scouring the internet at 2am about this injury...

I’m 7 weeks no weight on my crushed talus, 5 more to go. 9 screws holding everything together now. I wish someone could tell me if I’ll ever wear heels again... 

@Cori, thanks for the ask!  Life will indeed get better, and the progress is much like climbing, bursts of significant progress followed by weeks of feeling plateau'd ;)

Updates as they stand on 5/20 (69 days post ORIF, injured 3/10 and ORIF placed 3/12):

PT began 3/27 (2 days after suture removal) and has been occuring roughly 2x per week since; additionally, I have been doing trigger point acupuncture as well as some inflamation reducing stuff ("surround the dragon") and I highly recommend looking into this if your doctor approves it

Overall, swelling has decreased substantially but still prevelant around scars (especially on inside of foot below scars and above plantar fascia), All toes more or less flexing fully and normally, full flex in big toe finally (which was a big struggle initially).  The pain will definitely go down, I have no pain usually unless Im working PT and then its just stiff and sore.

I was given clearance for partial weight bearing on 4/29, and have been doing well with that, although I have hit a wall around 75 lbs of pressure in a walking boot.  Overall, it feels good to walk on but gets pretty tender after a long day on my feet and prohibits movement the following days if I go to hard.  So right now Im kind of just in this holding pattern of trying to rebuild by mobiility and strength little by little rather than trying to grit through and place more weight.  I was given approval to weight it in 25 lb increments every 3-4 days, as much as I can stand, so right now Ive kind of settled in.  But hoping to get further along once I have increased my mobility. SOme days just feel and go better than others.

Right now, the most frusturating thing has been the stiffness of the joint and tenderness of the peroneal tendon.  Eversion and inversion are still the hardest motions to make and are almost impossible without hand manipulation, but plantar and dorsi flexion are coming along well.  Still pretty supinated, so working on strengthening and releasing the fascia to help with that. And mainly its just the feeling of the rest of my body feeling great and even the ankle most days.

The biggest positive is that I was able to start weighting it a few weeks early (initially, May 18 was supposed to be my partial weight date), so Im really happy to be healing fairly quickly and able to work PT so soon.

I would say anyone who is new to this injury, please be patient and listen to your HCP's as they most likely understand the frusturations but arent giving you dumb advice.  Try to get started on your PT as quickly they will approve you to and that will help with recovery, but dont expect youll be climbing again anytime soon (Im getting used to having to probably wait another month before even trying to TR with a boot on).  The less you over do it now, the faster you will recover and be able to start working it once its ready.  But dont try to be a hero.

My motivating factors are getting healthy enough to lift weight unsupported so I can assist in getting the nursery ready for our first baby :) Additionally, listening to the doctors advice so I can rest assured that I will heal correctly and avoid later complications or reinjury which would almost certainly be catastrophic given health and life circumstances.  

Not being able to climb or hike or camp yet this season is killing me, but its 4-6 months of what I hope to be a long life and I am not going to do what I normally do and go too far too fast :)  

Cori/Stefania, I would highly recommend Synergy Bone Health supplements (I am not endorsed by them, just telling you what I think might have helped my progress go a little faster) and really letting it stay elevated and drain out right now. Please let me know if you have any other questions, happy to answer if I can!