Training/PT/recovery advice following broken foot & ankle?

Long story short, I suffered a non-displaced fracture of my foot (metatarsals 2-4) and a chip fracture to my ankle's talus bone on March 12. No surgery needed, but I've been in an air cast boot and non-weight bearing since March 12. I've had issues with swelling, the leg attached to said foot has atrophied, and my ankle mobility sucks, though I'm doing a ankle mobility exercises daily.

I should be partial weight bearing starting Monday, May 9 and I have a sports PT appointment shortly thereafter.

Can anyone share their experience and advice coming back from a broken foot or ankle? Any advice in terms of achieving a speedy full recovery? Did you switch to comfier shoes? Climb super easy for awhile? How was your head/fear before vs after?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

I'm sorry nobody else has answered your question.

I only have a partial answer myself.

I broke my leg (tib/fib) a number of years ago. I spent 12 weeks in a cast or a boot. When that time had complete, my balance was a bit wobbly on that side and my strength was diminished somewhat.

Over time and PT, I regained most of the balance and all of the strength.

Since I broke my leg skiing, it didn't translate into any fear on rock other than what I felt previously.

PT and strength training are my go-to recommendations for such injuries as yours or mine. You may find that you need additional adjustments based on how well your foot and ankle mended.

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply. Started walking on it today, assisted by a single crutch. Feels quite odd, somewhat painful, and weak. PT starts on Thursday.

My friend broke an ankle in a fall once. He let it heal enough to put on mountaineering boots and charge up snow and ice! But maybe because of poor circulation, he got horrible frostbite on his big toe of that foot. He doesn't like to use that foot when he is rock climbing anymore, which you can imagine doesn't work out too well. I'd give it lots of time to recover fully, you don't want to re injure it right when its about to heal!

I wish I could listen to my own advice with my shoulder pain...

Mike Lofgren wrote: Any advice in terms of achieving a speedy full recovery? Mike

This part of the equation is what you're paying the PT for. He/she should be able to come up w/ a treatment plan and explain it to your satisfaction.
Good luck w/ the recovery,
BA

I had a liz franc fracture / dislocation 1st and 2nd metatarsal (bones were in multiple pieces) plus a stress facture of the navicular bone. This happened in 2003. This is the apx. timeline of events.
Injured - early March with surgery a couple of weeks later (they waited for the swelling to subside)
Non weight bearing until mid-May(still in boot)
Surgery (remove displaced pins/screws) - mid June.
Wore boot until beg of July.
Leading (overhanging routes only) - Sept

Advice for speedy recovery:
I climbed in a boot/one-footed and did pull-ups and core to keep my sanity.
Maybe I was lucky, but I didn't gain weight. My left leg atrophied a lot.
PT was crucial to get range of motion back. I can't recall exactly when this started, but I remember doing PT for 3 months (religiously - follow their advice and don't push it).
My hips were really screwed up from crutches and walking on one foot - so I did Pilates to regain left-side lower body strength.

Comfy shoes - I purchased a stiffer shoe, one size larger. I was never able to get back in the original size (I wear a 1/2 size bigger).

Taking it slow- I took it pretty slow and only led routes I knew I would on-sight until Sept. But I found a couple of project routes to top rope in August and then in Sept, knowing the beta got the red points on these.

Head- YMMV, but I was injured climbing, so it took awhile to get mentally back at it.

Overall, my strength in the leg took about 6 months to regain.
Foot strength took much longer. I didn't run for over a year and it was almost 2 years before my foot was as strong as before. Slabs were really tough to lead and climbing micro-crimps, it took time before I had the strength to power off them and extend completely (but I am 5'1" so pushing to a tip-toe position is a normal movement pattern for me).
But you will heal.
PM me if you want more details.

Thanks SMR for your detailed reply!! How did I feel once you started just walking in the boot? I was given the go ahead yesterday to bear weight according to my own comfort level, and to aim to be out of the boot and into a supportive hiking boot within 2 weeks. So far, I'm on 1 crutch per instructions, and essentially bearing almost full weight. Walking is uncomfortable and painful (3-4 out of 10 whereas the fracture was 9/10). I'm not sure whether that's normal, but the pain is localized around the arch and heal, not the top of my foot or ankle). Hard to interpret.

I'm trying to walk a fine line of pushing through and accepting pain, but not pushing too hard.

I'm hoping to be ready for a trip to Squamish in early July, but I won't and don't want to push it and reinjure.

Though mine was a sizable fall on my first day of this year on rock, so my head which is usually an asset, might be a liability.

My range of motion was very bad after being in a boot, so walking was hard (I didn't have the spring and push-off if that makes sense).
Pain was there and if I recall localized across the arch. (Probably a 2-3 on scale of 10). Pain while climbing slabs continued for quite a while but that gradually went away and is now non-existent 95% of the time.

I do recall always having a good roll of athletic tape with me in case I needed the additional support. I remember a few times, hiking in and climbing a couple of pitches and then having to take it easy. To protect the foot, I would tape it for additional stabilization while climbing or on the hike out.

I, too, didn't want to push it too far and reinjure or re-rupture the ligaments.

Update... Still painful to walk, but I'm out of the boot and into a pair of oversized hiking boots. Walking slowly but progressing steadily. Militant about my PT and that seams to help.

Mike,,just saw this...ankle injury of any kind sucks. I recently had surgery to remove multiple bonespurs from multiple fractures.It had been years.

I do endless ankle rotations/foot pumps for mobility as well as circulation. Heel raises as well. calf strength is still an issue but getting there.

Impact stuff like bouldering is out for me (hip/knee replacements) but climbing itself seems OK other than lack of power.

good luck

I broke the talus bone in my right foot on February 27th from a lead fall. It required surgery and I was completely non weight-bearing for 7 weeks. At 8 weeks I started walking in the boot but still needed 1 crutch for support. I'm at 12 weeks now and my limp is slowly diminishing. I started PT 2 weeks ago and I can feel my foot getting stronger. I'm much better at 12 weeks than I was at 10 weeks and I'm confident this trend will continue. I went on my first hike this past weekend but I still feel like I'm a long way from climbing or running. Funny that my doctor told me to "push it hard" when everyone else tells me to "take it easy". I try to walk around as much as possible and tell myself the only way to make it stronger is to use it. Good luck with your recovery. It's frustrating but I believe that keeping a positive attitude helps a lot.

Chase D wrote:I'm a long way from climbing or running. Funny that my doctor told me to "push it hard" when everyone else tells me to "take it easy". I try to walk around as much as possible and tell myself the only way to make it stronger is to use it. Good luck with your recovery. It's frustrating

I'm going to give it a go on TR in the gym in the next couple of days. I'm up to standing calf raises now and things are pfogressing well, though I'm still limping a bit. I think I'm at least 1-2 weeks from running.

If the gym goes well, I'll venture to climb outside again for the first time in 3 months, though prob not on lead.

My PT has been pretty conservative (i.e. "Take it easy") but I've blasted through that and I'm progressing much faster than they'd expected

I sprained my ankle pretty badly about a year ago. No fractures, but a hat-trick of ligaments (medial, lateral and high ankle) plus a partial tear of the tibialis muscle. 3 weeks on crutches, 3 more in a boot.
I was able to climb on it before I could run comfortably.
Climbing: very gingerly at 2 months, more confidently at 3 and 4, virtually full functionality at 5.
Running: I could barely manage a slow jog at 3 months, grimacing and forcing myself to keep the gait symmetric, still not much better than a jog at 5 (especially turning left), running properly by about 8 months.
(Disclosure: I didn't follow through with PT, so better outcomes were certainly possible.)
I think climbing was easier because I could keep the foot somewhat plantar-flexed (forefoot down, heel up), and usually keep the ankle/foot static if I wanted to. Whereas running, the ankle/foot have to take a lot of force (even more than the mostly-static forces of climbing), including while dorsi-flexed (heel still low with the knee forward).

Thought I'd post this up because when I broke my foot and ankle, I scoured the Internet for clovers that had similar experiences.

I'm 82 days out. Still limping and still swelling. Started weight bearing as tolerated at 8 weeks. I'm in PT and do it religiously at home, past what my PT says is okay to do. I'm improving fast.

I climbed indoors for the first time post-injury at 79 days out. I climbed outside today(!)... just TR'd some easy stuff, but it's still climbing. No pain, but I only combed a few pitches. Doubt I'm strong enough to safely brace a fall on lead, but that'll come soon.

This is my experience so far and I'm not advising that anyone follow my practices with PT or timeline of coming back to climbing.

Nice ! i noticed some flex issues on lower angle stuff and no power on steeper..gets better though