Jamie

December 15, 2016

Dr. Rozbruch,

It’s been 2 years since you distracted and debrided my ankle and convinced it to heal.  It has healed a lot and I’m really happy I had the surgery!  My ankle is much more functional and hurts less, much less of the time. The procedure was an overall success and my ankle is still improving.  Gaining back strength has been very slow, but there has been some and I believe there is more to come. You were correct in your estimate of 1.5 years to 2 years to realize how much recovery will occur.

Major Improvements:

•       Occasional, but usually brief pain in my right ankle; not too much more than the left

•       Walk with a near normal gait 90% of the  time

•       I can walk miles, no problem. 3 week trip to Europe involving lots of walking went well

•       I rode a century in October with some temporary distress, afterwards only

•       I’m  wearing ½” heel shoes again, and I can buy them right off the shelf from retail stores

•       Use of Advil 1X/week, at most, when I wear it out on the weekends (Gardening, riding, walking)

•       Cholesterol ratio and triglycerides down to normal due to ability and inclination for more strenuous exercise

•       Can stand on tip toes, using both feet about equally.  My right foot is very different than the left or how it used to be*.
Issues:

•       Achilles/Gastroc pain; feels like its “bunched up”.  Probably scar tissue
NOTE: This is the one part of me I wish you hadn’t cut.

•       Achilles/Gastroc strength limited

•       Sometimes have “shin splints” pain

•       Medial pain, brief, occasional, sometime pretty sharp

•       Stiffness in the morning and sometimes after sitting awhile. I often must stand up on my left leg and slowly put more weight on the right foot.  It takes a few steps to “get it going”, but usually becomes painfree walking very shortly.

•       Now, my biggest issue is my lower back (Stenosis and a short disc after the herniated disc repair)
* This is the main difference:  Before, if my ankle hurt when I tried to walk, which was most of the time, it was going to keep hurting.  Sometime a short sit down would help.
Now, I know if I keep walking the pain will quickly subside and walking is usually painfree. Only time it’s not painfree, is after I really wear it out with a 4-6 hour bike ride, 2-3 hours walking around gardening or shopping or standing for 30 minutes to an hour. Standing is the hardest on it…good thing I don’t work in retail.

I’m experimenting now with heel height, especially when I may be standing.  Before, I couldn’t tolerate any heel and negative heels were best.  Now, I still prefer flat on my feet, but sometimes the negative heels aren’t so comfortable.  I can also tolerate 12” to ¾” heels and they are probably better for when I must stand a lot.
ECCO is the best brand of shoes I have found.

Thank you very much for fixing my ankle.

Happy Holidays,

Sincerely,

Jamie