broken fib. and painful ankle.

[Gallypro]

Hi doc. thanks for the reply, much apprciated. first  i should tell you that  me and another person slipped on ice and my friend fell on my leg causing the fracture, not sure but i may have rolled my ankle at the same time . You mentioned radiographs, not exactly sure what that is but Ive had my sergion look at few X-rays, he was looking at the space between the bones in tha ankle, his concern was wether or not to put a screw in, cause apparently my fractured fibula can cause swelling in the the ankle and thus spreding the bones out of posistion causing instability but he thinks the x-rays look alright, so he sent me home after 6 weeks and asked me to come back in 3 weeks, should i be pushing for a sooner date.

[Gallypro]

Looks like your  busy with alot of other posts, but I was hoping you would get around to awnsering my last post

[Gallypro]

Ya Gally is my nickname. I don't drink every night but it sounds like I should reduce my consumption as much as possible. My leg is terribly tender so hopefully this wed. when I see the doc. the x-ray will look fine. On the x-ray image my guess is that the bones should be in line, but can you see the bone formation at the joint?
      I"ve been going to the pool, in chest deep water been walking around trying to exercise the ankle, the next moring I'm a little stiffer and maybe little sore but not really any more pain, this exersice seems like a good idea to me but what if there is tendon, nerve, or ligament damage in the ankle am I going to further the damage, hence delay recovery?

[JainMD]

Hi Gally,
You can have tenderness after 8 weeks at the fracture site. I mean mild tenderness which is not annoying. If the tenderness is annoying then you need to evaluate the cause of such tenderness with help of imaging study and also by examination from your surgeon.
The symptoms are as follows;
Patients have a history of a fracture that continues to be painful.
The patient may have broken hardware.
Pain often occurs after use of the limb.
Keep me informed if you have any queries.
Bye.

[JainMD]

Hi Gally,
Is that your name? If not, what should I address you?
Your question regarding your alcoholism every 3rd day and healing says that alcohol is bound to delay bone healing and effect bone remodeling.
Chronic and heavy alcohol consumption is known to contribute to low bone mass, decreased bone formation, an increased incidence of fractures, and delayed fracture healing, a review article in the December 2005 issue of Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research points out [*].
Heavy drinking disrupts the balance in bone remodeling by suppressing new bone formation by osteoblasts, says author Dr Dennis Chakkalakal (Orthopedic Research Laboratory and Alcohol Research Center, Omaha Veterans Affairs [VA] Medical Center, Creighton University, NE).
But experimental evidence suggests that stopping drinking leads to a prompt recovery of osteoblast function, and this has important clinical implications.
You can find the above mentioned information on following URL;
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/538462

*-Chakkalakal DA. Alcohol-induced bone loss and deficient bone repair. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2005; 29:2077-2090.
Keep me informed if you have any queries.
Bye.

[Gallypro]

maybe I'm just paranoid cause it is still tender in the area of the facture, is it normal to be tender  8 weeks after injury, if so than up to how long might one feel some tenderness for?  and what are some symptoms of a non-union. My x-rays must have looked okay when I saw the orthopedist two weeks ago, or I sure he would have said something.

[JainMD]

Hi Gally,
How are you feeling?
Your first question is regarding, non union fibula a bad thing?
-Yes it is indeed a bad thing.
Does it require attention?
-Yes it definitely requires attention and an immediate one.
Does an X-ray show if the fracture has healed properly?
-Yes x-ray will indeed show whether the fracture has healed properly or not.
Keep me informed if you have any queries.
Bye.