The Very Long Road to Recovery

In April of 2015, my life changed forever. In an instant, not knowing it at the time, walking 2 dogs at the same time would start a nightmare that is still ongoing.

I wound up having to take both dogs out by myself, no one at home wanted to help me, they needed to be walked. This would prove to be a big mistake.

I walked up the street to the main road with my husband, he was headed to the store while I walked the dogs. Everything was going fine, but that didn't last long.

We walked past the church, and up to a house where the dogs decided to go up to the grass without me.

I lost my balance, while I didn't fall, my ankle twisted badly as I saved myself from hitting the ground. That twist caused a tremendous amount of pain, I heard a loud crack as well.

I screamed out in agony, calling out for my husband who was still within earshot. He came back, asking me what happened. With tears in my eyes, I told him what happened, asked him to take the dogs home and call an ambulance.

He told me that the ambulance doesn't get called for a sprained ankle, but I was quite sure it was broken. He told me to come home.

I very slowly, very carefully made my way back towards home. My neighbor was on her porch at the time, she called out asking me if I was ok. I told her no.

Somehow I managed to make it up her stairs to her porch and to a chair. I had a smoke and looked at my ankle. It was bruised and quite swollen.

While I sat on a chair having my smoke, I told her what happened and how my husband had reacted. She told me he was wrong to say I didn't need an ambulance. But she didn't call one.

I had no phone with me, no wallet, so I had to go home anyways. I hobbled home to lectures about walking both dogs together, no concern about my ankle.

I wrapped it in a tensor bandage and put on a comfortable shoe. I grabbed my ID and phone, even grabbed a cane to walk with and made my way towards the hospital.

It was a long wait before I got in to see a doctor. I was questioned about why I walked there, why I didn't call an ambulance. I told the doctor what my husband said, he just shook his head.

I went for an x-ray, that was utter agony, but I got through it. I was expecting the doctor to come see me and tell me my ankle was broken, sure enough, he did. He told me the type of fracture it was, said I would be fine in 6 weeks. It wasn't until a later time that I was told that it was an unstable fracture that should have had a CT scan done to check for further damage.

He sent me home in a walking boot and said I would have to follow-up with an orthopedic surgeon in 6 weeks. I got home and told them I was right about the fracture, and that I should have taken an ambulance to the hospital.

The 6 weeks passed rather quickly, I was still very active, walking a lot. I noticed that the swelling hadn't gone away, and I was still in a lot of pain.

At the clinic, I was told the ankle had healed, that the swelling and pain was normal. I was told to resume normal activities, that I was fine.

But I wasn't fine. 2 days later, while walking down the basement stairs, my ankle gave out, and I fell down the stairs. I went back to the hospital, and I was told I was fine.

By August, my ankle had rolled or given out several times, I took a couple more spills down the basement stairs. I was referred to an ankle surgeon and had an MRI done.

I saw this new surgeon at the end of September, his demeanor was callous and ignorant. He told me that he never did surgery until a year after the initial injury. That was odd, but I didn't question him.

I was told to buy an ankle brace and follow-up in April, one year after the initial injury. The first day in the brace, I rolled my ankle. He told me to use my walking boot again. I'd been using it off and on since the fracture.

In October, I was brutally assaulted and not only did I have a damaged ankle, I now had a massive tear and partial dislocation in my shoulder that required surgery to repair.

Somehow I made it to surgery in February for the shoulder, but suffered complications through recovery. To this day it never fully healed.

In April, the surgeon reluctantly said he needed to do surgery on the ankle, I think he secretly wished it would have healed on its own.

He explained the surgical procedures to me, there were supposed to be 3 done. At a later date, it was discovered that a vital procedure was not done.

The surgery was on August 11, I was only supposed to stay one night, but I suffered complications from surgery, and my shoulder did not cooperate when on crutches. I stayed in the hospital 22 days before being transferred to a nursing home for convalescent care. I stayed 2 and a half months.

In October, I wound up having an accident while on a visit home. My ankle was tripped over and slammed to the floor. I was wearing the walking boot, it didn't protect it enough.

Back at the nursing home, by dinner the pain had increased so badly, they decided to send me to the hospital to get checked. I wore the boot the entire trip, and it was not removed until it was time for an x-ray.

The x-ray was supposedly normal, but the report showed some unusual findings, none of which were explained to me. I did research them on my own, but never got answers.

I saw the surgeon at the clinic who said I was fine, that there was nothing wrong. I told him about my toes not seeming to work, I was worried about tendon damage. He replied that if he had cut a tendon, none of my toes would work. But he wasn't listening to me.

I told him I was going to get a second opinion, I didn't trust him, didn't want to see him again. I was referred to the surgeon who did my shoulders, I trusted him to take my concerns seriously.

In early November, I woke up in a panic one night, I jumped in my bed, jarring my ankle. Another trip to the hospital, and other clean bill of health, and yet again, another statement from the surgeon that nothing was wrong.

I went home the 2nd week of November, I couldn't do the stairs, so I lived on the upstairs couch. I went downstairs for 3 weeks in March, but returned back upstairs because I couldn't do the stairs.

When I got my second opinion late last year, my new surgeon took one look at me, shook his head, and asked what this guy had done to me. He told me my concerns were valid, I had every right to know what was happening.

He sent me to a neurologist and a rheumatologist to rule out nerve damage because of my non working toes, and arthritis since it had apparently shown up on the x-ray in October.

Neurologist told me the problem with my toes was temporary back in February last year. It's more than a year later and they still don't work. The rheumatologist ordered an MRI to rule out the arthritis she didn't think I had.

I saw her at the end of April for the results. She said to me that there was definitely no arthritis, but said something about the ligament, told me to see my surgeon. She sent the report to him.

I saw him May 4th, he read the report, turned to me and told me that the ligament was torn again and it needed to be repaired. He wanted to make sure the surgery would be successful, so he did a freezing procedure on the ankle.

Before he left the room, I asked if I could have a copy of the report. He printed it out and gave it to me. I read it over, and saw something about the tendon.

When he came back in, I asked him about that, and he told me there was a tear in the tendon as well. He wasn't sure if he could fix that during surgery, he would have to wait and see.

Surgery was on the 24th, I didn't have much time to prepare. It was supposed to be a day surgery, but I suffered some serious complications that the nursing staff ignored.

I had trouble breathing, and my oxygen levels kept dropping. I choked on food one night, if it weren't for my roommate's spouse, I would have died.

I went home 3 days after surgery, wound up the next morning rushed to hospital with low oxygen levels. It was determined that I was suffering from fluid overload, my lungs were collapsing. Medication solved that problem.

I wound up back in hospital a week after surgery, spent 2 weeks in the mental health unit. I was under so much stress, and was dependent on pain meds. I went through withdrawal, a horrible experience, but I got through it.

My surgeon had spoken to me before I went home after surgery and I'd asked him how the surgery was. He told me it was only half successful. The tendon could not be repaired, it was so badly encased in scar tissue. He said he would have done more harm than good. He's also told me that the vital procedure from the previous surgery has not been completed.

He told me I was going to be in pain for the rest of my life, but he was going to refer me to a pain management clinic to try to make life easier. I go for treatment every 2 months.

When the splint was removed 2 weeks after surgery, I finally got to see what the surgical site looked like. He extended it just like he said he'd do, the scar looked ugly because of the staple closure.

I went through physical therapy for 10 weeks, my ankle has not returned to normal, in fact it's only 50% of normal just like my surgeon predicted.

I was supposed to have gotten a tattoo this past summer to cover up the original scar. Obviously I had to put that plan on hold while I got cut into again. But next year, I will do it. I have a design plan that will cover all the scar with roses like the ones above it.

I may extend that one down, and put a chain of roses around my ankle to cover up the 3 other scars. I want to remove any reminder of this nightmare.

I'm hoping my nightmare is over, but I am still waiting to see if the first surgeon has to go to a disciplinary hearing as I filed a complaint against him. I'm not sure when I will find this out, hopefully soon.

If he goes for a hearing, I will get to testify against him. I'm not afraid of him, he ruined my life, and needs to know it.

Keeping my fingers crossed.