My Trimalleolar Fracture Journey

I broke my ankle at the end of 2024 and really appreciated the stories people have posted over the years here to help me understand timelines, common issues, and expectations on what life could look like after recovery. I figured I'd post my recovery in hopes that it might help someone dealing with the same break, whether that's 1 month or 10 years from now. If anyone does happen upon this post and ever wants to reach out, I'm happy to try to answer what I can or just commiserate with you.

First things first - this shit sucks. This recovery period has been some of the most difficult times of my life, with the whole mental aspect of it all probably being much harder than one can anticipate. It's difficult to communicate to others just how challenging recovery can be and how tumultuous your emotions become without having been through it yourself. On the flip side - the little wins you get are some of the most precious hits of dopamine imaginable. It's really some of the highest highs and lowest lows packaged into however long your own recovery is.

11/7/24

The day I actually broke my ankle - I fell off a bouldering wall and twisted it roughly 90 degrees and immediately had to get rushed to the hospital where they set it to prevent bloodflow issues I was experiencing. The night I broke my ankle, they told me I would never be able to run, or do any heavy impact with this ankle again, which was extremely devastating for me to hear at the time (my doctor later went against this prognosis).

11/11

Went in for surgery where I received something like 2 plates and 12 screws, and was then placed in a cast. I was completely non-weight bearing (NWB) and using crutches to get around. I was extremely irritable this week, which is something that became more common over the course of recovery. The only complication I had was fracture blisters after I came home, but they drained these the next time I got my cast changed out ~2 weeks later.

12/24

I got my cast off and switched to a boot, but was still NWB. My doctor originally told me I could start putting weight on my ankle at this point, but due to the severity of my break wanted to play it safe and wait another couple of weeks. At this point I was absolutely at my wit's end with tiredness and using my crutches.

1/6/25

Finally was cleared for full-weight bearing, with crutches as needed. It took a bit for me to start trusting putting any weight at all on my broken ankle, nevermind fully putting my weight on it. The biggest transition was getting over that mental hurdle and some muscle/ligament pain when standing on my foot completely flat.

1/10

At this point I was already down to one crutch, which was mostly used for balance. My biggest pains were still muscular, not much pain with the bone itself.

1/16

Starting physical therapy, overcame another mental hurdle where we tested my ability to stand on the broken ankle without the boot or any pain.

1/27

Cleared to ditch the boot and move to a brace for 2 weeks. My doctor really wanted me to ramp up PT exercises at this point.

2/1

Now that I was engaging my ankle more, I started feeling a lot more stiff when waking up in the morning. Around the house I could walk without too much of a limp, but anything extended I'd have a noticeable limp.

2/6

Cleared to walk around indoors without the brace, still was pretty stiff, especially in my achilles.

2/20

Cleared for light jogging & plyometrics (jump PT). I was still pretty limited with dorsiflexion mobility, but was slowly making progress.

3/6

Started getting more pain when just walking around, and was beginning to get frustrated with a lack of mobility progress.

3/14

My PT did some deep tissue massaging for the scar tissue along my fibula which helped a lot with the achilles pain I had.

3/20

Got a cortisone shot from my doctor and immediately saw a better range of motion.

5/1

Started plateauing again with more pain around the plate locations. My doctor gave me some more exercises (mostly strength) to try to alleviate.

6/2

My PT did a needling session along my achilles since it was still stiff, which actually helped a fair bit for the next few days.

8/4

This was my last PT appointment - it felt like I was hitting another plateau and my PT recommended I just continue doing my exercises at home. I was a little frustrated because I still felt I only had ~75% of my mobility back, and was dealing with slight pains.

8/18

This is the day that I actually tried running again - going for ~15 minutes actually felt pretty good, I was just sore in my fibula for a couple days after.

2/25/26

For a couple months I haven't had any major milestones to report on, but my pain and mobility has sort of ebbed and flowed. For most day to day stuff I don't have any pain, and it's really only certain muscle movements that are difficult like squatting or walking downstairs due to my dorsiflexion mobility not being 100%. It's been a weird balance where I have to stay active enough to avoid getting stiff, but can't practice mobility exercises too often either as that will lead to pain. Once I get to my limits of mobility, I start getting most of my pain near the plate sites in the ankle joint that doesn't seem to get better, so I might just have pushed my ankle as far as it can go. I'll be having another follow up with my doctor in a couple months, so I can definitely update more as anything changes.