Introduction

On April 7th, 2001 I was involved in a tragic car accident. In this accident, among the many injuries I sustained, my ankle was severely broken. The talus was completely severed and my foot was nearly detached from my leg, only hanging on by some tendons and skin on the lateral side of my ankle. Two weeks after the accident, when I was finally out of the ICU and stable enough to withstand the surgery, my ankle was put back together. It took a long time to finally regain enough mobility and strength in my ankle to be able to walk again, which I was determined to do. In the 12+ years since this injury, I have had progressively deteriorating osteoarthritis in my ankle. With each year the steps I would take became more and more painful. Last Spring (2013) after 12 years of withstanding the pain, I succumbed and went to the doctor who did my initial ankle surgery to see what I could do. He did x-rays to find that my ankle is collapsing on itself due to avascular necrosis (dying bone). He gave me the option of pain control in the form of Celebrex and cortisone shots. These are helping, but they are not erasing the fact that my ankle is continuing to deteriorate. He referred me to a Orthapedic specialist for traumatic ankle injuries, Dr. S. Haddad. Dr. Haddad took x-rays, photos, measurements, video, and a CT scan. As of now, it looks promising that I will have a total ankle replacement on December 5th of this year. The idea that this is a possibility is becoming overwhelming. I have read other blogs to see how others have dealt with their own surgeries and recoveries and decided it would be helpful for me to do the same, and maybe even help someone else out there who is going through this as well. So here goes my journey....