ankle fusion

raycas

Hello there

I'm new to this forum, due to have an ankle fusion operation (poss. this year - waiting lists permitting!!) My concerns are life after operation, physio etc.

I'm 53 years old, fairly fit, self employed heating engineer.

My activities are walking cycling, skiing. Has anybody got any experience of how this may affect these activities?

Also the use of stairs, carrying tools and heavy weights and manual gears driving??

Ray

glitterbug

raycas wrote:

Hello there

I'm new to this forum, due to have an ankle fusion operation (poss. this year - waiting lists permitting!!) My concerns are life after operation, physio etc.

I'm 53 years old, fairly fit, self employed heating engineer.

My activities are walking cycling, skiing. Has anybody got any experience of how this may affect these activities?

Also the use of stairs, carrying tools and heavy weights and manual gears driving??

Ray

Hi Ray!

How are you? I'm 30yrs old and had a right ankle fusion about 5 years ago now. To give you an honest opinion, I wouldn't do it again. Pain wise it's fantastic, hardly get any pain now. As far as being active is concerned my RA is pretty bad, and my knees are not great so I can't cycle or anything like that but it does make life quite difficult when you can't move your ankle at all. I had to stop driving, as I now have to push my whole leg onto the accelerator and this is agony for my hip/knee.

My left ankle is now giving me some serious jip and I would have to seriously think about alternative options than a fusion. I'm sure there are people that have different experiences to me but I just wanted to be honest.

Have you considered a replacement? I don't know how successful they are but maybe worth a chat with the surgeon?

Until you actually have the fused ankle it's seriously hard to imagine what difficulties it may cause. Hopefully some others on the forum will reply with some more positive stories, sorry to be so negative.

Jo x

xxloulou

raycas wrote:

Hello there

I'm new to this forum, due to have an ankle fusion operation (poss. this year - waiting lists permitting!!) My concerns are life after operation, physio etc.

I'm 53 years old, fairly fit, self employed heating engineer.

My activities are walking cycling, skiing. Has anybody got any experience of how this may affect these activities?

Also the use of stairs, carrying tools and heavy weights and manual gears driving??

Ray

I had an ankle replacement 20yrs ago which was great for several years but I'm now looking at fusion and am worried about driving too. There's quite a lot of interesting articles on the web about replacement vs fusion which might help in discussions with your consultant.

sueandted

Hi there ! , I've just had my right ankle fused (last Thursday) so I know I've got a long journey ahead , first of all its a big op (I'm 45) but I couldn't have a replacement because I wasn't a suitable case ,but my surgeon was very positive about these fusions and said they really were the best option for young , fit and active people , I have a horse , drive and love going for long walks with the dog and she saw no problems with these things when I'm recovered so I can only hope she's right , she said I will be off work for about 3 months (?) and could be a few more getting fully mobile, obviously depending on how I am ect , so hope thats helped a bit , all you can do is have lots of long chats to your surgeon and try and not look on the internet too much like I did and frightened myself stupid !! :shock: good luck x