Broken Ankle at 9 months

Successfully hiked from Glen Park to Twin Peaks and had this view!

It’s been 9 months since I slipped on stairs, landed on my ankle on a tile floor, and started this journey of injury and recovery.

• Months 1–3 were NWB (non weight bearing)
• Months 4–6 I worked to walk again and go up and down stairs
• Months 6–8 I improved balancing and struggled with one leg heel raises
• Now I am struggling with three-way lateral step-downs to regain ankle dorsiflexion.

Month 9, like everything about this recovery, has been a mix:

• I found a massage therapist to do scar tissue massage and the next day my ankle felt more flexible and less tight. I have move appointments for the same.
• Yoga tree pose for 15 seconds! I’ve been doing one leg balances for 5 months and decided to see if I could do tree pose. Yes!
• My wife and I did this urban hike (5miles up and down) and the steep gravel inclines were difficult and painful, however, I did it! It used to be downhill that caused pain on top/inside of ankle, now steep uphill hurts in same spot.
• Heat is what helps my ankle aches now. I heat up a “neck wrap” in the morning and wrap it around my ankle, then roll ankle and calf, stretch, and the aches go away. Filling a bucket with epsom salts and hot water and soaking my ankle also helps.
• My left calf (above recovering ankle) is still 1" smaller than my right calf. When I first got out of cast and then boot and was able to start weight bearing, my left calf was 3" smaller than my right calf. 2 inches grown/strengthened and 1 inch to go!
• I’ve been using two different rollers plus some acupressure balls to help loosen up my ankle 2–3 times every day. Rolling and stretching still gives my ankle a cold feeling inside (not cold to touch).
• One weird thing I noticed is that toenails haven’t been growing much or at all on my left foot. I saw that others, on brokenbones subreddit, have similar experience and have seen podiatrists who said it was from lack of circulation/use, maybe some minor nerve trauma (like stubbed toe) that happened during ORIF surgery (when we all know the surgeon yanks your bones to get them in place). Like everything about this injury recovery I’ll give it some time, or a year, to see what happens.
• My shoes still don’t fit! The top of my left ankle is higher than my left ankle and I can’t get my left foot into a lot of my shoes. One pair of Hokas sometimes irritates my ankle, another pair is fine. PT doesn’t think it is swelling and says it is probably scar tissue and not to give away shoes yet and wait and see for another year.
• Given the success of the 5mile urban hike, we did a 6mile city walk out to and around the botanical gardens to see the magnolias in bloom. We took MUNI back home and my ankle was a bit swollen. I iced it and next day it felt better.

Magnolias in bloom, Feb 2023 in San Francisco botanical garden