Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

I had a bad pilon fracture of my ankle a couple of years ago with both a break on Tibia and Fibia.

I fell off a ramp whilst pushing a wheelbarrow full of rubble into a skip (should've stuck to building code instead of building a house!).

Normally that type of injury is associated with car crashes when someone instinctively puts all their force on the brake and the shock of the crash travels up the pedal into the ankle.

It was a really scary time for me as the doctors were trying to manage expectations and plan how to fix my ankle. There was a possibility of my foot being fused to my leg permanently at 90 degrees angle.

Fortunately I had an awesome team of orthopaedic surgeons who managed to do ORIF surgery with about £70,000 worth of titanium inside my leg.

6 weeks later I was out of my plaster cast and into a "moon boot" with my physio starting and doctor telling me to put weight on it already as the titanium was holding it together effectively. Always pushing me to break the mental barrier of protecting my broken leg.

Long story short, physio, putting weight on my toes meant my ankle is about 95% back to how it was, just a small limitation in dorsiflexion and plantarflexion.

Can run, cycle, Jiu-jitsu etc.

NHS emergency care - great!

NHS physio care - poor, had to go private.

Here's a photo of the damage - https://photos.app.goo.gl/z8J8RfhnZ2jnVHFYA

I suffered a very similar break playing soccer. ER surgeon asked if I fell off a roof. 3 metal plates and 15 screws later I was non-weight bearing for 14 weeks. I lost almost 5 inches in circumference from my left thigh while waiting to put weight back on that leg.

My post-break recovery has not been as good as yours sounds. Almost 3 years later and I rate my ankle at 75% of what its sibling is capable of. I had follow-up surgery to remove one of the plates and clean up scar tissue, and _that_ surgeon was appalled at how long I was immobilized.

Anecdata and all that, but my personal experience says waiting for weight ain’t it.

Sorry to hear about the outcome on your leg, I am sure you've tried lots of things to beef up your muscle. Just looking at my two legs I can still see a slight difference in calf thickness.

One thing I didn't appreciate is that in a break the bone is the easy part, but getting the muscle back or preserving it is the hard part.