Ankle Fracture and Surgery: A Dietitian’s Injury Story

Read about my personal injury experience after my recent ankle fracture, surgery, and ongoing recovery process including nutrition tips for optimizing healing, recovery must-have items, and mindset tips to come back stronger.

This article is something I hope you never need, but if you find yourself (or a loved one) injured, it is understandably a scary and confusing time. Your entire life gets halted and flipped on its side and there’s so many questions that start running through your mind. Keep in mind that sometimes what seems like a huge setback ends up leading to a breakthrough!

I hope my own experience combined with my professional expertise will be helpful if you find yourself in a similar situation as I found myself in December 2021. I hope this gives you the insight, guidance, and support you need through this mentally and physically stressful time. Be sure to check out my instagram page for an insider look at my recovery journey, including highlight series titled Ankle and Ankle Rehab.

Part 1: My Story – Fractured Ankle Injury

The Injury

In December 2021, I was up skiing in New Hampshire with my husband for the weekend after a long work week of seeing clients. Life was good. We got two solid ski days in and that evening we ventured across the street to grab a pizza for dinner (yes, Dietitians eat pizza! #allfoodsfit). So no, sadly no epic ski injury story for you here.

We were walking home from grabbing dinner and nearly 20 ft away from the door back to the condo, and at that point it had been snowing and there was about 2 inches on the ground already. That’s when things took a turn for the worse (literally), when suddenly I heard a snap and was down on my butt in the parking lot.

I’m pretty sure my first words were… “Holy $%!@- I think I just broke my ankle!” There may have been a few more curse words in there…

Immediate pain and swelling and I knew I needed medical attention ASAP, fairly certain it was broken. We drove (through a snowstorm as it was still snowing) 25 miles to the nearest hospital (Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, NH).

Almost immediately after I realized things didn’t look (or feel) good, my mind instantly started racing with thoughts like:

 What about my clients? (My work means so much to me!)

 Will I still be able to work?

 Now I can’t workout (one of my favorite hobbies), nooo!

 How long is this road to recovery going to be?

Will I need surgery?

 Is my ankle going to be screwed up forever?

…among many other thoughts and anxieties that swirled through my mind on our 30 minute drive to the hospital.  Once we arrived, I had X-rays that confirmed the ankle fracture, and likely torn ligaments as well. Here is the initial X-ray showing the injury – cringeworthy for sure. 

Initial Treatment

While at the ER/hospital, I was given some pain medication and was told they would have to “set” the ankle back in place… which was pretty excruciating. They then put me in a splint and sent me on my way, instructing me to see an orthopedic surgeon who would determine next steps and whether or not I would need surgery. 

Cue more anxious thoughts like “Surgery….WTF! How much is that going to cost?!”, and lots of bumming out over not being able to ski, play hockey, workout, take my dog for walks, cook dinner, the list goes on. Not to mention, this was exactly one week before Christmas, so you can imagine everything going through my mind! 

When you get injured, life comes to a screeching halt and your mind instantly starts racing and thinking through how almost all aspects of your daily life are going to change in some way. It’s tough.

With injuries, so much is out of your control and the sooner we accept that, we can shift our anxious energy into optimizing the recovery process, one day (& one step) at a time. I tell my clients all the time: control your controllables.

I knew that is exactly what I needed to do in this situation and decided I would take things one day at a time. So that’s what I did and what I continue to do throughout the recovery process!

Orthopedic Visit

Once home, I was able to see both my primary care doctor and got a referral to an orthopedic surgeon at University Orthopedics. The surgeon (Dr. Hsu) was very knowledgeable and reassuring. He gave me the official diagnosis and treatment plan: 

• Left distal fibula fracture (outer ankle)
• Severe sprain of medial ankle (inner ankle)
• Damaged/torn ankle ligaments 

Surgery was recommended given my age and level of physical activity, my biggest goal was being able to return to my activities I loved so much like strength training, hockey, skiing, running, etc.

The plan was for a plate and some screws to repair the outer ankle fracture (known as an open reduction internal fixation or ORIF surgery). He also wasn’t sure if I would need surgical repair/stitches to the torn ligaments, which would be determined during the surgery.

A surgery date was set for late December and after getting the ankle adjusted again (excruciating, again), I was put in a new splint (quite a process), and then waited 11 days for my surgery. I was not able to bear any weight on my left foot and needed crutches to get around, but was told to limit activity as much as possible.

I was also in severe pain and on pain medications at this time, so I was unable to drive. I took 2 weeks off of work during this time. I luckily(?) had previously planned to take time off after the holidays, so my schedule was only slightly interrupted. But this was certainly stressful and I’m grateful to have amazing clients that were super understanding!

Having a caregiver during this time was crucial given the injury severity and my physical limitations, as you need help doing pretty much everything. Shoutout to my husband, Eddie for taking great care of me and keeping me fueled with nutritious food, filling up my water bottle nonstop, and becoming a laundry pro.

Nutrition struggles during this time are potential appetite changes due to pain, essential inability to prepare meals/snacks, and possible constipation related to inactivity and pain medications.

You will need to ask for and accept help during this recovery time, don’t try to be a hero! Last thing you want is to re-injure yourself or make things worse. Swallow your pride and ask for support.

Pre-Surgery

Waiting for surgery was quite possibly the worst part as I was in a great deal of pain so moving around was very difficult. It was during this time I was so thankful for my previous strength training routine, given that I felt strong moving around, standing on one leg, shifting my weight- just going to the bathroom or brushing your teeth is a production. I won’t even get into the mechanics of showering (see my recovery must-haves below for tips!).

I was grateful for my baseline strength, balance, and coordination that undoubtedly made my ability to move around much easier during this time. I hoped that with all the standing on one leg I was doing, that my right side pistol squats would be impeccable after all of this was said and done 🙂 

I couldn’t help but imagine how much more difficult this recovery would be if I felt extremely out of shape. This is why I strength train— to train for life and to be the strongest I can be! Sometimes exercise gets mixed up for only a means to an end related to weight loss/physique, but it’s the physical (& mental) strength you gain in the gym is truly what it’s all about. 

Surgery Time!

During the few days leading up to surgery days, I ensured that I was eating adequately, including more carbohydrates and fluid (more on this later!), and also tried to stay as relaxed and positive as possible. I did my best to breathe, think positive, journal, meditate, listen to music, create – anything to ease my mind! 

I had surgery on 12/29 and had a great experience at University Orthopedics. When I woke up after surgery, I felt so relieved and actually started crying (I’ll blame it on the meds haha!)- I was so happy to finally have that over with!

I woke up in a new cast but I was all fixed up- a plate and 4 screws on the outer ankle, and luckily no second incision for ligament repair was needed. Here’s a comparison of the initial injury vs. post-surgery X-rays. 

Thank you so much for reading! Stay tuned for future posts on my recovery journey including my experience with physical therapy, slowly walking without crutches and boot, to getting back into workouts, more PT, and where I’m currently at!

In the meantime, make sure you’re connected with me on Instagram @balanced.fueling and check out the RhoDe to Fueling Better podcast which I co-host and debunk diet myths and give practical nutrition tips!