Optional foot amputation after a LISFRANC injury

Hi there, I don't know if you have gone through with amputation but have you looked at fusion? I don't know what fusion is like but I have had ORIF 14 months ago for a horrendous lisfranc fracture and i too suffer 24/7 with at least 7 or 8 on the pain level and am considering fusion.....From what I have read (on-line, medical journals, surgeons, etc.) fusion can help with the pain but it is the same lengthy NWB period and physio afterwards. I think amputation would be a last resort for me but everyone is different. Please let me know how you're doing and what you decided. I am very sorry to hear that your injury is putting you in this position.....Take care. Melissa.

Hi all, I had a lisfranc fracture in November of 2011, of course they didn't know that at the time. 

UPDATE: I finally had my foot amputated. I had a BTK done on Dec 18th 2010 and that was the best thing for me. I feel I have my life back and am now much more active, healthier and on less pain meds. This was worth having done. Best of luck to everyone of you in the same situation.

I sustained a right isolated lis france injury (no fracture).  I had an ORIF 2 years ago.  The screw started to bend as soon as I started weight bearing 6 weeks out.  It was removed at 9 weeks post op.  I underwent a fusion when everything collapsed. During surgery, my 1st metatarsal was pushed so far off the cunieform that my big toe is not 1/2 inch short, sticks up 30 degrees and is twisted in.  After learning that the surgeon put screws through my arch muscle and into surrounding joint spaces, detroying the proximal joints in my foot, the fusion screws had to be removed 3 months post fusion.  The fusion held, but now I calcification of my arch muscle, Avascular Necrosis of my 1st metatarsal, Regional Osteoporosis Syndrome that is not resolving; and no joint space across my entire mid foot that has cause sever arthritic changes.  I also now have a situation where the circulation is being cut off to my toes when my foot swells because the tissue is such a mess from the 1st met. being shortened (it is all bunched up in the webbing of my 1st and 2nd toe.  Additionally, I cannot wear a shoe because, if I do, my nail beds all get infected and it spreads into my entire toe because my toes are twisted.  I was told last week, by my infectious disease doc (yes....I have one of those too because my foot got infected after every surgery), that all of my toenails need to be permanently removed.  I just saw my surgeon for the last time who implied I was exaggerating my pain when I rated it at "5" (when it is really a "7"), and told me there was nothing else anyone can do and that it was time to accept my foot for what it is and go on with my life......happily ever after........well....happily ever after for me is being able to ski, go back to running 6 miles a day, competing in triathlons......flyfishing.....hiking 12 miles......playing with my children.....riding my bike.....going to the park with the girls......Happily ever after IS NOT sitting on my butt in pain all day long, adding inches to my quickly growing derrier because I cannot do a dog gone thing!

I am ready to amputate....totally at peace with it.  The problem is that the docs seem to think that is a very extreme and mentally deranged idea?  I want my life back.  I am a highly driven, highly active person that is going nuts because I am now a couch potato. I did consult with a specialist to amputate and he explained why a BKA would be the best choice at getting me back to "a happy state of affairs", but he then left the practice and they don't know if or when he will return.  I am at wits end.  I see everyone with a straight lis franc repair in pain and living with the notion of amputation....my foot is a freak show all wrapped up in skin that hides what is behind it nicely.  My prothetists thinks I am having problems getting the doc to support the idea of amputation because it looks so pretty on the outside....aside for 4 scars and my wierd big toe.  It is like a Christmas present with a ticking time bomb inside.....the wrapping is beautiful!  I actually had a dream the other night that I cut all of my toes off thinking it would lead to the doc having to amputate my foot.  In my dream.....it did not hurt.....just a neat cut across the metatarsal heads....no blood, no pain....(only in my dreams!).  I then quickly realized I might be in trouble when I told the doc I did this, so (in my dream), I squeezed all the bad bones out and stitched the boneless toes back to my foot thinking they would never know what I had done!!!!!  LOL!!!!! 

If anyone has had a BKA following this kind of nightmare (or less), could you PLEASE let me know who did your amputation.  I have, quite frankly, had enough.  I want my life back.  I want to be able to play with my children while they are still children. Please chime in if you know anyone who will and can help.  I did send my records to a renoun specialist who believes that quality of life is the first consideration in an amputation.  I am waiting to hear back this week if he will accept the case.

 

Thanks!  Magmo

 

 

PLEASE tell me who did your amputation? I saw a doc at U of W and he is no longer in the practice. Thanks!

I realize this was posted over a year ago but I am interested how you made out with the voluntary amputation?.mY husband had as severe injury due to a stabbing and is in constant severe pain. Turned to drugs which turned out to be a 10 or so year run with heroin. He has been sober now for 3 years but the pain in unbearable. He only takes iburropian...wont touch any pain meds for obvious reasons. He really wants just to cut his foot off..He has gone so far as telling his doctor if I just have an "accident" with the chain saw can you help me...they laught if off say go see therapist, other doctors. but really the only way to stop pain and the debilitation is to cut it off..We are just fine with a prostetic so why wont they take him seriously? I guess my question is if you had anyluck and if you did how did you go about it? thank you so much for your help.

Kerry

Same situation, doctors keep saying we can safe the foot. My question is will I have better function with transtibial amputation with less pain and quicker recovery

No one has given me the option to amputate my foot but I'm constantly in pain and I just can't deal with it anymore, I'm constantly off school, I'm only 14 and have a whole life ahead of me that I don't want to spend in pain, do you think I could mention it to a consultant/doctor as I'm fed up of being in pain constantly and I don't think it's going to ever stop, at least that's what the hospital told me.

Where are you located and are you still doing amputations?