I accidentally stepped on my foot 4 weeks after microfractures surgery..

[petersellers]

I have had microfractures surgery 4 weeks ago.Everything was fine until today.I accidentally tripped while walking with my crutches and stepped for a few seconds on my foot.I felt sharp pain.It happened so quickly.I am very frustrated right now because my doctor told me that i should avoid weight bearing for 6 weeks.I'm afraid that i have done some damage and that this surgery is going to be a failure now..
Does anyone have experience in microfractures surgeries??Please help me

[kscope09]

There are a few people on here who have said pretty much the exact same thing. Some of thwem I remember reading about said they'd had an mri to check and it was OK. I think if the sharp pain was just an instananious thing and is not now a constant pain then you could be ok. Remember that your surgeon has driled holes in your bone so any weight on it is going to hurt wehter there is damage or not.

I can't say wether it will be alright or not but if the pain was just at the time and you havn't had any other symptoms on top of your usual pain and swelling etc then you should be OK, but if your worried then it wouldn't be a bad idea to speak to the surgeon and maybe see about getting an mri to check.

All the best!

[petersellers]

Thank you very much..you've been very helpful.i read too about people with same problem.most of the say that it is very common for this to happen in these 6 weeks.And yes i felt sharp pain only during the impact but after that nothing.now everything is okay.there is no swelling...
I will be more careful in the future..

[jt801]

I would bet that there aren't many people who have been on crutches for a signifigant amount of time that didnt stumble and weight their leg at some point. I know i did it several times. Seeing as you are 4 weeks out from surgery, i would say that your mfx has probably healed enough to survive the impact you had even if its not ready for full time weight bearing. When you see your doctor you might tell him what happened just to be safe. Good luck!

[AndrewH]

I had microfracture last June and on the night of the surgery when I went home I tripped coming down the stairs and heavily landed on the affected leg. It was very daft of me as it was my first time on crutches and I was attempting to come down the stairs in the dark.

I subsequently tripped twice more, once while hoovering on one leg and the second time while trying to sit on a step.

My microfracture failed - but not because of those trips. I had mosaicplasty on the same spot this July and the surgeon says that when he went in, the defect had fully covered over with fibrocartilage. Indeed I had an MRI at the 6 month mark which showed that the defect had filled in.

Unfortunately, the fibrocartilage just wasn't tough enough - for me - to take away the pain. The pain did lessen a bit but still hampered me considerably.

I told my surgeon about the initial trip after it happened and he thought it would be okay as long as I hadn't twisted my knee in the fall. I 'd imagine that most folk on crutches will have an accident of some sort during a 6 week spell.

Thankfully I didn't trip this summer after the mosaicplasty and managed to get through the 6 weeks without triipping. I put that success down to not going down the stairs in the dark and not hoovering!

I'm confident that the mosaicplasty has worked but its still early days.

Best of luck and don't worry.

[arthriticknee]

I agree with all of the posts in response to your question.
In the vast majority of cases a little slip up here or there won't cause much of a problem. 4 weeks of being good should have given your knee time to start and progress the healing process.
It is generally only those who ignore post-op instruction and consistently weight bear that have trouble and have a negative effect on their outcome
It is easy to be anxious and this will make a stumble seem potentially worse than it is. Remember that fear is a good thing at this stage as it makes you behave yourself.
I am confident you have not done yourself any serious harm. Just be careful!

[BlueTopaz_ZA]

Dear Petersellers

I must say, the microfracture surgery far outweighed all other procedures I have had in terms of stress levels, so I hear where you are coming from in terms of worrying about any potential damage.

Today marks my 6 weeks post surgery, and officially being rid of the crutches, and I have to agree with everyone else, that if you lead a normal life and try to do some normal things (with the crutches), the odd mishap is inevitable. I too had the odd mis-step or tweak of the knee, and am happy to report now that I have been cleared to go crutch free, I have (so far) no pain, but yes a little "heaviness" in the leg in general after a full day of activity.

I do not believe that an isolated incident as you describe could destroy all the hard work of the last 4 -6 weeks.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[petersellers]

Thank you all very much.You've been very helpful:)
This is a great forum..It's good to know that there are people there who can give advice about knee problems