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Constant pain with calcaneous fracture

(2 discussions)

My husband crushed his calcaneous (multiple bones in his left foot in a motor vehicle accident 6/2002), broke the bone above his ankle, his lateral thigh muscle is damaged and the nerve in the lateral thigh muscle is dead. He has a plate & 5 screws in his leg & cadaver bones were crushed & placed in his heel & 1 plate & 8 screws in his heel. The scar bothers him even to touch.
Majority of foot pain is in his heel. His entire life has changed.
He is on Wellbutrin for depression but nothing else. We are searching for ways to manage the pain.
Shall we go to a podiatrist or a pain clinic or ???.
Do you have any suggestions for things to try to improve the pain (cortisone shots, etc).
We are looking for any and all solutions.
He’s miserable.
Thank you.


2 comments

    Avatar

    9 10

    I wanted to also mention that we live in Oregon & the cold, rainy, foggy days tend to be worse than the warm days. He also owns his own business & is on a concrete floor a considerable part of the day. Other than work, we don’t do much any more as it’s just too tough on him. We used to hike, enjoy water sports & snow skiing but now we watch alot of t.v., do research on the computer, play board games & Playstation. He’s pretty sick of not being able to do physical activities.

      Vivian Abrams DPM

      9 10

      Pain is a very difficult and subjective thing to treat. There is no one right answer to this difficult situation. It actually might take a team effort. One scenario might involve seeing a pain mangement specialist. There are many things that can be tried to help him such as a dorsal column stimulator, implantable pump, Galvanic stimulator or TENS unit. A podiatrist could make him an AFO such as a Richie type brace. This would help support and lock the foot and ankle. Langer Labs also makes a CRO walker which is used to off load weight off the foot. I can’t say which is the first or second thing to do, as I can not fully assess the situation. Ihope some or all of this helps. Good luck.

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