Broken Bone In My Foot :(

March 11, 2008

I fell down some snowy, concrete stairs the second week in January and

broke a bone in my foot. It's the fifth metatarcel and it's called

a " Fracture " . I've been on crutches (ugggggg) for 8 weeks now.

I went back to the Dr for another x-ray yesterday and he tells me it

has NOT healed AT ALL. Has anyone else had any experience with lack of

healing bones? I'm trying to identify if this is " normal " or my CMT is

affecting my lack of healing. I'm using a bone stimulator once a day,

but even that seems not have had any effect. Any ideas??

Thanks so much!!

Deb

March 11, 2008

Yes, Deb, I've had bones that fail to heal. My first broken bone was a

metatarsal stress fracture. Can't really tell you what I did, but at the end of

a day of gardening my foot hurt. X-ray showed the fracture. That break healed.

Due to neuropathy from CMT, I wasn't aware of the next break(s) in the

cuneiforms and the bones continued to shrivel and break. Described to me as the

nerves not sending impulses to the muscles, which then atrophy. The body

interprets that as disuse and stops sending calcium, so the bones shrink and

become brittle. When they break, they don't heal.

In April 2006 I was diagnosed with a Charcot foot and in September 2006 had

surgery to replace the the broken up midfoot bones with grafts (cadaver bones)

and fuse it all together.

I googled ' Fracture' and found the following, which really sounds similar

to my situation...

" fractures can become chronic conditions if the fracture fails to unite,

or heal. If this is the case, surgery will likely be recommended to secure the

fracture in place with a screw, and bone graft may be used to stimulate a

healing response. "

It looks like the introduction of new bone stimulates the body to heal.

Best of luck healing.

O

BTW, I'm a strong advocate of MSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane). It promotes tissue

growth. Post surgery the surgeon was very pleased with how my foot healed.

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