Badly broken ankle & fusion - advice please

[Millenniumbug1]

I broke my ankle very badly 6 months ago. I've had it plated, pinned & screwed right round.
It has healed well & the repair is tidy, trouble is, even though I'm doing my physio exercises, the mobility is very limited due to hard tissue stopping it.
I've got to go for an MRI scan to assess the tissue. If its scar tissue, they'll remove it, but if its cartillage, the specialist said he'd fuse my ankle in a set position.
I'm really worried. Will it mean I can't jog, ski, cycle, hike again? Will I always have a limp/need a stick? Will I need built up shoes?
I'm in my early 40's and an active Mum.
Any advice would be appreciated - I'm in bits at the moment.

I'm a podiatrist and I have had patients with their ankles fused, you will not be able to bend the ankle ime, so heels etc will be out.

Ime you will not need built up shoes, legs get shorter with some ops but they would have to remove A LOT of bone before you needed a built up shoe.

You really ought to have a detailed meeting with any surgoen who wants to operate on you, IF it goes wrong they are not the ones in pain.

6 months is not a long time to recover from a broken ankle, it is a complicated joint and is surrounded with ligaments, if you look at an anatomy site you will see what I mean, theres loads of them and they will not take kindly to a break. They take ages to heal as well. Its not like when you break a long bone and you just have bone to heal soft tissue injuries can be worse than bony ones.

Have your MRI, make a list of questions and then decide if you want to have the joint fused or peresevere with physio, ask the physio what their experience is of your type of break and try to gauge if they would have further ops or keep on with physio.

Thanks Fluffycloud, that was very reassuring - I too think its early days as yet.

Slightly different, as my issue is my wrist, but even though in spite of intensive physio (3x a week) I had no movement at all of my wrist once it was out of plaster and was painfully unstable, they wouldn't consider fusing it (which had been mooted as the original plan of action after my injury) until nearly a year after I'd done it in case it got better.

Is it causing you pain ? TBH, I'd try and avoid an ankle fusion if possible - is there a reason they couldn't tidy up the cartilage ?