A Jones Fracture

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Hey everyone,

I wanted to come back to this forum more to tell my story (not specifically a unique one) more than to ask a specific question. This is for anyone experiencing a Jones fracture.

At the start of September 2019 I had a pretty busy day. All I can tell you was that at the end of the day my foot hurt. This wasn't super out of the ordinary for me because I had done an above-average amount of walking for me personally and I am a pretty fat guy. The pain was actually worse about 3 days later but I kept ignoring it (bad idea) and gradually it got a bit better. Fast forward to mid-October, I had to go down a pretty steep hill one day and that night it hurt like crazy. Grocery shopping just a couple of days later I felt a "snap" in my foot and immediately I knew it was broken.

What had happened was I had been walking on, albeit limpingly, a stress fracture in the 5th metatarsal of my right foot for 6ish weeks and it finally gave way to become a Jones fracture. I was fortunate enough to get a pretty immediate ride to the ER from family and got some X-rays. I had a clean fracture with no displacement. So at this point, the news is about as good as it's going to get for this type of fracture. I asked if ignoring it really screwed me and the doctor there suggested that they wouldn't have been able to see it until the break occurred. Lucky me. A little bit about me would be: 30, obese, not very active, non-smoker/drinker, and super fortunate to have a situation where I could rest a lot.

So here's where this adventure begins, the meat most people will care about. The first week sucked the most. No pain meds except "take ibuprofen" and that has its own problems. I had a soft wrap splint on from the ER and it would be 10 days before an appointment at the Orthopedic department. Being obese I quickly found out crutches were not going to work at all. I got my hands on a walker, which was much better, and the first few days I still had to put some weight on my heel to get from A to B, typically going to the bathroom. I remember reading an article on using a knee scooter after foot surgery and I got one of those asap. Finally, my Ortho appointment rolled around and a new set of X-rays were taken. This is where I learned I had a proper Jones fracture and that this wasn't going to be a quick fix.

My personal instructions were: take 600mg of Calcium Carbonate three times a day as well as 5000 IU of D3 once a day. Use ibuprofen for pain (more on that in a bit) and absolutely zero weight bearing for at least 6 weeks, likely more. That's hard for a fat guy. Especially going to the bathroom. So now that I know what my diagnosis is I immediately begin to Google. As we all know, that's a bad idea, but we all get that "injury brain" and all we can do is gobble up information. The problem here is reading horror stories. One of the absolute best things I read in one thread was "remember that we are all individuals and that we will all have our own experience" which could not be truer.

Here's what I learned that I would share:
- You may not want to eat but more calories actually are ideal. Eating healthy cannot hurt at all.
- The vitamins matter. Tremendously. Keep up with them.
- Elevating your foot when swollen is actually a HUGE deal. ICE IT!
- Ibuprofen can potentially delay the formation of the callus. If you're not in pain, use ice for swelling and skip the pill.
- Taking protein helps. I started drinking protein shakes after learning this and genuinely think they did work.
- There is no literature directly linking obese patients with troubled healing. Be that due to weight-bearing or compromised vascular systems. Diabetes hinders all healing processes in general and smoking is really not good.
- Don't think that the bad stories or high risk of non-union mean you're doomed. We're all individuals and we all heal differently. You're not just a statistic.

So where am I today? Well, I just had my 6-week checkup and my bone is about 75% healed with no scarring. I have been wearing a boot, not a cast, the entirety of those 6 weeks but I did TREAT IT LIKE A CAST! I never removed it other than to clean my leg. The doctor said this was definitely a good thing and that usually, a cast to the knee was best. The boot was a good option for me though because I could loosen it when elevating due to swelling. A cast in my scenario just wasn't the better option. But just because I had a walking boot didn't mean I could walk on it at all. I have another 3 weeks in the boot but I can weight bear now. It's looking like I will get to have shoes again before Christmas if all goes well! Not 100% sure I am going to actually walk on it yet, I admit I'm still scared of the damn thing, but I can get around easier in general with the peace of mind.

The real reason I am here writing this though is because I read in one of the threads that you never see positive stories. "Why would a good story need to post here?" So I wanted to let people out there know that you're not a statistic and just do your best to follow instructions and take care of yourself.

I went to a depressing place reading all the negative things people had gone through. Life can be a real bitch and it will test some of us more than others. Things like "will I have an outcome like this because I don't exercise?" "will I refracture because of my weight?" "oh no, I felt a quick pain when moving did I just dislodge something?" Instead of that crap, just do your best, that's all you have control over.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow American readers and best wishes to all,

- J

P.S. - In case it wasn't obvious, I never write. So if you made it to the end... I feel for ya lol.