Jones Fracture

So I wrote a little bit about suffering a Jones Fracture in my introduction, but one hour and a Breaking Bad episode later, I decided that I wanted to chronicle my experience with it. I have found that reading about others experiences with it has helped me a lot in knowing what to expect from a Jones Fracture during recovery. Before beginning the post, I feel like I should mention that I am not a doctor or expert in the matter. All the information that I am about to post is from personal experience and from reading about Jones Fractures online. So without further ado..

This is what a Jones Fracture looks like.


This is a particularly unfortunate fracture because it is in a spot where there is poor blood flow and where there are tendons that actually pull on either side of the fracture (effectively preventing healing) when foot muscles are activated. There are two general methods for treating this type of fracture.

1. Conservatively (non operation)
You are put into a non-weight bearing cast for 6-8 weeks. At the end of this period, X-rays will be taken to see if the bone has been healing properly. If it has then that is great news! You should be able to begin partially bearing weight in a boot. You can then progressively increase the amount of weight you can bear until you are fully healed (roughly another 6-8 weeks). From reading about many people's experiences online, however, it seems that due to the factors listed above, Jones Fractures typically do not heal very well on their own. Many people have reported experiences where they used conservative treatment only to find that no progress was made in terms of healing. As a result, many of them opted for surgery after the conservative treatment. It also seems that conservative treatment has a higher chance of refracture than operative treatment.

2. Operative (surgery)
Surgery for Jones Fractures are usually prescribed to athletes and athletic individuals because it allows for a quicker recovery time. Surgery, as told to me by my orthopedist, involves cutting a small incision in the foot so that a screw can be drilled into the 5th metatarsal to stabilize it. Here is a picture below of my foot post surgery.

Screw + Staple = Stable Foot?

The staple looking thing is also just that. Apparently staples are another point of stabilization and the research is catching up to the practice of using staples (what my doc said). Anyway, as I mentioned a Jones Fracture heals much faster with surgical intervention. My personal recovery plan is a splint (pic below) for 4 days. Then a plaster cast for a week and a half. Followed by a couple weeks of wearing a boot. Much better than the 6-8 weeks of a cast followed by another 6-8 weeks of a boot! Of course everyone heals differently and I opted for the surgery so I may be biased (or more optimistic) about the recovery for surgery.

My splint!

So where are we now? Well I had surgery yesterday afternoon and was given a nerve block so I had no feeling whatsoever from my left calf down (super weird feeling). I have been basically been on the couch or in my bed for the past 24 hours with very minimal movement. The nerve block wore off this morning so I've also started to experience some dull aching pain in my foot and in my heel (I have no idea why there is pain in my heel..) and have started to take antibiotics + pain killers. I am pretty dependent on my amazing girlfriend right now to take care of me since I can literally do nothing but watch Breaking Bad, play FIFA, and blog. Doesn't sound too terrible when I put it like that... Only a couple more days of this, I hope, before I can start resuming normal activities. I will keep all those interested posted!

Also since it is Saturday and I'm a damn proud Longhorn, HOOKEM!