Compound fracture of tibia and fibula recovery

I haven’t had this injury but was curious about those who got it skiing as I’ve recently started skiing and feel relatively comfortable because I’m a competent snowboarder and ice skater.

 I find no joy in going particularly fast or hard while skiing: should i just crank my DIN pretty low? My bindings have both a vertical and horizontal DIN should I do them differently etc. ?

I'm wandering alot of the same thing.  I am a semi truck driver with my husband doing this for over 3 years and run team for a freight company.  Well, we left outta the house from Jackson county Alabama, I made it as far a 5 miles past north little rock AR. Threw a pin which caused our cooling belt belt to come.off. company sent tow truck Thursday 1/23/202 to tow us back to little rock terminal. Well tow truck guy was dumb , brought a 2 seater truck for 3 people and didnt even hook up air lines so he had NO control of the brakes of our cab or 20k we were carrying in 2 trailers. This dumbass didnt even close our hood or cattle guard and since all he did was put a chain on our truck, surprised I'm not dead riding in our sleeper but he broke our truck WROSE turning into terminal cattleguard not being secured. I find all this out AFTER I feel the truck moving, like it was dropped,  but my hubby and tow truck guy were trying to close cattle guard....
Well, it's dark and I bebop outta the driver side door and the last step to the ground wasnt there 6 feet later my right foot hit the ground and snapped i just fell back screaming
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Long story short er relocated my ankle, had to have surgery in5 days for tibia and fibula fractures. Rented a car friday my loving husband drove me back to alabama then right back to AR. Picked up our semi and came back to Alabama.
Monday they opened me up and the bottom of my tibia was just bone dust my fibula was broke in 3 places... I have a plate and 6 screws holding my fibula together and 2 6 inch screw in my fibula the nerve block stopped about 10-11 hours after and I was ok. But OMG will the pain EVER STOP. IM CONSIDERING GOING BACK TO THE HOSPITAL IN A COUPLE HOURS. I can't do crutches or a walker, soft cast thank God waorkmans comp paid for EVERYTHING including a wheelchair... I'm only gonna make 900 a week from workmans comp u wander if I can use my Shot term disability I pay for thru work ..
. This whole situation sucks because we just  bought our 1st host on a mountain must go up 8 stairs in garage or 10 up front

I had my 5 week check up yesterday and all is progressing as expected. I need to get back to flying for work and my doc made me a little nervous. Stated I am at risk of blood clots and serious swelling with pressure in cabin. Advised to take 2/325 mg Bayer aspirin before flights. I am on a 41/2 hour flight. Have any of you flown at 5 weeks and how concerned should I be? Thank you

Richard Brooks wrote: I had my 5 week check up yesterday and all is progressing as expected. I need to get back to flying for work and my doc made me a little nervous. Stated I am at risk of blood clots and serious swelling with pressure in cabin. Advised to take 2/325 mg Bayer aspirin before flights. I am on a 41/2 hour flight. Have any of you flown at 5 weeks and how concerned should I be? Thank you

I was told that wearing compression socks and frequently standing up and walking helps. Also doing ankle exercises in your seat is supposed to help the blood flow. If you have to fly try these just to be safe.
Im also only sharing what ive learned and obviously not a professional lol But this is what i was told by my doctor/physiotherapist

I had a tibia spiral fracture 17 years ago. five hours of surgery,three months in an external fixator and ten weeks in different casts and boots. Stepped off a roof so nothing as glamorous as skiing. Although I did break the same leg ,same bone but in a different place. That was a simple break and cast and crutches for ten weeks. I have limited flexibility in my ankle and arthritis in it which bothers me most of the time. Physical therapy was of limited benefit.I can still climb but it hurts doing certain types of crack climbs but since I don't like face climbing and don't sport ascend I am some what limited. I still ski.The thing is we have all had similar types of injuries and they could have been much worse. We are not  in an electric wheel chair navigating it with a pencil in our mouth so all is good.

I am a 68 year old school teacher and volunteer First Responder. Last September, I was on scene helping with a traffic accident when a driver drove full speed into our marked off area and hit me face on going 45 MPH. I was sent flying over a police car, landed on the pavement, was not breathing, but was revived and flown to a hospital with 8 broken bones and a lot of other stuff. My Tibia was broken in two places and the piece dislodged from the bone, and my Fibula was broken. I underwent an Open Reduction/Internal Fixation.  Two months later I was back teaching using a walker. I know walk without one. All that is the good news. I do have pain in several areas of my body that hopefully over time will heal. I have 9 screws, a rod down the bone, and some plates.

This is just me, but when it came time every morning to do physical therapy in the hospital, I would double everything they had me do. I was told to get all the therapy I could. Unbelievably, when I was discharged my surgeon said I didn't need it. I had to hire an attorney to get him to change is mind. I have been going and getting  it every other day since then, and when my sessions run out at the end of March, I have bought most everything to do it at home to the extent I can. The lingering pain in the knee is mostly gone. Where there is a plate down further, it bothers me a lot. It looks like still a goodly amount of swelling to go. When I come home from teaching my leg is very swollen and I rub it down with a healing solution. I sleep, but wake up several times during the night uncomfortable.

I read where a lot of good people are suffering here. It has been a long winter. Some offer good suggestions. I have always been a runner. Those days may be gone and I miss them terribly. I take life a day at a time. I have shoulder impingements that may need surgery. Got a lotta stuff to get fixed. So glad to be able to share my information and read and pull for others here. It is a long process to get back to where we want to be, but we all know that.  

Hi all, I was fortunate to find this group at a time when I myself have been recovering from a compound fracture of tib/fib. I thought I'd share my story once I start feeling positive about my recovery. But it seems there's a lot of uncertainty now. I'm a 26 yo female from India. Got hit by a bike while crossing the road 3 months back. I have a plate and two screws holding my tibia in place.
My doc put me in a PTB cast after wound healing and I have been walking with partial weight bearing since two months now. Got my 3rdmonth x ray done and it seems there's delayed healing, so the doc advised against removing my cast but Im allowed to walk with a stick now. Amidst such chaos in the world I have started feeling even more helpless despite being patient all this while. Hoping for better days to prevail . :) 

Asmita Mehta wrote: I have started feeling even more helpless despite being patient all this while. Hoping for better days to prevail . :) 

Hi Asmita,

Thanks for sharing your story and i think most of us here if not all have been through the emotional roller coaster8 and the doubts and worries. But based on what you described i think you should be fine, I'm not a doctor of course but from my understand when they use a plate instead of a rod, your bone integrity is more intact than other cases and healing takes a long time. Just as most people here would tell you make sure you get your calcium instake plus D3 and K2(mk7) and follow your doctors orders.
But the main point of my reply is to tell you to be patient and dont let it get you down too much. and keep us updated :) all the best for now

Hi all, i posted here before sharing my story about  my motorcycle crash and compound fracture (tib/fib) and loss of about 9cms of my tibia in the process. But this post is about issues long after the accident.
 Has anyone here had any issues with nerve damage/muscle tearing or strains that happened long after the surgery around the initial injury?
more than a yeat after my surgery while i couldnt run, i was walking normally and doing lots of hikes. But early december while walking normally on the streett i suddenly had  a very painful feeling in the medial part of my calf or soleus muscle. it felt like a serious muscle tear . Almost like someone stabbed my calf with a fork. For about a month after i4couldnt really walk as the stabbing pain would return after about 1000-2000 steps so was walking with one crutch all of december and best part of January. Doctors never gave me a real answer and all the tests only showed i dont have a clot but no real asnwer as to the cause of pain. It got better towards the end of January but im still very limited in how much i can walk. It feels like the soft tissue  around my tibia on the inner side of my leg gets super tight and it often throbs and sometimes gets more painful. Seems like a blocked saphenous nerve or..  They couldnt do an MRI due to the metal rod inside and ultrasound showed scar tissues in the area which is expected with a compound fracture but this pain started almost one year and 3 months after my surgery and is really stopping me from being mobile.
Has anyone has a similar problem or any real issues long after the surgery?
Thanks

Hey so 8 days in I had a tib fib fracture below the knee
Car ran up my leg. 6 days in i had an infection in my blood not at incision site. Still have not got staples out. I was mobile at first but I believe that lead to infection. Now i try to stay elevated and in position however that is causing me to become less able to use leg then actually use it. I hope things progress and i can get well. I feel like once staple is out . im very interested in water aerobics. The pain is up and down i was given little to no medication dont have a Pcp. So idk im just powering through it with very lil help. Grateful to those who have helped. I have 4 screws and one rod down leg. I feel it popping and moving but the few times i have been back to hospital they say it looks fine so I just say screw it now. I hope I can get back on my feet my babies need me..

Ody Samone wrote: Hey so 8 days in I had a tib fib fracture below the knee

So sorry to hear about your injuries! I just wanted to tell you to be patient. It takes your body a while to heal itself and all you can do is be 4patient. Ive had lots of new unexplained pains come and go. Sometimes they stay for a few days or longer but they go away specially in the early stages of your healing.

So as hard as it is, try to be patient and over time youll be fine. Im speaking from a personal experience :)

Hello I know what your going threw I also have a rod in threw my knee to my ankle and after 4 months of healing my leg was purple and hurt and could not put my foot flat long story short in was riding my motorcycle because I'm a rebel and had a incident where I had to put my foot down quick natural reaction and when I did herd a spring like noise followed by the most excruciating pain imaginable so went to hospital and while I was sitting there after xrays the color came back to my leg and pain went away and I walked out of there no pain and able to walk again with out help I forget what they called it but they said I performed a tendon transfer or relocation something like that on my own now I am fully healed but still have some numbness in some spots on my leg but no pain at all 

Now after my first incident I have now compound fracture my other leg right at the ankle same as my other both fibia and tibia this time the surgery went well and healing good color in my foot and leg look normal thanks to university of maryland shock trama I will reply again in a month or two to update the healing process and see how it is 

Scotty Cox wrote:   long story short in was riding my motorcycle because I'm a rebel 

Haha awesome! I love riders that get right back on. I still cant walk right or long even 1.5 years after my crash and still need another bone graft surgery coming as soon as corona lockdown is over but... i also got back on the bike 2 months after being released from the hospital. although its always my buddie's bike as mine was destroyed in the crash!

Wish you and everyone here a pain free and fast recovery

ashton y wrote:

Hi Asmita,

Thanks for sharing your story and i think most of us here if not all have been through the emotional roller coaster8 and the doubts and worries. But based on what you described i think you should be fine, I'm not a doctor of course but from my understand when they use a plate instead of a rod, your bone integrity is more intact than other cases and healing takes a long time. Just as most people here would tell you make sure you get your calcium instake plus D3 and K2(mk7) and follow your doctors orders.
But the main point of my reply is to tell you to be patient and dont let it get you down too much. and keep us updated :) all the best for now

Hi Ashton, thank you for your kind words and insight. I'm happy to share again in this forum that i have now successfully recovered. My 4 month x-ray showed significant healing and my doctor took the PTB cast out. Since i had been exercising from day one, only my ankle showed the most stiffness after plaster removal. My physio was very happy with how quickly i have recovered most of my movements. I have close to half-inch muscle loss, which i was most concerned about but not as much as I had thought. I continue to do rigorous physio to make my muscles stronger, and i have been walking on my own since two weeks now.This is truly a life lesson in patience and will power. 

Asmita Mehta wrote:

Hi Ashton, thank you for your kind words and insight. I'm happy to share again in this forum that i have now successfully recovered. My 4 month x-ray showed significant healing and my doctor took the PTB cast out. Since i had been exercising from day one, only my ankle showed the most stiffness after plaster removal. My physio was very happy with how quickly i have recovered most of my movements. I have close to half-inch muscle loss, which i was most concerned about but not as much as I had thought. I continue to do rigorous physio to make my muscles stronger, and i have been walking on my own since two weeks now.This is truly a life lesson in patience and will power.

Thats wonderful Asmita! im very glad that youre healing fast and are able to walk and exercise and the ankle stiffness is a a part of the territory which gets better with stretches over time.Hopefully others who might be in a similar boat will read your comment and get some much needed positivity specially in the early days of injury when we are all confused and worried!

Keep it up!

Hey everyone! As others have state this forum is super reassuring. This process is so long and mentally exhausting. I also am in the the tib fib club! I am a little over a year out post op. It looks like a child recorder has been jammed down my tib, with screws near the knee and ankle. I recently received an MRI due to ongoing knee pain. One of the PA evaluating my MRI believes I have a partial meniscus tear. I am in the process of tracking down a second opinion. My local ortho is advocating for surgery. My options are:

1) Remove screws (not rod/nail)

2) Screw removal + arthroscopy

3) Screw removal + arthroscopy+ Meniscus repair. This last option would involve the longest recovery time. I am pretty gutted about the prospect of putting on a boot again.

Does anyone have any experience with similar follow up surgeries? Something similar to Arthroscopy, screw removal, or meniscus repair? Any testimonies would be greatly appreciated. I will attach a pic to prove im legit! 

Thanks everyone, sending big love to all you couchbound folks trying to heal up! Its a long road but Ive never completed so many 1,000 piece puzzles in my life.

Boy it is amazing how many of us have the same injury and the recovery is so similar.

I had the same exact injury January 1st skiing and your Xray looks exactly like mine. 

The bone has healed well but like you I have had inner right knee pain that can keep me up at night. My Ortho said I also most likely have a team in the meniscus and the only way to address that is through scope. Im too close to the reduction and I don't want to go in for another surgery so I am dealing with the pain as long as I can.

im not having issues with the crews at this time, but have heard of having them removed in a minor procedure.

Hello Zorana,

Wow! Looking at your xray, I almost thought it was mine! I did the exact same break, with the exact same procedure. Pretty sure identical to where you broke your tib+ fib. I broke my leg August 30th of this year 2020,  I'm only a month post OP and was glad I came across your post!

 I'm pretty active,  I to have gotten no real answers of what the future holds for my injury.  I have the metal rod with 4 screws,  the incision above the knee. I'm just about to start physio,  I have been doing all the exercises the Dr has shown me. I was never put in a cast or boot,  I was told to start applying pressure ASAP, to all of my family's shock! I had to lay with my leg straight for the first three weeks.  If I let my leg down,  gravity was not at all my friend and this burning sensation was almost crippling.  I have full motion in my ankle now,   I can bend my knee but the pain is unreal! It's almost like tight pressure. It only hurts my ankle,  and I get alot of swelling if I'm on my leg to much. So as much as I'm on my leg I stay off as well. 

I know im only a month post OP, but I feel like this won't get better pain wise.  I to have major numb spots on my leg that feel very strange, almost hurt to the touch.  I have just started to get some feeling back in some areas. My Dr did tell me my last visit,  that my body could reject the metal rod and they possibly will have to take it out.  I feel like my leg would heal better without it. The aching pain keeps me up most nights. Im starting to ache in my hips im assuming due to the compensation of not being able to bend my knee fully.

I pray I can run again without major pain! I've been doing just upper body exercised and just today have been doing some light yoga to help stretch out my muscles and maybe help alleviate some pain. 

I pray for some pain relief for everyone that has posted on this thread!  It majorly sucks to break a bone! 

 

Zorana Dicic wrote: I had a ski accident on Feb 25th 2018 that resulted in compound fracture of tibia and fibula. They broke inside my boot, close to my ankle. I had an emergency surgery that evening in South Lake Tahoe, they installed a 315mm titanium rod in my tibia and fastened it with 3 screws. They made an incision above my knee and inserted the rod through the knee. They explained the procedure as routine with 100% recovery. I was released from the hospital the next day. We went back to Bay Area, to my Kaiser Permanente insurance. Since the surgery, I saw an orthopedic PA at Kaiser only 2 times, once a week after the surgery, and once a month later. They basically took an X Ray, and both times there was no bone growth, so they just sent me home and told me to elevate and ice the leg, and come back in a month. I am now almost 7 weeks into this, and no PT has been prescribed to me yet, they said I wasn’t ready. My current situation (7 weeks after surgery):

• The pain is better, but still hurts at the point of fracture and in the knee. 
• The knee and ankle are locked. 
• The muscles on the entire leg atrophied and it is so weak, I have to move it with my arms. 
• The incisions around my knee are closed up and clean, still sore, and the incision around the puncture are still bloody and very painful. The puncture point is still bleeding from time to time and painful. 
• I have several completely numb spots on my leg, around the fracture and incision points. These numb sport border very painful spots, a very strange and unnatural feeling.  
• I have a boot, I keep my leg elevated most of the day, and I use crutches to get around the house. 
• I eat all the foods rich in minerals and vitamins needed for bone growth. I eat very healthy and a lot. 
• I massage my leg with gel for swellings, and with oil to stimulate some blood circulation.
• I work from home, lying on the couch. I am falling apart from lying on the same position all day and twisting in order to use my laptop. I try to do some upper body workout, but still while sitting with one leg up. 
• And I wait…. 

I would like to hear about experiences of those who had similar procedure done. I get so little information from the doctors, and they always have the same answer to all my questions- “it depends on a person”. I would like to know some timelines and milestones so that I can manage my expectations during my recovery, and also to get some hints on what I can do to recover faster.

1. The swelling- my knee, ankle and foot are swollen and my leg is blue from knee down. There has been a significant improvement on the knee since the beginning when it was like a balloon, but its’ still swollen compared to the other knee which I believe restricts the range of motion. Any thought on who to reduce swelling and bruising?
2. Procedure impact on the knee- how much did this procedure disturb my knee? How to recover it? Will this procedure cause any knee pain in the future? 
3. Locked joints- my knee, ankle and now even my hip became stiff. I cannot move my knee, its locked, and my ankle also, but it’s just so close to the injury I wouldn’t try to move it yet. How do I do about trying to start to move them, and when?
4. PT- what kind of rehabilitation therapy is most effective? Where should I seek PT (my insurance or private studios)? How should I ask my insurance for it (since they are not offering any other than a person manually moving my leg, and even that not yet)? What can I do on my own? When to start? How to start?
5. Numb spots- anything I can do about this? How long can I expect them to be numb for?
6. Scars- how to minimize them? What to use, when, and for how long?
7. Impulse stimulation- Does anyone recommend buying one of those impulse stimulators online? 

Thank you all in advanced for your thought and suggestions, and sorry for the lengthy message.

I had surgery on February 12th 2020. Did physical  therapy for 3 months after surgery.  He discontinued the therapy because no growth in the bone was showing.  Today 10/22/2020 I had a follow up appointment and my orthopedic surgeon wants to remove the rod and screws and ream the bone out,  due to it not healing correctly.  After that he will insert a bigger rod. I wanted anyone's opinion who has had any similar situation.  Here is a picture of the latest x-ray.  Non smoker, overall healthy.  Losing hope in this break ever healing.  Not to mention the pain and mental stress arising from never being able to get around much without terrible pain.  Any words of advice from someone who has been through this.  Has anyone on this thread had to have a second surgery? 

Thanks for your time.