Two weeks ago, I got hit by a car while walking to work and wound up breaking my tibia in one place and my fibula in two.
At the hospital, I was told I had two options… one was to have a rod and screws put in my leg and hopefully be healed in four months with a partial cast and the other was (possibly surgery, I can’t remember and) to be put in a full leg cast, from my ankle to my hip, and be fully healed in six. I picked the first option and was operated on that night.
When I woke up the next day, I found I had a partial ***splint ***on. Not a cast. The only hard part of the whole thing was the back of the splint that ran from just below the back of my knee, down my calf, and under my foot. Everything else was just cotton and wrapping.
Now, thirteen days later, even that’s gone, replaced by a removable walking cast.
Is this normal? I’ve never had a broken bone before so I am by no means an expert but I have had friends and family break them before (including a cousin with a similar injury) and none of them were in a splint for two weeks and a removable cast two weeks later… they were all in big bulky casts for months on end.
Has medical technology been moving that fast in that only the past seven or eight years, broken bones are healed faster and stronger than they used to be? I’m not complaining (although it does hurt more) but am just curious… this goes against all I thought I knew about healing broken bones and it’s a bit confusing to have what you thought you knew to be turned on its ear.
I’ve seen simple (non displaced) broken ankles treated with back slabs (what you woke up with) a lot. Your bones are held together by the screws, you don’t need the extra plaster of Paris to hold them in place, and they think that the extra mobility results in less muscle wasting and stiffness, and a better recovery.
One of my friends has a similar injur, and took option 2. He’s in a full cast to his hip, because the only thing holding his bones in the right place is plaster of Paris and swollen tissue. He can’t put any weight on the leg at all, and has been in bed for the last 3 weeks.
I had a similar injury at age 13, 30+ years ago. Both tibia and fibula were broken a couple inches below the knee and again a couple inches above the ankle. The only option given was a plaster cast from crotch to toe.
Despite my youth, it took 3 months to get the cast off, 3 more months until I could walk without a cane and over a year before I could walk normally. All due to muscle wastage & knee joint hardening while inside the cast. (The knee itself was uninjured in the accident.) I still had a noticable limp 5 years later.
I recall I actually wondered for several months if I was ever going to walk normally again. My case may have been exceptionally slow to heal, but it sure sounds like the medical folks have woken up to that risk.
I’d say the new way makes a LOT more sense. Fixing the bone was the easy part; repairing the resultant soft tissue damage took years & a lot of effort, pain and money.
Absolutely. Without getting into much depth, the idea behind internal fixation (rods/plates/screws) is to get the limb bearing weight as quickly as possible . This actually speeds up healing.
Thanks for the replies… that’s reassuring. I have two further questions though:
Since getting my cast taken off, my leg hurts a hell of a lot more than it did beforehand. It’s not unbearable by any means but after two weeks of relatively little to very minor pain, it’s surprising and more than a little annoying. Why would having my leg be relatively unencumbered make it hurt more? And is this normal too?
I’m on coumadin (a blood thinner) for the time being since the doctors had me in ICU for a day about a possible embolism and don’t want me to have a blood clot. Part of taking the medicine is that I need to keep my leg elevated but I don’t have any way to keep it that way without staying in bed 24/7.
I’ve been using a box as a footrest the past week but it’s finally fallen apart due to the weight of my leg and now have no way to keep it elevated at all and am now just sitting at the computer normally with both feet on the ground. Am I in danger from doing this? Am I dramatically increasing the chance of a clot by not having my foot at a ninety degree angle from my body?
Sorry for the constant questions but this is the only serious medical issue I’ve ever had to face and I don’t know anything about the processes involved.
I broke my fibula in two places last March playing indoor soccer. The bone was also displaced from the ankle. The surgeon added a plate and 7 screws to fibula to keep things together. I was walking within a month though the pain was considerably worse after the surgery. Leg & ankle still hurt but that is due to the soft tissue damage (which was extensive) rather than the bone damage. Having the scews taken out in March of this year. My advice is to take the rehab seriously (I didn’t) and do your best to keep the leg elevated and rested.
It’s probably best to keep your leg as elevated as much as you can. Do you have another chair or another piece of furniture to use? Anything would do–put some pillows on this other piece of furniture when you are at your computer. If you’re in bed, prop your leg on some pillows or blankets, or stuffed animals, or what have you.
Amen to elevation. It was a pita, but allowed much time for reading. My tib/fib was reassembled with 7 screws, and I was 0 weight bearing for several months, but never had any type of cast. Three screws came out after a year (they were through the head of the bone and hurt like hell when bumped). Embolism concern is quite real-I got a filter installed in my inferior vena cava and had ultrasound tests performed after discharge from the rehab hospital to make sure flow wasn’t compromised. Do what the good doc says, and you’ll be fine.
