Any metal friends out there?

[Longdistance]

Anyone have any metal work in their limbs?

Just looking to swap stories, have a chat/support about the procedure.

Broke my leg in April and had to have surgery on my tib and fib. They put in two plates either side on my right leg, and now have a total of 19 screws keeping my leg together.

I'm now partial weight bearing, and having physio. I will need a ct scan as only one break is healing, the other two breaks are slow at healing.

Any similar stories?

[gallifrey]

I fractured my tibial plateau in 2005 and had a 2cm compression of my tibia which meant I had to have a bone graft from my pelvis. I have a big plate and 8 screws in my knee which if I'm honest still isn't right. I've since had am arthroscopy and the cartilage removed and apparently will need a knee replacement in the future. I can feel the metal in my leg when I walk and I use a stick because my knee won't straighten out properly and sometimes gives way which is very painful.

I'm sure yours will be fine, how did you do it?

[Longdistance]

Hey, that doesnt sound great :(

I slipped down the stairs here at home. Luckily my h was home, as he wasn't in a rush for work. I got rushed off in an ambulance to the hospital.

One thing that does creep me out, is I still remember the noise when I broke my leg.

Had to wait 11days for the swelling to go down, and then they operated. I was in hossy 2 weeks.

How did you do yours? I bet its more interesting than mine.

[CMOTDibbler]

I've got 20 cm of titanium plate which holds my hand onto my wrist. Its all also bone grafted and some other bits are screwed together in my hand.

You can actually see the edge of my plate which is a bit weird!

[mawbroon]

I bust my tib and fib in my ankle in 2010 and had surgery at 34wks pregnant.

They put one long plate up the outside with 6 screws in it and two long screws on the inside.

I had it in for about 10 months. I got it removed because it was sticking out and rubbed on most shoes and boots.

Yes I heard mine too. Crack crack as I was falling. Someone with me tried to tell me it might have been ligaments popping, but I knew it was the bones. It is the only time I have ever had flashbacks.

You have my sympathies and understanding about how crap dealing with a fracture can be.

[gallifrey]

I fell off my newly backed young horse, I was riding in an indoor school and a massive hole appeared in the ground, rabbits had burrowed up underneath the building and the ground had literally given way. I was cantering him and he suddenly saw this massive hole in the ground and jumped about 5 ft in the air and twisted sideways. I came flying off and landed on my feet.
I couldn't move so I was sitting there shouting for about 20 mins before anyone heard me.

I was in a full cast for 6 weeks from ankle to hip, non weight bearing, then I got a hinged cast that allowed me to bend my knee. I have an 8 inch scar down the front of my knee now.

[Longdistance]

gallifrey your accident sounds frightening. And the treatment sounded quite complex and lengthy. Will they consider taking any of the metal work out? What other options have they given you?

maw I could not imagine what it's like to break a leg when pg. Was it difficult for them to operate on you as ou were pg? Always wondered how they would do a procedure on a pg lady. It's one of the things that to me thinking in hospital, and that I was glad I wasn't.

CMOT I have similar on my ankle. As my break was quite low down my tib and fib, and near my ankle, the titanium plate sticks out a bit where my ankle bone would concave in. This is on the inside of my leg, but not the outside, even though I've had plates fitted both sides.

The irony to my story, is my bf of 30 years broke her right ankle about 2 years ago. So we both now have metal in our legs. Unfortunately, she's still having surgeries, physio, and pain management for it :( so she's still suffering.

[gallifrey]

I am wondering about having the metal taken out, maybe if I have a knee replacement they will have to!

[VirgoGrr]

I also had a tibial plateau fracture of my right leg, just over a year ago. I have a plate down the outside of my tibia and six screws. The surgeon thought that I would also have to have a graft from my hip, but they did an artificial graft in the end, which I was grateful for! I started off in a rigid splint, then a hinged one, which was on for ages and my leg basically wasted away! It took a loooooong time to get any of the muscle back again and it's still a bit thinner than the other.

It has mended pretty well although it doesn't feel 'normal' and the only ongoing issue I have is that I have a bit of a limited range of movement, it bends only to about 110 degrees and it feels a bit peculiar to kneel on it, I prefer not to. :/ Took a long time in physio to get this much use back though. I broke it in April and through a long period of gradual weight bearing, was only just stick-free by October.

I understand that it's rare to not have any ongoing pain, so I feel blessed for that and I'm happy to have this much use back.

Gallifrey, have you tried private physio? It was worth paying for IMO. Hospital physio was rubbish. I empathise with your situation. If you have a TKR, I think they will get rid of the existing plate.

[mawbroon]

Longdistance - well, I'm not going to lie, it was pretty horrendous going through this while I was pregnant.

They wouldn't give me a GA or any type of sedation, so I was lying there wide awake while they pinned me back together. My foot was up in the air in a thing like a vice while they drilled, banged, hammered away. The baby absolutely hated the noise and/or vibration of the drill and wriggled and kicked really hard while they were doing it. The bed was rocking from side to side as they hammered or whatever the bloody hell it was they were doing!! I had my MP3 player, but at times I had to turn the volume up because they were making so much noise!

I don't think they were used to having patients awake because they didn't speak to me or ask if I was ok during the procedure which took 54 minutes.

After the surgery, I was allowed a little bit of morphine and some tramadol, but I know I was not getting as much pain relief as the non pregnant patients. Actually, when I was sent home from A&E, all they gave me was paracetemol. Can you imagine, just paracetemol for a bust ankle.

I had to inject myself with blood thinners for a while after the surgery because I was very immobile, and then after I had ds2, they wanted me to do it again for another 10 days or so. Nasty, I was black and blue from my rubbish injecting technique!!

I was still supposed to be in plaster on my due date, but the very nice, understanding female consultant agreed to let me have a removable moon boot the week before I was due. I was still wearing it when I gave birth to ds2, but tbh it didn't really cause any problems apart from not being able to get out of bed without first wrestling with the Velcro straps!

When it came to getting the metalwork out, I said I didn't want a GA for that either. Having seen the GA patients coming round in the recovery room put me off ever having one, it looked horrendous!! So, they agreed to remove the metalwork under local and I watched in the reflection of the shiny overhead lamps.

Seriouisly, it was like the tools you see in B&Q!! He used a lot of force to make the incision with a scalpel and then used a screwdriver to take the screws out then stapled my leg with a staple gun! He was showing it to students, but unfortunately I couldn't hear all of what he was saying.

Mentally, I was in a far better place when I was having the metalwork out and I felt like I was getting a rest lying in hospital all day LOL

It is 3+ years on now and although I get the odd bit of pain, I have mostly forgotten that it was ever broken. Hopefully you will get to that too!

And as an interesting aside, ds2 has a couple of teeth which are demineralised. I do wonder if they were developing whilst my body was repairing the fracture and perhaps he went short of calcium.

[Fragglewump]

I shall contribute my own very pathetic metal story. Have a titanium clip on my Fallopian tube where they removed my ovary. Probably no value at all compared to you lot who are probably worth a fortune at the scrapyard!!!

[ExitPursuedByABear]

I have two large screws in my calcanium - heel bone. I broke it in two falling of my horse. I can sometimes feel them moving.

[VirgoGrr]

Mawbroon! You are hard as nails! I can't imagine watching the op, aaaarrrggghhhh!!!!

Longdistance, I just read your posts again - you can have a non-MN hug - 2 months in, I was pretty low, it takes some getting used to having limitations like this - it will get better though. And you get fucking brilliant triceps from using crutches. No more bingo wings here.

[Longdistance]

@ Maw you are very brave. I couldn't be awake for that. Pretty crap of them to not speak to you. It must have been terrifying. Glad you don't really feel it. I haven't had much pain for a while. When I'm walking on my leg, if I go far, I can feel it, but an ache rather than pain iygwim.

Exit think I might keep a wide birth of horses, seen as you're the second one with a horsey accident.

Virgo glad my bingo wings will go. Although I've lost weight as my appetite died with the hospital food used to make me heave. I thought the food on the NHS was awful, but it's rank here in Oz too.

One thing I'm baffled about is the amount of screws the surgeon used. It was a spiral fracture, and he reckoned I did good job of breaking it. He said I had a few loose screws in there does anyone know why I'd have loose screws? Or was it DIY gone wrong?

[mawbroon]

No, not brave at all. I had no choice but to be awake!

They actually asked me if I wanted to watch, but I was not up to seeing it at the time of the original surgery. Looking back and knowing that it all went well and I made a good recovery, I actually sort of wish I had watched them do it. If that makes sense.

I also asked if I could keep the pins and plates as a souvenir, but health and safety rules meant I wasn't allowed.

[digerd]

That reminds me of years ago when I visited a friend in hospital. Opposite was a bed with the curtains drawn and we all heard the hammer bangs on the nail and the patient shouting "ooh" after every hit.

My friend told me that the lady was old and had a heart problem so couldn't have a GA only a local into the skin. Also that the bones have no pain nerves so she would feel no pain.

After the curtains were drawn back, the lady looked all ashen and told us, she felt no pain, her "oohs!" were her reaction to the noise of the hammer on the nail. I just thought it seemed very barbaric like in the middle ages . And if I'd had a heart problem that would have caused me to have a heart attack more than the GA!

[digerd]

re. replacements knee joints

My neighbour at 78 had both done at the same time - she is now 84.
You cannot kneel at all with them nor crouch down, but she manages to bend them and lean over into a ball while doing her gardening, remain in that position for 20 minutes, then stand up straight just as if she were still a 'young chicken'. But then she is called super woman

[Longdistance]

Well...just seen my consultant, and my bones have healed :) and can remove my CAM boot. I had a ct scan yesterday, which confirmed that my bones had fused, hurrah!

I have physio on Tuesday to do balancing, and walking without the boot or crutches. Eek!

Feels really odd without the boot on. Doc said that my ankle is going to be sore as it hasn't moved much.