Hi @caligirlian, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I moved your message and questions to this existing discussion called "Removal of plate and screws from tibia fracture." As it turns out @tc125, who also experienced a broken tibia and surgery in 2018 asked similar questions. In this discussion you'll also meet @bernese53 @pthielen5923 @quiteachiver75 @jenniferhunter @red3 and others.

Caligirlian, are you also seeing a physiotherapist?

@caligirlian I can sure relate. I broke my ankle (both tibia and fibula) in a compound open fracture in May and I have 2 plates with 3 screws apiece and a screw inside the fibula. I am in physical therapy now and working on rehab. Some of what they are doing is related to retraining my body to stop feeling pain at the surgery sites. I am supposed to rub both my ankles with a dry washcloth or brush so my body pays attention to what that feels like for the normal uninjured ankle. Just yesterday, the PT did a graston technique where they scrape the skin with shaped steel tools. This helps stretch the ligaments and tendons and work out some of the inflammation to aid in range of motion. She also did this to stretch the scars that are attached to the bone. The trauma of breaking the bones and surgery creates scar tissue in the fascia which makes it tight and the purpose of the therapy is to break up the fascial tightness. The bones themselves do not have nerves in them, but the outer covering of the bones is highly innervated. When nerves are inflamed by an injury, they heal very slowly. I still have some nerves in my foot that get touchy and tell me when to stop and get off my foot. I also had a bad experience from a spinal injection a few years back that caused bad stabbing nerve pains from the pressure of the fluid and that took about 6 weeks to calm down, and I had cold sensitivity in my hand for a year and a half before it returned to normal. You are very early in your recovery from the plate removal, and it needs more time. I also have some pain with my hardware and my surgeon said if it still bothered me next summer, he could remove the hardware. The bones are actually part of the fascial (connective tissue) system which contain the hardened calcified cells. A fracture with displacement of the bone and surgical hardware will pierce the outer covering on the bone. My PT also does myofascial release to stretch the fascia and get it moving again. Right now, my leg is weak from staying off of it for 3 months and not aligned properly because muscles are not doing their jobs and it hurts my knee and hip to walk because of the mechanics issues. I developed tight rock hard muscles on the inside of my ankle that extend up and pull into my knee causing pain on the inside. I have to work to fix this because I don't want to wear out my knee because of improper walking. MFR can relieve pain when the tight tissue is released and it gets the body back to proper ergonomics. You may want to look into that and find a PT who also does MFR. There is a lot of information in our MFR discussion and you can search for a provider on the MFR website. Here is the link. https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

Hi Cali. I broke my tibia on June 17, 2020 and like you, I first had an external fixator then 11 days later, I had 2 plates and 12 screws put in. No weight bearing for 3 months, then just 15% for more than a month. I had an in home PT for 4 months then was finally able to go to outpatient PT in the middle of October. Almost 9 months later and I'm still in constant pain! Everything in my leg just feels weird and heavy! So my doctor will be removing my hardware this coming Monday. I'm really scared about going through another surgery but he said it'll be done as an outpatient and I'll be waking out of the hospital this time.

Now that you've had yours removed for a while, how are you doing? Are you still in pain? Do you regret getting the hardware removed? Any other problems you can share?

Thanks so much!