Crushed tibia plateau and fractured tibia post op

Posted by rodney79 @rodney79, Jul 20, 2022

Hi, I had a 5cm crushed tibia plateau and tibia fracture requiring 2 plates and 6 screws. I'm 7 month post op. My knee joint feel great with good movement. I have bad pain down my tibia to my ankle, the fracture was only 6 inches down from the top of my knee. I feel that the plate is keeping my tibia from flexing when I walk or stand naturally. Idk for sure. What I do know is I have bad pain and I feel the hardware is the culprit. Has anyone had an issue like this. I've had an xray that shows just post op changes but no issues. Something is wrong. I've broken bones and have not hurt like this. Please help!!

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@onwillowbay

A few years ago I injured my leg resulting in a complex tear of the meniscus and surgery for repair.
On June 21st of 2022 I had my TKR. Right after the surgery they got me up and waled me. The next day MAJOR pain began and percocets were my saving grace..... I was running out of pain pills, crying every day from the pain, suffered terribly at night after the nurses and Physical Therapist paid their weekly visits. I begged the surgeon for more pain pills but I think he was thinking I was addicted and it was tough getting some extra relief... Finally he caved and gave me an RX telling me "NO MORE".... Physical therapy continued and I thought I would die each night after the Pt's visit. FINALLY, 2 weeks later post op... I went to the dr and he sent me to xrays... While I was hobbling back to the room where my husband and dr were..... I heard the dr say "This is really bad". I walked in and he said.... "Now I know why you were crying and needed more pills".... he said i had a "FrACTureD tiBIA".... So I spent two full weeks of physical therapy on a Fractured Tibia. The surgeon said we had to get this fixed asap and put me in the hospital that day for surgery the following day.
The next day I woke to 46 staples and a whole new set of problems.
Still crying, still in pain... what in the world was going on... How did the tibia get fractured... I had NOT fallen and was beginning to think it happened during the surgery.
The dr's last visit ended with him saying you can come back in six weeks. WHAT? I asked him for an MRI but he said I didn't need one.
So here I am 2 months later and I KNOW my body and KNOW something is wrong. I can hardly walk and when I do... it ends up in pain
Has ANYone experienced anything like this? I am totally homebound... cannot drive.. still have the nurses and PTs coming out to the house.
WHAT DO I DO? Please help me....

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I'd be getting my preoperative records. It's possible the fractured it during surgery. Hold them accountable. Call a laywer

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@jenniferhunter

@onwillowbay You have been going through a lot. It is very painful to have a leg fracture and have to bear weight on it; even during the recovery phase after you've been 6 weeks in a cast, it still hurts a lot to try to bear weight. You are dealing with swelling, aching and throbbing, and muscles that are too weak and the tendons and ligaments get stressed and complain. I had a bad fracture of my ankle of the tibia and fibula that was compound, dislocated and was a bad sprain of the tendons and ligaments during the injury. Obviously something was missed if you are waking up from a knee replacement with a fractured tibia or if that fracture could have happened when you started to bear weight on it. I agree with Amanda that a second opinion would be a good idea.

The pain from breaking my ankle was far worse and for a lot longer than the pain I had from cervical spine surgery. Hardware and implants may cause cause pain too or immune responses from foreign materials in your body. That doesn't happen to everyone, but it can happen. I had titanium hardware on my ankle, and 6 months after the fixation surgery that placed them, I was getting pain and chronic hives. I had to stay on antihistamines all the time because when that wore off, the hives came right back with a vengeance. I had to wait at least a year to have the hardware removed and I still have weakness and some pain. When I do too much or walk too much on uneven ground, my ankle fatigues and starts to hurt and I have to get off if it and I am 2 years past the injury.

I think the recovery from fractures is much longer than we think it is supposed to be, and recovery is in baby steps and you can't rush it. Your body is doing a lot to try to heal itself and rebuild bone. If you suspect an immune problem, there is a lab in Chicago that does a blood test for reactions to orthopedic implant materials called Orthopedic Analysis that you can find at https://www.orthopedicanalysis.com/. There is treatment for immune responses and you can find information at this environmental medicine practice in Texas. https://www.ehcd.com/

I know 6 weeks time sounds like a long time to wait to see your doctor again, but that is kind of standard in healing bone because healing is beginning on the cellular level, but it takes longer to start to deposit minerals like calcium to harden the bone. It forms first as cartilage and converts to bone. With my spinal fusion, it took 3 months until there was visual evidence of bone deposition and when there was no movement of the fused area with flexion of my neck on an X-ray where they measure it on the computer screen. This was evidence that the fusion had begun and that would continue over the next couple years to add more bone and strength. As far as imaging goes, MRIs show not only bone, but soft tissues like cartilage, ligaments, nerves, blood vessels, etc. Bone shows up well on X-ray because of the density of the tissue due to mineral deposition. I haven't had a knee replacement, so I don't know that recovery. Your doctor should be answering questions about why this happened, but it is possible that they do not know that answer. You do need information as to what is best and advice on how you can help improve your healing from this point forward.

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I have a friend who suffered a broken neck from a fall, breaking the top two cervical vertebrae into pieces. Surgery was deemed too risky so he wore a carbon fiber 'halo' appliance for two years but healed well. Two things helped the boney pieces to bridge and join: the doctor added an ultrasound emitting collar when healing seemed to have hit a plateaus and stopped; and I took a bone support vitamin to my friend. The neurosurgeon read the label and said it was a good formula and good idea. (It had calcium, D3 and K2 and other minerals.)

We could see the difference that ultrasound added just by comparing the CT scans before and 5 weeks after.

Taking a bone-support vitamin might help heal other fractures and ultrasound is standard adjunct therapy in professional sports so I wonder if they might be helpful in healing other conditions where pieces of bone have to "fill in" to heal.

One footnote. The ultrasound sped up the healing so fast that we asked the neurosurgeon why he didn't apply it months earlier. He said that insurance doesn't cover the cost for the first six months. He's an excellent doctor and we like him but made it very clear that he should have consulted with us and mentioned the option. We would have gladly absorbed the extra cost to get my friend healed and out of rehab faster. I now always ask a doctor what the best course of treatment is regardless of insurance coverage in case there's a real option worth paying for out-of-pocket and to not assume anything about what choices I might make when fully informed.

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I followed up with my surgeon, he has recommended PT 4 weeks. Then removal of hardware. My hardware is directly under the skin and hits many nerves that is causing my pain according to him.

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@rodney79

I followed up with my surgeon, he has recommended PT 4 weeks. Then removal of hardware. My hardware is directly under the skin and hits many nerves that is causing my pain according to him.

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Would it be a good idea to also see a neurologist since the surgeon said the hardware 'hits many nerves' just in case the neurologist has ideas about how the removal process can be negotiated? Maybe it's a fairly simple operation and a neurologist would be reassuring as well.

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