Hardware Removal Question

[Grubber]

Step 1. Break your femur
Step 2. Install titanium rod
Step 3. Remove rod once femur is healed

Question. What is the typical recovery time until weight bearing? I work a desk job and was wondering how long I'd be down.

Thanks in advance,
Jackie

[speedphreak]

We had a girl break both her legs down by the ankles and has an assortment of hardware implanted and they said 4-5 months recovery.

Last year a buddy broke his femur, I believe the hardware is still installed,and the recovery time was just a couple of months.

It was my impression that the "heal time" is generally quicker on a femur than on a tib/fib type injury.

[Grubber]

I apologize for not being very clear. I was curious about healing time from rod removal. I can attest that healing the break takes 9 working days and no jumping for a few months. I've heard the healing time from hardware removal is significantly less, since the bone is already healed and it is only trauma to the cut site and some discomfort/internal bleeding within the shaft itself.

[sportdeath]

It takes 18 months for a femur to completely heal because it's such a big bone.

It takes 8-12 weeks to "heal" from the rod removal because the rod is weight-bearing and thus leads to the bone being a little "lazy."

When my femur was rodded, I was immediately able to walk on it with 50 percent of my weight (using crutches). After 8 weeks, I could walk normally. I got the rod out at the 9-month to one-year mark, then used crutches and a cane during that recovery period.

I did not jump for the entire 18 months because, why risk it? Of all bones, the femur tends to heal the best and most problem-free of all of them, again because of it size.

Years later, I don't even remember the downtime, but if I had jumped again and re-injured myself, especially when the rod was still in, I would have had a lifetime to remember it every day.

So take your time and get ir right the first time. There are plenty of other things to do while you're healing up.

[airdog07]

any you have the x-ray of your femur, I ask the doc. to remove my rod and he said no that's going to be in there permanently.

[Uberchris]

ok i guess i have a question then because ive never broken anything so far except for fracturing both jaw bones from a nasty rock climbing spill when i was a young teenager....

i sprained the fuck out of my right wrist about 8 or so years ago, and it never seemed to heal right, even today there is still a bit of pain/discomfort in the same internal spot on my wrist. its never going to be healed.

does this happen as well with bad breaks, especially with the leg bones? or do they end up healing stronger?

[speedphreak]

Don't know if this is completely relevant at all or not, but it's still an interesting read.

Healthy Bones (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/phys-ed-the-best-exercises-for-healthy-bones/?em)

I think the research was aimed mostly at older people, but I don't see why it wouldn't translate to anybody or to injury rehabilitation?

[sportdeath]

whether something heals stronger or weaker with no pain or continuing pain is a roll of the dice - and location.

joints in general tend to ahve lingering pain and other issues and a wrist is one of the trickiest of all because it has the most bones and the tiniest ones.

I suspect you had a fracture as well as a bad sprain, maybe just a little bone chip (is it sharp periodic pain or continuous low-grade?) i don't know if they can scope a wrist the way they do a knee, but maybe you just need some cleanup. xrays may not show it, especially with a wrist, but an MRI probably will.

My femur healed completely problem-free and pain-free because: a) it broke mid-shaft, not in or near a joint; and b) it's a big bone.

The right ankle joint i busted on a different day is another story. it bothers me regularly, mostly because the injury was to the actual joint surfaces.

Caveat alert: I'm not a doctor, i just have a lot of ortho trauma experience. if there are any real docs out there and i said anything inaccurate here, please correct... :)