Questions months after surgery for spiral tib/fib fracture

[Anonymous]

Anyone been there done this? I have a great surgeon who repaired my horrible fractures and I was walking in no time. Bone is healing well and all scans are beautiful. It happened 3.5 months ago. I have another appt with surgeon in 2 months where we will discuss progress and make a plan for me to have the rod and screws be taken out later.

However, as the swelling has gone done, I can feel the screws near my ankle against my skin. They are uncomfortable some days, and some nights, I still have trouble getting in a good enough position to fall asleep, even with the help of blankets and pillows. The rod is still pressing against my skin and I will likely have bruising until it comes out (or I decide to leave it in, which I am not). Additionally, he put in a single nail at the bottom, which my skin is having an allergic reaction to. I have been regularly applying cortisone cream to mitigate the skin rash. My surgeon is not concerned at all.

I am just throwing this out there to see if anyone else experienced this and find out what things helped. I'm lucky in that everything went smoothly. I missed minimal work and I'm back up to low-impact working out again.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I have a plate and 5 screws on the outside of my ankle and 2 long screws on the inside. My surgery was 23 yrs ago but I definitely can feel the heads of the longer screws - and I can see them. There is such a fine layer of skin over your ankle there. The plate actually sits on a nerve in my leg and if I hit it - which happens probably 2-3 times per year it hurts enough to make me nauseous.

The pain you are feeling at night should eventually disappear. I cannot remember how long it took maybe 6 months? I ran a marathon about 18 mos post surgery with no real issues.

My dad also had the surgery about a year after I did. He received PT but had the same basic experience that I did. You can see the outside of his screws and plates as well. Neither of us have had any further issues over the past 2 decades. Both of us are very active. I can’t speak to the rash because I did not experience that.

Good luck with your recovery!