r/ORIF

It's been 1 year and 8 months since ORIF of distal humerus (11 screws + 1 plate). It was a pretty long surgery (around 3.5-4 hours). The reason for this was because the arm was in a cast for 4 months prior to surgery and after it not healing well, surgery had to be done. Is it possible to play as a goalkeeper in football at this time? I was told by my surgeon 3-4 months post surgery that the arm is healed well and he was surprised with the improvements on ROM as well. I haven't done an X Ray since that time. It's worth noting that as a goalkeeper, I would have to dive a lot on sides and landing on my arm, could this cause another break in that same arm due to the plate/screws being there? I'm still not sure whether visiting the surgeon to remove the plates/screws. Any opinion would be appreciated

3 weeks post-op from ORIF surgery for a spiral tibia fracture with plate and screws. One thing I’ve been wondering about is that my surgeon didn’t put me in a cast or boot at all.

I’m currently NWB and he says it’s completely fine to go without either, but most stories I’ve read on here mention a cast or boot after surgery, so it has me second guessing.

Has anyone else had tibia ORIF surgery and not been given a cast or boot?

Just trying to understand if this is common or if I should push my surgeon about it.

Hey guys.
My last post was a miserable one (how the surgery was 3 weeks delayed and a misdiagnosis of my Weber B fracture, the injury occurring straight after rehabbing since 2023 from knee surgery and re-tear etc.)… Here’s a more optimistic, puff-of-the-chest update!

Had the op on Friday and all went to plan. You can see the difference in how much closer the bones are post-tightroping! A few screws and a plate but not too phased now that they’re in.

I’m pretty active (28M) and hoping to return to football asap. Most of the day I’m elevating my leg and feeling pretty useless/slobby. As soon as the leg goes down, it gets pretty painful and the foot swells up quickly!

My nutrition stack is the following (pills):
Marine Collagen
Vitamin D3+K2
Calcium + Magnesium
Multi-vitamin tablet

Am I missing anything? BPC157 Peptide sub-q is tempting but am not fully convinced. I try to eat pretty healthy, drink loads of water and have stopped the snus.

The plan is 2 weeks in a cast, and then re-scan and hopefully move to a boot and we’ll see if they want me to start weight-bearing. I really hope they don’t put in a plaster cast. I’ll then check in with my PT to see if we can start doing some mobilisation/activation as ideally I’d like to get the ankle moving asap (without disturbing anything).

I’m keeping the leg exercises going which seem to be doing a satisfactory job of keeping my muscles activated (bar the left calf, that poor guy has become something like a floppy, slightly soggy tortilla). I don’t look forward to doing the exercises at all, because it involves having to put my leg down/manoeuvre.

Leg Exercises:
Thighs: Leg raises, seated knee extension with band, inner range straightens
Hamstring: bridges, curls with band
Glutes: side clams, hip extensions multiple directions with band

I haven’t done any adductor exercises yet. Will do copenhagens planks once I can put some side weight on it.

I’ll then be in a boot for 6-ish weeks and then I imagine an ankle brace/support-when-needed sort of situation? And then plain-sailing rehab and strengthening?!

If the above goes swimmingly:

My hope is I’ll be actively playing football in 6 months time (mid-November), which means within 4 months I’d want to be running and putting normal weight through my ankle as before. I know this is very optimistic. What do we think?

The surgeon said recovery was 6-12 months, which seems to be quite a broad estimation… so I’ve stuck with 6 months!

I do look at Musiala (German footballer) for inspiration. He had a severe, SEVERE ankle dislocation and fracture and was back playing within 7 months. How on earth he achieved this I do not know, so if anyone has any tips or advice for the journey, please feel free to add to this thread and I will do the same! I know he was surrounded by PTs and an unlimited budget, but if there’s any secret sauce to this recovery, I wanna know!!

If of interest to anyone I will put in updates every now and then on my progress. Please do the same with yours as I’d love to see how you are getting on and what your experience is.

Thanks!

I took off my steri strips today and noticed that the area in the middle of my incision looks like a red shiny bump. I covered it with a regular band aid after. Any idea what this could be? (Sorry for the icky picture)

On April 4, 2026 I (32f) was playing a rugby game in a mid-sized US city when I was tackled from behind. My foot was planted, I felt a snap, and then ended up at a really nice hospital with a trauma 1 center and had surgery the next day.

My surgeon was able to do an intramedullary nail placement because the break was relatively uncomplicated. A few bone chips but no involvement beyond the break. Closed fracture as well. I was released with a CAM boot and crutches and was weight bearing as tolerated.

I’m a sports dietitian so I work closely with a local physical therapist who has had a lot of experience with this surgery, so he got me set up pretty well with rehab starting about 10 days out. I also have been mostly very consistent with nutrition, eating a lot of calories, protein, calcium, and also supplementing vitamin D because I was a little low.

The first 2 weeks were tough, especially at night. I was alternating Tylenol and 800 IBU with oxycodone for breakthrough pain and I still couldn’t get on top of it through the night. Midway through week 3 I started being able to sleep through the night and sit up more and more. During the 3rd week I phased out the crutches and the 4th I phased out the boot. I mostly wore a cushy running sneaker at home, but at 6 weeks I’m pretty comfortable barefoot around the house. My ankle is still really stiff so my pace is not very fast and I have to focus to not limp.

Prior to the injury, I was pretty active and strength training is a hobby of mine so I’ve been back in the gym since I could drive again (about 3 weeks). I started with training only the unaffected leg and upper body, and over the last few weeks I’ve been lightly strength training the affected leg now. All guided by my physical therapist who is a board certified sports PT so I trust him a ton.

I just got my 6 week x-Ray and it‘s kinda cool that you can start to see the cross-bridging and callus formation. Also equally as crazy that the bone is still fully broken and I’m just walking around the house and going to the gym.

I definitely have a long way to go, and I also recognize that I’ve landed in “best case scenario“ territory for most of this but I have gotten a lot out of reading everyone‘s stories so I hope this is helpful for someone!

On March 25 I suffered a comminuted oblique fracture of the distal tibia shaft, minimal lateral displacement of the distal fragment, additional oblique minimally displaced fibular shaft fracture. I had ORIF surgery on March 26. First two photos are from arriving at the hospital, and post ORIF. The second two are from my two week post-op appointment. I’m now almost 8 weeks posts op! I was NWB for 6 weeks (wow what a mental toll that can take!!) and was cleared for gradual and partial WB on May 11.

My doctors hope is that from May 11, 2-3 weeks in I will be 100% WB with the boot, and then he hopes to transition me out of the boot around the second week of June.

I was surprisingly very easily able to put light weight on the foot. I really thought that there would be some mental difficulty there. However, I’m probably at about 30% WB and can’t quite figure out how to get past that? I use a walker or crutches (depending if at home or out) but don’t know how to progress beyond that 30% while using mobility aids. Any tips??

Slowly working on moving my ankle. I spend about an hour with my foot out of the boot, and am able to very minimally move my ankle up and down. Any tips on how to progress to help with ROM?

As an aside - I wish I found this sub sooner. What a wonderful support system! All of the milestone posts really make me feel hopeful about getting back to my normal self hopefully soon.

I had an ORIF for a severely comminuted distal radius fracture last Wednesday. I sustained the fracture in a hard fall while hiking a rocky trail. Now that some of the initial pain of the injury and the surgery have started to wear off I am discovering bruises and pain in various other parts of my body. These pictures are of the forearm and elbow on the same side as the radius fracture. I’m wondering if the bruising and swelling is secondary to the surgery, or, whether I might’ve also injured my elbow in the fall. Any thoughts?