r/ORIF

Snapped my leg clean in half rollerblading last Sunday, they stuck a nail down my tibia but left the fibula free floating. In the past two days there’s been a horrible evolution to my pain localizing at the injury site (whereas it’s mostly been at the screw sites thus far) to where when I stand from any sitting/laying position, it feels like acid and lava pooling straight in the fracture site and pummeling me like a lightning strike.

It dissipates after a few minutes but leaves me literally in tears/breathless/almost screaming in agony every time I have to get up. I’m going to call my Dr tomorrow (they’re closed rn obviously) but any reassurance that this kind of pain is normal would really help keep my panic under check. I also was able to weight bear on crutches up until Friday, but not anymore with this atom bomb going off in my leg.

And yes I have pain meds (5mg oxycodone every six hours) and no they don’t touch this whatsoever 🫠

No other aggressive symptoms so far as I can tell. No fever etc, bruising around my heel is slowly healing, but swelling and associated ankle ROM immobility has remained pretty much the same.

Hi all,

I fractured my ankle on April 18th of this year and had to have surgery. I am in the process of recovery. At this point, I am out of casts and walking with a walker and standing, though only for a certain amount of time. My fracture doctor wants me not to wear the air cast anymore as the bone has healed, however I still experience swelling to the level that a normal shoe isn't something I can wear out in public.

I was wondering how crocs would be for walking. They are big enough that they won't be tight and constricting like a normal shoe, however I am worried that I may trip on them because they are so loose. Does anyone here have experiences with wearing crocs during recovery, specifically for going out?

I broke my ankle three weeks ago, I’m now one week post-op, and it’s been hell! I haven’t been able to get a full night’s sleep, I’ve cried pretty much everyday, and it’s been lonely. My whole summer is gone because I tried to roller skate. I have hobbies to try and keep me occupied and my iPad to watch stuff on, but it’s definitely been a struggle. I have my first post-op appointment on Tuesday and I’m honestly looking forward to it. I’ve been following doctor’s orders ever since I got back from surgery, so I’m hoping I’ll get the boot in no time. I have three more appointments afterwards, so I’m not really expecting the boot next week, though it’d be nice. I’m expected to get back to work in mid-August/September and thought I hate wishing my summer away, I honestly can’t wait. I’m trying to plan out my fall to also try and keep myself sane.

Sleeping is so hard because I’ve been struggling to keep my leg elevated while trying to sleep and it sometimes gets itchy in the worst places, so it can get a little twitchy. According to this sub and another one, it looks like it’ll be my life for the rest of the year and then some. I’m just really hoping to get the boot ASAP and for a speedy recovery.

I'm just almost 2 weeks post op from my surgery and I'm so anxious for my post op appointment on Tuesday. I had a pretty significant fracture of my distal radius that needed a bone graft and a much less severe one on my distal ulnar shaft. I've been having some nerve pain and mild numbness but it's not affecting the movement of my fingers at the moment. I also injured my pronator quadratus muscle pretty badly.My surgeon had to remove shards of bone from the muscle. I'm really hoping that this muscle injury is causing the pain I get towards the end of my day. It's deep painful ache that only seems to happen at the end of my day or if I spend too much time out of the sling. If I get decent sleep which I usually do I wake up feeling pretty good. I haven't done anything I shouldn't and haven't had any falls or injuries at all since.

Just anxious clutz terrified I'll need another surgery. I imagine the plates and screws are fairly strong and I would hope it would take a noticeable amount of force to displace something.

I’m 5 weeks out from a open reduction surgery for a comminuted tibia fracture, I have a plate and 10-11 screws. I’m non-weight bearing still and moving around with a walker and wheelchair.

I feel like I’ve gotten so fat in the last 5-6 weeks because I’m doing no physical activity. Prior to this I was fairly active and walking 5 miles a day at least.

I feel gross and I’m worried about getting the weight off. Any activities or exercise I can do?

I am 81. In January 2026 I had left knee replaced. Within 2 weeks I fell and broke my left femur with orif. Incidentally I also had my left hip replaced in 2013 with uncomplicated recovery. But now I have a situation I am unable to move past. It has been ~6 months and I am unable to walk without unbearable pain using walker. My support system is less than ideal with my 2 daughters my only support system and they both have busy lives and I don’t get to physical therapy because of their schedules so I just can’t go. I am up and walking at least every hour with no relief ever. I don’t take narcotics because of living alone and sleep is my only relief. I have talked to ortho surgeon several times and he just says xray looks good. I’ve tried contacting a suggested vascular surgeon and set up an August appointment and was told to please be aware that he only sees patients with vascular disease and my case didn’t meet that criteria but I could make an appointment anyway. I am between a rock and a hard place knowing my age is a hinderance and drs aren’t overly attentive to this section of the population. I was so active just a year ago and to deteriorate to this place is almost more than I can emotionally bear. I don’t see any way to move forward and I don’t know what else I can do

Hello everyone, I was very happy with how I was walking in the boot, but since I'm out of it (less than two weeks ago) I'm disappointed with my progress. I notice a lot more pain than when I started PWB in the boot. I can walk with a cane, but it HURTS, not in my broken bone, but my ankle around where it was dislocated and the other side, for some reason. My PT isn't worried, and said that I have to get used to put more weight on my injured side. I wanted to know if it was painful for others to get out of the boot.

Out if curiosity, how many days worth of oxycodone did you all get? They only gave me 3 days worth but said to expect the pain to be pretty bad over the next week. Of course I can take Tylenol and Motrin, but I was really surprised to only get a few days of the oxy. The block hasn’t worn off yet so I’m nervous to see how bad it will be 😬 I fractured my talus on 6/21 and honestly have had very little pain so I’m not looking forward to it.

Edit:

Thank you for the advice everyone! Day one was tough, I tried to stay ahead of the pain and was taking my meds consistently before the block wore off but it was still really uncomfortable. Day two has not been as bad, I’m getting by with just Motrin and Tylenol for now. Obviously I’m not through it yet but I have to say the pain was not as bad as I feared. I was able to manage it with the meds, ice, and distracting myself with games and tv shows. To anyone reading this in anticipation of your surgery, the only way out is through, you got this! 💗

10 months ago I tripped over walking and smashed my midfoot really badly. Five displaced metatarsals and some broken bits and pieces (I don't know all the jargon). Had screws and pins put in. I'd never broken a bone before or undergone major surgery ever, and it happened in a non English speaking foreign country while I was travelling alone so the whole thing was really quite traumatic. Recovery seemed to take forever, and I had two separate operations to remove the hardware. In the last month or so I was starting to feel back to normal.

Then two weeks ago I slipped on a wet floor, and broke my ankle. Trimalleolar fracture. Same foot. I am devastated, to say the least. Had to have more surgery, installing more screws and a tightrope (?) which will be permanent. I'm back in a boot (a bigger one this time) and back in bed with my foot up. Will be NWB for the next 6 weeks at least.

I feel very unlucky and very low. So much of my life had to be put on hold for so long with the last injury and now I feel like I'm back to square one.

I don't know what I'm looking for here, just wanted somewhere to have a cry I guess. Maybe any stories of people who've had it worse and gotten through it would cheer me up 😉

Hi, I broke and dislocated my ankle just over a year ago, and had ORIF surgery. Recovery has been slow, and hampered by an infection at the 3 month mark that required further surgery to clean it out and remove the distal screws. (all this was NHS treatment). Now I have seen a private surgeon who is going to remove the rest of my ORIF hardware, and do a syndesmotic replacement tightrope. Has anyone had this done? All the cases I can see are people who had the tightrope put in at the same time as their ORIF.

Hey y'all. I already called my surgeon to move my post op appointment a couple days sooner. I go to see her on the 7th. I'm 8 days post of from an extensive ORIF for my left radius and ulna. My surgery was 4½ hours. "Distal radius fracture with significant comminution in the metaphysis intra-articular extension displacement. Ulnar diaphysis fracture of the distal aspect of the ulna" is what my report said. I had plates placed on both bones through two seperate incisions along with screws. I also had bone graph placed to help the smaller pieces heal.

I was just starting to feel good. My pain was decreasing and my fingers were feeling good with the ROM practice for my fingers. Over the last 24-36hrs nerve pain has been increasingly worse. I feel it the most in the heel of my hand, my pinky, ring finger and sometimes in my thumb. Has anyone dealt with this? Did it get better once the cast from surgery is off? I worried that need a carpel tunnel release after this.

Again, I did reach out to my surgeon but I just wanted to ask if anyone had this resolve on its own with time and just eondeting if theres anything I can do relieve it in the mean time.

I’m 22M, It’s been 2 months since my ORIF surgery for my humerus shaft which means I’m clear to go back to the gym as long as I go light weight.

I’m curious for anybody else who’s gone through this, how light should I go and can I let pain guide me on what I should and should not do? Also what exercises are no-gos?

Only advice I got from my doctor was to feel it out and not do too much and that’s what I’ll do, but some extra guidance from somebody who’s gone through this would be really helpful