Tibia Plateau Fracture & Hardware Removal
Not sure who needs to hear this, but it's what I really needed a few months ago, so going to put out into the ethers. There is life after TBF. I had an insanely bad TBF with ORIF, detached ACL, tons of soft tissue damage, and was in the hospital for weeks with plates and 17 screws put in. 7 months in and I still couldn't bear weight and continued to be on crutches. Not because my surgeon hadn't cleared me, but because the pain was still so intense when I tried. I'm someone who is generally athletic and hiked multiple times a week previously. I'm also someone who takes rehab seriously and always pushes myself in anything I do. But the pain remained remarkably unbearable. To put this in perspective, I've had multiple children ... the last one I delivered 2 weeks after the ORIF surgery (yep, its been a fun time). But I knew my body, and I wasn't getting better, and I knew I needed to get the hardware out. My body simply did not agree with the hardware. I was initially told that I had to wait 18months to 2 yrs for hardware removal. And the surgeon believed there was very little possibility that the hardware was impacting my ability to recover. I listened to my body and didn't accept this answer. I went back time and again until the surgeon agreed to wait only 1 yr. I still didn't accept this and asked for a second opinion. He finally agreed to remove the hardware at 8 months. The day of the hardware removal surgery I was very afraid. The hospital gown was the same gown I had worn when they brought me into the emergency department for the original injury, and seeing the gown brought back my extensive ptsd over the original injury.
But a few days after the removal, I knew something was different. Within 2 weeks I had made more progress than in the prior 8 months. And now 2 months post removal, I am walking entirely unassisted, able to carry weight, including my baby, do squats, able to go up and down stairs, able to do steep decline/incline walks. These were not possible for me before. I know I am still on my healing journey, and honestly I can't pretend like this injury didn't impact my life massively, but I am on the upswing. I don't know who needs to hear this, but I had some pretty dark days in there, and i hope you know, you're strong, youre capable, and you are going to get through this!
I know not everyone will follow this exact path, and I know that most can tolerate the hardware totally fine. But for me, I listened to my body, and I advocated for what I believed, and I'm so grateful to be on the side making big strides everyday (pun intended).