Broken Femur! Need Help!

I am now in week 9 of having a broken femur. 3 weeks ago my doctor told me that the bones had not started to fuse. I go back tomorrow hopefully to get better news. I have been suffering from depression due to having to stay home all of the time. I am a father of 2 and I am married. I want to go back to work and be normal again. I would like any information as well on how to speed up the process.

Thanks

russell

I had an appointment today with my doc. My bone is still not healed. My doctor told me that if by this appointment he did not see a substantial amount of healing, he was going to try pulling the screws. And allowing some weight bearing.

Anyway I am now almost 5 months with a broken femur. And I have minimal to no healing. My doctor and surgeon both told me I had a really bad break in 7 places and it will take a while to heal. Here is a post from another website about the same question I asked.




A reply from another post on the doctors lounge.Com


one of the earliest battlefield surgeons remarked "i dressed the wound. God healed it". And that's about it really. It sounds like you had quite a nasty fracture, and with high energy injuries, often there is sufficient damage to the soft tissues and vessels supplying the bone with nutrition that fracture healing is delayed. X-ray changes can take some considerable time, and sometimes, the bone fails t heal altogether (non-union). Non-union is declared after about 9 months of non progression of the fracture evolution.

There are things that can theoretically speed recovery (other than prayer). The best judge would be the surgon looking after you, but depending on the fracture configuration, one could remove some screws and allow some limited weight bearing.Tthis is called dynamisation. Exchange nailing with bone grafting can also be done,( removing and replacing the nail with another one with some bone applied to the fracture site). Some people claim that electrical impulses or ultrasound vibrations can also help.

What can you do? That's tough. Assuming that you are a helathy individual, eating a balanced western diet probably not much more my friend...

-end post-

well I hope this helped.



~steve~

p.S. I just try and think positive and look at it as a long vacation.Lol but I too can't wait to go back to work and begin a normal life again. I can drive now so when I get bord( which is a lot) I take a ride around town. Well good luck.

On june 1st I went into surgery for a process called dynamisation. They pulled out the two bottom screws and want me to use partial weight bearing. This is supposedly a little trick they use to spead up recovery. It has been over 6 months now, almost 7 since I broke my femur. I am in a lot of pain once the hydrocodone wears off. I wasn't in much pain before the surgery. I will keep everyone posted on my recovery. I will be going back to the doctor on july 11. Well gotta go wish me luck.

See ya,

~steve~

Well I went to see a trauma specialist at the end of july. He said that he did not like the way the rod and bone were sitting and is why it's probably not healing. He also measured my legs and my right leg is 1" smaller than the left. He said he wants to open me up again and pull out the old rod replace with a new, make my leg the same length and bone graft it. With a total "bone healing" time of 6 weeks.

August 12, 2005 surgery day. Went into manhattan for surgery, everything went well. A lot of pain, just as bad as when I had the first surgery if not more. It's now august 16 and the pain is still severe but not as intense. I go back to the orthopedic tomorrow. Hopefully this works. It has been a long time. Since november 21, 2004. Almost 9 months.

Well i'll give you an update soon!

~steve~

Good luck all ... I broke my femur a while back!!! 3 months later I am walking almost normally. What I did was:

1) lay on my back and move my leg all different directions slowly
2)ride an excersize bike in the gym(for controlled motion)
3)slowly build myself into doing squats w/o weights
4) walk in front of a mirror so I could perfect my walk...

Good luck

Hi,

not sure if this will help or not but I found this site:

http://www.Foodandlife.Com/ bone.Html

hope things start improving soon.
Take care.

Hi I am 39 and I have had a broken no-union right femur for 17 yrs I have had 15 surgerys and nothing worked but, my advice to you is don't give up no mater what happens and I know the crutches get old and everything elese does too. But I think I might of wanted to heal to fast because I never had any broken bones before so I thought no pain no gain and I pushed. I thought I was doing everything the doctors said to do. Except quite smoking I did not quite. Well I have now and I am going to have a surgery done dec 9 at mayo and its going to work :lol:

Hi I have had a broken femur for 17 yrs and 15 surgerys I am going to mayo dec 9 to have a knee replacement and a femur bone replacement my advice is if you smoke stop thats the only thing I didn't do that the doctors told me to. But I have now so my surgery is going to work and don't put to much weight on it at first because I think that I was on pain pills and might of over done it. Don't give up because I know the crutches and the feeling of being handicapped sucks but its gets better I had one doctor tell me to picture the bone fusing together and I have had a doctor tell me to take vitaims and wear a electric stemulator well this next surgery I am going to do them all.!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to all who have wrote back. Today is december 18th 2005. I want to give you all an update on my situation. First I would like to say that this is too my first broken bone and very painful I might add. I will be going back to the doctor on dec 21st I have not had an x-ray in six weeks. I have been back to work since nov 21st. I am doing ok I guess. I still limp and after working for about 3 or four hours my leg stiffens up and I am no longer limping but dragging my leg. I start work at 3:30 and work till 11:30 I am a janitor so I am constantly on my feet. I too am a smoker and a lot of people told me to quit and a lot of doctors told me it shouldn't matter because I am young enough (25). Eventually I plan on quitting but we will see. I can say that everyday gets a little easier. I d still need to take pain medication only during working hours when I am constantly on my feet. Overall when I had my 3rd surgery on august 12 the doctor was suppose to straiten my leg out so it was the same length of the left leg. Unfortunatley due to a loss of a signifigant amount of blood and the fact that he did not want to chip away at my new bone growth (since it took so long to heal the little bit that it did.) he was unable to make my leg the exact length but pretty close. I don't know if the limp is from pain or the diffrence in leg sizes.

Well anyway I will give you guys an update soon. I promise I won't wait so long to get back to you. Thanks for all the support.

~steve~

1-12-06 doctors appointment.

Well everything went well the doctor said everything is making great progress. My leg is almost and inch shorter but should have ncomplications. He said it could always be lengthened down the road if I run into complications.

I am back to work and am working on becoming fully healed in a few months. This will be my last post. Thank you all for the advice and if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I will still check the forum on occasion.

Thanks,

~steve~

Hi there!, why not ask for a shoe lift, it is just something you put in your shoe. I am no Dr. But my husband wears one to avoid putting pressure on his other leg and back, be kind to yourself, take a couple extra brakes @ work, I realize that it is difficult when you are on a schedule. I have had several surgeries I hope you do not get the scar tissue and the arthritis later. True, not smoking will help you heal but I still smoke too!

Hope you all get better soon, I know what pain is I live with it 24/7. Have you seen a neuro about the foot drag, maybe a t.E.N.S. Unit might help

take care!

Has anybody tried physical therapy? I broke my right femur in a car accident four years ago and had a rod and three pins in. Physical therapy really helped me! It helped me learn to walk correctly and gain mobility in my leg. Although lately i've been having a lot of pain in my leg, hip, and knee. Not quite sure why, but i'm going to make an appointment with my ortho to see if anything is up.

Mngirl,

yes I tried physical therapy for about 3 months. It helped a little but I think most of my healing was by just walking around all day at work. I still limp a little but the doctor says it should go away within 8 months or so. I don't think it will, I think it's because my right leg is an inch shorter than the left one.

~steve~

Hello anyone thats listening I broke my femur about 3 weeks ago in a dirtbike accident and im getting pretty depressed about the whole situation .Is this normal? The pain in my leg is getting better by the day but I still have a huge discomfort when I wake up in the morning is there any advice to how I can get better sleep? Also is there any signs that tell me im healing poorly or healing right?I have a never broken a bone in my life so all this is very new to me so any advice will help me. Thank you

Just try to remember that it takes a lot of time and a lot of patients and what also works ffor one may not work for another, if your dr feels that you may have to live with some of the pain you might want to suggest to him about seeing a pain dr specialist and possibly seeing what he can do for you such as epidurals or pain blocks or something else in that area also their is such things as a stimulator or a pain pump which can also bring down the pain percentage and you do not deal with the fuzzyness and the dry mouth that you deal with with the pain meds. I have learned that the more ssurgeries that you have, the more scar tissue you have to deal with, which can be painfful and more arthuritis later on in life. Even though I am noy a dr I have my own personal experience along with knowing others.
The very best to you all!

Hey josef h8,

as you can see, by reading my post, I just went through all that "fun". As far as getting sleep, from experience start out on your back, some people have a hard time sleeping on their back. In time you will be able to roll to your good side and then eventually you will be able to roll on the badside a little bit more each day or on your stomach. Now by your post date 4-11-06. You probably already figured that out but just in case i'lll post it any way.

The pain gets better every day like you said. But due to my job that requires a lot of walking I still have pain. My femur was broken pretty bad and needed three surgeries because it was non-union (non-healing).

The x-rays will tell you if your healing right, you will notice each time you have one how much better it looks. I too have never broken a bone in my life, but I guess there is a first time for everything.

I know it sucks and your feeling depressed. I went through all that. Just try and think of it as a longggggg vacation from your daily routine. :-)
watch a lot of movies sit outside read a book. And don't forget watch your diet, you don't want to put on weight and the better you eat the faster it will heal. Remember eat a lot of green vegtables.

Good luck! Repost if you have any questions.

~steve~

Steve thank you for your response to my post. I am feeling pretty good about my healing. I see the dr in 2 weeks. That will be my 6wk post injury/surgery and should tell a lot about how things are going. I see a pt once a week. I have been very agressive at home working on my range of motion and strength building. I take several supplements and eat good foods only. I'm not a smoker so thats a plus. I am post menopausal though and my dr is worried about asteoporosis. The pt says that she thinks I am well ahead of things with my workout and I am doing 20lbs of weight bearing for 3 min at a time, 5-6 times a day. Actually use a bathroom scale. We are hopeful that at my 6wk appt, I will beable to do 50% body weight. I am sure hoping so as that will free me up to drive, return to work and get back to normal. Out of the wheelchair and going strong. I read how so many have lots of pain. I had a lot of soft tissue damage, huge bruise and swelling. I made a goal to get off the pain meds asap. I take some tylenol at bedtime. I am able to sleep on my side and stomach now, that seems to help with the discomfort I had with my butt. A question I have is throughout your whole ordeal, was there ever talk of amputating the leg and going with a prosthesis? I ask because I just read about the guy who climbed mt everest with two fake legs. They have come such a long way and I guess I would rather do that than have to go through multiple surgeries and years of healing and sitting in a wheelchair. Just a thought and wondered if anyone has considered this option.

Mlady777,

it's great that you are healing so fast. You will be back on your feet in no time. It's also great you have been getting off the pain meds. They can be very addicting. I had to use them for all three surgeries and ween myself off after each one. Not fun. It's very good you have been eating well and don't smoke. I was a heavy smoker but just quit a month ago.

I have not heard anything about amputating and using a prostetic. Don't rush into anything and don't get scared by my post. The doctor even said I should heal 100% with no complications in time. My break was very severe and is a very rare case. But from what I read in your post you are on your way to a fast recovery. :-)

good luck and let us know how the doctor visit goes.

See ya,

steve

Hello Everyone..
I need some advice. I was in a car accident about a month ago, I fractured my femur in 3 spots and got some rods put in ect. The surgeon told me at my appointment to put "20 pounds on it" and I don't have an appointment for another month. I'm healing pretty fast.. or at least I think I am. Would it do alot of damage if I were to try and put more weight on it ? AND did anyone go swimming during their recovery ? It sounds like a good idea but i'm really not sure if I should do that either haha.. please help me.