Brief Medical History Overview
Spiral fracture in tibia, internally fixed
Hey, this might be a little long but I promise I'll get to a question eventually!
I'm 19, and I managed to break my tibia and fibula (although the fibula break appears to be totally unimportant to all my various doctors and surgeons, the poor thing) 3 months ago. I had a plate put in, and 7 screws, so no cast or anything after the surgery and externally all the incisions are healing up fine.
I had a check up a month after the operation, and was told I could start to put weight on it in. About 4/5 weeks after the operation I found myself accidently walking across my room without crutches in a moment of forgetfullness. It didn't hurt me at all, so I do occaisonally walk small distances (literally like 4 or 5 steps) without the crutches, but mostly I use the crutches, and so only put small amounts of weight into my leg. Its now 3 months since I broke it, and I have an appointment coming up this week to see how its doing.
My doctor said in order for the bones to heal I need to be putting weight on it and moving my ankle around, as thats how the callous will form and heal..I guess i need to keep my ankle moving to keep the blood flowing to that area, which has a limited blood supply.
My question is, if I can put weight on the leg, with no pain at all (well, it occasionally aches a little where the screws are but I assume thats just to be expected when you impale things into the bone right? and this has no corrolation with weight bareing, infact it tends to hurt when im not putting weight on it more than when i am) and walk happily, albeit it with a bit of a limp (i assume due to my forgetting how to walk, not because it hurts in anyway) does this imply there has been definite bone growth and healing? If my putting weight on it was damaging the bone further surely that would have caused me pain?
I know there is no way of telling without a medical professional looking at my x-rays, but does the ability to walk painlessly on it sound reassuring?
I have included a picture of my 4 week x-ray incase that helps, i doubt it as it's kinda blurry which kinda defies the point, but it looks cool right? :P http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...5_449123_n.jpg
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