Syndesmotic screw removal
In April of last year I was in an accident with a large tree limb and had an open fracture of my fibula, shattered part of my ankle bone and got some lacerations. The day after my accident I had ORIF surgery where they put in two plates, many screws and two syndesmotic screws. 6 weeks later I had a bone graft from my own femur for the shattered ankle. I've been in Physical therapy all along and in the fall I had gotten back to walking unassisted.
A few days ago I had a procedure to remove the two syndesmotic screws. This was recommended by my surgeon, he suspects it will help with my range of motion and pain. For some reason I had a lot of anxiety about having this done, but honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. I was put under general anesthesia for it, was only in the actual operating room for about 20 minutes I believe. He made a new incision and I now have a few stitches. I was able to WB as tolerated right away. It really only hurt the day of and maybe a little the next day. I've taken a week off of work, I probably could have gotten away with less but I don't mind taking the time to relax and be sure I've healed enough. Just wanted to share my story... If you have the option of having this done and your Dr believes it will help your injury in some way, I recommend it. Before having it done I couldn't help but feel like I was moving backwards, but I now disagree with that and believe it will help in my healing.
In April of last year I was in an accident with a large tree limb and had an open fracture of my fibula, shattered part of my ankle bone and got some lacerations. The day after my accident I had ORIF surgery where they put in two plates, many screws and two syndesmotic screws. 6 weeks later I had a bone graft from my own femur for the shattered ankle. I've been in Physical therapy all along and in the fall I had gotten back to walking unassisted.
A few days ago I had a procedure to remove the two syndesmotic screws. This was recommended by my surgeon, he suspects it will help with my range of motion and pain. For some reason I had a lot of anxiety about having this done, but honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. I was put under general anesthesia for it, was only in the actual operating room for about 20 minutes I believe. He made a new incision and I now have a few stitches. I was able to WB as tolerated right away. It really only hurt the day of and maybe a little the next day. I've taken a week off of work, I probably could have gotten away with less but I don't mind taking the time to relax and be sure I've healed enough. Just wanted to share my story... If you have the option of having this done and your Dr believes it will help your injury in some way, I recommend it. Before having it done I couldn't help but feel like I was moving backwards, but I now disagree with that and believe it will help in my healing.