recovering from surgery-removing hardware

[marylou]

On April 1, I had 2 screws pulled out of a bone in my ankle. Went fine, just 20 minutes on the operating table, and I was walking and off the pain pills in a few days.

 

Now it's been about 10 days. I'm back to work on light duty and healing up just fine. Thing is, I'm dead freakin' tired all the time. I *know* it has to heal and all that, and I'm doing the proper ice/elevation/recovery stuff, wondering if anyone out there has had a similar experience/procedure, and how long this super fatigue thing persists.

 

Argh! I'm so TIRED!

[snoboy]

I got one hint, sleep helps... ie no 2AM chatter sessions.

[marylou]

I haven't seen 2 am in an awful long time.

[snoboy]

OK, no 1AM ones either.

[marylou]

Not even if I had a big huge nap already?

[ketch]

Marylou,

I had a very similar case. My foot was pinned together after my fall. The tireds go on for a little bit. Best advice I got was to blow off all the lookyloos and just rest when you need to . I used to take a pillow along on walks and when it was time to rest a bit I would just sit down and do that. when I felt better I would get up and leave. After three or four weeks I was doing pretty good. Just don't overwork your foot and it will straighten out pretty soon.

[lummox]

On April 1, I had 2 screws pulled out of a bone in my ankle. Went fine, just 20 minutes on the operating table, and I was walking and off the pain pills in a few days.

 

Now it's been about 10 days. I'm back to work on light duty and healing up just fine. Thing is, I'm dead freakin' tired all the time. I *know* it has to heal and all that, and I'm doing the proper ice/elevation/recovery stuff, wondering if anyone out there has had a similar experience/procedure, and how long this super fatigue thing persists.

 

Argh! I'm so TIRED!

damn woman. aint you old enough to know that life doesnt follow an unwavering vector through space-time? it is called 'perioditization' or sumpin. go through the down time so the high time will be awesome.

[binger]

I have 9 screws coming out sometime next month along with a plate in my lower ankle from a tib-fib the first day of skiing this year te baker. I'm not too excited. Can anyone tell me what the downtime is or how long it takes to be able to become physically active on it again?

[marylou]

Well, I had two removed. One about an inch, one and inch and a quarter. If you have nine, they may be shorter.

Surgeon had to do a bit of digging to find mine, as they were in for almost 8 years. The cut was made through the old cut and the new one is about an inch and a half long.

 

I had Mrs. mattp do a lymphatic drainage treatment on it after a week. If I had it all to do again, I'd have waited at least another half week, or get two treatments. Lymphatic drainage reduces the swelling and flush some of the shizzle out of there.

 

Surg was 4 weeks ago today. At this juncture, I'm working 60-70 hour weeks without a lot of trouble, most of it on my feet. I still can't lift a lot, and my back is getting a bit trashed from compensating for the lack of ROM in the ankle. I am getting by on about 7 hours of sleep a night, but more would be good. I'm still a little tired. Working this schedule has forced me to take Vicodin or Percocet every night, and my ankle and foot are still swollen enough to prohibit the wearing of orthotics, and I can't wear shoes every day yet. Sometimes it's sandals.

 

So, with a week off, and then rolling right back into that schedule, I'd say I have still recovered fairly quickly, though not as fast as if I'd been able to rest for maybe another week or two.

 

I'm sure your results will vary, but that is how it's been for me.

[Brad_CA]

Marylou, got a question for ya. Why did you get the screws removed after havin 'em in for 8 years?

 

Reason I ask is I have a couple plates and 8 screws holding my 4th n' 5th metacarpols on my right hand together. Well, I would hope that by now(5 years later) they are no longer holding it together but merely relics! Anywho, they f'ing kill me when I try and crack climb. Granted I'm learning, so my technique may be off, but it feels like hell and aches endlessly.

 

Just curious, did the doc's try and persuade you from having them out?

[marylou]

Brad,

 

I had them taken out because I was trying to get rid of some pain. Not sure yet if it actually did me any good yet, but with insurance and an active lifestyle, I was willing to give it a go.

 

In my case, with an ankle thing, it's a weight-bearing location. Steel (screws) flex less than bone, so it's possible that having a couple of non-flexing pieces of steel in there was causing some of the pain. It's hard to say, as there are a number of things in there possibly contributing:

 

bone spurs

scar tissue

reduction (original surgery) not getting bones exactly the way they were before

arthritis (for sure)

reduced range of motion, contributing to improper body mechanics....leading to other problems

 

In other words, in my case at least, it's hard to narrow it down to one thing. The surgery was pretty simple, covered by insurance, and something to rule in/out pretty easily. If you think your hardware is giving you trouble, get it taken out. I wouldn't encourage unnnecessary surgery, but screw removal is super simple, and the sooner you get it done after the original work, the easier it is for the surgeon to find the screws without doing a lot of excavating and chipping.

 

The docs never pushed me to have them taken out, rather they told me that it's an easy potential fix. In your case, if it's 5 years, be prepared to accept that you may have arthritis in there, which having screws removed won't fix.

 

Good luck, let us know what happens.

[Brad_CA]

Thanks,

I hope you're doing a little better, feeling awake? enegized?..all that good stuff!!

Here's to your expeditious recovery and to pain free ankles everywhere!