Broken femur - recovery

A snowHead

@Bungle, That's good news, keep the progress up and give it time.

A snowHead

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Amazing work after such a serious injury. Good effort!

BTW, what drone are you using? The HoverAir X1? The new DJI Neo?

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Great video davidof and good news on the improvement on the retry of running.

My last update here was 18 Aug and I am still making progress - I still find it very slow and hugely frustrating a lot of the time but this is where I am currently at - I am six and a half months post accident and op now:

I have upped the cycling since Aug when I started at 5k - the max I have cycled on one ride is 25k and I now average 40k a week over three outings - my hip area and all the soft tissue in and around seem mostly fine with that - occasionally I get some soreness but icing it settles it down quickly so I do see it as just a normal ache and pain from a reasonable amount of exercise.

I have been getting out of breath and raising my heart rate and its been great to feel my lack of fitness as the limiting factor and not my hip injury - I am back to heartrate and speed analysis and can see my fitness improving nicely via my Garmin and looking at the data makes me happy. Still the most difficult bit of cycling is standing on my injured side and errr getting my leg over (the cross bar) to get on and off.

Walking has not been so good - I can walk only a short distance (200m) without a crutch and I have a noticeable "Trendelenburg gait" which is caused by abductor weakness - my consultant notes say I have a hole in mine from the surgery. Progress there has been very slow - I can for example only in the last month perform five sideways leg raises when lying on my non injured side so I am slowly looking to increase that.

My inability to walk without a crutch and my feeling of lack of progression is something I have struggled with tbh - its become more of an issue as I am back in the office once a week and walk about 1.2km from the station to the office and back so I am confronted with the slowness and inconvenience of the crutch walk on each of those days.

When I try to walk, my pain now presents as two major issues - pain across the bottom of my glute that refers into the side of my leg and where the implant is. A continual soreness in the soft tissue that runs from just under the prominent sticky out part of my hip diagonally down and to towards the inside of my leg - this second problem has bothering the most because I have had it the whole time since the accident and it has felt like its not improving despite lots of rehab work, physio dry needling and massage etc etc.

I had my six month fracture clinic appt where they confirmed their three month appt thoughts which were that the way my implant sticks out of the bone at both the top of the femur and the screw at the 45 degree angle to pull the break together is a factor in both these problems and we should have the implant removed. After a bit of a difference of opinion in the documentation of that conversation (I came away thinking it would happen in Jan and the notes of the conv suggest we would delay a decision until December) I have now had a phone call to say the surgery is set for 17 Dec which is good news though I am waiting written confirmation.

I am not 100% sure that both my issues are caused by the implant but I am fine with removing it to take away a potential blocker to my progression so I'd like to get it done asap

Ironically in the last 3 or 4 days the soreness at the front of my hip has eased for the first time ever which I am absolutely thrilled by - fingers crossed it continues like that - it's great that when I practice walking without a crutch up and down the kitchen that its not the first thing I feel now and long may that continue as for the first time it feels like maybe I will be able to walk with little or even no pain some time in the next few months.

I have booked a return to Les Arcs for 12 April and I hope to ski but it depends on progress in the next six months and the surgery to remove the mail - I've done a bit of practice hip "swooshing" in the kitchen and even there it feel less sore and restricted then when I tried a month or so ago. For the first time in the last week or so I kind of feel I really may be able to ski again one day (hopefully in April 25).

As always I post this stuff hoping it will help others unfortunate enough to suffer this rather nasty injury because I remember finding this thread in the hospital in BSM after my op and taking great encouragement from Davidofs and others posts.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Hi all just as they say breaking in to this thread as on last saturday 12th oct I snapped my right femur roughly half way fortunately told a clean break hospitalised . Following day femur pulled into place remererd through a gap! in the knee a rod inserted full length and screwed into place took about 2 hours . Monday nurses/physios said we are here to see how you can move not a lot was result more to do with not being able to bend the knee or get any response from my swollen thigh muscles , they came back a bit later seemed a little bit more movement and managed to get out of bed into a chair and walk about 20 steps to the loo for a stand up pee and that was a relief in more ways than one. .Tuesday morning they came by which time id been practicing getting out of bed and managed to sit in a chair at intervals have a wash and a shave at the sink, felt as if I was getting there.
Wednesday morning physios with assesors in tow so I asked when would I be likely to go home. they said when you can walk with aid of sticks, so I said right lets go and slithered out of bed and grabbed my sticks and went down with them in close support along the corridor through 2 doors at which point they said we will get a chair to get you back . Dont bother I quiped and we headed slowly back. Once near my room they said well you will need to be able to cross a threshold so a plastic box was found and over I go a couple of times. There then followed a conversation about who lived with me what sort of accommodation etc etc bath,shower toilet beds etc. Had to explain that as a married farmer we live in a farmhouse on a working farm with family close for support ,ah they said you will need to be able to get up and down stairs so I asked what was through the doors marked no exit and off we go as it was a stone staircase ,a bit of instruction on how to hold the stick and bannister and up and down we go albeit slowly one at a time . Once back in my room about 11 am the decision was its up to you and the surgical team though weve never had any one leave after three days. Surgical team contacted, nurse reports collated temps bps further blood tests done and drugs made up for the next 20 odd days appointments made re out patients and given the green light so daughter and wife hailed to bring a 4x4 and home by 7pm . This last couple of days steady slow taking my time improvement been out in the garden an hour or so today talking to staff and replying to e mails/messages etc in the office for an hour checking the ever increasing amount of useless shxx business red tape so more or less back in harness .

Now the big question ,will I get skiing this season? ,the surgeons discharge lady said not in january ,ah said I we normally go early march so she asked what sort of skiing . In reply , we are both 70 tends to be cruising the blues and occassional red if conditions are favourable with plenty of stops sunny lunch bit of apres and then dinner and bed .Where to she asked? .I replied austria saalbach . Well you have a good chance so theres the target ,rang our favorite hotel and explained that I couldnt book confirm till much nearer the time dont worry the clerk said we will ensure we have a room for you early march dates to confirm or not as the case may be just keep us updated . It might be possible so the challenge is on in more ways than one . for those of you who have never visited the challenge its a ski day up and down the runs to the connected villages which can be done /start points in various ways
Oh and the care/experience from all at James Cook hospital in middlesbrough has been amazing professional and in everyway outstanding ,just wish Icould make an appointment at our local drs practice when needed wether for me or extended family as easily as what ive just gone through.

After all it is free

@ski for fun, sorry to read about your “mishap”.

Sorry to hear this lucky to have a clean break and hopefully you will heal quickly.
I am coming up 10 months post op and now trying to walk in the mountains with out sticks.
I'm nr Zell am see at the moment trying to build up strength and balance. Its been a long slow journey.
My words if wisdom would be to go 1 day at a time for the 1st couple of weeks, then a month at a time when looking back a month you will see good progress. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, but still have some way to go before I could contemplate putting skis on.
Good luck with your recovery.

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How did it happen? It might be suggested that you take a bone density "dexa" scan if it was a "low trauma" fracture (I had one after fracturing pelvis at a similar age, was fine skiing after 3 months). Sounds as if you are very determined to be back on both feet as fast as possible - hope it continues to go well. snowHead

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@davidof, I hadn't picked up on this. Cracking recovery so far. Keep up the good work Happy

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Broken femur - recovery

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