I'm about 3 months post injury. 2.5 months post surgery. I've been full weight bearing for around a month.  I have some minor pain and swelling, but nothing major. Haven't taken so much as a Motrin since 5 days after my fracture reduction.  I am still, at almost every moment, aware that there's a big ol' hunk of metal in there.  I feel as if I'm walking around on metal spike stilts.

Do you still feel like that thing below your thigh just isn't your leg?  It's so... alien.  I really don't want to go through another surgery, but I'm starting to wonder if hardware removal would somehow make me feel more organic or not.  I'm tired of forcefully redirecting my mind from that not quite right feeling.

Hi Aggie

My leg felt so alien that it became referred to as the Faberge Leg - fragile & clearly the most expensive thing I owned!   

Sortof the same comments I made in the screw pain thread - it was a separate thing still around the last OS visit in October & at that moment I would have sworn it would remain so.  But somewhere between then & now it has become mine again.  I don't feel the screw anymore, only occasional twinges indicate  that the plate is there & when I do things I am not thinking about whether the leg can or not.

I still have some limitations, but they are decreasing.

Hope this helps.

After 3 years, I can say - you get used to it.   If I really stop and think about it, I can still feel the difference in that leg from the hardware, but I don't really think about it all that much. 
 To StuDogg - you have to give your leg more time.  Believe it or not, in a couple of years, the scars will be faded, and your muscle structures will get much more normal again.

I can honestly say that I am actually feeling pretty good about my leg these days.  Yes, my ROM still stinks.  Yes, my knee has a big bump on it from the plate.  Yes, I have a HUGE hockey stick incision.  Yes, the area around the incision is still numb and it bumps against the car door as I'm driving (freaks me out).  All things considered, I'm in pretty good shape.  I am back at work.  I am coaching (assisting) my sons' baseball team.  I can walk pretty well since I think I turned the corner this weekend when I noticed that my limp is considerably better (not gone...just better).  Believe me, I will NEVER diminish the impact that this injury has had on me and my family, but today I worked with a 17yo boy who had 9 pelvic fractures, an IM rod put his his right femur, his spleen was removed, and a TBI so I am doing pretty well.

I would never get stared at at the gym (unless I dropped something or tripped!).  I'm basically average height, average weight - a few extra pounds, but not excessive.  The one thing I've always been proud of are my legs.  Some day, I'll have that definition back in my left leg and the scar won't be too bad!