New Pain 2 years after TPF

[BigD77]

I am just past my 2 year "Anniversay" of my injury. 11 months ago I had the hardware removed. That helped some. Now I have a new issue, I am getting very sharp pains at the spot of the actual injury and that pain is shooting down my leg to my foot. It comes and goes through out the day and lasts about 30-45 seconds but is very painful. Then I am fine for about 5 minuts or so and it starts again. It is no fun. There is a lump on that side of the knee also but I am not sure how long it's been there. So frustrated. Has anyone else here experienced this or possible know what it is?

[BigD77]

Nothing? No responses? Damn!

I am at such a loss. There are days I literally would love to just have this f-ing leg removed!

[smileyshaz]

Hi BigD,

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time, your new problem sounds horrible.  I think you may have developed a neuroma or some other kind of nerve pain, from the description of your pain.  If you press on the sore spot on your knee does that reproduce the shooting pain down your leg?  If it does it's a good indicator that you may have developed a neuroma. 

I believe there are several options for treatment of this, usually starting with a local anaesthetic injection into the site as a way of checking that it is that nerve which is causing the pain.  If it is diagnosed as that you could have the neuroma surgically removed, or have some sort of treatment designed to kill/numb the nerve.  I would suggest asking for a referral to a specialist pain management service and hopefully they'll be able to sort it for you.

Hope you get it sorted soon!

[BigD77]

Thank you for the great response. I never thought it could be nerves because the pain starts where the damage occured when I suffered the TPF. Then it shoots down my leg so I felt like it was in the bone. I guess it could be nerves. They do strange things. I get sharp stabbing pains in the numb area on my leg when something touches it just right.

[BigD77]

Does anyone have any pain management tips? What have your doctors recommended etc?

[Sarahpoorlyknee]

I have something simillar, I too am 2 years on and the pain is horrible especially around where the break was and where I still have screws holding it together, I have yet to find a Dr who doesn't tell me it's just something I have to live with.
Can I ask why you had the hardware removed and what difference it made?

[BigD77]

My doctor recommended the hardware be removed because he thought it would help with the pain and issues I was having at the time. It did help in some ways I suppose but I still deal with pain daily and it has gotten old. The pain isn't better, it's just "different" I guess is the best way to put it. I also recently had fluid on my knee for the first time but it went away in a day. Not sure what that was all about. I had a lot of pain with that as well. I am just at a total loss.

[Grandhoux]

About 5 months after my tpf one of the screws started to come out, it produced a lump that grew and grew and of course, showed up on the XRays. It was painful to touch and they removed it in a quick operation. I then slipped, broke my femur and had a further plate and 10 screws; again one of these started to come out and was removed. Having all the remaining  hardware out after two years was a great improvement.