Bone breaks around the knee :

Anyone with a TP frx like this? - - Posted by sparta5 (sparta5), 14 September 2004

Hi, my fracture runs from near the center to the inside of my leg on the top of the tibia - underneath the cartilege and other padding (meaning look down through the knee, not from the front)!  They almost didn't find it.  Didn't require surgery - just a fiberglass cast.  Dr. told me no WB - come back 4 wks post-injury (PI).  Wellll - I ended up with a clot and undergoing a pulmonary embolism (EEK!) at the one week PPI mark, so his partner came in and took off the cast and gave me a brace.  He wasn't very forthcoming with any new instructions - and my orginal doc didn't give me any ideas on ROM or anything else.  

Now at the 3 week PI mark - my leg is feeling so much better - almost normal even...with the exception of the muscle twitchs and occasional pains through/under the kneecap.

He didn't do anything to assess soft tissue damage (not that he shared with me anyway) - maybe he will at next week's appt.  

Internet talks about fractures that are vertical or are horizontal from the front - so I'm not sure if the WB and healing schedules they give are the same for mine or not.

Just curious,

PJ
Posted by sfmama (sfmama), 16 September 2004

I have a different type of tp fracture, but it sounds like you need more info from your doctor.

I used to forget what to ask until I made a point to write down my questions and bring in the list with me on my visits.  Also, be sure to ask for a phsyical therapy referral.  ESSENTIAL to healing back to 100%

Good luck!
Posted by sparta5 (sparta5), 16 September 2004

Thanks - I guess part of it is that I assumed he would tell me things like "Type I" or that it was called a tibial plateau frx.  He just basically told me that the ER doc was correct - I broke my knee, and here's basically what we're going to do about that.  I suppose he figures there's no advantage to telling me the nitty-gritties as it doesn't change how he'll treat it.

How do you know what type it is?  My frx was basically a crack that didn't require any surgery.  Would that be a type I?

PJ
Posted by sfmama (sfmama), 18 September 2004

 http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic698.htm
http://homepages.iol.ie/~rcsiorth/journal/volume2/june/tiplat.htm

check out these sites.  it's pretty confusing because type I can require surgery sometimes and sometimes not.  I know type III can also sometimes go without surgery too though.

good luck trying to figure it all out.
Posted by sparta5 (sparta5), 18 September 2004

Thanks for the links.  I will check those out.
Posted by kgrosskurth (Kathy G), 4 October 2004

Hi, PJ. I wanted to write to welcome you to KneeGeeks. It sounds like your injury was relatively mild compared to some of us, except the embolism part. (Egads!! ) I hope you continue to heal without any complications. Thanks for your report, and please keep us posted on your progress!  
Posted by sparta5 (sparta5), 4 October 2004

Thanks for message, Kathy.  Do you go by Kathy M on the MyBrokenLeg board?  I love some of the posts there!  Hope things are going well for
you too.  See you around!  LOL!
Posted by kgrosskurth (Kathy G), 6 October 2004

You're welcome, PJ. BTW, I'm KayGee on MBL, and my diary is on there, too (the link is in my signature block below). Take care and thanks for your reply!

This old Forum was so valuable that we have kept it as an archive. It is just for reference. If you want to ask questions or offer advice, there is also a current Bulletin Board which you can access from our home page.

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