Positive Patella Fracture Thread

[hellteam]

Hi all, long time reader first time poster. Like most of you here I am sure, I first came across the site a week or so after my injury. I fractured my patella (open, comminuted fracture, 7+ pieces) in a scooter accident in Thailand in August 2018. So typical, I know.  I had the ORIF surgery on the day in Thailand, and was in hospital for about a week before flying home to Australia.

I'm not going to lie - the first few weeks were terrible. Days seemed to take weeks, weeks seemed to take years. My main issue was not the pain, or mobility - it was mental. I had been told basically nothing by doctors/nurses in Thailand due to language barriers, and my doctor in Australia was quite non-committal as to what lay in my future.  I found myself counting down the hours nearly before my next doctors appointment, but each time really gave me no more answers. I just had to wait for the break to heal.

I am a quite active 30 year old, so being on the couch for a few weeks was something really new to me. So to was having a serious injury. I found myself constantly Googling fracture stories for hours/days, and I must have read thousands of posts on this site, searching for something, anything, positive. It actually came to a point where I had to completely ban myself from here.

I was weight bearing straight away, but had a splint, and then brace for about 10 weeks after the surgery. Straight at first, then gradually getting to 90 degrees. Once the brace got to about 45 degrees  I could walk relatively normally. That is when things turned around for me. While a bit inconvenient, I quickly got used to the brace and even started to somewhat forget about it.

Since then I have started physio (only 3 actual visits so far, but exercises at home in between), and now walk completely normally, although my knee still appears quite swollen and quad muscles have significant atrophy.  I am still working on this and will be for months yet. A few weeks ago started cycling, so far up to 40km at a time - something I had never done before. My ROM is basically back to normal, and life is great again. I still have the hardware in, removal is planned for about June, about 10 months after the injury.

This is in no way trivialising this injury or the suffering some have obviously gone through. I just wanted to offer his story, because I know I sure needed it when I first found this site.

All the best

[mkylling]

Hi
Thx for the positive post. Patience is the answer, and why not make the waiting period a positive time. New goals, looking forward... A lot of the posts in here are not answered or updated, which in my mind implies positive outcome...

[axand]

@hellteam I had my injury about in the same time as you (I had my surgery in August 2018) I have documented my story here https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/index.php?topic=75266.0 , what I encounter now after 6 months is that my fracture is still not fully healed so I was curios how it is for you? Did the fracture healed fully or what is the status for the bone? Any advice on this would be appreciated.

[hellteam]

@hellteam I had my injury about in the same time as you (I had my surgery in August 2018) I have documented my story here https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/index.php?topic=75266.0 , what I encounter now after 6 months is that my fracture is still not fully healed so I was curios how it is for you? Did the fracture healed fully or what is the status for the bone? Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Hi Axand, thanks for the message. I had a read through your story - it sounds like you were doing exercises/knee bending much earlier than me. I pretty much did nothing for the first 6 weeks after injury, apart from short walks when I needed to, until I saw PT.

I had another appointment with my doctor last week. He told me the fracture has healed together. He said the wires can come out in some cases after 6 months, but it is preferable for them to stay in longer, and as they are not bothering me they will stay in until June.

As far as I know the fracture wouldn't be 100 percent  healed yet, but I have been told it is strong enough to start running, and continue cycling with no restrictions. I've just been told to use pain as my guide as to whether I can do something.

I am not to worried about the swelling at the moment. No doubt the wires will be aggravating everything in there. Once the wires come out I think I should show a bit more improvement there, though it does seem to be getting smaller each week.

Pain wise I very rarely have any pain. The knee feels tight, but that's about it.

If you have any other questions let me know    

[axand]

I would be curios to see if you can share an xray or so to compare with the ones I have, just to see for my personal knowledge. (My x-rays are from the front of the knee and from lateral side of the knee)

I'm not sure if starting the PT so early in the process may had an negative impact on the bone healing... I've done PT for the first 3 month and from 2 months to 3 months I was doing also with some additional weight on my leg 5-7kg and when I had my OS visit, he told me that I should stop with the extra weight because it may move the pieces, however my PT told me that there should be no issue so it was kinda of confusing and I've decided to put on hold the PT from 3 months until 2 weeks ago when I've started again (so at 5.2 months I've restarted PT to strengthen the quadriceps) and I also bought a LIPUS device to help the fracture (started using it from yesterday) so I'll use it for 1.5 months until the next visit is to see if there is any improvement.

However in my last visit to the OS, which was on 11th January he told me that for now the wires/screws can't be removed because there are still fractures available and to wait until 1 year mark and see then... so I hope that my bone will heal with the help of LIPUS and PT.

[hellteam]

I would be curios to see if you can share an xray or so to compare with the ones I have, just to see for my personal knowledge. (My x-rays are from the front of the knee and from lateral side of the knee)

I'm not sure if starting the PT so early in the process may had an negative impact on the bone healing... I've done PT for the first 3 month and from 2 months to 3 months I was doing also with some additional weight on my leg 5-7kg and when I had my OS visit, he told me that I should stop with the extra weight because it may move the pieces, however my PT told me that there should be no issue so it was kinda of confusing and I've decided to put on hold the PT from 3 months until 2 weeks ago when I've started again (so at 5.2 months I've restarted PT to strengthen the quadriceps) and I also bought a LIPUS device to help the fracture (started using it from yesterday) so I'll use it for 1.5 months until the next visit is to see if there is any improvement.

However in my last visit to the OS, which was on 11th January he told me that for now the wires/screws can't be removed because there are still fractures available and to wait until 1 year mark and see then... so I hope that my bone will heal with the help of LIPUS and PT.

Are you able to walk/cycle/run properly? I am starting to run (very slowly!) this week. It's more of a fast walk to be honest, my quad does not seem strong enough yet.

How many PT sessions have you had? I'd be more inclined to listen to OS over PT in relation to what you can and can't do.

I actually have not been doing any weights at all so far. The OS had told me not to put any extra weight on it, until last week, when he told me I have no restrictions on what I can do - I have to let pain be my guide. I have not been pushing it, I am being patient, there is no rush for me.

The two latest x-rays that I have are below. These are actually from October, so quite a while ago. I had a scan last week before my latest OS appointment, but it was a CT scan and I don't have a copy of that. I am not too good at reading x-rays so am not really sure of what I am seeing on it.

I am not sure how long bones are supposed to take to heal. There are still irregular areas in mine, but the doctor does not seem worried.

[axand]

Thanks for the xray, it is looking actually similar with The one I've did in Novembar, but I had only xrays done so far. It actually looks good your bone, in my xrays it seems to me that every time there is a bigger gap between the bone fragments..

As for walking I'm having no problem, same for cycling and for runing I did some short runs, but only for testing.. I can run but with a limp. Now I'm doing exercises every Day at home to recover strength, it seems to be working. I had 2 weeks now and I also had like 1month of PT when I had 2months from The surgery...

[Sammy01]

Hey hellteam, do you still use this site? I have a few questions. Thank you

[vickster]

They haven’t visited since November 2020 and only posted 3 times so it’s unlikely you’ll get a reply unfortunately