broken hip recovery advice needed...............

simonfr

So far, so good......

Did my first 10 hour MTB race since my accident, through some very deep mud!!
Only did 6.5hrs non stop, didnt want to push my luck. Still managed 65th out of 112. That is about 16 weeks post op.

Still have a base level of pain in my quads which is constant regardless whether i cycle or sit on the sofa. In fact, cycling seems to ease it for a few days afterward.
Think its going to be a permanent feature........

bookwormhk

When I was 16-week post op, my strength was only 70% recovered, never mind racing! Keep it up. You will get to 110% and beyond!

clu

Wishing all the people who have posted here all the best if you’ve unfortunately broken your hip, and hope you all get well soon and back to what you enjoy doing (riding your bikes).

I too broke my hip in May last year after I was knocked off my bike by a car; the compensation claim is still ongoing. The driver of the car was a right idiot and had previous form. Lots of points from previous motoring offences, unpaid fines, caught driving in the past without insurance, etc..., the list goes on. In court he was banned for 12 months more points on his licence and fined again, although I expect he’s back on the road now and accumulating points on his licence again.

Anyhow, I had what the consultant calls a dynamic hip pin with a plate put in my hip. In A and E after the accident they did at one point start mentioning to me about a hip replacement which really worried me, fortunately it remained only a possibility at the time and never happened. They did tell me though that I had osteoporosis which really took me by surprise, many tests later and they’re still none the wiser as to how I’ve got that condition.

One year on and after numerous checkups it’s been determined that the metal work in my hip needs to be removed as it has been causing me some irritation and discomfort (possibly due to the osteoporosis?). Although I want it removed so the discomfort is gone, I am a little anxious about having another op and a general anaesthetic again, and what may lie ahead.

At the pre-op appointment the staff did show a lot of interest in my heart murmur, for which I’ve since had another echocardiogram (same machine they use to have a look at a pregnant woman’s baby). I was told that it had progressed a little more since it was diagnosed back in 2002, I received a phone call from an anaesthetist who told me to expect a cardiologists appointment in the near future. As I understand heart murmurs and anaesthetics don’t mix too well, perhaps that’s why I’m a little anxious now?

I remember the recovery from the hip operation last year was a difficult time, hugely swollen and stiff leg with lots of pain and physiotherapy to follow. Can anyone here indicate how long they have taken to recover from having their hip pin removed? I’ve been told different things to expect, my op is on the 23rd of June (less than 2 weeks away) and I’m hoping that it’s not the same all over again (on crutches again and physiotherapy that lasts for weeks and weeks) although I am expecting some pain again.

Sorry for the long post and grateful for any comments that the helpful people here might give, and again best wishes if you're recovering from a broken hip.

simonfr

Hi Bookwormhk

It was a race but I wasn't racing. Having done it before it was a good way to just cycle round and round as a little tester on the fire and singletracks to seehow I would fare, and not run the risk of getting hit by cars!!
I was pleased with my overall performance all things considered. But my injured leg must be about 80-90% of previous, and I've lost my ability to climb hills

bookwormhk

simonfr: 65th out of 112 even if you weren't MTB racing... I dare not take cross country tracks since my accident, fearing that I might fall on my bad hip again...

Clu: surgeons and patients who went through this gave me the impression that recovery from pin removal should be fairly quick. I know how hard it was coming from the first operation but I was assured that I won't need to go through the same again - a few days' hospitalization and crutches should do, after which I should walk by myself without assistance. No physiotherapy needed.

Fingers crossed - do tell us how it goes afterwards (and help to ease my mind too).

clu

Thanks for the response bookwormhk, I really hope you're right. I think it's the thought of having any physiotherapy again with a lot of swearing in private to mask the pain that sticks in my mind about the experience. Hopefully not needed this time though.

Will make another post after the op if anyone else is interested in what happens after the metalwork is removed. If you have yours removed as well bookwormhk hope it goes well with no probs for you too.

simonfr

Let us know how you get on Clu

Nuka

Hi Clu

Good luck with your surgery - do let us know how you get on

Re: osteoporosis - did you get checked for coeliac disease? I was diagnosed with coeliac disease after my hip fracture as I had early osteoporosis. I have never had any gut problem so it appears that I am one of the people who have the disease without any symptoms.

Mig62

Hi there to everybody, I am posting this on behalf of my wife and I as a word of encouragement to all those who have suffered this type of injury. We are not bikers but like many others on this site when my wife broke her hip last year Aug 2010 I searched for more information as to what the injury and treatment entailed. I found most of the information very depressing as we just about fall into the category of elderly!:) As I said at the beginning we are not bikers we were just crossing the road and she tripped over a speed hump (it's ok to laugh,we do now although it was not funny at the time) I eventually stumbled upon this site during my search for positive information and it was a great help to me and my wife at the time. She had a displaced fracture of the head of the femure with surprisingly very little bruising or swelling (she was 59 at the time so the healing process has taken longer than some of you guys) My point is if she can recover then don't despair you will recover. The first few weeks were the worst and she did get depressed with the slow progress(no weight bearing for 8weeks).Anyway it's coming up to a year now and she is walking normally without crutches and pain/limp free:) She had three cannulated screws fitted by a brilliant surgeon, no incision just three small puncture wounds in a triangular pattern. In fact they have hardly left a mark and are fading as the days go by. So good luck with your healing and try to be patient you WILL get better:)

clu

Thought I’d let you know what occurred last week, a bit of a farce really.

At the pre-op appointment a few weeks before the op date, the nurse hunted around for a date for me to be admitted over night as there isn’t anyone to baby sit me for 24 hours after the op. They’ll only do the op if someone can look after you, or you can be admitted onto a ward for 24 hours after the op. The date for last Thursday was to enable me to do just that stay overnight in a ward before being released. When I arrived at mid day they were unaware about me being admitted to a ward post op, and one of the nurses told me that if they can’t find a bed on a ward because there wasn’t anyone to look after me then the op would be cancelled. So after an hour she managed to find one, all well and good I thought.

Was spoken to by the consultant/anesthetist and other people and signed the consent form for the op. I was supposed to be the 3rd patient of 4 on the day for an op, but was moved to the last op of the day. They finish all procedures for the day at 5.00pm in the day unit at the BRI. So at 4.40pm I was still waiting in the waiting room, changed and ready for the op when I was told that they weren’t going to be able to do it on the day. I think the nurse could tell I was not very happy with what she’d just told me, but she did say that I would be given the highest priority for the next time. As Jim Royle out of the Royle family would say “Highest priority, my a#?s!!”.

She said she couldn’t get in touch with the department that handles the dates for appointments and that I would get a phone call on the Friday morning (The day after) from them, but oh what a surprise during Friday no phone call. Pretty much sums up the NHS. To be honest, I think now I’ll be one of those cases that mysteriously get missed/lost in the system, and if I do get another appointment then I think the same thing will happen again.

I was extremely irritated on Thursday evening that I’d spent a whole afternoon sitting around in a waiting room when I could have been productive at work (It was unpaid time off from work and I don’t get sick pay or holiday pay). My leg just seems to be gradually getting sorer over time. Lying in bed on Saturday morning and touching the area where the metal work is, the discomfort is starting to become more prominent. I can still ride my bike ok (how long will that last though?), I had a great ride on Sunday morning (Wasn’t the weather fantastic, blue skies, very warm and no wind). But I do feel the metalwork in my leg when I’m walking around now, it sometimes feels like I have an arthritic right hip at times.

Sorry for the ranting and long post, I just feel very frustrated by the whole episode.

Nuka, that’s something I’d not considered (coeliac disease), I think I’ll ask my GP about that. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Mig62, good to hear that your wife is up and about and ok now.

Marko1962

I've wandered away from this thread and don't visit it very often as I've healed and got back to some sort of cycling normality so I thought I'd revisit and post where I'm up to now I'm 6 months post break. I've already written about it so Instead of rewriting my progress here I will redirect you to my blog where you can read what progress I've made..

http://markscyclingblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/six-months.html

carrock

Good to see things are going well

I had a similar bad injury that led to multiple infections and became addicted to Oxynorm ( very strong painkillers ) so can empahthise.

Cycling is good for recovery. Pity a £5000 bike is not available on prescription....

dragon66

I have also wandered away from this thread and am now nearing 7 months post op.

Still getting slight aggravation in the hip walking, but slowly disappearing!

I resumed cycling after 6 weeks progressing slowly and in recent weeks completed the Richmond 5 Dales in awful windy conditions followed by even worse rainy windy conditions on the 127 mile Wiggle Magnificat!

This was all a lead up to LaMarmotte in which I bettered my time of last year to achieve the Gold standard again.

I hope you can see that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and the best advice I feel I can pass on is to ( when you are able to ) keep doing the stretching and strengthening exercises for all the major muscle groups of the leg up to 4 times daily without fail. I have never endured so much pain! But each day I pushed myself and noticed small improvements.

simonfr

Marko1962/Dragon66. Great to hear everything going well guys.

Coming up for 6 months post op next month, And like Dragon66, still slight aggravation in hip.

Mountain Biking has been given up just now, too bumpy. Road riding only.

Getting there ... slowly.

Keep the faith everyone.

anto164

Just thought i'd like to pop in here with my injuries.

3 weeks ago to the day i was on the mountain bike doing some raather large jumps (Think 10foot high takeoffs) and i overshot a landing, landing on my head. I suffered a 30 minute loss of memory, and a wedge fracture of my L1, but also my T12 and L2 were slightly fractured. Right, that's my spine done. Next was my acetabular (Hip socket). That had a little crack through it too. Luckily for me, i went in for surgery but they didn't cut me open. Fracture wasn't bad enough.

I'm hoping that i can get back on my feet (Been on crutches for the past 10 days) and i'm back at the hospital to see how i'm healing tomorrow. Fingers crossed i'm healing well (The pain has dulled a LOT, so much so i haven't bothered with painkillers for the past 6 days).

Well, i hope i'm healing ok, as i'm 24 and had bought a brand new carbon road bike the day before my accident. Hadn't even picked it up..

I;m hoping to make a full recovery, but my trip to the alps has been cancelled for this year.. Anyone know whether i can get a refund throug my credit card for my sleezyjet tickets? (Hadn't bought insurance yet)??

simonfr

6 month xrays showed nothing untoward.

Tom G

Very interesting thread having recently had surgery to repair a displaced intracapsular - neck of femur - fracture. The break was fixed with 3 cannular screws on 28 August 2011 following a fall from a bike whilst I was on holiday in Italy 10 days earlier.

My bike slipped from under me on a sharp corner. The road was dry but there must have been some oil or something and although I wasn't travelling fast or cornering particularly hard the bike just slid away really quickly as if I'd just gone over some ice and I landed fairly heavily on my side with my hip bone taking all the impact. It's the kind of fall that I've had quite a few times before on wet or icy roads with little consequence so I was surprised that I couldn't move my left leg when I tried to stand up. I crawled to the edge of the road and as I did, my hip cracked as if it went back into joint, after which, I had much more movement in the leg and I was able to put some weight on it, sufficient to get back on the bike and ride to where I was going - painful, but manageable. I thought I'd maybe slightly dislocated it and it had sprung back into place and the pain I had was to the ligaments.

We were staying on a remote island with a small medical centre that had no x-ray equipment. I was looked at (literally that's all he did - he didn't even examine the leg) a couple of times by the doctor on duty who over the course of 2 days, twice told me to go away, take some anti-inflammatory medicine and keep putting ice on the hip. By chance however, there was an othopeadic doctor on holiday close by who checked me over (albeit without any x-ray equipment) and based on his examination, diagnosed that I must have had a straightforward fracture of the great trochanter which he said would fix itself with 15 days of rest. He said there was nothing that would be done to fix it if I went to a hospital on the mainland and only advised going to a hospital if the pain didn't reduce after 4 days, or if it hadn't gone completely after the 15. A day or so later the main pain had gone and I could get around OK, albeit on crutches, so didn't think it was necessary to get it checked over in a hospital until I got back to the UK.

As soon as I got home, I went to the local A+E, had the hip x-rayed to make sure it was all OK before going back to work. The doctors, to their surprise, confirmed then that it was a fracture to the hip, but to the neck of the femur, not the great trochanter, which was much more serious and should have been treated at the outset as an emergency to minimize the risk of the dreaded avascular necrosis and improve the chances of the bones uniting. They had no idea how I'd managed to get back on the bike or to be getting about on crutches for 10 days with relatively little discomfort and were bemused by the cavalier attitude of the doctors in Italy given a fracture had been diagnosed and the potentially serious consequences of misdiagnosing its position. I was then operated on straight away; the fracture was displaced but only in one plane so the surgeon decided not to reduce it and to screw the bones together as they were, presumably to avoid disrupting the blood supply to the femur head if it had managed to survive the 10 days between the fall and the surgery. The surgeon was more confident that there was a better chance of the bones healing and less of a chance of AVN after the surgery than he was before, so I've got my fingers crossed. I really do not want to be comparing notes with Floyd Landis about the durability of hip resurfacing techniques and total hip replacements!

I was let out of hospital after 3 days and am now back at work. The leg seems to be on the mend after the operation and so far there seems to be little pain or discomfort. By far the most uncomfortable part of the whole episode was having a catheter put in after the operation - will go easier on the amount of water I drink after a spinal injection the next time - give the bladder chance to start working first - OUCHHH!

I will be non weight bearing on crutches for 6 weeks and if everything's OK after that, partial weight bearing for at least 3 months - it's a pain not being able to carry anything in your hands whilst on crutches, but if by some fluke I manage to avoid AVN and the bones heal, I'll do whatever it takes, so not too down about the crutches.

I still don't understand how I managed to do this from such an innocuous fall - it really wasn't that heavy - I've had far worse in the past. One doctor suggested that there might have been an underlying stress fracture - but that's not likely given the only exercise I do is cycling. It was interesting to read the link in one of the earlier posts about the connection between Bone Mineral Density loss and cycling. I'm 38 by the way, so should be some way off the normal onset of osteoporosis.

It's a bit of an unusual one given the delay between the break and the surgery so I'll keep updating the thread with my progress - and my battle to fend off AVN!

Best wishes to everybody for full and speedy recoveries...

Marko1962

I broke my hip and elbow in Jan this year on a left turn on black ice at 10.6mph. didn't look much but obviously it was, To cut a long story short it turns out I am suffering from osteoporosis so no wonder I broke so easily. I'm not saying that's what you have as I have underlying renal problems and the side effects of the medication I take caused my osteoporosis but it's something that should be checked out...

Best of luck on your recovery.

Nuka

I have finally been seen by an orthopaedic surgeon and am on the waiting list to have my dynamic hip screw removed...now three years after the initial surgery.Has anyone else had removal of the metal work? How was the surgery and the recovery afterwards?

Clu - did you manage to get another date for your surgery?

Tom G

When I go back for my 6 week check, I'll ask the Consultant if I can have a bone mineral density scan. Whilst I was in hospital they seemed a bit reluctant and said if I had a low BMD I'd already likely have broken more bones in the past. I'll push for it though.

Seems like you're fairly local to me - I live in north Manchester - don't ride as much in North Cheshire as I used to when I lived on that side of Manchester. Looking forward to my next ride up the Cat and Fiddle though when this is all done!

anto164

BTW, i had my first physio session after breaking my hip socket 9 weeks ago last friday.

Apparently my hamstrings are super tight, and i've got a hell of a lot of muscle wastage on the side of the fracture. Going to take a while to build everything up so my back and pelvis is stable enough to get enough torque to noticably flex my rear end of the road bike..

Healing from the injury is the easy bit. Getting the muscles working again is the hard and frustrating bit.

bookwormhk

I had an operation to take out the IM nail in my hip last month. The operation lasted for 1.5 hours and I was discharged the next day, walking on hiking pole. Full weight bearing possible though I was advised not to do heavy duty exercise initially.

The IM nail was in for less than 2 years and the removal sounded like hard labour for the doctor - at least that was what I heard during the operation (I was in spinal anesthesia which I should say isn't for everyone) - hammering and so forth. At one point, I thought it wouldn't be successful...

The doctor still thought this operation wasn't absolutely necessary but to me the metal had kept me awake at night. There were a few times the doctor mentioned the difficulty with IM nail removal.

Incision was similar to the first operation.

The titanium nail appears to be heavier than I thought!

The Real Radioactiveman

anto164 wrote:

BTW, i had my first physio session after breaking my hip socket 9 weeks ago last friday.

Apparently my hamstrings are super tight, and i've got a hell of a lot of muscle wastage on the side of the fracture. Going to take a while to build everything up so my back and pelvis is stable enough to get enough torque to noticably flex my rear end of the road bike..

Healing from the injury is the easy bit. Getting the muscles working again is the hard and frustrating bit.

I know the feeling I lost pretty much most of my quadto wastage following 5 weeks in a cast when I cut halfway through my patella tendon in a climbing accident in July. I have been doing all my exercises religiously and yesterday managed a 20 mile easy ride. Yet still my left thigh is like a twiglet

Nuka

Thanks bookwormhk. How is the recovery from the surgery coming along? I am worried that i may have to deal with the same level of muscle wasting that i had after my first op. have you had similar problems? Has your fitness level rduced a lot? Are you back at work? Are you able to drive?
So was it worth having the surgery or is it too early to say?

bookwormhk

Nuka: I am back to work and I can drive (a few days after discharge).

Muscle wastage was serious after the 1st operation, but since I could walk full weight without assistance very soon after the 2nd operation, it was not that noticeable.

It is still too early if the recovery lives up to my expectation, but early signs are promising. Will keep you guys posted in a month or two.

solosuperia

I broke the top of my femur off, sods law really...Had been flying up and down the South Downs for a couple of hours and fell off on ice up my drive.
Anyway that was about 12 years ago now, they screwed it back together and it is only reading this that I remember it happened.
My only immediate problem at the time was I had a limp, not surprising really having been in plaster for 6 weeks. They measured my legs and told me the one I had broken was shorter by x(can't remember how much) it happens after surgery, wear a pad under your heel and it will compensate.
I couldn't get on with the pad, I am fairly convinced that the leg in question has always been shorter.

bookwormhk

For anyone interested to find out the pros and cons of IM nail removal, the following links should be of interest:

http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic116685.html

http://m.topix.com/forum/med/orthopaedi ... KS9IHS5JTC

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/show ... p?t=580580

http://trumbore.com/leg/remove.html

gnzls

Hey everyone

First of all I hope you're all making a strong solid recovery. Your stories and advice here are amazing, and I have to say that this forum (and one or two others, such as on this: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discu ... 94&start=1 ) really gave me hope and support after I came out of hospital with an interochanteric fracture femur two weeks ago. Thank you all so much for sharing and keeping the stories up to date!

I just wanted to share what (so far) has been a very positive recovery as a way to give anyone else unfortunate enough to end up here some additional perspective. As an aside, I also broke my collarbone in the same accident (Friday 13th Jan...) where I piled into the back of a van at about 30mph, having failed to avoid it, and clipped it with my left shoulder before landing on my right hip. Tough combo it turns out, especially if you're a keen swimmer like me...

Anyway. I just wanted to say this: two and a half weeks after surgery, my physio cleared me to walk on one crutch, and to swim (the joy!) as normal with full range of movement. Two days later my specialist looked at my xrays and said (generously, I'm sure) that it was hard to see the fracture which had, by the way, been a clean break. I'm now at three weeks since surgery (which took place 36 hours after the injury) and can walk without crutches, although not for long at all and not outside. He told me I would be off crutches perhaps in 2 weeks, so 4-5 weeks after the crash.

I can climb and descend stairs two steps (ie one step with each leg) at a time and today I sat on a Watt bike for 20 mins bursting between 85 and 100 RPM on a resistance just one notch below my pre-accident. I swam last week - that was hard, both on the shoulder and because my legs find kicking very very hard - but I plan to swim and cycle every day to build up strength. My specialist told me I could "swim all day every day" as far as he was concerned, and although I can run in the pool (which I haven't tried yet) I won't even try running until +3m.

I put this down to a couple of things. First of all the NHS did a great job of fixing me up, despite the delays and the food and the *mental* people in a hip ortho ward - the surgery was very good and my legs are still the same length

Secondly: nutrition. Not in hospital of course, but outside. I read up on the foods and supplements for recovering from broken bones and surgery and really credit this with my recovery. Here's the stuff (more detail on sites like livestrong)

http://www.livestrong.com/article/10163 ... ken-bones/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/26531 ... ken-bones/

Green leafy vegetables (Kale, broccoli)
Oily fish - lots of sardines and mackerel and salmon
Lots of nuts (almonds, brazil) and pulses
Oats and wholegrains
LOTS of vitamin C - blueberries, blood oranges (3x as much as normal oranges), pomegranate etc - this helps absorb the calcium in ...
Yoghurt, milk, soya with all the extra vitamins
Lay off the coffee
Flax seed
Smoothies

On top of that I was told by a physio that taking calcium and glucosamine & chondroitin 3x daily was a good idea, and have been doing this religiously, along with the exercises of course.

Anyway, just wanted to share this in case it's helpful!

lagunacat

Thank you for the nutritional advice! I am in my 3rd week of recovery and looking to avoid setbacks and AVN. Unfortunately this is my second broken hip and previously broke my tail bone and pelvis and multiple fracture of right hand. Needless to say this latest break has left me very depressed and almost certainly quitting bicycling. Hard thing to accept after 30 years. Bicycling is/was everything to me.

gnzls

Hey L

I forgot to say something that everyone has mentioned to me about my recovery (it sounds like we got injured at very similar times) – positive mental attitude helps a *huge* amount.

I had some very dark times in hospital, when I couldn't even move my leg from side to side or push my knee into the bed or lift my knee up. My first physio session was soul-destroying. But, I just kept on at it, and at it, and remembered that by rights I should have had head injuries, spine injuries, neuro problems and all the rest, and basically how lucky I was. I went for my second (outdoor) swim yesterday (swimming to me is like cycling for you I guess) and sat at the end of the pool, in the freezing sunshine getting vitamin D (very important for bones!) and watching my squad plough up and down. I was just so damn happy to be there.

I'm not sure I'll cycle in London again, and I know how you feel. But if there's a way for you to see the good try so hard, I promise you it's worth it!

Best of luck!