Tibial Plateau Fracture Recovery

[tnorts]

Reviving this to tell a little bit about my story. I fractured my Tibial Plateau february 23 skiing, along with a full thickness meniscal contusion. It was non-displaced and treatment was non surgical. I injured it on a bad landing, felt a crunch or 2 pops (which I though was my acl), but did not feel immediate pain. Walking up to get my skis something felt very wrong and assumed ligament damage immediately. I skied down to the base area after putting my skis on and by the time I got to the bottom I could barely move my leg. Limped my way to the clinic with assistance from a friend and some ski poles and was diagnosed after xray with the TPF and presumed ACL, MCL, Menisucs. My ortho later had similar fears after doing all the stability tests with my knee and said that he was positive I damaged my MCL and 70% sure I tore my ACL. Surprisingly, the MRI showed all ligaments intact, with the only damage being the TPF and meniscal contusion.

In the first few days, pain was unbearable and range of motion was almost zero. 8/10 pain for about 36 hours straight... I opted for advil because I'm dumb and tough. After 5 weeks, I had gained about 80% of my ROM and pain was minimal hanging around the house, occasionally reaching a 3-4/10 if I was resting it in one position for too long. At that point I got more xrays and my ortho was satisfied with the progress of my healing, so we moved to 25% weight bearing, increasing to 50% as tolerated. Walking with crutches felt good. Once I got my leg moving, things seemed to progress rapidly, at least for about 2 weeks and then things plateaued a bit.

A week and a half ago I decided I felt good enough to get out to a concert. I sat the whole show, but at the end of the night my knee was so sore from all the jostling and travelling that I was sure I had bit off more than I could chew and set myself back.

Last week on 4/20 I had my next ortho follow up and round of xrays. Ortho to my surprise said the fracture was no longer recognizable on the xray and approved me to move to full weight bearing as tolerated. I was told to ease into it and have a crutch (or two) close by in case I needed to back off. I was also allowed to ditch my knee brace. 5 days later and I am once again improving quite quickly. At the end of each day, my injured knee has been a little sore with the increased weight bearing, but each day that I have used it that end of day soreness has diminished. I am still very much walking with a limp, and using the crutches for balance and confidence when I'm out of the house. Today I went properly up and down some stairs while holding tight to the railing to reduce some weight with no pain.

I've been doing PT all throughout this process which I think has helped immensely. My quad atrophied shockingly quickly in those first 2 weeks where I wasn't able to move it at all. But with PT the atrophy stopped, and now I've even gained some of that quad muscle back. I am having occasional tracking issues with my patella, which my PT does not seem to be concerned about. The problems with tracking seem to be fewer and farther between as I've been progressing and getting stronger, so I trust him on that.

My Ortho seems to think I will be able to return to light athletic activity in June, and more aggressive athletic activity in July. The snow will be around in august in Tahoe, so I'm in no rush.

I'll try to give another update in June. I had a hard time trying to find stories about less severe tibial plateau fractures and long term outcomes, so I'm hoping my story will help encourage some folks. It seemed like my knee was beyond f$%&ed when I first did my injury and the lingering pain was shocking and discouraging. It feels good now knowing the progress I've made.

[daviski]

Well here I am, guess I always knew it was a matter of time before I would join the ranks of the fallen here in Gimp central. Actually I did make a visit 15 yrs ago with a busted up shoulder and ultimately a metal strap screwed to the collarbone. Those were the days.

Accident occured on Feb. 10. This time it was clear on the mountain I had a bilateral tib/fib fracture. But CT and xrays taken when they got me to Intermountain in Salt Lake City confirmed the worst: Type VI tibial plateau fracture on both legs. I was in a room at ortho trauma ward at Intermountain for four nights, can't speak highly enough of the staff there. On the night of arrival they put on external fixations. Wife and son were with me and we made the decision that the best course was for me to somehow fly home to North Carolina particularly since the swelling meant no subsequent surgery could happen until at least two weeks later. Ortho and PT made sure I could make the slider board transitions from bed to chair and really facilitated a seemless discharge for me early Wed. morning. My son posted a detailed account of how we managed the logistics of that flight which would be useful to anyone who finds themselves in that situation. https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/comme...o_broken_legs/

The accident happened in the Hidden Canyon (valley?) area at Brighton, thru the gate lookers left of Great western. We had already made some great powder runs off great western and mid morning went out the side gate. I dropped into like the third chute, boys went on to the next. Midway as the chute narrowed I stopped, and rather than straight lining started jump turning down, missed one fell forward and was flipping and tomahawking immediately..... a long ragdoll 100-150 yds seemingly forever, I had know idea how violent and helpless a fall like that is, all witnessed by my sons .... Dynafit bindings were not locked but did not release, knew half way my legs were broken. Came to a rest seated with my back facing uphill which was a good thing. My feet felt like they were swimming independently in warm water. Sons were there to keep me from doing anything to make me slide off my perch. We called patrol and while waiting someone who'd previously patrolled stayed with us and gave them better location information, whoever that was thanks for your knowledge and help!!!! Brighton patrol was absolutely great!
I go into the fall in detail because as far as I know I did not hit any trees or rock bands so I'm amazed my TPs could have been so completely shattered.
After getting home we had several days to get the house set up and streamlined for wheelchair life.
First surgery was done last Thurs. Feb. 29, it took 5 1/2 hours. Next one is Tues., its even more complex and will take longer.
The surgeon spoke to us and said my bones were alarmingly soft which may explain the scale of damage. Iam 61 yrs old and bone density tests last year indicated that I was already into osteoporosis on some of the tested sites. Also, a life time of pretty heavy drinking and the associated poor absorption of vitamins has not been helpful.
So there we are, pain of the breaks with the external fixations had become quite tolerable. But my first efforts with PT/OT to maneuver my internally fixed leg was absolutely want to vomit pass out excruciating. Can't imagine the level after the second surgery.

So there it is guys, I confess I have only worked thru a small part of this thread because frankly it is pretty fucking depressing. But I'll keep reading and posting as I progress. I have very good support and would characterize things as generally upbeat. I'm very glad to have the shared experience of all my fellow travellers on this tough path.
Peace to us all, David

[t-the-east]

Oh man, that was painful to read. Good to hear you are in good spirits. You got a long road ahead, keep up the positivity. It does get better

[t-the-east]

Oh man, that was painful to read. Good to hear you are in good spirits. You got a long road ahead, keep up the positivity. It does get better

[spanky]

Glad to see you made it home without any complications. As mentioned in the Wasatch thread (and up thread here I believe), I broke my TP (Type II) while on vacation at Alta in 2019. I had surgery at the U of U and flew home a few days later. That flight was rough. I can’t imagine what you went through with both legs broken.

I can’t tell from your hospital bed photos as to if they are “from home”, but if you haven’t already, I highly recommend renting a hospital bed.

Keep taking the blood thinners as prescribed and keep an eye out for any changes in color/feeling in your toes. I had a blood clot scare as my toes started “bruising”.

All the best with the second surgery.

Do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

[John_B]

Damn daviski, I don't have anything to add except to send you good wishes. Did your ligaments come out of that alright? I hope surgery two goes well.

[daviski]

I do have a hospital bed and a lot of other things to make things more manageable at home. We had about a weak between flying home and being admitted here too work out logistics. Apparently only one ligament was severely damaged, not one I recognized. I could post the CT scan analysis, it's pretty fucking grim

[mcski]

Súper impressive to make that flight work for you. That must have been rough. I assumed two busted legs would mean renting for a long drive. Best of luck w the surgery.

[BaseFloopy]

I do have a hospital bed and a lot of other things to make things more manageable at home. We had about a weak between flying home and being admitted here too work out logistics. Apparently only one ligament was severely damaged, not one I recognized. I could post the CT scan analysis, it's pretty fucking grim

I had a type VI last year, just one leg though. Can't imagine two at the same time. +1 on the suggestion for blood thinners. I slacked off, and ended up with several clots that took a while to clear.
Reach out if you have any questions, and best of luck with your surgeries and healing journey.

[cspringsposer]

Damn Daviski! That's terrible! I had a type V in one leg and that was brutal. I can't even imagine both legs. One positive I would point out is as violent as that crash was it's really good luck you didn't end up with compartment syndrome.

Only advise I have is just keep grinding. Everyday is a new battle that you can win. I know it's a metaphor, but seriously take it one day at a time. At least for me, thinking about the big picture and long recovery was not good for my mental health.

Shoot me a PM if you want to chat about it. The hardest part for me was not knowing when I would progress during healing. Those first two weeks were pretty terrifying not knowing if that brutal pain would ever stop. It did and I'm back on skis again, but a TPF will absolutely change your perspective on life.

Prayers and vibes from CO. Nobody should ever have to go through a double TPF!

[Red7]

I figured there would be a thread of this type of injury so searched and read the last 2 pages. I plan to read through the rest of the thread in coming days, but I'd love to hear where people are at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after the injury. I was riding motocross with my son on Wed May 29th and ended up with a TPF injury on my right leg. We were riding a fairly mellow track but it was un-prepped, slick and hard as concrete. I was jumping a triple double combination all day which was far from risky but scrubbed the triple too hard one time, which caused me to bounce from the landing of the triple to the top of the take off of the double, causing me to swap in the air, which caused me to come up short on the double and bounce off the top of that landing. I almost saved it but put my right leg down to save it and snap. It was such a mellow jump combo that I was shocked I got hurt, but the SC red clay was rock hard so it was enough of an impact to break the Tibia and Fibula enough to go up into the knee joint. I honestly think I have weak bones as I'm now 50 and have always had skinny bones for my size.

I had surgery this past Monday (drove 12 hours down from NC to FL) and they said it went well (in spite of being over 7 hours). I was discharged on Wednesday and pain has been manageable. My son flies to Tampa tonight and we'll drive back up to NC on Sunday. I'm hoping I can start to go into work and sit in the office on Monday, even if it's just part days. I'm slowly backing off the pain meds and hope I can be off opiates by Monday.

My biggest concern is that they plateau damage went up into the knee joint and originally, they said I'd want to seriously consider a knee replacement due to the disrupted cartilage, but after the surgery, they said the cartilage lined up pretty well. Have any of you had damage to the knee joint, and how has that gone. When I shattered my ankle 8 years ago (on Memorial day), I did the same number to the cartilage in the ankle and the first ski season was brutal. I then had the ankle fused and have been skiing pretty damn hard the past 7 years with very little pain. I may do the same with this one where I test it out this ski season before deciding on a knee replacement. I'm motivated to get back to 100% of where I was pre-injury and the fact that 2 new pairs of Moment Deathwish (112 and 104) arrived the day of the injury, is motivation to get through this and back to charging...and snowmobiling...and motocross.

[BaseFloopy]

Every TPF seems to be so different it's hard to compare, but here are my rough numbers if it's helpful:

I skied last year starting on opening day, after being weight-bearing for 5 months (8.5 months post surgery). Only a few beginner runs were open, and obviously I kept it very mellow. Getting in and out of the ski boot was the toughest part that first day and I was thinking things might not be too bad moving forward.
However my skiing ability was pretty much shit for months -- I could get in a couple of fun hours putzing around on groomers but nothing too exciting/steep/fast etc. Bumps and hard variable snow were murder at any speed.
Halfway through the season I realized I was basically skiing on my good leg, with the other one a glorified outrigger.

Finally by the end of the year I could ski at roughly 75% effort, with better balance between both legs, for 3 hours or so in any conditions. Then the leg muscles on the bad side would quickly fade and it would be time to take off before disaster struck.

Today I'm basically at the 12 month mark for weight-bearing and I'm thinking it will take at least another year before discovering what the final outcome will be. I still have a lot of nerve issues, lack of strength and endurance, etc. Some days are honestly pretty good, while others are a kick in the nuts... but overall things keep improving.

[Red7]

Every TPF seems to be so different it's hard to compare, but here are my rough numbers if it's helpful:

I skied last year starting on opening day, after being weight-bearing for 5 months (8.5 months post surgery). Only a few beginner runs were open, and obviously I kept it very mellow. Getting in and out of the ski boot was the toughest part that first day and I was thinking things might not be too bad moving forward.
However my skiing ability was pretty much shit for months -- I could get in a couple of fun hours putzing around on groomers but nothing too exciting/steep/fast etc. Bumps and hard variable snow were murder at any speed.
Halfway through the season I realized I was basically skiing on my good leg, with the other one a glorified outrigger.

Finally by the end of the year I could ski at roughly 75% effort, with better balance between both legs, for 3 hours or so in any conditions. Then the leg muscles on the bad side would quickly fade and it would be time to take off before disaster struck.

Today I'm basically at the 12 month mark for weight-bearing and I'm thinking it will take at least another year before discovering what the final outcome will be. I still have a lot of nerve issues, lack of strength and endurance, etc. Some days are honestly pretty good, while others are a kick in the nuts... but overall things keep improving.

Thanks for sharing! I'm at the 10 week mark. Dr says I'm still not supposed to put any weight on it until 12 weeks but unlike most surgeons who say PWB is critical to recovery, mine says he's always been conservative and won't make any exceptions. I've been slowly ramping up the PWB and low load exercises, trying to get a jump on PT without causing a setback. After starting with pressing down just 20lbs on a scale, I'm just starting to do short walks with a cane while putting a bunch of weight on my hand to limit how much is on that leg. Been doing tons of body weight squats, planks, bridges, etc and just started riding the MTB around my yard. I can straighten the leg but no matter how much I try to bend the knee, it won't go less than 40-45° (which absolutely sucks when accidently dropping the dropper post too much while seated, forcing it to bend way more than it can, lol).

Right now, I'm just hoping to get to the point where I can even ski mellow groomers in December. I can tell the metal is going to be a problem as I have screw heads that aren't countersunk that are digging into my soft tissue. I will definitely get that stuff out as soon as possible.

[Red7]

I go back to the Dr in 2 weeks, at which point they should release me to be FWB and to start PT. What were some of the best PT exercises and other strengthening exercises you did that most helped? Thanks!

[cspringsposer]

I go back to the Dr in 2 weeks, at which point they should release me to be FWB and to start PT. What were some of the best PT exercises and other strengthening exercises you did that most helped? Thanks!

I was 100% NWB for 12 weeks. My surgeon wouldn't even consider PWB prior to that. At my 12 week follow-up he said I could start weening myself off the crutches. I hobbled out of his office, threw the crutches in the back of the truck and never used them again. It was fairly difficult to walk and I looked like a total gimp, but within a week or so of being off crutches I was really walking well. Im the rip the bandaid off type and figured nothing would strengthen the leg to help with walking like walking would. I was doing 500 leg lifts a day when I was NWB and think that helped a lot.

My PT was covered 100% (no copay) so I was in the PT clinic 3X a week. The two best things I did was start running on an AlterG treadmill (I think I started at 50% of my weight) and blood flow restriction therapy. The BFR was absolutely brutal but it really helped strengthen the leg without putting too much pressure on the joint in the early days of recovery.

I began skiing about 9 months out from my injury. Leg fatigue and a blown out posterolateral corner (happened during TPF and I havent had it repaired yet) were and still are the limiting factors for me. I learned that if I keep my quad engaged it helps keep everything lined up in the posterolateral corner, but even 2+ years out the TPF leg is not as strong as the other. I have worked pretty hard since the injury but there is still a visible difference between the two calf sizes.

I was very aggressive in my PT and pushed my therapist to let me do more. If he told me to jog on the AlterG for 10 minutes at speed 4 I would do 15 at 5. They tried to rein me in a little at first but eventually realized I was going to do what they said plus a little more. Im sure they adjusted their instructions based on that knowledge, so I was likely just doing what was normal at that point.

Make sure you get a good PT. I called around to a number of PT clinics and most had no experience with a TPF, which is wild living in Colorado. Eventually I found a clinic and therapist that had helped with a number of TPF rehabs and I went with them. I would really do your research on the PT clinic you choose. Getting a good therapist can be the make or break factor in this recovery.

Good luck with your recovery. Work as hard as your body will let you and you will be back doing the things you love soon. Im still not skiing at the level I was pre-TPF. I am probably 80%, and with the blown posterolateral corner, that is probably about as good as it will get for me. I honestly dont feel like I am missing out and am genuinely enjoying the mountain, even if it is at a slower pace than before.

[mcski]

Thanks for mentioning the posterolateral córner. I think you just diagnosed one of the issues going on w my knee the docs seem to keep ignoring

[cspringsposer]

Thanks for mentioning the posterolateral córner. I think you just diagnosed one of the issues going on w my knee the docs seem to keep ignoring

I knew I was going to need more work done on the knee when I had the TPF surgery. I had compartment syndrome and the TPF surgery ended up being emergency surgery late at night in the hospital. They rebuilt the TPF but told me there are more surgeries in my future.

For the posterolateral corner reconstruction they would take out the plates and screws and then put in a number of allografts to repair the corner. From what I have heard from some top notch ortho surgeons, the posterolateral corner reconstruction is a pretty new surgery and not a lot of surgeons are proficient in it. I have been warned to only see a surgeon that specializes in the surgery and not a general ortho surgeon. I have figured out how to get around with the knee being unstable and am not in a hurry to be on crutches again anytime soon. I figure at some point the knee will make the decision for me and I will get it done. Hopefully they have perfected the surgery by then.

[cat in january]

The recovery from this injury is varied. Don’t try to gauge yourself by others. Like cspringsposer once X-ray cleared me for full weight bearing at twelve weeks, the crutches were never used again. I did experience a fair amount of swelling from walking and that took a while to go away. Nine monthe after a 1.5 cm displacement six screws and a plate a December storm brought 17” of pow on top of dirt and ice. Maybe it was because of Covid in 2020 and people needing a release, but I skied every run after the first under the ropes and patrol never said a word. My bad leg did tire more that winter, but I still put in some big days touring. I was told I should expect to ski easy groomers that year. I skied everything the same as I always did.

[Red7]

I was 100% NWB for 12 weeks. My surgeon wouldn't even consider PWB prior to that. At my 12 week follow-up he said I could start weening myself off the crutches. I hobbled out of his office, threw the crutches in the back of the truck and never used them again. It was fairly difficult to walk and I looked like a total gimp, but within a week or so of being off crutches I was really walking well. Im the rip the bandaid off type and figured nothing would strengthen the leg to help with walking like walking would. I was doing 500 leg lifts a day when I was NWB and think that helped a lot.

My PT was covered 100% (no copay) so I was in the PT clinic 3X a week. The two best things I did was start running on an AlterG treadmill (I think I started at 50% of my weight) and blood flow restriction therapy. The BFR was absolutely brutal but it really helped strengthen the leg without putting too much pressure on the joint in the early days of recovery.

I began skiing about 9 months out from my injury. Leg fatigue and a blown out posterolateral corner (happened during TPF and I havent had it repaired yet) were and still are the limiting factors for me. I learned that if I keep my quad engaged it helps keep everything lined up in the posterolateral corner, but even 2+ years out the TPF leg is not as strong as the other. I have worked pretty hard since the injury but there is still a visible difference between the two calf sizes.

I was very aggressive in my PT and pushed my therapist to let me do more. If he told me to jog on the AlterG for 10 minutes at speed 4 I would do 15 at 5. They tried to rein me in a little at first but eventually realized I was going to do what they said plus a little more. Im sure they adjusted their instructions based on that knowledge, so I was likely just doing what was normal at that point.

Make sure you get a good PT. I called around to a number of PT clinics and most had no experience with a TPF, which is wild living in Colorado. Eventually I found a clinic and therapist that had helped with a number of TPF rehabs and I went with them. I would really do your research on the PT clinic you choose. Getting a good therapist can be the make or break factor in this recovery.

Good luck with your recovery. Work as hard as your body will let you and you will be back doing the things you love soon. Im still not skiing at the level I was pre-TPF. I am probably 80%, and with the blown posterolateral corner, that is probably about as good as it will get for me. I honestly dont feel like I am missing out and am genuinely enjoying the mountain, even if it is at a slower pace than before.

Thanks for sharing! This past Tuesday was my 12 week postop visit and they cleared me for FWB. I can take a few steps unassisted, but my quad is so weak that it will collapse if I try more than that. Sometimes I can walk around with a cane but I have to put a good bit of weight on it so I'm still on crutches most of the time putting maybe 75% of my weight on the leg. I started mountain biking on mellow trails which really helps loosen up the knee and I'm alternating those days with leg press, deadlift, leg curls and extensions. Lots of stretching everyday and have about 138° of flexion but still struggling with extension. I can get to 0 or even slightly negative after a few minutes stretching but there is either swelling or scar tissue above my knee that keeps me from locking out my knee straight on its own (without me pulling it straight with a towel), and I'm sure this is effecting my ability to walk. I'm hoping I can break through that and that my quad strengthens enough that I can get off the crutches soon.

My PT and Dr said that mellow skiing should be ok in 3-4 months so I'm going to hit the PT hard and try to really strengthen everything by December. Straight on strengthening won't be hard but it's hard to mimic the lateral load we put on our knees when skiing. Any recommendations besides band work? Obviously, I'll continue to stress that with my PT. I'm setting realistic goals for this first year skiing and will be ok if all I can ski are soft mellow groomers. I'm sure the skinnier the skis the better which sucks because I bought 3 pairs of wider skis (Deathwish 104, Deathwish 112 and BC Nocta 122) at the end of the season. I'm not touching a motocross bike for at least a year as this injury really got my attention so not even going to snowbike this winter. I do hope I can still sidehill on my mountain sled though to get out in the backcountry on non-ski days.

[daviski]

I suffered a bilateral type VI TPF on Feb 10th of this year at Brighton. I posted about it in the thread above a few weeks after while awaiting surgeries at Duke here in Durham. BTW THANKS to the other users at the time who recognized the severity and were as encouraging as possible. Good folks, despite the snark and sarcasm that we sometimes give and get here, when shit gets real the support comes through.

I have meant to update this for quite a while but every phase has been daunting with a series of new procedures and timelines that seemed always to move farther away. I am now 8 months post injury and can safely say, I hope, that I am past the surgeries and starting to pass functional benchmarks of actual recovery. I look back at my post in this thread at the beginning of March and feel a kind of sadness and sympathy, for myself, like looking at childhood pictures on the refrigerator door. I had no idea, but of course, how could I? I'm proud of myself, I discovered more patience and strength than I knew I possessed. I am also enormously grateful to my sons and esp. to my wife who has helped me through this despite the fact that she doesn't ski and is generally not a risk taker. If you intend on breaking both your legs, I strongly recommend having a good support staff in place.

Something that has proved crucial psychologically is that I almost never look back with self recrimination, yes it was my fault but that was just one bad outcome of countless times in the mountains that I wouldn't change or give up. I'm suffering more out of grief for what I had and may have lost, and less from regret or anger.

At the time of that posting, the left (less busted) knee had been mended with three plates, a lot of graft material and many, many screws. I was waiting for the second surgery and was the subject of consultation between different specialists including, chillingly, prosthetics. Ultimately, they determined that things were too destroyed to repair with another ORIF. The chosen course of action was to put me in a different external fixation with more widely spaced bolts and wait in the hope that the oatmeal of my right tibial plateau would solidify into something solid enough to support a total knee replacement sometime in the future using hardware generally reserved for TKR revisions.


Timeline:
2/10/2024 Bilateral TPF Type VI with fractured and displaced left fibula. External fixation placed on both legs. In hospital in Salt Lake 4 days
2/14 flew back to NC
2/29 removal of left ex-fix, lengthy ORIF procedure on left knee
3/5 replacement of right ex-fix, was in hospital 8 days around these procedures
March, April, May; 3 seperate antibiotic courses given due to pin-site infections
4/10 Surgeon follow-up, Ex-fix to remain on right leg with no weight bearing on either leg for 2 or more months. Devastating psychologically
4/16 meeting with physical therapy, exercises very limited by no weight bearing status, atrophy very evident, left leg flexion 65 deg. but extension good at -2
5/23 Given partial weight bearing clearance on left leg. Also my third PT session, I'd continued painfully working the left knee flex in bed and with sit and scoot exercises in my wheelchair, it measured at 95 degrees. Right leg was still in ex-fix, calf muscle just disappearing.
6/10 (4 months after injury) Removal of external fixation on right leg. Overnight in hospital. Left leg flexion now at 104 degrees
7/3 Left knee flexion 115, right knee 55 degrees
7/11 Left knee flexion 122, right knee 68 degrees
7/22 Surgery on right knee,TKR with revision hardware but prior bone healing was better than expected. Quad snip was done to gain access
---a lot of pain---
8\10 First PT after right knee surgery, new ROM baseline 40 degree flex, -7 extension,...very depressing

I will post more about my current progress, good news, things are moving forward. I'm going to try to attach x-rays taken in Utah the day of injury and a set of both knees with their completed repairs. And some horrifying animations generated from the CAT scans also taken that first day in Utah,, I only recently found these embedded in that link and it would have been nauseating to see them at the time. I want to screen print them on sweat pant legs for Halloween

[John_B]

I've been wondering how you are doing. I'm glad to hear things are slowly getting there and good job pushing to where you are now!

[BaseFloopy]

Something that has proved crucial psychologically is that I almost never look back with self recrimination, yes it was my fault but that was just one bad outcome of countless times in the mountains that I wouldn't change or give up. I'm suffering more out of grief for what I had and may have lost, and less from regret or anger.

That resonates.

Glad you are continuing to improve and hopefully you can get back to outdoor pursuits in due time.

[BenSkisTrees]

daviski, you make those sweatpants for Halloween? Welcome to the club, brother! My leg aches after reading your story. Bilateral must be brutal, I can't even imagine. I read this entire thread 4 years ago and it helped me immensely with my recovery.

Well they let you keep both legs, score! Mine was a nasty Type VI and my ER surgeon in Vail freaked me out, mentioning amputation as a possibility. I ended up with 23 pieces of metal and a 2-3 year recovery.

My friend got herself bilateral TPFs at Alyeska around the same time as my right TPF. Her atrophy was worse and recovery timeline was definitely longer than mine, with her needing a subsequent TKR, but we have both eventually returned to most activities.

Keep us updated!

[Red7]

Glad people are progressing in recovery! I'm now about 8.5 months post-op and coming along. I've been skiing since 6.5 months and it's coming along but still constant pain on both sides of my knee (where my plates are), and then the entire outside from my knee, IT band and up into my hip. I assume it's just continued weakness as I had so much atrophy in my injured leg but I sometimes wonder if more is going on. It's not bad on green groomers but as soon it gets bumpy, I feel it in my hip, or if I'm carving hard, it puts a lot of torque in my knee where the hardware is. I'm supposed to get hardware out as soon as the season is over. Interestingly enough, I haven't snowboarded in 30+ years but started mixing that in this year and there is less pain while riding, but "skating" in the lift line is absolutely brutal to my hip, especially the motion of trying to stop myself if going down a slight hill. Anyone else have similar experiences with pain in your hip, or pain where the hardware was but that improved after removal? Thanks!

[phatty]

I'm 6 weeks post surgery and just got started walking with partial weight bearing. The limping is causing my opposite hip some discomfort. My knee is still swollen but my ROM is up to around 135*, so I'm hoping to get some more activity in the next few weeks. Knee is pretty stiff still.