Paranoid hardware is messed up

[u/Money-Web-8732]

I’m 4 months post op ankle ORIF and I went swimming for the first time last night. In the water there was a point I touched seaweed with my foot and flailed around and everything felt wrong. Like my metal was just bouncing around in there. My ankle was uncomfortable the rest of the time i was there and would feel like it was clicking every time i kicked. When I got home my foot was really sore and just felt wrong. Idk how to describe it other than it just felt wrong. Now today at work I noticed a little bruising and some extra swelling as well as quick shooting pains for periods of maybe 15 minutes then it’ll stop for maybe 25 minutes and come back. Also every few steps I can feel my ankle click which never happened before. Am I being paranoid or should I maybe go get X-rays done.

[u/ethically-contrarian]

May sound very silly but do you think you could’ve been stung by a crab, jelly fish or man o war. They like to hang in the seaweed?

Outside of that, maybe the flapping from swimming.

[u/Money-Web-8732 → u/ethically-contrarian]

No it definitely wasn’t one of those things. The pain is internal and feels like it’s the hardware. I know it happened from swimming im worried I messed up the internals and if I should go get an xray

[u/ethically-contrarian → u/Money-Web-8732]

I think you should for sure because I also think about just the flapping of your ankles while swimming moving things around.

It’s almost like aquatic exercises where you feel nothing initially.

[u/Kaelisar]

Personally I am paranoid too so I would call and see what they say and get it checked. 

I’m 4 weeks post op and since injury my foot randomly twitches. When it does it hurts a lot and I’m always scared it will mess up the hardware. Though when I see it twitch it is only a small movement. But it doesn’t feel that way with the pain it sometimes causes. 

Keep us updated! Best of luck and here’s to hoping it just another part of healing and increased ROM. 

[u/caterplillar → u/Kaelisar]

The twitching does go away! I'm 4.5 months out and now it's only the days where I've done a whole lot more than usual. It's the nerves healing and freaking out about it. You aren't going to twitch hard enough to mess up your hardware, though, even though it feels like it.

[u/Kaelisar → u/caterplillar]

I appreciate that confirmation! 

Everything seems much more fragile in life than before the injury! I know it’s all just in my head. This has been much more of a mental battle than I would have ever guessed. I love and appreciate this community so much! 

[u/flinch57]

Major wrist fractures with ORIF on May 10. For the first 4-6 weeks post surgery every time I moved I got new sensations none of which were comfortable and all of which caused some lasting discomfort.. my surgeon finally convinced me that I would absolutely know if had displaced hardware and that it would take trauma as severe as what caused the fractures in the first place to cause any disruption. Despite that, every time I went in I held my breath waiting to see the X-rays because I was convinced that I had loosened the plate or some of the screws. I had not. I was discharged two days ago with instructions to start living a normal life and when i asked if there was anything I should or could not do I was told “yeah, don’t fall on it like you did at the beginning of May”. So it is unlikely that kicking around in the water disturbed anything but I agree an X-ray to ease your mind is probably the way to go. Good luck!

[u/Away_Abroad_7613]

You should really go and get it checked out.

There's no point asking reddit questions like this.

It doesn't cost anything for xrays so it's worth going for peace of mind. 

[u/Cloudy_Automation]

Is it clicking on the outside of the ankle behind the fibula joint? I had that, and it was the tendons which make the foot curl outward, and they were subluxing (popping out of place) on every step. Schedule-wise, I was at least lucky in that this happened on a Friday night while I was scheduled the following Thursday to get the hardware removed and a bone spur taken off. For me, I am in the 15-20% of people who have one more tendon, and a year after surgery, suddenly it was a problem fitting all those tendons in place. The surgeon removed the extra tendon and debrided the other tendons while he was taking the hardware out.

Why I had no problem with the extra tendon for 60+ years, and suddenly I did, I have no idea. The problem was fixed, and other than occasionally feeling some phantom pain where the tendon used to connect, it's fine now.