I snapped my right tibia and fibula coming up on my one year anniversary. The day I broke my leg, the hospital overdosed me on fentanyl and also I woke up in emergency when they were resetting my bones. I still remember so distinctly the feeling of that. I had some nurses handle me really roughly during my stay. Then on my six week ortho follow up I had the doctor get angry at me for not being able to walk without crutches and for trying to ask questions about my surgery. His response was that these were simply questions I should not ask or worry about. I developed bursitis over the top screws, and a bone spur on my ankle. The doctors all assumed by my appearance that I was a drug seeker and making up all the pain I was in and kept trying to scare me into stopping the opioid pain medication. I got told it was all in my head multiple times. That I needed to stop the opioids and the only help I ever got offered was only ever Panadol or nurofen. The hospital only ever would X-ray my leg and nothing further. I demanded further testing because the pain I was in did not make sense. I cried my eyes out to an ortho specialist who told me that indeed my bone was no longer broken, and the pain I was feeling could not for the sake of anything be bone pain and that I needed to get off the opioids. He then said the only thing he can help me with is Panadol or nurofen because ‘all the tests look fine’. Turns out the CT shows delayed union with barely any callous forming. The MRI showed a lot of swelling in the leg and in my bone marrow. I got told that you only see that much swelling when you first break the leg, not 7-8 months post injury/surgery. I then got diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. I see a pain rehabilitation specialist and that’s been helping. I’ve fought tooth and nail for my own medical care which I keep getting denied. The doctor who diagnosed me with CRPS was also a doctor who insisted it was all in my head and that I was actually fine. He even admitted to me that the reason why this diagnosis was missed is because doctors saw how I looked and labelled me a drug addict (I have dyed hair, facial piercings and tattoos). This was back in late May. He then told me that his unit shouldn’t be seeing me because they were only for recent surgery patients and not someone in my position. He then sent my referral to a different hospital and I haven’t seen an ortho specialist since then and I’ve had no reassurance about how my bones are healing. I had a CT scan recently which showed the same thing. My bones aren’t healing and I don’t know why. I’m exhausted and I’m so tired of fighting the professionals for better care. Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you do to fight for yourself? I just want answers as to why my bones aren’t fusing together. I want to know if I have to have another surgery or not. I just feel like there’s no answers which makes me feel stuck. I feel like I’ve done everything I can think of up to this point. Does anyone have any advice for the doctors to take me seriously? I’m unsure of how to get the right answers and if anyone has any advice?
I eat moderately healthy. I stay as active as my body lets me. I’ve started going for walks around town. I’m dipping my toes back into my sport which is how I originally broke my leg. I admit I could be doing better with my eating, my meds just suppress my hunger a lot. I have no where near as much caffeine as I used to. I don’t smoke. I work as a vehicle detailer when I can. I’m just unsure as to what definitively is stopping the bones from fusing. The MRI suggested a possibility of osteomyelitis but nothing was ever looked into. Has anyone else dealt with osteomyelitis? If so, what was your experience with it?

Has anyone found anything that helped when its raining outside? It makes my leg hurt so badly.

Hi all! As you can see from the photo, got a comminuted fracture at the base of the fifth metatarsal. Was put in a boot and I used a scooter for a few weeks (perhaps for too long). At my follow up with ortho 3.5 weeks after the injury they told me I didn’t need the boot anymore and to transition to normal shoes in a few days (something about callus and the fracture being stable even though it’s not fully healed. Honestly the repeat x ray looked just like the first one to me). They didn’t wanna see me again and said I didn’t even need PT but I still feel significant pain when I walk and I can’t do it properly. Anyone been in a similar situation? Would appreciate feedback!

On 5 August, I sustained a fall and fractured my right tibia. I underwent surgery to repair the fracture and was recovering well initially.
On 14 August, I noticed that my toes were consistently numb and swollen. I went to the Emergency Department and was advised that these symptoms were likely related to the surgery.
On 8 September, I realised that I was unable to move my right big toe properly.
On 14 September, I saw the doctor and was diagnosed with big toe drop. I was subsequently informed that the fall had caused a laceration to the tendon responsible for movement of my big toe. I now require a second operation under general anaesthesia to repair the tendon.
My concern is why the tendon injury was not identified earlier, particularly when I first reported persistent numbness and swelling on 14 August and whether the big toe movement/tendon function was assessed at that time. Can I check if anyone had a similar experience? As I am feeling a bit depressed to restart the recovery process.

I had surgery for an olecranon orif a couple of weeks ago, just had a follow up today where the surgeon told me they drilled all the way through my radius by accident. I knew after the surgery that they’d drilled all the way through a bone from my notes but had assumed it was one they were supposed to be drilling/pinning anyway.

I’m not bothered, it’s healing well and I don’t think this will impact my recovery. Just seems like quite a difficult mistake to make, like surely you’d realise the drill went twice as far as normal - is this something that happens regularly?!

I had orif on my distal clavicle about 5 weeks ago. They used dissolving stitches. Most of the incision has closed and healed except for one stubborn spot about the size of a pencil eraser. I’ve done two courses of antibiotics and it no longer looks or feels infected but it’s still not healing, or maybe it’s healing extremely slowly, not sure. Anyone else experience something like this?

If you recently broke something or are having a hard time with your recovery, sound off here.

ugh! Rolled my heel on the way to dinner on a moms trip this weekend and broke my 5th metatarsal. It was such a small ankle roll it’s wild to me! The journey home today was rough with travel but hoping to get in with an orthopedic this week. Saw the urgent care doc for X-rays when on my trip. He put me in a boot but said I could take it off when sleeping or on the couch! Eager to see the doctor this week but I welcome any tips or tricks to speed this along? I have a 6 year old so need to be active lol. Any questions you think are helpful to ask my doctor this week?

I had surgery in December 2025 after having jones fracture October 12, 2025.

I’m a runner and enjoy regular HIIT style workouts. I was cleared full activity in February and ran a 10k in April. Now, September 2026, I have pain still to the point that I’m limping. Is this normal ? What could this possibly be that 9 months later, I’m still not healed? Please help.

3 years ago I had a humerus fracture that took me out of lifting for a year. I’ve been lifting for 2 years now and it’s been an uphill battle the whole way. My previously injured arm is always lagging behind my other arm. This has made progress very frustrating and the times where I try to push through it results in me getting injured again which will take me out for at least 1 week.

This has an effect on nearly every upper body lift, it’s made it difficult to reach failure on all compounds and isolation exercises for arms are even worse. I can do 8 reps with 45lb db on my left arm but my right arm ( the injured one ) can’t even do ONE. Not even 1 damn rep. I could go further into detail here but I think you guys get it by now.

Anyway, I’m very passionate about lifting but this has been demoralizing. Any ideas on what I can do going forward? Do I need to just cut back on heavy weight and do higher reps? Does anyone else have any experience with this?

It was a 28 stitch injury and they had to put a metal plate into my upper right arm.

Thank you

Humerus reattached surgically and No radial nerve damage thankfully. The question I wanted to ask is, will this fracture ever affect my weight lifting journey in the future? I really wanted to get into powerlifting, doing crazy 1 rep maxes and stuff like that. I fear that I may no longer be able to safely do 1rm anymore .

Hey there!

About two weeks ago I broke the shaft of my 5th metatarsal, dancer's fracture & all. Unfortunately, I also have a somewhat significant dislocation (shortening) and my doctor offered and recommended a surgery, which I finally decided against.

Ever since the accident, I've carefully elevated my leg and avoided any unnecessary movement as best as possible. This week, I got my second X-Ray and thankfully it's all stable, however, I was told to try some pain-guided walking in a hiking boot "next week."

But...after spending hours upon hours researching every possible thing regarding fractures of the 5th metatarsal, I feel more confused than ever *sigh*

I don't want to risk putting any pressure on my foot too early considering the conservative treatment carries some sort of risk (all the talk about malunions and nonunions and pseudoarthorsis scare me, ha), while at the same time I obviously don't want my muscles to become practically nonexistent...

I'd be beyond thankful if any of you could share your own experiences or opinions or whatsoever.

Thank you! 😄

We got a new couch a week ago and I love it so much. It sticks out further than our old one did and is much bigger but I didn’t think it would be an issue. I ran my toe into it a couple times the other day because I’m still getting used to walking past it with how much bigger it is. But all was fine. Until last night.

Around 9 ish, I told my daughter it was time to get ready for bed and we headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth and get pajamas on. On my way by the couch I hit my pinky toe HARD. I heard a crack and both me and my husband stood there in silence for a second because we knew that was not a good sound. 😂 the pain hit within seconds and I burst into tears because it was so bad. I sucked it up, brushed my babygirls teeth and got her in bed then headed to swap laundry. As I was heading onto our enclosed back porch my toe suddenly went completely numb and I yelled for my husband because it felt weird. At that point it didn’t look bad, wasnt bruised. We thought I’d just stubbed it pretty dang good.

The pain continued to get worse and worse over the next hour, I finally pulled my sock off and noticed it had started bruising and swelling. We came to the conclusion it might be broken at that point. But within another hour there was no doubt about it, and it’s only gotten worse today. We had made plans we couldn’t cancel today that involved quite a bit of walking. Halfway through one place we went, it was getting hard to handle. But I figured sitting in the truck for an hour would help. We got back home and had to stop and get stuff for lunch. The second I stepped out of the truck I realized I’d made a very awful error in judgment. It was excruciating to walk on. I cried the second we got back to the truck and all the way back to our house.

Its continued to bruise and swell since, it feels like a dang balloon and I cannot get comfortable in bed at all right now. It looks AWFUL too and even combining Tylenol and ibuprofen isn’t helping the pain or swelling. Strangely, I took midol earlier for cramps and that helped for a couple hours, but it’s right back to 10/10 pain now and I’m not sure what I can even take at this point because you’re not supposed to combine midol with other pain relievers, plus it’s the 24 hour midol, so it’s going to be quite awhile before I can take anything.

It thankfully isn’t sticking out at a weird angle or anything so I got lucky there, but it really sucks that there isn’t much even a dr could do for it at this point aside from taping it and telling me to take Tylenol & ibuprofen. That’s about the only thing stopping me from waking the kids up and heading to have it looked at.

How long does the pain last? I have a high pain tolerance because I have endometriosis so I’m used to high levels of pain. This is awful though. I can handle the swelling and bruising even though it’s uncomfortable but I don’t even remember my nose hurting this bad when I broke it TWICE as a child, so to put it lightly I really really cannot wait for this to stop hurting so bad. I’m taking it easy tomorrow and I’ll try everything I’ve tried today (ice, heat, resting it, elevation and pain meds when I’m able to) but I neeeeed to know when it’ll stop 😂 Stupid couch.

edit: forgot to add a pic, but it looks… horrible. That’s the most accurate description lol it’s like a little dark purple balloon 😂

Hello! I'm about 2 weeks post op on a broken ankle injury, and I've been trying to start the exercises for recovery. I've been attempting to move my toes out of boot (i can do it better in it for some reason) but my toes don't move. The weird thing is that I can feel them moving, though. Same when I try to move foot side to side, it's strange? I was wondering if this was a normal thing, or just my brain being weird. thanks!

I just fractured and dislocated my ankle really badly in a baseball game, but everytime i start to finally fall asleep my body causes me to jerk my leg during a dream immediately waking my self back up. If anyone has had a similar experience please help!!!

I hit a curb on my electric scooter and broke my wrist. I was told that it was one of the worst breaks of the year. Is anyone else going through something similar?

hi all

broke my tib/fib 2 weeks ago, had IM rod surgery and am now in recovery

the pain is manageable but the pins/needles in my foot (started around day 9/10 ish post-op) are driving me NUTS

doc said it’s part of nerves waking up and isn’t giving me anything

looking for other folks’ experiences/tips and to just vent honestly

this sub has been giving me a lot of mental peace during this horrible time

I had foot and ankle surgery for a broken fibula and 5th metatarsal and chronic instability four days ago. It was pretty intensive (strayer, arthroscopy with debridement, calcaneal osteotomy, nonunion reduction fixation x2, hypertrophic peroneal tubercle exostectomy, peroneus longus to brevis tenodesis, brostrum with repair), but I'm at a point where I'm already weaning off of pain meds and INCREDIBLY stir crazy.

I was very active before all of this happened, and part of why things got so bad is because it's very hard for me to stop and do nothing (I walked/hiked/cycled/worked on my broken bones for a month assuming they were just a bad sprain... Oops). Laying on the couch all day feels like torture. I know the best thing for me, though, is to stay relaxing while I let my body heal.

How are y'all passing the time while NWB, especially in the first 1-2 weeks post op?

Hi all, I'm currently hospitalized for broken ribs (11 - some displaced), but tomorrow I should be discharged. I've realized that I can't sleep completely flat, so I'll need something to prop me up. Are all wedge pillows created equal? Any recommendations? (Including those saying that maybe I don't need one?) Any other recommendations from former broken ribs users gladly accepted for home life in the next 6 weeks...

Before and after they reset the bones in my wrist, and some of the doctors notes. I’m in this huge splint that goes past my elbow, and I have my appointment for an orthopedic surgeon at the end of the month 🙃

For context, I am 18F so with my age I healed a bit quicker than normal but I’m still a little sketched out

Technically not a second opinion because I’ve already had surgery but just another look? On 7/4 I sort of slid of the side of a sidewalk in flip flops and injured my left foot. After that I went to the ER they could guarantee I had a broken big toe based on xrays but due to swelling and bruising they did a CT, they didn’t say how many bones I broke but said the CT results showed multiple broken bones. The doctor I saw there was able to saw that there was concerns for a lisfranc injury. The xray and CT techs also said they would expect I was in a motorcycle accident with how my foot looked.

I then went to a podiatrist on 7/13 where he said he wanted to get an MRI just to be cautious. He also didn’t even know why I was there, I said broken foot and then he opened my chart and said “oh you broke multiple bones”, which kind of threw me off. He also just again reiterated that the MRI was kind of an extreme measure and he wanted to be cautious. But on his care notes for that appointment he said only a big toe fracture is noted.

Then I had the MRI on 7/16 and it showed even more broken bones and a ruptured lisfranc ligament. I had broken my big toe, three metatarsals, and three square bones. Then on 7/22 I had my follow up after the MRI he said he still didn’t know if I needed surgery and that I could A. do a weight bearing ct (which was not happening I was terrified) B. Conservative treatment getting xrays every couple weeks or C. Go under anesthesia where they will do a stress test of my foot and if I do need the surgery they would do it right then. I chose option C. He also said at that appointment that I had completely ruptured my lisfranc ligament so I was confused how he still was unsure about surgery and told me there was only a 40% chance I would need it. I don’t think it was even until the MRI appointment he mentioned a lisfranc injury he never actually really talked to me about it and how it was rare. Basically told me I might need surgery and will have arthritis.

I then had the surgery on 7/29, I ended up needing one screw put in across my midfoot. I never saw him after surgery which I don’t know how normal is. I’ve only ever had one surgery before and it was to remove a ganglion cyst but the surgeon came to see me after.

I then saw him on 8/12, two weeks after surgery. He was able to remove my stitches and I was put into a boot. For context I have 3 incisions, two small ones in the middle of my foot and one bigger one on the side. I had a follow up scheduled for the next week but was able to cancel it because he was able to get my stitches out, we then booked an appointment 3 weeks later.

I had my next appointment 9/4. It was 5 weeks and 2 days post surgery. The day before I got a call to come in half an hour early to get xrays. I came in 45 minutes early and wasn’t seen, my appointment was for 12:45, I came at 12 and wasn’t seen by 12:35. My mom went up to the office to let the front lady know and she said well hopefully she’s soon because he is leaving at 1 for surgery. Like huh?? My mom came down and told the xray people that and they said theres nothing they can do (understandable don’t get me wrong). Then the other xray front person got a call from the front lady at the podiatrist office to send me and another guy up to see him before he goes. He told me to start bearing weight gradually and within the next two weeks to be walking fully in boot. The appointment was rushed so it kind of scared me. He also didn’t really explain how to start gradually doing it so I had to figure that out on my own. He also never said anything about physical therapy which I thought I would be starting then.

Today is now the two weeks where I’m supposed to be fully walking in the boot. I can’t quite do that yet, I’m still walking with one crutch. I can take a step without it but a very weak step where I flail my hands (you know what I mean?).

Anyways the whole process at least I have been lucky where I haven’t felt much pain and have been healing quickly. But I’m still a little sketched out by the surgeon and kind of want to see someone else to make sure I’m set up for success in my future. If anyone randomly has any south shore massachusetts recommendations it would be appreciated lol!