Fracture - Recovery

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Triffle

New member
Joined
Jul 3, 2020
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9
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DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
01/2006
Country
UK
Hi all.
New here. Put off joining in the past due to brain fog etc.

I am looking for advice from anyone with fibro who's suffered a broken bone.

I recently fell from a height and broke my fibula (skinny long bone of lower leg) and 3 lumbar transverse processes (the sticky out bits on your vertebrae), and possibly a couple of broken ribs.

Cast removed after a week. Re-xrayed fibula at 4th week to find no progression whatsoever. Very disheartening as you can imagine.

If I hadn't asked the consultant any questions, I would've just been told to come back in another 3 weeks!
No advice given other than put some weight on it.
Can't find much general info on the web, let alone advice on fractures for people with fibro!

Currently I'm taking several supplements, trying to eat healthily and drink lots of water.
I've been getting bouts of depression, so to help with that I'm watching comedies, and positive YouTube stuff (it really does help).
Also trying binaural beats.

My other concern is what happens going forward. How to rebuild muscle in my back and leg, will I get arthritic pain, will the fibro get worse.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
I have not broken a leg. But I have found when I popped a ligament in my back (amazingly painful and I couldn't walk for a while) that what helped me the best was physical therapy. If it is possible for you to get PT, give that a try, because they can teach you the best exercises to do to strengthen your leg and back.

If your situation doesn't allow you to get physical therapy sessions, then you might try just boldly walking into a physical therapy place, and asking them if they can just quickly recommend some exercises, or have a print-out they'd be willing to give or sell to you. You never know, they might help you out.

Don't worry about the fibro getting worse. It might, it might not, regardless of your broken bones. If you worry about it you only put stress on yourself and make it more likely that it will get worse.

I always ask a lot of questions, to get as much info as I possibly can, but I am pretty bold about being my own advocate. I have found you need to be, because no one will do it for you.
 
If it's any consolation, last Valentine's Day my husband, who is elderly, broke his fibula when he slipped on a patch of ice. I was very concerned, due to his advanced age and the fact that he also has osteoporosis, for which he takes medication. I was afraid that the combo of his age and his bone disorder would make the healing difficult or impossible.

But the doctors were confident of a recovery, and after a few weeks in a cast, then a few more in a splint, he has recovered completely. They did tell him that putting weight on it would encourage the healing, so his was a walking cast. He was prescribed PT to begin once the cast was off and the removable splint was on, but that's when everything shut down due to the pandemic, so he never received any PT, but he walks around on it fine now as if nothing had ever happened to it.

While he doesn't have fibro (I do instead), I was worried about him not healing well due to the osteoporosis, and yet it all turned out well. I wish you well, too! Don't worry too much - healing takes time. Best of luck!
 
I came here specifically to find out why my avulsion fracture is taking so long to heal. You're right, it's hard to find information on this. It doesn't feel like the podiatrist is taking fibromyalgia into account.
They told me to start putting weight on it within a couple weeks but it's so painful! Now it's clearly healing but getting intense spikes of pain when I sleep, that only stop if I sit up for about 10 minutes. That buys me a couple more hours of sleep. The podiatrist doesn't see anything on the CT scan to explain why it hurts. When I asked about tendons and ligaments, he said that would have required an MRI. Avulsion fractures involve a tendon or ligament pulling off a chunk of bone. I feel like that probably could be painful but why would the dr dismiss that?
Anyway I just wondered if anybody knows another reason for the intense spikes, like is there nerve growth involved? Is it imaginary? Instead of progressively healing, it has good days and bad ones.
 
Hi NWgrl69

What have you fractured? How long ago?
My vertebrae breaks were avulsion.

I remember nights being the worst time. Couldn't get comfortable, got weird spasms, and yes, far more painful at night. No idea why. Maybe because the body does more healing during sleep??

I got no advice about tendons, ligaments or muscles. I've ended up just hoping that my body's doing what it should, albeit more slowly than a non fibro person..

It's been 4 months. I'm walking with a slight limp and pain at the injury site. Muscles seem to be building back with use (may seem obvious but nothing is obvious with fibromyalgia).

The only advice i can give you is try to get back to normal mobility as quickly as the pain will allow.
Good luck
 
Thanks Triffle!
My fracture is on the heel bone, and it's been just over 8 weeks. I did see something about healing at night causing pain, after I read your response. My sleep schedule is gacked so it's any time I try to sleep. I'm not having much luck with oxycodone, except it gives ibuprofen a little boost. I have been considering asking for a muscle relaxer instead. May I ask if you found anything particularly helpful for sleeping?
I sure hope so, for your sake - that sounds miserable!
 
I see that it's been quite awhile since this post was written, but wanted to share my 2 cents. I broke my fibula near my ankle in 2011. It was put in a cast, I was told to stay off of it and come back in 6 weeks. I did all that, but when I had it x-rayed after the 6 weeks, the break looked the same. There was no visible healing. I then was put in a boot and was allowed to put a bit of weight on it after a few more weeks. It was x-rayed again with still no change. The doctor then got a device for me called a bone growth stimulator where you rub a little device on the broken area each day for 20 min. This finally worked, but all in all, I was in a cast/boot for 4 months. I've never broken any other bones, so I don't know 100% if this experience is unique to my body or if it's the fibro!
 
Hi Ninjamom
Sounds very similar to my experience, in terms of.. lack of healing. For the first 3 visits to the fracture clinic, there was little evidence on the xrays of any collagen build up.

I've still got (or been left with) strange dark patches in a couple of places near the injury. One doctor told me it was myofascial damage.

The injury site is still painful to touch. Muscles are still very tight and range of motion is not back to what it was. It's about 9 months, so maybe that's average.?

Did you have any leftover problems or did you recover fully?
 
Thanks Triffle!
My fracture is on the heel bone, and it's been just over 8 weeks. I did see something about healing at night causing pain, after I read your response. My sleep schedule is gacked so it's any time I try to sleep. I'm not having much luck with oxycodone, except it gives ibuprofen a little boost. I have been considering asking for a muscle relaxer instead. May I ask if you found anything particularly helpful for sleeping?
I sure hope so, for your sake - that sounds miserable!

How's things NWgirl69?
You're at about 6 months now aren't you?
 
I did recover fully. I had great PT so that really helped. I honestly don't think it would've healed without the bone growth stimulator.

I hope you heal quickly!
 
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