Hello I have just fractured my femur

Yes, just patience. I prefer to be conservative on the time not bearing weight on my leg. My doctor said maybe 10 weeks but will depend on the healing of the fractures. Will have to wait for the next checkup with him :man_shrugging:t2:.

Iā€™m just days over 8-weeks from my hip/femur fracture. I was weight-bearing day after surgery, or rather I could bear weight - doing so was very hard.

Since I couldnā€™t post recoveries to Strava, I took to Instagram to document my progress so I could see for myself improvements over time. DM me if you need pointers to PT folks or anything else.

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Impressive you where able to bear weight so quick. Congratulations on your recovery. Mine seems to be a little bit more complicated because of multiple bone fragments.

Hello
After 3 months of the home trainer outing outside 4 months start cycling race 6 months already 1 Podium and 6 Top 10
after 9 months I almost regained my level
Courage and listening are Body not burn the steps

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Hello
After 3 months of the home trainer outing outside 4 months start cycling race 6 months already 1 Podium and 6 Top 10
after 9 months I almost regained my level
Courage and listening are Body not burn the steps

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Iā€™m lying In hospital at 3 am ( as you do!) reading this. Broke my greater trochanter on Sunday 18th Sept- just over 2 days ago. They could hardly see the fracture and nearly sent me home but one dr kept checking and said once you can see it you canā€™t un see it. Had dynamic hip screw put in today. No other injuries at all, no bits broken off or anything. I just came down very heavily on that hip after practising skills on mountain bike. Your posts are really helpful and making me feel better. Not as competitive s you all sound but Iā€™m very active woman in my 60s. Got physio pals ready to do rehab and one mentioned the glute med being slashed. I swim a lot as well as cycling and wee bit running. How soon did you get back to swimming? I was doing weight bearingā€¦ just started to do it more regularly! Sodā€™s law! Most worried about what you all say about walking which is main east of getting about Apart from cycling, and fact I live on 3rd floor flat with spiral staircase ( very old!)

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Ouch, heal well !

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Best wishes for a fast recovery @Oonagh

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When youā€™re cleared for rehab, I imagine that will include swimming. I was 14wks non-weight bearing before I could start rehab. It doesnā€™t sound like yours is so bad, meaning you will probably start rehab much sooner which will make a big difference. Ask your doc lots of questions. Write them down so you donā€™t forget when you go to see him :smile: And really listen to your body!

Lastly, you can ask your doc, but I donā€™t think any muscles get ā€œslashedā€. I think they cut fascia to allow access, then pull apart and go in between muscle tissues and/or around them to the bone :man_shrugging:

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sorry for you, mind and listen to your body the rest will follow

I broke my femur August 13, had surgery to have a nail implanted the next day. Unfortunately for me so far the bone hasnā€™t healed as the surgeon left too much space between the bones for bone growth. I go in for one more x-ray next week and if we donā€™t see any progress I will have to go for a second surgery to remove some screws from the hardware to hopefully let the bones get a bit closer and start to heal. I am still on crutches but putting as much weight as I can take on the broken leg to encourage the bones to tighten up. I have been able to ride on the trainer for the last 3 weeks or so but I canā€™t stand and pedal. I just ride around Zwift for an hour or so on flat courses keeping the watts under 130. I have lost so much fitness it is going to take me a year or more to get back to where I was.

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I busted my femur back on June 5, surgery on the 6th. Didnā€™t get back on the bike until June 21 and could barely get 20w out. My FTP dropped from Mayā€™s 201w to todayā€™s 180w but even getting to 180w ha been a monster amount of effort.

Youā€™ll get there but the road to there is pretty long and sucks.

For me, it will be a year in a couple days. Last week, I scheduled (Dec 18) the surgery to remove my spare parts (intermedullary nail and screws). After the removal, I will have to take it easy for another couple months as the holes fill in w/bone. Looking forward to finally being able to put this all behind me.

@Lorge17 this is very similar to my injury. It was my tib/fib, not my femur. But I have a nail in my tibia that didnā€™t fully heal after 3 months. They had to take all the hardware out, do a bone graft out of my femur, and put in a new nail, add a plate, and put in more screws. That did the trick and it all healed up.

It was a pain in rear to not be able to walk for almost 9 months, but eventually it all healed up OK.

Hang in there and let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks to people who replied to me and wished me well when I wrote from my hospital bed in September. I remember it being a pretty miserable night. Now at 12 weeks post fall. I was lucky I could weight bear straight away so started on the excercises the physio in hospital set me, and was walking as soon as I got out on crutches. Wow was it tiring though! I have a fantastic NHS physio - she was a competitive athelete so is pushing me a lot and giving me some strange but incredibly effective excercises. Flexibility in my knee is the main issue. I started swimming in week 7 I think- first swim was hard work (and exhausting!) but got up to doing 1km quite quickly over next few swims. Started gym work about the same time including stationary bike and then in week 8 physio said to start putting light weights on leg. I really notice it if I dont keep up the gym and weight bearing excercises but its hard to have time to do it all. Still limping without using a crutch especially later in the day. All in all recovery is going ok but as everyone says it is long and hard work. I think it is worse now when I feel so much better but cant do what I was doing. It has been great reading other peopleā€™s recovery stories- very helpful. Hope you are all doing well!

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Glad to hear your recovery is coming along well!

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I did end up getting all of my hardware removed. The original nail they put in was too small. I have long legs and they went with what they had. I now have the correct length nail in and the new surgeon is happy with the results. Bones are closer together and should start healing from what I am told. I had the surgery just over 3 weeks ago now so I canā€™t really notice a difference yet. I get an x-ray in just over 2 weeks and hopefully will see some good results then. It has been 4 months now since my injury and I am so sick of crutches and not being able to ride.

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Oof. I hear you on the crutches. When I got injured it was 3 months of hobbling around with a walker or around on crutches. But the break didnā€™t heal (non-union), and I had to have a bone graft and larger nail installed. That led to another 3 months of crutches. Finally I transitioned a cane. I think it was 8 or 9 months before I could walk unassisted.

Itā€™s a long journey for sure. Hang in there and donā€™t be afraid to ask for help. Feel free to PM if you ever want to chat.

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Damnā€¦ I went ~4mo non-weight bearing so I feel you on that. But I didnā€™t have to have a remedial surgery. However, Iā€™ll be going back 12d from now to get all the hardware out (been 13mo now). Then, another few months of recovery albeit much easier/better than the first time around.

Hang in there! Youā€™ll be cleared for weight bearing and rehab before you know it. Then, you can relearn to walk and start riding the trainer. Youā€™ll never be so happy to be so slow and weak.

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Just out of curiosity why do you need to get your hardware removed? I havenā€™t been told I will need to have mine removed in the future and I donā€™t think that is usual in most cases.