Well I am sat with my leg in the air after having my pins and plates removed from my heel after 11 years.

Anybody else had this done?
Anybody else injured so no biking for a while?
Cheers

Anybody else had this done?

Looking at that x-ray, thankfully not!

Get well soon.

My mum had her entire right knee replaced on Tuesday. She was walking up and down stairs yesterday. 😯

Wow, good luck. Out of interest, why’d they get removed after so long? Curious as my shoulder was reconstructed with many plates, screws, pins 12 years ago and it’s all still in there and I assume, always will be

I’ve got the same question as Aus…

Does it feel lighter? (I’d have to weigh the screws and put it on my weightweenie whiteboard)

Every couple of years they xray and poke and prod at mine and suck their teeth and go “Well, we’d like all that out, it’s definitely doing you no good. But taking it out will do you no good either. Heads or tails?”

I’d say taking them out by the heads would be the easiest

Looks familiar, I also broke both heals about 11 years ago and have very similar looking feet to that. Just wondering why your getting yours removed? I’ve not had any problems with mine so far apart from stiff feet after a days walking or standing but that has only got better over the years.
Hope it recovers well I’d imagine the bone will be quite weak for a while after having that much metalwork removed.

I love that the X-ray makes it look like you were keeping spare chain “quick links” in your socks! 😉

Sat here with a couple of stitches in my elbow from a silly off at the mo……….

Looking at the pic is making my feet go funny. I have a load of screws and plates in my knee, its been there for 10.5 years. When I had it done they said something about maybe taking it out one day but I’ve never heard anything. I then ended up seeing the orthopaedic surgeon who did it when I broke my wrist a few years later and he didn’t really seem bothered that they were still in there.

Going…

Going…

Going…

Gone! Foot successfully removed from the leg and ankle bone crushed

The nice man at Southampton General managed to bolt it back on though which was a relief

I had the two big bolts taken out last summer when they realised they wouldn’t be amputating and that the bolts were impinging the movement

I had a dislocated ankle + two severed ligaments and compound fracture to the fib (rugby, silly game) fixed with a bolt, plate and six screws. They came out after a year because I didn’t fancy them still being in there if/when it got broken again (hasn’t happened… yet). Then did a 25 mile hike 4-5 weeks later, which was foolish – not because of the op or lack of pins but because I’d not done any other exercise in a year and had turned into a fat unfit fecker!

Better out than in, I say

Before:

After:

taken out after about 2 years as my thigh muscles kept getting trapped between the heads and the edges of tables and stuff.

This thread is starting to look a little like the B&Q “hardware” section…….

My ankle pins/plates have been in for 12 years plus now and I’m really hoping they don’t have to come out. Interested to know what factors are relevant in deciding whether they stay or go.

Nice to see others have metal in.

It has been a hard decision to have them removed as its a gamble whether I will have less pain afterwards. The front of the plate was over lapping the cuboid and that was catching and causing pain first thing in the morning. The back of the plate curled over the back of the heel bone near the Achilles tendon. He has also taken out the bursa which he reckons was causing pain as it was inflamed. 2 pins have been left in because he could not see them.
I have been thinking about having them out for 4-5yrs and there is never a good time to have something like this done.
24hrs since they came out. They would not let me keep the pins and plate due to infection control! I did have them in my bag but the theatre manager came and snatched them back.
Just waiting for the wound to heal. I have been told to weight bare straight away, but I am giving it a couple of days to knit together first.

I am 41 how old are the rest of you with metal in?

Jesus, and I’ve been whinging about being off the bike for 4 weeks with some soft tissue damage after a climbing fall.

I’m 35 (they went in at 23)

Watching this with interest.

My ankle has a fair bit of stainless steel in it and in the last couple of years it’s been getting more and more “uncomfortable”.

A friend who’s an orthapedic consultant advised against having them removed unless they were inhibiting movement because of the possible risk of a bone infection.

35, think I got them when I was 27? Doesn’t seem that long!

Main memory of the whole thing was looking at the tool rack in the theatre. You’re not using a draper torque wrench on me! Cancel the op!

The plates/screws have come out of my arm.

And new ones put in.

And then taken out.

And new ones put in.

I really should stop f****** breaking it in the same places!

Woudln’t let me keep them, a biohazard apparently. Which is wierd as surely they’re cleaner than the outside of my body.

Crell – I fell 8metres so happy to be here. I accept I have pain in the ankle joint, but I had lots of pain which was around the area of the plate, especially near the Achilles. I am taking a calculated gamble that it will have gone after this. I could not put up with it anymore so I hope it has gone.
No mention of bone infection just wound infection. Can’t do out about it now its too late! 😆

Worldclassaccident – makes my injury look like a broken nail! How is it now?

And I thought it was only threads about the snip that made me cringe….

Stop it Sidney you just made me cringe! 😀

Doh! Double post. Pain killers kicking in!

Plates and screws put in my tib & fib just above the ankle 35 years ago. Tib ones taken out after 9 months after much debate between experts (won’t remove until infection goes v infection won’t go unless removed). Fib still there, no problems with them.

I had a length of wire removed that was holding my elbow on after 12 years.

They wouldn’t let me keep it either.

I felt so much better afterwards. I’d been struggling with odd pains and numbness for a couple of years.

Scars by Matthewjb, on Flickr

Messy line is where then went in last time and this time. Other line is where they fixed the nerve.

Always disappointed I never asked for copies of the x-ray of my face – have 3 plates round the eye. Told they’d be in permanently. TBH, I’d forgotten I had them until I read this thread….

wwaswas…

Hip impingment? Osteochondroplasty?

That hip looks awfully like mine did! 😉 I got the pins out a few months back.

How was your recovery?

I’ve got a plate in my wrist from about 4 years ago. They were fairly certain that it would start to hurt and reject after about 2 or 3 years. It’s still in and doesn’t give me any bother, I keep meaning to ask my GP about it but it’s not worth a visit so I need to wait until I’ve got something else wrong with me.
Wish I had photos.

P8ddy -I’m not sure what they are, sorry 🙁

It was a femoral neck fracture that Harpenden at the local jump track after I tried to learn to jump. Turned out I had osteopenia (early brittle bones).

I was 35 at the time and pins were taken out after 3 years.

I’d I’d been over 40 they’d have done a hip replacement.

It’s a lot better without the pins. I get cramp in that leg of I over do things but otherwise it’s fine, no loss of mobility or strength.

Injury September 2012. Pins removed June 2013. Blue badge for the car January 2014. Could be better but could be a lot worse.

I am glad I had the phone handy to take the pictures while I waited for the ambulance.the two with the sock on are taken about a second apart and you can see how much the tendons have pulled the foot up my shin.

😯 Jeebus, I didn’t even know they took things like that out!

They’re not bloody doing that with me… 😯

Really tidy job on my tib, through not a lot of flesh/flab I can hardly feel what looks on x-ray like a 20cm meccano strip and eight or so woodscrews. Scar area got a bit swelly and hot a couple of times in the year after the break/operation, but it’s been in 12 years now and fine. Fracture clinic were of the opinion that I was more likely to get an infection having leg cut open to remove it thatn was having it left in. Aches a bit in the autum/winter if it is going to rain (and even if i have no idea it is going to rain!) but then I have had many elderly patients (I R a nurse innit) tell me similar over the years.
Also, it has never set off airport metal detectors or the ‘wand’ we have at work either. 😕 Does this mean a slim enough knife blade made from the same metal tucked in your sock won’t either?

Worldclassaccident – it really makes me feel lucky that after an 8m fall I escaped with what I did. Did you come off the ladder in the pics?

Weight baring starts today 36hrs after the operation. Here’s a PIC I found from 11 years ago.

Mine was a shark attack whilst I was saving small children…

….or I fell about six feet off the ladder as it slipped backwards. Unfortunately my leg went between the rungs so my ankle snapped and then the ladder dragged my leg and the rest of me backwards just leaving the foot on the concrete step. Fortunately the skin didn’t tear so it was all kept inside the body

More pics here http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wca-ankle-picture-update-chicks-dig-scars

And the original thread started by MrsWCA. http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wca-in-hospital

Still in, don’t fancy them taking it out. Jangles a bit of I catch it on a square edge (like our effing bathroom sink)

Bloody hell wca! I am quite happy that I landed as I did. Remenissing a bit due to opening old wounds and all that due to being bored!!

Surgeon says only 3 weeks of work if I weight bare. Stitches out in 2 weeks. Pic is from 11 years ago but he has opened up the same scar to get them out.

Wca – just read your thread and basically did you destroy your talus amongst other things?
I broke mine into 4 pieces but they did not pin it for some reason. I am now thinking 11 years on I was luckier than I realised at the time.

Talas was fubared.

Only took three weeks of work though. I managed to do an entire customer engagement from my sick bed.