Fibula Plate Removal

On Thursday February 14^th, I had the second of two hardware removal surgeries, this one to remove the fibula plate and its 9 screws. I was back to lying on the couch with the leg up on pillows covered with ice packs for 4 days, then on crutches for another 9 days. On Wednesday the 27^th they removed the stitches and replaced them with strips of tape. I went into the doctor's office on crutches, and walked out carrying them under my arm. It hurts a little when I walk, but that will get better over time. Removal of the fibula plate was a little more invasive because there is so much muscle they had to move out of the way to get to the bone. They also sawed off a shard of bone that was sticking out and digging into my calf muscle, so once the soreness from the surgery is gone there should be no pain. When I talked to Stacy, the PA who has assisted on each of my 4 surgeries, she said that when she was digging around in my leg feeling for the bone shard, it nearly pierced her surgical glove when she found it, as it was really sharp. No wonder it was causing me pain!

Here are a couple of pics of what was removed. It looks rather wimpy compared to the hefty plate that held my tibia together.

I'll spare you having to look at any external post-surgery pictures, as some people can't handle seeing stitches. Suffice it to say that it took an 8-inch incision to get that plate out so there were a lot of stitches.

Here are a couple of x-rays taken the day they removed the stitches. The holes in the tibia are faint, as they've now had 4 months to repair. The holes in the fibula are pretty scary, just because it's such a small bone and the holes large relative to the size of the bone. I guess that's why they told me no activity with any impact beyond normal walking for another 8 weeks. It wouldn't take much to snap the fibula in its current state.