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Tibial Plateau, Chronic Pain

I am at month 8 of a tibial plateau fracture that required ORIF: screws and a graft.  This was a horse related twisting grinding injury, and my cartilage is pretty screwed up.  I have had chronic pain, and cannot walk far, and not without pain or a limp.  I had a scope at 6 months.  There was a lot of damage trimmed up, both sides of the TP cartilage, one side from the injury and the medial side he guessed from normal wear and tear.  He also trimmed back the meniscus which was torn and folded back, and cleaned the back of my kneecap.  The PA later told me they trimmed my cartilage from 4mm to 2 mm thick.  They did not work on the femur cartilage, but I was told earlier on that it was pretty dinged up in the accident and will likely fall apart sooner.

The scope helped for a while, but I think I am back to where I was before the scope.   My OS is a very good one and says I will be up and down and need more procedures and eventually a knee replacement.  I am 44 so that may be a long ways off (although if this keeps up, I might be begging for one sooner.)

Actually I am holding out hope that they come up with something else before my knee replacement is due.  I talked to a surgeon at U of Ia H&C because they are doing some experimenting with tp cartilage transplants.  I hope they figure that out before I need it, but since my injury was work comp, I am probably very limited in what they will pay for.

I cannot kneel, crawl, squat, jump or run or do stairs other than hopping or one-stepping them with a hand railing and am in constant pain, even when sitting.  I expect to be released in 6-8 weeks, according to the OS.

I'm in a panic now, because I am afraid this is all the better it gets.  I am not even back to work fulltime on site, I am working from home 1-2 days per week which cuts my driving by 2-4 hours per week and dramatically cuts the time I have to spend on my feet.  So I am even more worried that once I am back 5 days per week, I am going to quickly become a cripple.  My heel and calf on the bad side and my knee and hip on the good side are in frequent pain due to my bad gait, and I am wearing out shoes on the left due to the way I twist off that foot to avoid heel-to-knee motion which is the most painful.

That is the last 8 months in a nutshell.  If anyone has advice, stories of inspiration, or experience with this kind of injury and work comp, I would love to listen.
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Avatar universal
im 29 yrs old and also have a tibia plateau fracture on my left and it is also work comp. it happened in feb 2011 i had a 240 pound man fall on me working as a CNA . it broke bone off the front part of my leg and i had a medal plate put in and 6 screws and a pin. 6months later i had to have another reconstruction surgery . they took the plate and screws out nd put sinthic bone on the front approx 2inches by 6inches and on the left side approx 4inches by 6inches.i also tore my lcl and the nerve that next to it. i have no filling on the left side of my leg and the dr said i already had rhematoid arthritis in my knee.they done a series of sinthic carthlage shots and they did not help. i have cronic pain almost all the time.my surgeon released me a month ago with no pain meds to sedatory work with no standing pushing pulling squating kneeling bending over or getting up from low places.i have not been able to find a job no where or a dr to see me and work comp wont pay for to see another dr  i still walk with a cane and wear a knee brace......
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Avatar universal
Wear a sock and an ACE heat-generating knee brace. Use a cane to walk. Forget drugs! They'l zap your energy. Deal with th pain. Force yourelf to walk 2 miles a day even if you have to use crutches.You won't become a cripple. Driving and sitting cause swelling, but the brace will help. Prop up your leg at work (use a wheelchair if you have to at work just to keep the leg up).  Lose weight (very important). Stay as trim as possible. Good luck.
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