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It reinforces my long-held belief that orthopedic surgery is just carpentry with clean tools.
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That's exactly how I describe it to my patients. If you want to hear some real construction site noise, visit the OR when they're doing a hip replacement with a drill, mallet and chisel.
Constantine: Looks like a ice, neat job. The pins will provide much better, early stability for the healing fracture than a splint or that awful foam-and-metal thing they put on you in the ER. You're still looking at about 12 weeks for the bone to be healed, though. Getting the pins out again may not be too big of a deal, and again will be done with you awake, on a local if you even need one. Watch out for the pins breaking though the skin, and if they do keep things clean. Sometimes they come out easy, other times not so easy, but it will still go fairly quickly and probably will be done right in the office.
Hopefully the OS feels good enough about the stability of the fixation that you can get going on an early range of motion protocol.
If swelling is an issue, a CHT therapist has some ways of getting it down quickly (ultrasound, compression bandaging, edema glove, Kinesio tape, etc.) so that you have better movement.
Heat and/or unexplained redness in the skin, elevated pain, etc. are all signs of infection. If that happens, call the doc. If it happens after normal business hours, go to the ER.
Let us know how it goes.
