[wkirby]

I suffered a very similar break playing soccer. ER surgeon asked if I fell off a roof. 3 metal plates and 15 screws later I was non-weight bearing for 14 weeks. I lost almost 5 inches in circumference from my left thigh while waiting to put weight back on that leg.

My post-break recovery has not been as good as yours sounds. Almost 3 years later and I rate my ankle at 75% of what its sibling is capable of. I had follow-up surgery to remove one of the plates and clean up scar tissue, and _that_ surgeon was appalled at how long I was immobilized.

Anecdata and all that, but my personal experience says waiting for weight ain’t it.

[tomaytotomato]

Sorry to hear about the outcome on your leg, I am sure you've tried lots of things to beef up your muscle. Just looking at my two legs I can still see a slight difference in calf thickness.

One thing I didn't appreciate is that in a break the bone is the easy part, but getting the muscle back or preserving it is the hard part.

[wkirby]

For sure! Not to mention all the tendons and nerves. My recovery continues, as I’m sure yours does too — I’m back to my pre-injury PRs for most weight lifting, and my goal for this year is to match my pre-injury mile time.

All things considered I’m still pretty lucky. This could have happened when I’m much older and been debilitating for life.

[pavel_lishin]

I wonder how and when they choose to remove plates, vs. leaving them in. They left mine in, and when I originally asked them, they mentioned that there was significantly more risk in removing it than leaving it in.

20 years on, and it's still hanging in there.

[osmano807]

Unless we have a clear indication, plates are not meant to be removed. For example, plating children we usually remove the plate as to not interfere with growth, or in some cases a fibula plate can irritate the tendons and should be removed, or in cases of infection.

[wkirby]

I asked to have them removed because my physical therapist believed they were impinging on a nerve, preventing me from regaining mobility in my toes. They didn’t want to but I kept insisting.

[mrfox321]

What's your leg circumference at, now?

Mine is also smaller, due to patella tendinopathy.

[wkirby]

They are within 1 inch of each other, which is fine with me. I haven’t measured in over a year, I know there’s still a strength imbalance but that’s not what feels limiting to me anymore.