Seems like you are on a pretty slow progressing program. The elderly patients I see with different hip-ORIF's are usually weight bearing as tolerated straight from the surgery. My best advice is to find and ortho PT who is also into sports, and have a meeting every month or so to work out a proper plan for returning to sport and see how things go. I had a friend who broke his femoral neck in a biking accident, took him about 12 months to surpass the fitness he had at the injury, at least on the bike. He had recurrant trochanter pain tho, and wanted the hardware removed so that was a little backlash. He is now, about 3 year post injury, in super shape.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

I had a comminuted intertrochanteric fracture requiring 2 intramedullary rods to be inserted, as well as fixation hardware.

I was 50% weight bearing for 7 months ( nature of the specific break I suppose ), and told not to run for at least 2 years.

I could get on the trainer all I wanted though.

It was supposed to be 6 months 50% weight bearing but my femoral neck decided to take it's sweet time re-growing.

2 year run ban was because of the location of the break, avascular necrosis of the femoral head was a possibility ( bone death due to lack of blood flow ) since blood supply is limited, and the break may well have interrupted it, and running on it could have worn it out faster than they could catch it if things went poorly.

That all said, once the 2 years was up, I re-introduced running, at first every damn step hurt. I was told I might never run again, and for a little while I thought they might be right.

Over time running got less painful, I re-gained fitness, then blew out my IT Band because of muscular imbalances.

I am 7 years removed from the surgery, and am fitter than I've ever been. I barely notice the hardware these days, and qualified for boston in april.

Things took a lot of patience, but in the end, it didn't stop me.

I had the same injury (bike accident) and surgery at the same age. I was only two months into triathlon training. I was on a trainer after 3 weeks and walking/jogging after 6 weeks. I have completed dozens of triathlons, including two 226kms distance races. I make the mistake of rehabbing myself. Get the advice on a good sports PT. There was a 2cm leg length difference that has led to nagging injuries that now make it difficult to run. It has taken me a year of PT to correct. I believe I rushed back into training without expert advice. Take your time. You should completely recover. Good luck.

Thanks guys.
I have a very good OS and have trust in him and his protocol. I have had two previous hip sugeries with him (FAI and labral tear) and had a great comeback.
Patience is not a problem, I am a very patient person.

If you have a good surgeon that is half the battle.

I had the same fracture in 2007- It was mis diagnosed at the ER. I hobbled around for 2 weeks with a broken (but impacted) hip.

Mine was fixed with a single long screw (once properly diagnosed).

I was on the trainer almost immediately- road bike outside within 3 weeks- Fitness came back really quickly, but I had lots of issues from the fracture not healing straight due to mid diagnosis.

Eventually in 2011 I had FAI surgery and some additional revision to the acetabulum and femoral neck to allow for 100% range of motion. I have been good since then.

Seems like the biggest worry is avascular necrosis. If the artery is pinched or damaged you are out of luck.
I guess I was lucky? Hope you are too

43 year old male MOP AG. Broken femur neck after bike crash. Fully broken but not displaced. Three titanium screws inserted.

Non-weight bearing for six weeks, then allowed to walk, swim and use home trainer. Officially cleared to bike outside after 12 weeks, but I may have sneaked out a few times in nice weather before that. I also started running after 12 weeks (first run was 6x100m @ 7:30min/km).

6 months PO I am ~10% down in FTP and 10% up in weight (argh!), but is improving on both. I am running 45-60 sek slower per km than before crash. Swim is a few secs slower per 100/lcm.

I have some pain and discomfort in the hip, especially after hard training, driving car of sitting in an airplane. I will have the screws removed soon in hope it will alleviate this. This will give two weeks downtime for swim, 6 weeks for running and a few days for biking.

I have signed up for a bunch of Gran Fondos, and expect to return to triathlon after summer holidays.

Others have shared their more short-term experiences, so I thought I would share a longer-term outcome.

I fractured my femoral neck in a bike crash almost 30 y ago. It took me about 2 y to come all the way back, and after that I would joke that all I had left was a nasty scar, the hardware (saved in a desk drawer), and some bad memories (thank goodness for morphine and PCA). The last few years, though, I seem have begun experiencing some of the long-term sequelae about which I had been warned, i.e., osteoarthritis and back problems. Not sure what that means for you, but worth recognizing that no matter how undisplaced the fracture/how well-aligned it is after the repair, you/your hip joint aren't exactly the same as you were before.

@ bootsie_cat,

I will have my 6 week follow in a few days. My OS said already that he is concerned about AVN, because the fracture was right underneath the femoral head and the risk is high. Fingers crossed for a good diagnosis.
Glad the FAI surgery worked out for you too.

@ jth,

thanks for your insight of your recovery.
I was told my screws stay in unless they give me problems.

I still have my screw- It was not irritating me or protruding so it was left in.

@ Andrew Coggan,

your post was much appreciated. It is definitely interesting to hear of the long term results.
I am aware my hip might not feel the same again but I had that already before the ski accident as I underwent two hip surgeries previous to this.

As a PT, I can appreciate your returning to sport goals, however, realize the much shorter term issues you have going on. This fracture is nothing like what happens in the elderly. The reason you are only TTWB is because the surgeon is concerned that the repair won't hold under stress. Take your time and observe your WB precautions. Healing in an appropriate timeframe is much more important than rushing anything along. Likely somewhere around 8-12 weeks you will become WB as tolerated and then go to PT. It will be hard work and take months and months to regain strength. AFter a significant trauma and surgery, you won't be feeling normal until at least 1 year from now. You will have pain, soreness and stiffness along the way. Also, don't worry about the long term effects of arthritis or other muscuoskeletal issues. They happen anyway, typically with age and regardless of injuries. Bear with it, you'll be ok in the longrun.

@ AndrewL,

I really appreciate your response as a PT.
I will have my six week follow up in a few days and we will see how I am healing and adjust from there.
My OS is a really smart guy and he praises me as his ideal patient, because I am pretty much the only one who ever listens to his instructions.
I am respecting the toe touching instructions and am a very, very patient person.

It took me 3 years to feel like myself again after two hip arthroscopies for FAI, labrum tears and acetabular stress fractures. I did 13 months of PT, 7 months of aqua training, did my PT exercises daily at home, never gave up and stuck with it.
Throughout the whole time I had a good attitude and was patient.

I have no idea how long this will take now but I know I can do it. The previous recoveries were tidious, slow and with many setbacks but I did it. I am mentally prepared for a long journey with many ups and downs.

For some reason my screws are protuding. They are not moving; it was like that from day one. I can feel the heads when I touch my leg...

@ jth,

have you ever mentioned it to your OS? Shouldn’t they be flush with the bone?

Yes, they are supposed to be flush, but they are not.

I crashed abroad and let’s just say my local Danish OS was not exactly impressed by the work done, hence she recommend removal as soon as the bone is healed and strong enough.

Hi all,

Following this discussion with interest as I (male cyclist, 48 and with some back issues to add to the mix) had very similar fracture about a week before Angelina did and so am in same recovery process.

One of the secondary complications that arose for me after 3 or 4 weeks was a "contracture" (on-going muscle spasm) of the iliopsoas muscle that connects trunk to leg -- supposedly a notoriously stubborn muscle in terms of flexibility and stretching. Happened from crutching around with injured leg raised for too long.

My PT has been doing some very intensive (and painful) work in that area and it seems like its finally starting to relax. Which is good because as time it is an obstacle to some of the PT exercises.

But, any suggestions as to how to accelerate resolving that would be appreciated.

Get well soon, Angelina.

--AndyB

Same thing now happening to me. Almost 2 years recovering from completely displaced fracture and now IT band has become a major problem. How did you rehab the IT band issue? What exercises did you do ?