Full running, probably 6-8 months. Not painful, but uncomfortable. It has the sensation like a joint that needs to pop but just doesn’t pop. Will still get sore and tight some 3 years later, but generally speaking feels pretty good.
Hi there. This is my first time on a forum and hoping for some reassurance. I am 49 and three weeks post DHS operation. I actually fell from a height and fractured my hip. I have read through all the posts here as I have really struggled to find anything out there in relation to getting back to previous strength/fitness. I seem to have good flexibility just need to keep moving as my thigh muscles are very tight. I am non weight bearing and just had hospital appointment advising me another two weeks non WB then two weeks working towards 50% WB. The pain is still quite bad and on Oral Morphine and I am not a wimp I have reduced over last week but without it I just cannot sleep. Any advise/hope would be very much appreciated. Struggling to imagine not running again.
Hi there. This is my first time on a forum and hoping for some reassurance. I am 49 and three weeks post DHS operation. I actually fell from a height and fractured my hip. I have read through all the posts here as I have really struggled to find anything out there in relation to getting back to previous strength/fitness. I seem to have good flexibility just need to keep moving as my thigh muscles are very tight. I am non weight bearing and just had hospital appointment advising me another two weeks non WB then two weeks working towards 50% WB. The pain is still quite bad and on Oral Morphine and I am not a wimp I have reduced over last week but without it I just cannot sleep. Any advise/hope would be very much appreciated. Struggling to imagine not running again.
Hello and welcome to the club!! We are a very exclusive but welcoming collection of people.
Sorry to hear about the fall. Can I ask you a few things before getting into advice? Are you sure that you had a DHS as your repair? Did you have any other injuries? Do you know what sort of fracture you sustained? The reason I ask is that on its own, a DHS is generally the type of repair that can lead to partial or weight bearing as tolerated immediately after your injury. If you are non WB at the moment it makes me think you either had some other form of repair or you sustained some other pelvic injuries that might mean you cannot put weight through things at the moment. Full disclosure…I am a medical practitioner myself and was originally an orthopaedic “resident” to use the USA vernacular.
Suffice to say, there is hope so don’t be too disheartened just yet. Orthopaedic major bone injuries are painful no matter how you look at them. For me, it was a six month period really of pretty significant pain. I would be a bit worried that at the three week mark you are on oral morphine presently. That is not ideal from a pain relief perspective as it is the type of drug that you quickly develop a tolerance to (ie need more drug to have the same analgesic effect) and hence you really want to minimise your time on it. Also, the longer you are on it, the more likely you are to need to wean down properly so as to avoid nasty withdrawal effects from it. It may be worthwhile linking in with your primary care doctor to get some analgesic optimisation done.
I was able to get back into some riding on the Watt Bike pretty early after my injury. Running came much later, although being WB as tolerated early on I was back at work 2 weeks after surgery hobbling around without crutches. My surgery was in the middle of the year and by the end of the first quarter of the next year I was back running again, albeit with intermittent flare ups in pain. You do need to be careful as the non WB status has quite a detrimental effect on bone density so when you start running again you need to take it nice and slowly (ie very slow) to allow for your bone density to improve, otherwise you will increase your risk of other stress related fractures.
As much as it sucks to think about not running etc for ages, the most important advice I can give you is to keep some perspective, do the rehab etc and do the time. You will get there, but it will take time and is not something you can naturally rush. I have been lucky enough to do multiple 70.3’s, one 140.6, rep’d my country at ITU Worlds and many other things after the injury, but not within the first 18 months after the surgery.
Depending on your other injuries there may come a time when you will want to get the metalware out. I have not, but younger people (I am a tad younger than you) generally do want it out around 12-18 months down the track.
Keep us updated, I think we need to form our own little support network!
Reading this topic today makes me wish we hired someone yesterday to clean the gutters. But nooo I had to climb a 22 foot ladder.
Hi Amnesia. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. The surgeon advised me that I had sustained a fairly decent fracture the hip ball joint from the femur. Prior to surgery there was discussions ref a new hip etc but afterwards he said I had good bone density and due to my age they had been able to fit a DHS. Only other injury I sustained was a dislocated finger.
At my three week follow up I was shown my X-ray and whilst I have had various other injuries over the years I am however a bit squeamish ref the metal work as all other injuries where not so serious. I did manage a glance at the X-ray and could clearly see the DHS in situ and it is as per paperwork I have been given on discharge.
In the last few days I have reduced the Oral Morp to only at night time in order to get some sleep. My only other issues are I am a type 1 Diabetic. I must say I have read only a couple blogs ref DHS but like you said it appears no one has been told to non WB for as long as I have.
Do you mind me asking how old you were when you had your DHS? I think my main fear is the ongoing pain and the thought of the metal work and it’s possible removal and the fact that no one can really give me any sort of definitive answer or even close to one. The only milestone I am praying to pass is the avascular necrosis of the femoral head. It’s all rather doom and gloom my end!
So amazing to hear you have gone on and got back competition fitness successfully as well is really encouraging. Again thank you for your reply and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Hi there. So you mind me asking if you have made it back to skiing ?
Hi Amnesia. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. The surgeon advised me that I had sustained a fairly decent fracture the hip ball joint from the femur. Prior to surgery there was discussions ref a new hip etc but afterwards he said I had good bone density and due to my age they had been able to fit a DHS. Only other injury I sustained was a dislocated finger.
At my three week follow up I was shown my X-ray and whilst I have had various other injuries over the years I am however a bit squeamish ref the metal work as all other injuries where not so serious. I did manage a glance at the X-ray and could clearly see the DHS in situ and it is as per paperwork I have been given on discharge.
In the last few days I have reduced the Oral Morp to only at night time in order to get some sleep. My only other issues are I am a type 1 Diabetic. I must say I have read only a couple blogs ref DHS but like you said it appears no one has been told to non WB for as long as I have.
Do you mind me asking how old you were when you had your DHS? I think my main fear is the ongoing pain and the thought of the metal work and it’s possible removal and the fact that no one can really give me any sort of definitive answer or even close to one. The only milestone I am praying to pass is the avascular necrosis of the femoral head. It’s all rather doom and gloom my end!
So amazing to hear you have gone on and got back competition fitness successfully as well is really encouraging. Again thank you for your reply and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Ouch, sounds like you had a very nasty fracture!
Well done on reducing the oral morphine to just at night. You may want to consider other non opioid pain killers to help with both the day and night time side of things. Simple advice would be to have regular paracetamol (or acetaminophen depending on where you are)…there is a higher dose preparation (625mg per tablet) that you can have 2 of three times a day. A regular anti-inflammatory would also be useful, with your history a COX-2 agent like celecoxib 100 or 200mg twice daily would be useful. A traditional anti-inflammatory is likely to give you some gastritis etc so I would likely avoid them at the moment. For night time pain some pregabalin can be useful, both for analgesia and for sleep. Then you can try some partial opioid agents like tramadol or buprenorphine as needed for breakthrough symptoms.
Your T1DM does put you at a higher risk of issues peri-operatively so just remember to take things nice and slow and have some small steps forward.
I was 40 when I sustained my injury, it was bloody horrible as I had a few weeks of trialling conservative therapy before the surgery. The surgery was not pleasant and reminded me of how major bone surgery is inherently unpleasant. I probably pushed my recovery a bit much, in part as I needed to try and return to work as it was unclear whether I was going to get any insurance cover support. As expected, they approved my claim 3 months after the injury…!!!
In terms of removal…I have quite a few friends who are orthopaedic surgeons and they state that it is pretty straight forward. I was told that I was likely going to want it out after about 12-18 months as it would cause quite a lot of irritation. The 18-24 month mark came around just as I had qualified for Worlds so there was no way I was having a major down period in the lead up to that. I have learnt to live with most of the symptoms. I know my running will never be that flash again (it is OK, just not great but interestingly I am faster than I was pre-injury as I was only just starting to really get heavily involved, just think I won’t ever make my pre-injury potential!).
I am a bit surprised you are non WB for so long…most hip fracture repairs are back WB quite early unless there are other issues. It may be concerns about your femoral head or another aspect of the fracture that is leading them to have that as your plan. Remember-you are the patient and you have rights…any questions just ask them…make a list and take them to your next appointment…don’t be intimidated by the medical hierarchy.
Keep in touch and best wishes for your recovery.
Hi there
I hope you don’t mind me joining this thread to ask some questions. I am a cyclist rather than triathlete but I have been unable to find many people with information about dynamic hip screw recovery in my age group (I am 44).
I had a femoral neck fracture after being hit by a car. It was fixed with the DHS and my initial recovery was fast - turbo at 15 days, off crutches at 5 weeks - some tough days but generally a swift recovery to low-is pain and an ability to walk 10 miles without much difficulty.
The past couple of weeks have seen a lot more pain and it is not clear if my joint is in trouble or just the muscles. I am 16 weeks post surgery and see a lot of people doing better than me at the point. Would love to hear any experiences, good or bad, about your recoveries!
Thank you in advance for any reflections shared.
Paul
Hi there
I hope you don’t mind me joining this thread to ask some questions. I am a cyclist rather than triathlete but I have been unable to find many people with information about dynamic hip screw recovery in my age group (I am 44).
I had a femoral neck fracture after being hit by a car. It was fixed with the DHS and my initial recovery was fast - turbo at 15 days, off crutches at 5 weeks - some tough days but generally a swift recovery to low-is pain and an ability to walk 10 miles without much difficulty.
The past couple of weeks have seen a lot more pain and it is not clear if my joint is in trouble or just the muscles. I am 16 weeks post surgery and see a lot of people doing better than me at the point. Would love to hear any experiences, good or bad, about your recoveries!
Thank you in advance for any reflections shared.
Paul
Welcome to the club Paul.
I am an MD as well, happy to share experiences etc and you can PM me if needed.
Can you tell me more about the pain you are getting? Where it is, when it is happening, what makes it better, are you on anything for it etc?
There are lots of potentials…I was sore for close to 6 months post op…
I had a DHS implanted on November 30, 2006 when I was 48, so a bit older than you, but not much. Like you, I thought I recovered quickly as I was walking on a treadmill within 4 weeks, fairly pain free I might add. However, over the next 6-9 months, there would be times when I felt that the pain was going to be there for the rest of my life as sometimes walking even felt like a chore. I was able to begin competing again in February 2008 in the HIM distance and have continued competing to this day. I hope that your pain subsides and you will be able to once again compete at the level you were at before the accident. All the best.
Thank you for this - great to know that I am not on my own. My thinking was exactly the same - ‘will this be here forever now’.
Was there anything in particular that you think aided the ultimate recovery?
Amnesia
Very kind of you to offer me that help. I will set out my situation here in case it helps other people - I may well take you up on your offer of a PM also!
As background, my surgeon told me that my joint was fine at the time of the op although it took ten days from the crash to operate so I do have some risk of AVN.
I can trigger the pain if I do a slow-motion walk. At the peak of my weight bearing, there is pain high in the leg. It is difficult to pinpoint but is high up. When walking normally, I get a flash of this pain ranging from just detectable to really pretty bad (as was the case on a tough hike at the weekend).
Another way is to stand on a step on the offending leg and sink down - a partial one leg squat. That brings a sharp pain and often some trouble the next day. This exercise was introduced as soon as I got off crutches and it has consistently induced pain.
One more way is to be in a side plank with the injured leg closest to the floor. If I try to raise my good leg in this position, I do not have the strength and there is sharp pain.
My physio reasons that a weak TFL and glute has led to over-recruitment of lesser muscles when I walk and that we need to do some quite heavy weights to restore those muscles.
Otherwise I have a good range of motion in my hip now in all planes, but a clear weakness with abduction.
There might be a little creaking sensation sometimes when I rotate the hip (example sitting on an office chair and rotating it with a foot on the ground) which worries me a little too.
I do not take any pain relief or other medicines.
Thank you for any insight, suggestions, or direction!
Hello. How are you now since the removal of your hip screw? I’m planning to remove mine too. Thanks
Hey, it’s been quite a complex journey for me and I still have pain unfortunately but the removal of the screw did take away a lot of the discomfort plus the actual surgery/recovery is quite straightforward so I’d recommend taking it out if it’s bothering you- but perhaps don’t expect all the pain to disappear.
Good luck! 
Thank you for your reply. I’m 38 years old. I’ve been asking some of the orthopedic surgeon and they’ve had different opinions about removing it. Some says if it’s not bothering you leave it…I know there’s no guarantee that the discomfort will be gone removing it but the complications once we get old. It’s a foreign object anyway. I’ve asked some who had DHS for years some ended up having hip replacement and some developed Arthritis. Thats why I’m considering the removal doing the opposite approach. Or that has nothing to do with the DHS causing less blood circulation. Because the injury has been there. Thanks
How long have you had the DHS in? I know my surgeon likes to wait at least 18 months in order to remove it.
If there’s no pain, no issues with keeping it in. But like you I was uncomfortable having a foreign object in me and as I said I was still in pain so I had nothing to lose!
6 weeks no running but I was walking straight after the surgery and on the bike that week very easy.
Hope it goes well!
It’s been 6 months since my surgery. For now I’m not feeling any extreme pain but why should I wait for that feeling and it’s too late to remove the screw. That’s what I’m considering. . .where did you feel mostly the pain and discomfort?..I also chatted with one of the group member here. And he had DHS since 2003 and now scheduled for replacement this august
6 months is still quite early. You may still be experiencing post surgical pain. Are you having any physiotherapy?
The pain was mainly in the groin but now I would say it’s more hip flexor/anterior hip rather than the deep fracture like bone pain.
I have had scans since removing the screws and it all looks as normal as it can be in there. Nothing major that would suggest why I’m still in pain.
Definitely get a few opinions but also do lots of strength training as that did help me a lot.
I had a DHS in December 2002 took maybe 18 months to get back to normal.
In Summer of 2004 I had my best ever year of cycling results.
DHS is still in there and doing fine.
Good to hear you’re doing better. Where is your fracture? neck of femur? During your early recovery like first 6 months. Do you feel pain or discomfort? Which part? Mine is mostly on the hip joint kinda like arthritis. Thanks