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Pain in femur with titanium rod

I would appreciate any thoughts or feedback. I was involved in a near fatal automobile accident on 12/31/02. As a result, I required nearly 10 hours of surgery to repair two badly broken legs and L forearm. During my recovery, my L femur was the most painful of my broken bones. However, since it healed, it has been the injury that has never caused any further issues/pain. Well, that is up until about 6 months ago when my femur started aching. Over the past few months, it has progressed to aching pretty much constantly. This is puzzling since my other injuries, which used to be the source of pain/discomfort on a pretty regular basis, have improved incredibly since my family moved to a desert climate a few years ago. My L femur was the least severely broken bone as it was a "clean" break, whereas my R ankle was crushed (the joint required bone grafts), and the bones in my L forearm were shattered (literally in pieces).  So why should my femur be bothering me all of a sudden, when the other two limbs that were more seriously injured and used to hurt all the time, are now doing incredibly well due to the dry climate where I now live? I saw an orthopedic last week and x-rays showed that the hardware in my femur is all perfectly in place. So, now I will be going next week to have a bone scan done on my femur. I am wondering what I should do if the bone scan shows nothing?  I'm assuming that the scan is not going to find some horrific problem like bone cancer and since my hardware is fine, I feel that chances are that the scan won't shed any light on the source of my pain.  I have been told that removing the rod from my femur is an option, and although rare, I know that the hardware can sometimes bother people. Any posts that I have found from people who've actually gone ahead and had the rod removed from their femur are from individuals whose rod had been in place for a much shorter time (I'm coming up on 9 years with mine in). Don't get me wrong, I am not excited about the prospect of surgery- I know it won't be easy, particularly since from what I've read, bone bonds pretty well to titanium. However, if removing the rod would take away the pain I'm currently experiencing (after recovering from the removal surgery, of course) then it would be well worth it!  I'm a mom of two young children-  ages 1 1/2 & 5 who I want to be able to be active with and I cannot imagine living with this current level of pain every day from here on out. I would appreciate any thoughts, feedback, etc. Thank you in advance :-)
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Avatar universal
Can you please let me know how you feeling after the removal of rod. Even i am facing the same so planning to take off the rod in my R femur.
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2 Comments
Did you have your femoral rod removed?  My horse fell ontop of me in 2008. It has just been the past 1-2 years that my leg hurts. Not by the screws, although they hurt but I will put up with it, but down the top of my leg along were the rod is. I press on specific areas of Muscle? and it is very tender. I cannot run at all, and dont walk without pain. I have been told repeatedly that the removal is risky and it may not work.
I’d like to follow this comment. Mine is 26 years broken hip and rod screwed into femur. Having terrible pain (again)
Avatar universal
I had gotten emergency surgery due to an automobile Trucking me when I was 7 months pregnant I broke my hip and leg and the impact of my fall resulted in 10 Staples to my head fortunately leading to the birth of my miracle baby two months later in a natural birth please contact me as my Facebook name is Mary Doh I'm in the pursuit of a search for people like me God bless all those reading
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Avatar universal
I fractured my left femur and a compound open fracture of my right ankle and also fractured my left tibia.  during therapy they told me in order for the femur break to heal I needed put all my weight on that fracture. after doing that an hour letter while getting out of the car the pain was so severe on my left thigh severe muscle spasm kept me in the car for over 2 hours.  I took flexeral mussel relaxer which made the spam go away.  For the femur ask for a device called a bone stimulator.  I had all my metal taken out plate for the fibula and the rod which needs to be replaced when I need a knee replacement.  The ankle is the worst of all.  Thank god for the AFO which takes a lot of the pain away for now.  will need to get the ankle fussed in time.  not good results on ankle replacements I hear.      
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Avatar universal
Hello Bionic Mom. I know this is a couple of years late, but I do hope you had your metal removed or your pain stopped. Two years ago I was in a severe boating accident that broke my femur in a couple of places along with shattering my femoral head and my hip. As a result, I have a titanium rod and screws in the head and above my knee. I am planning on getting my metal removed next summer as I will be going back to school again soon and don't want to be recovering while living on campus. I have experienced this sharp yet aching pain you described every day since my initial injury. I am hoping it's the metal causing it. My question is, did younger yours removed? If so, how was the recovery process and most importantly, how is your post recovery pain level? I hope you get this. Thank you, Jessica.
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