So I'm healing well....
Recently I had a follow up with my surgeon and my leg looks great. During the few minutes of my visit the doctor was telling me that he is of the belief to leave the rod in me for life, but a lot of his colleagues take the rod out of people who are young and active. The reason for removing the rod in young active people is the risk of breaking the bone again is generally higher. Breaking the femur with the rod in is bad.
So thinking of my activities there are 2 main activities I do that I could see breaking the bone again. Skiing and driving a car (the observant will note the lack of motorcycle in those activities).
Since most people drive a car, just driving a car I do not think increases my risk of breaking the femur over the average person so I really it seems to me that skiing is the main factor I should consider while deciding whether or not to remove the rod. Unfortunately I have not been successful in finding out a lot of information on the net.
While searching the net for the risks of breaking a leg skiing I did find out that they sell "impact clothing" for snow sports. For example: http://www.redprotection.com/gear/products.asp?productID=2014
However there seems to be a distinct lack of information on how much energy those things can absorb. I also cannot seem to find out whether the femur is more prone to breaking without the rod. AND I cannot find anything on how severe it is if you break the leg again. Although I will take the last thing as a good thing and assume that refracturing is so rare nobody has posted on the net :).
Anyway if anybody is interested in looking at what I did found out I found these two sites interesting:
http://emedicine.com/sports/topic38.htm - Talks about broken femurs (I have the trauma fracture, not stress)
http://chezlark.com/?cat=2 - A guy's blog, his experiences are very similar to mine.
So thinking of my activities there are 2 main activities I do that I could see breaking the bone again. Skiing and driving a car (the observant will note the lack of motorcycle in those activities).
Since most people drive a car, just driving a car I do not think increases my risk of breaking the femur over the average person so I really it seems to me that skiing is the main factor I should consider while deciding whether or not to remove the rod. Unfortunately I have not been successful in finding out a lot of information on the net.
While searching the net for the risks of breaking a leg skiing I did find out that they sell "impact clothing" for snow sports. For example: http://www.redprotection.com/gear/products.asp?productID=2014
However there seems to be a distinct lack of information on how much energy those things can absorb. I also cannot seem to find out whether the femur is more prone to breaking without the rod. AND I cannot find anything on how severe it is if you break the leg again. Although I will take the last thing as a good thing and assume that refracturing is so rare nobody has posted on the net :).
Anyway if anybody is interested in looking at what I did found out I found these two sites interesting:
http://emedicine.com/sports/topic38.htm - Talks about broken femurs (I have the trauma fracture, not stress)
http://chezlark.com/?cat=2 - A guy's blog, his experiences are very similar to mine.