Without the ability to do any weight-bearing on either side, the prognosis was grim. The alternative I was offered was to have a rod put in the tibia to allow weight-bearing on at least the left side and get me out of bed. This was a difficult decision because I did not want the surgery to recover from in addition to the fractures. I did not realise how much pain there would be and how long it would last. Although pain medication helped, I tried to keep it to a minimum and yet still function.
Orthopaedic beds have bars suspended above the bed for patients to pull themselves up.
It seemed to me that their primary purpose was to lift up for the bedpan. I saw it as a means to do pullups. At first, the pain was so great that I could not pull up at all. As the days went by, I found some strength returning and was able to pull up higher and higher. By the time of my discharge two and a half weeks later, I could pull myself up as far as the bar would allow.