Ouch major ouch.

DO NOT DESPAIR! I broke my leg in a similar place to you four years ago, when I was 5 months pregnant.Maternity wear isn't designed to fit over a bump and a plastercast.

I broke the tibia and fibia just above the ankle, so basically my foot was only attached to my leg by skin. Wish I had done it dramatically, but I was just on my doorstep and turned around to put the key in the door to lock it and the whole thing shattered.I then was in a heap in my porch, so I clawed up the wall to put the key back into the door so I could get in and phone for an ambulance. Had to crawl through the house to the phone, then realised I had shut the door behind me, so had to crawl back, dragging my unattached foot with me, to open the door so the ambulance people could get in.

Adrenalin sets in and after 15 mins of lying on the floor, repeating to myself, "Think of the baby, don't pass out." The ambo arrived. Took to casualty where they looked, xrayed and agreed I had completely mullered it. Being pregnant meant no pain relief was suitable and I would have willingly took ANYTHING.

The op was done under an epidural, as a general anaestetic would have passed through the placenta and knocked out the baby too.However anyone who has had an epiduaral knows that they wear off, so mid op I got all feeling back. I told the nurse who was sat at my head end that I could feel everything, she did a not very good job of telling me I couldn't. I decided to just move my leg away from the surgeon and his black and decker that was drilling into my bone. He looked over the green sheet aghast and asked me how I could move my leg! I told him I could feel everything and five secs later I was knocked out with a general anaestsetic.

I came around plastered and pinned. They put two plates in, one either side above the ankle and about twenty screws to fix the whole thing together. The plaster was removed just in time for me to limp around a delivery room and give birth. I had the easiest birth in history, and drug free. For comparison purposes I would choose the pain of labour every time over that of a compound fracture.

Like you I was shocked at the state of my leg when the plaster was removed, two six inch scars running up both sides of leg above ankle and it was huge, puffy and stiff.I cried when I couldn't find any shoes to fit me..thinking it would be like that forever.

I walked up and down my stairs hundreds of times to try and loosen it up and I swam. That was the only exercise that didn't hurt. It didn't have the power to run, if you know what I mean?

It never felt like 'my' ankle though, it always had a dull ache and a stiffness, that I really thought was there forever. I put off having the plates and pins removed, because I thought that the pain of the op to do that would be as bad as that which I had experienced after the break.And I couldn't be incapacitated with a young baby.

Eventually I was brought to my knees and my senses when I inadvertently bashed it against a shelving unit in a bakery store. The sheer pain of metal in my ankle hitting metal in the shelf was excruciating. This was a year and half after the break. I enquired about the removal of the metal work and was booked in for the op. It was only day surgery, done under a very light general anaestetic.

As soon as I came around I was aware that the dull ache had gone. It was painfree completely. They went in the old scars to do the removal.It was lightly bandaged. All the stiffness had gone and the ankle felt like 'my' ankle again. I now wish I had chosen to have the metalwork removed alot earlier.

I know exactly how you are feeling, well maybe, but it will get back to normal again...HONEST! Even though you probably can't imagine that now. The scars are barely visible and all the power has returned. There are no side effects. You will be amazed how it gets better as the swelling goes down. If they offer to remove the pins etc go for it.

McG : the metalwork didn't set off any alarms at Gatwick, don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing!