Has anyone flown with ORIF Ankle surgery?

I flew about 4 months after ORIF surgery. I have 1 plate and a whole bunch of screws. My flight was only from North Carolina to Missouri, with a layover in between, so only a few hours. I didn't have any problems though. I had no issues with security. I wore compression socks to help with any swelling and elevated my foot slightly on my backpack that was underneath the seat in front of me. I made sure my layovers weren't too short, since I was still walking pretty slowly at that point. You can ask for wheelchair assistance to/from the gate if you're worried about it being too much walking. The compression socks were helpful and make sure you give yourself enough time. I think the hardest time I had was finding a place to sit near the gate where I could elevate my foot. At that time I was still often elevating my foot when seated because I was still experiencing swelling and some pain. Again, I used my backpack to help with that.

I flew back to back post surgery and it was a tremendous pain in the butt! Have your surgery documentation with you if you still have a cast on your ankle. Give yourself minimum 30 extra minutes to go through security. If you have a knee scooter, TSA will check that like you've strapped bombs on it as well as swiping your cast and poking around your injury. If you have the documentation from your DR. it helps tremendously. If you can go through the body scan with a cane that TSA will provide then it will make your life a lot easier for your flight. Make sure your documentation about your surgery spells our for security that you have pins/brackets/screws in your ankle.

The flying itself is easy breezy, but I wasn't going trans-Atlantic and cross country. I would talk to your Dr. about anti-inflammatory drugs for longer plane travel. Good luck, my ORIF surgery was March 15th and it was a very long haul, but I am almost as good as new now. Bracket and 6 screws for me.

I was in a cast for 9 weeks and every time I flew (about every 2 weeks), they sawed the cast down one side, to allow for expansion and then I would get a new cast upon my return. They wrapped the sawed cast with ace bandages to hold it all together. Worked like a charm, but was more expensive to do it that way. They changed my cast every two weeks any way, due to lost muscle, so it wasn't a big deal. I was told to keep it up as high as possible while I flew and I always took a baby aspirin before flying. It took 2 years to get back to 100%, the last 2-3% took the last 6 months. I have never had security notice my 13 screws and plate anytime I have gone through (and I've flown about 50 times since getting my surgery about 3 years ago. The screws and plates haven't bothered me at all all these years.

Hi Karen,

I was on vacation in Glacier National Park and our last hiking day broke my ankle have three pins, plate and 5 screws accident happened July 9th had orif surgery July 10th and flew home to Memphis TN on the 11th, day after surgery. Security did take quite a bit of time as I was in a wheelchair, flight time is about 5 hrs with one connection. we had them meet us as we got off with wheelchair on connection and once home. Flight was ok I propped foot on bookbag during flight. I was worried someone would knock foot/ankle or step on it, but we got home safely. Recovering now, got boot this week and started PT.