Brooke Shields shares hospital photos after breaking leg: 'I’ve come a long way'

Brooke Shields is sharing photos of herself taken in the hospital shortly after she broke her leg in January.

The 55-year-old actor posted the gallery of pics to Instagram on Friday to celebrate how far she's come in her recovery thanks to surgery, physical therapy and sheer determination. The photos find Shields wearing a hospital gown with heavy bandages on her right leg and arm.

"I’ve come a long way since this, but the journey is just beginning 💫 " she wrote.

Shields' famous friends commented to let her know they were rooting for her.

"You're my spirit animal," gushed "Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay.

"Sending love," wrote actor Mariel Hemingway.

Sharon Stone sent along a note of compassion. "Wow so sorry," wrote the "Ratched" star.

Shields revealed during a video visit to TODAY last month that she broke her femur in a fall while exercising on a balance board at a New York City gym.

"I was on one of those balance boards that I have been doing every day," she explained. "It was just something that I like to do. I've done it on Instagram and I stupidly switched my focus and I flew up in the air and just hit perfectly and snapped my femur, you know, the largest bone in the body."

"I'm focusing on just recovery," she added. "This is really probably the biggest thing that I have to physically go through, but what am I going to do about it?"

The "Lipstick Jungle" star opened up about the accident to People, describing the weeks she spent in the hospital undergoing multiple surgeries. She also required physical therapy to learn how to walk again.

The mom of two — Shields shares daughters, Rowan, 17, and Grier, 14, with husband Chris Henchy — detailed the moment when EMTs arrived to place her on a stretcher and "survival kicked in."

"So, I kept saying, 'I can feel my toes' because I was so afraid I was paralyzed," she recalled.

The "Suddenly Susan" alum underwent surgery to have two metal rods inserted in her leg — "one from the top of my hip down, and another across into the hip socket."

Unfortunately, her healing process hit a few nasty glitches. First, her femur popped out of the configuration and required another surgery, and an additional five rods and a metal plate to secure it all. Then, after returning home, she developed a staph infection, which required yet another surgery.

Though the months of physical pain and emotional hardship has been grueling, the entire experience has confirmed to Shields that she's "a fighter."

“This is my journey, and if it took me breaking the largest bone in my body, then recovery is something I want to share,” she told People. “We have to believe in ourselves and encourage one another. There's no other way to get through life, period."

Related video: