Tonya and PQBON's WebLog

Surgury is scheduled...

OK... So today, I decided to screw my leg brace... I didn't put it on. I just put on my sandals. This may or may not have been a great idea. But I was tired of the damn thing. They way it feels, the way it smells, how clunky it is. Last time I did this I had a considerable amount of pain. This time I didn't. At least no more pain then I've been having with the brace on. It was nice because I was able to really drive my car an remember why I love it soo much.

I go the phone call from my surgeon today. I'm going in for surgery on July 24th at 1pm. It sucks have to wait that long! I was under the impression it was going to be sooner. I have to call them to confirm that date and to schedule that pre and post operative appointments. Hope fully this will fix it.

I don't know if everyone knows what my surgery is going to be so here is a quick description. I have a Titanium (Ti) nail running through the normally hollow center of my Tibia (the big main "shin" bone). This nail is secured both on the top and the bottom with Ti screws. I have one screw on top and two on the bottom. Because my fibula is what the call a non-union (it isn't growing together on it's own) they are going to reopen the wholes at the bottom and take out the two lower screws. This will "dynamize" the injury and encourage it to grow together.

If the next surgery still produces a non-union, then I have two options. The first is a bigger nail. The second is bone grafts at the point of fracture.

The bigger nail, would involve the Dr. opening my knee and the remaining bolt hole and removing the current nail and bold. Then the doctor would ream the hollow channel that runs though my fibula to make it bigger. He would install a bigger , at least initially, non-dynamic (attached above and bellow the fracture) nail. This should encourage the bone to grow together.

The grafts may be one of three types. There are artificial bone grafts. These are made out of a surgical plastic that is very similar to bone. The body treats them like bone and heals it self. Eventually dissolving and replacing the plastic. The second kind of graft is from a dead person. (All of you are organ doanners right?) They take bone tissue from dead people and graft it in to your own. Your body then heals and eventually replaces the bone with your own. The third type of graft is an auto-graft. This means it comes from you... They open your hip and take bone from your illiac crest. This sucks the most because you have to go through the pain of multiple surgical components.

The Dr. wasn't clear on what kind of graft he would do for me if it comes down to it. He also wasn't clear whether grafting or the nail is the preferred next step after the dynamization.

Posted by pqbon at June 19, 2003 6:12 PM | TrackBack