August 17, 2004

Sophie's choice.. and by Sophie I mean me and by choice, I mean I have to decide if I get surgery.

I went to the doctor about my arm this morning. The quick summary, I'm screwed. My right arm will never be the same. Here is a list of things he told me I shouldn't ever do again: (note: This list is not exhaustive.)

  • Pushups
  • Weight lifting
  • Hammer with my right arm
  • Use a mechanical (as opposed to electric) screw driver

As you might notice these restrictions imply many others. They are regardless of surgery.

Last week before leaving for vacation I went for a bone scan. For the bone scan they injected me with radio active dye and watched the particle emission from my arms. This was so my doctor could see how bad things were in my arm. To give him some further info he also took a few xrays on the florascan this morning. The results weren't good. I have both cartilage and tendon damage at the distal radius and ulna joint. My option is to live with the pain and loss of mobility or (as my doctor put it) have my physiology redesigned.

Surgery (physiology redesign)

My Dr. has proposed removing an inch or so from my ulna (leaving a gap) and using a scew and bone graft to bond the distal (wrist) end of the radius and the ulna. To add some support to the distal end of the proximal ulna he would bond some muscle to it.

For one month after the surgery my arm would be in a cast and useless. Then over a 6 month period I would get my range of motion back. This time the motion would be pain free. There are risks from the surgery. It would be under general anesthetic which is always somewhat risky. There is also the chance that the proximal end of the ulna would be unstable.

What do people think? (PLEASE COMMENT!)

Somewhat relevant comic for the day:

Posted by pqbon at August 17, 2004 12:11 PM | TrackBack
Comments

The first comment I would have is to see more doctors. They might have different ideas. And maybe some of them may know of other doctors in their field of specialization that may be doing different things that could help or are even researching some.

Posted by: Brian Quirion at August 17, 2004 12:26 PM

I agree with BQ: get a second and third opinion. Get doctor recommendations from people who have broken a lot of bones in the past ...

Posted by: Carlos Maltzahn at August 17, 2004 1:27 PM

Brian's got a very good point. In addition, you're still young so I recommend the surgery. I realize that this conflicts with work, but work will cope. You've got the rest of your life to live with your limbs.

I can see how you'll miss the weight lifting, though ;-)

Posted by: Randy Thelen at August 17, 2004 1:30 PM

hmmm, no possible good advice I could give other than ditto the above.

Posted by: Ken at August 17, 2004 1:37 PM

Here is a recommendation from my cousin Bolko Stolberg: Arthur J Ting in Fremont, http://www.proteamphysicians.com/member/DoctorProfile.asp?nav=PAT&doc_id=91.

Posted by: Carlos Maltzahn at August 17, 2004 1:49 PM

I'd recommend Trigg McClellan, the ortho who patched me up -- probably THE COOLEST doctor I'd ever met. He used to work out of The Valley Medical Center, but recently moved his practice to Tennesse.

Posted by: Radek Aster at August 17, 2004 1:56 PM

I have a couple of good doctors I saw recently. Many of whom work with bones. Feel free to contact me offline. One of them I trust a lot.

I also saw Dr. Ting and had a really bad experience. It might be different for your case. So again we may want to talk offline.

I wish you luck. I hate injuries. I don't know what else to say.

mhr

Posted by: Michael Rubin at August 17, 2004 3:13 PM


Oh man, I talked to my brother-in-law (an MD who does cancer research including bone/bone-marrow variants) says you want at least 2 additional opinions. He said don't be afraid to fly to LA or New York if that's what it takes.

Posted by: Tom Kessler at August 17, 2004 4:21 PM

yeah... i would say second and third opinion as well. though if they say similar things, i would say you're definitely young enough for it to be worth it. besides, you have such a active lifestyle, i think it would annoy you to not go for it in the long run. as for general anesthesia, i did that because i was too wimpy to take out my embedded 4 wisdom teeth, and it wasn't too bad. though... i think you would've had to do that already with your other surgeries, right?

good luck! we love you, will!

Posted by: honeyfields at August 17, 2004 9:14 PM

Oh, my world. It is ok

Posted by: Stephan at May 27, 2006 7:38 AM

Oh, my world. It is ok

Posted by: Stephan at June 11, 2006 11:10 PM

Oh, my world. It is ok

Posted by: Stephan at June 13, 2006 1:25 AM