[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Wow, Bill. How did you break your tibia and fibula?

I have a titanium screw in my left leg after tearing my ACL, MCL and PCL in November 2011. I have never gone through anything that hurt like that, and the therapy following the ACL reconstruction was just brutal. It blows my mind that it is almost standard now to come back from torn ACLs and play again in the NFL or the NBA.

I had no idea how a torn ACL were replaced until it happened to me. It was shocking when the orthopaedist looked at my MRI and nonchalantly said he was would drill a hole in my tibia for my new ACL.

Hi Eddie.

I had ACL reconstruction in December of 2011, as I'd blown out my knee in college playing basketball. Well, over the years, the knee got progressively worse to the point where it started going out on me. And the last thing a guy on disability with a bad back needs is to fall. So, the orthopedic surgeon that fixed my knee in 1992 did an ACL reconstruct, using a cadaver ligament. About a week after the surgery, I fell asleep in the CPM machine used to stretch the ligament out. I woke up, jerked the leg badly, and got a stress fracture (as I was strapped into the machine). The screw you see in the lower part of the pic is a titanium screw for that rebuild.

As for this break, I was stepping over my black lab Brewster, who was sleeping on the landing of the stairs. I had socks on (which I never wear. I don't know why I did this time). Well, my foot slipped right off the edge of the landing, and I felt the entire knee go out. I came crashing down, and the left leg above the knee looked like it had an elbow. I knew I couldn't move, so we had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital. I thought I'd blown out the ligaments in my knee. When the emergency room attending physician showed me the xray of my leg, the femur was just destroyed. I almost threw up, I was so horrified. I was born with a congenital bone disease called osteogenesis imperfecta, so I am susceptible to broken bones. But this one was bad, even for me. I had surgery to rebuild the leg the next day, and after I got out of post op, and upstairs to my room, I immediately started developing a fever. They couldn't find the cause, so they started me on some really powerful antibiotics. When they didn't work, the hospital's infectious disease doc said I was septic, and they began all sorts of tests, as well as chest x-rays, galium scans, ultrasound to look for blood clots, etc. I got shots in my abdomen to prevent clots. My vitals started getting better, so two weeks after surgery, they sent me to the rehab hospital. Within 24 hours, I was back at the first hospital by ambulance. My fever was 103, and my white blood cell count was over 19,000. So overall, a very long, unfun, and expensive stay.

I am ordering a plastic bubble to live in now.