Quote:
Originally Posted by the 'stache
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.  |
I also went with the cadaver ligament for my ACL reconstruction. I had done a ton of reading about torn ACLs when it happened to me, and I found a couple of really great online forums dedicated to recovering from ACL reconstructions.
My orthopaedist is also the ortho doctor for the AA baseball Reading (Pa.) Phillies and the ECHL's Reading Royals. He reccommended the cadaver ligament as opposed to a graft from my own hamstring because i was 38 years old at the time and didn't play any serious sports.
I never had a machine for stretching my ligament or even had the doctor/therapists suggest that to me. The online forums I found were very helpful for getting feedback as to what I was experiencing, although it was somewhat disconcerting to read multiple stories from people who tore their ACL (or multiple knee ligaments) playing high school or low level college sports, rehabbed like a fiend for 9-10 months, then tore the new ACL again on the first day of practice or something awful like that.
On my first doctor appointment following the ACL reconstruction, the doctor put my x-ray on the screen to show me his work. I wasn't really expecting that, or I would have averted my eyes. I didn't really want to see the screw in my leg. I know your most recent injury is worse than torn knee ligaments, but I went through several months of feeling like I was the unluckiest person in the world.
I wish you the best of luck with your latest injury. That really sounds like a terrible thing to experience.