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April 11, 2008
Hardware Removed
After laying on the couch for seven days watching movies and Anthony Bourdain reruns I'm experiencing a little bit of cabin fever. Last Thursday, I had the plate and the thirteen screws removed from my left tibia that I fractured spirally last June in an off road motorcycling adventure. The past week is a blur and I don't remember much as I was sedated with the bung you up drug, Vicodin. I can't wait to be regular again. I have line of stitches split in two down my shin and a two-stitcher hole to one side where I presume the doctor went in to remove a screw. Currently I'm only in pain when I stand up for more than five minutes and all the blood rushes down to my leg. My circulation will get better and I have lost most of the feeling on the top of my foot above my big toe, just like the first time they went in and cut up the nerves. It will take about a year to get most of the feeling back. They say 99 percent of broken leg victims with hardware leave the hardware in. The past rainy winter in the Santa Cruz mountains reeked havoc on my hardware just above my ankle. I also figured out that the doctor who installed it used too long of screws and they protruded out the back of the bone and rubbed against the tendons on the inside of my ankle. When I moved my foot up and down and squeezed the skin behind my ankle I could feel a crunchiness. This aggravated my tendons and it felt like I had a permanently sprained ankle. I had a very noticeable limp. After the removal of the plate and screws the crunchiness is gone. From my limited walking around the house this past week I can already feel a huge difference in my leg and there is no more stiffness above my ankle. I'm quite confident that my limp will disappear. In the next seven weeks my bone will grow and refill the holes that the screws were in and my leg will be back to normal. It has been a week since I have ridden my motorcycle and I'm going a little crazy. Perhaps on Saturday I will go on a test ride to see if I'm up for the full commute to work on Monday.
Posted by stephen at April 11, 2008 12:54 AM
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