Another Surgery

From Welcome to Oregon

Stay tuned for a post about the move up to Eugene etc. The leg has suddenly become top priority once again, so I'll start with that.

A quick update on the leg situation:

So surgery is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Its gonna be long and involved. They've set aside 5.5 hours for it and told me that I get to stay in the hospital for 3-5 days. The Ilizarov fixator will likely be on for at least 6 months.

Doctor Beaman wants to fixate the leg AND ankle meaning I'll have rings around my foot as well and have no ankle mobility while its on (which means I'll have to start over on that front again come 2011). The reason for this is that the ankle is pretty beat up from the initial accident and the past few months of weight bearing while bent 15 degrees from where its supposed to be.

Here's Beaman's tentative plan:
-Go in and take out all the hardware
-Check to see if the bone is still alive at the main fracture site.
-If it is: Install the fixator and it'll tweak the leg straight over the next few months
-If it's dead: Cut out the dead portion, break the tibia close to the knee, pull it down to fill in the removed bone and then let the new space and the old break heal over the next few months. Think leg lengthening in the upper tibia and fracture mending in the lower tibia
-He may also decide to bone graft in either scenario and he would graft from my hip because cadaver bone is far less reliable than fresh Micah bone.
-Or he may graft a few months in depending on how things go.
-Then I camp out in the hospital so they can monitor for infection and dope the shit out of me.

From Welcome to Oregon

After initial recovery the Ilizarov is designed to handle quite a bit of punishment. I can shower, partial to full weight bear, swim, and do day to day stuff. They were fine with the scooter. The device is stable. The limiting factor is swelling and pain. They said that many people hike with these things on after a few months and that one kid even got on his trampoline. Still, there are plenty of things that can go wrong: Pin site infections, broken pins, broken wires etc. So I will have to feel things out a bit especially since the ankle will immobilized and the foot will be surrounded with metal.

From Welcome to Oregon