When I was 23 I broke my femur "getting off of a horse". I think the horse helped me, but I can't remember, I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, my leg was in an impossible position, the femur broken clean in two.
The surgery involved putting a "nail" (a long rod) down the middle of the femur to hold it together, unfortunately the rod was straight but my femur was bent, so while the doctor was pounding it in through a hole on the hip end of the bone, it broke through just above my knee shattering the lower bone, and actually sticking out of my leg! He had to saw it off with a hack saw, then cut my leg the full length of the bone and add a metal plate to hold the two broken pieces together. The surgery took five hours instead one, and afterwards they gave my five units of blood! A real mess. I still have shrapnel from the sawing that shows up in x-rays. Anyway, I couldn't put any weight or stress on the bone four a couple of months, and was told my knee would "freeze" but if I was careful to keep working at it after the bone had healed I could restore the motion in about a year, and that was exactly how long it took. The bone healed up fine, but the knee was never the same. By the way, the first thing the doc will have to do is remove that old nail, but this time it will be pulled out from the bottom of the femur during the knee replacement surgery. Tom On Apr 6, 2011, at 8:30 AM, Wayne Blake-Hedges wrote: > Hi Guys; > > Sorry to hear about the knee issues, hope things work out. > > Tom: How did your knee get that way? Injury or just worn out? > > Tony: How do you destroy a knee cap??? Professional wrestler? > > Wayneb > > --- On Wed, 4/6/11, Anthony Spezio <bambot...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > From: Anthony Spezio <bambot...@yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: [VFB] Update > To: vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > Date: Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 9:35 AM > > Tom, > I am in about the same boat. > I went to Little Rock to see about my knees last Wednesday. My left knee is > "bone to bone" the right that was replaced twice has a damaged knee cap that > will have to be reconstructed. Will be three months recuperating on that. He > will not do both at one time because of my age. I plan to hold off till > winter if I can. > Tony > > --- On Tue, 4/5/11, Tom Davenport <t...@comcast.net> wrote: > > From: Tom Davenport <t...@comcast.net> > Subject: [VFB] Update > To: vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 8:47 PM > > Glad to hear you all had a good time at Sowbug. For my part, I'm glad I > didn't go, because me knee continues to grow worse. I'm not good for more > than 50 yards, and river fishing is out of the question. > > The knee replacement surgery is scheduled for April 25th, and that will be, I > hope, the beginning of a new era. I haven't had a good knee for 15 years, > which has limited hiking or any distant walking, but the Doc says I should > be good to go for any kind of walking once every thing has healed up. > > There is a bright side, though. It turns out that fishing from a kick boat > is perfect exercise for my bad knee! I have been out about four times on a > little community fishery (Kaysville Ponds, for those who live in Utah), > having a ball catching trout on pheasant tail nymphs. It is kind of sight > fishing, the fish rise, and I cast the nymphs to them and strip slowly. Dry > flies don't get much action, but I usually catch the fish with the PT > > The pond is just a hundred feet or so from the parking lot, so getting my > kick boat there and back isn't bad. > > I would have been out fishing more, but Utah is having crappy fishing weather > this spring. Because of El Nino the usual high pressure that keeps us > relatively dry and mild has never set up, and the storms keep rolling in. > The rivers are all ready blasted out as the reservoirs are being emptied to > make room for the snow pact, which is between 150% to over 200% of normal. > Still, when you live in a dessert, you can't complain about water no matter > how it comes. > > The week before my surgery I will be fishing with my brother and a couple of > nephews in the Bend, Oregon area. We will begin by fishing a "Pay to Play" > area called "Lake of the Dunes" where my nephew caught some enormous "hogs" > last year. After that we will fish some other reservoirs in the area from > either a boat or kick boat. Not a bad way to usher in my surgery! The > doctor was all for it, he says the more I use my bad leg now, the better, > since keeping muscle mass is a key part of recovery. > > Tom Davenport > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. 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