before and after, recent cast removal

[aslant]

big skeleton, little skeleton. and an xray of my foot.

warning! once again, not for the squeamish!


perhaps some of these after pictures don't look as dramatic to everyone else, but to me it is a marked difference. and although in the before pics the sutures are still in, and in the after pics they are a bit covered by steri-strips, the healing is actually going very well.

8/11/06 atrophy (3 weeks post-op, 5 weeks post-injury):


9/6/06 atrophy (7 weeks post-op, and after one month in a hard cast):


8/11/06 incision on inside of ankle:


9/6/06 incision on inside of ankle:


8/11/06 incision on outside of ankle:


9/6/06 incision on outside of ankle:


and a view where you can see some of the nasty skin peeling off the bottom of my foot:

Comments

did they put anything inside you? i can't remember.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

none of my pictures were as well documented!





after surgery:



then finally, a "getting better"

Re: did they put anything inside you? i can't remember.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

yes, i have a 4" plate on my lower tibia, with four screws going into the bone, then one longer screw going all the way over to the fibula, and a long pin on part of an ankle bone where another fracture was, don't know the name of that bone. a tri-malleolar fracture is what they call the whole mess.

that first pic of you always makes me wince, the structure of the cheekbone is so obviously fucked up. where were your incisions? in the hairline? or did they go in through the eye or something? it's so impressive how invisible it is now. do you carry a special letter to go through airport security? my hardware may eventually come out, but until then if i fly i've been told to have an explanation ready.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

one under the eyebrow, one through the eye, one through the mouth. then they just lifted my face up off the bone, basically. i don't need a letter, or anything like that. the alloy of titanium & vibranium (?? i swear he said vibranium!) is pretty much undetectable to your run of the mill metal detector.

but hey, welcome to the cyborg club, yo.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

why don't other people understand how cool it is to be part metal??

but then, ask me again how cool it is when i am in physical therapy a month from now trying to walk again. it will not be cool then. at least robots can walk!

can you feel the metal through your skin?

[nevers.livejournal.com]

can i be part of the cyborg club? i have screws and a staple!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i didn't know you had screws in! for the acl?
you are most definitely a member.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

yup! that's how the anchor the new one. my right knee has just one screw because the screw at the other end was absorbable (apparently, said my 2nd doctor, based on the x-ray) and the second has one screw at the top and a staple (or two?) at the bottom because the acl was too long to screw into where it was supposed to be. so he had to shave away some bone so the stapes would lie flush with my bone (i hope this isn't too gory, but after what you've been through i imagine you can handle it).

can you feel your metal plates? do they really not know yet if they'll remove them or leave them?

[aslant.livejournal.com]

wow. i did not know that. and absorbable screws, very cool.

i don't think i can feel the metal plate, but i have been reluctant to feel around on the larger scar...i hate how it is numb. but also the tissue feels really solid, i guess i'm too scared to really push and see if it's metal. the whole ankle area in general feels too solid, probably also because the tendons are like solidified by now, too.

hardware removal is decided on a case-by-case basis, some people find the sensation really bothersome, some people don't. i wouldn't voluntarily go through that surgery, even though they claim the recovery is closer to 2 weeks. apparently you can start to feel the weather in your bones more, and there's a risk of developing osteo-arthritis as well. ugh. i know pt will be painful but there are so many horror stories online of people who just don't care and then end up having to get the ankle completely fused to get rid of the pain 15 months later.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

pt is one thing i really recommend not worrying about. push yourself as much as you can and you will be fine. for me it really felt like good pain, everything i had to do. they won't make you do things that cause bad pain. i know with knees if you don't push to get full range of motion back within a certain number of weeks the scar tissue that builds up makes it almost impossible to gain it without significantly more pain. but on my second time around, knowing that there was no reason NOT to push my rom other than discomfort (which might not be the case for you; you'll want to ask) i got full rom in about half the time expected. i totally think you will have no problem doing what is asked of you.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i will try not to worry about it so much :)
but then -- i think of you as such a fearless person, you are really good at pushing through things i think of as very frightening!

luckily, i've also heard that pt for my kind of situation is often "here are some bands, don't forget to get on the stationary bike, bye!" so maybe i will get to do it on my own, instead of annoying the poor therapist with my constant wait-wait-wait scaredyness :)

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

yeah, my plates osseointegrate with my bones, which means that, the longer i have it, the more they grow together like a cyborg honeycomb!

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

only the very cornor of my eye socket can really be felt to be different, from the outside. from inside my face i am still very aware of it.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

getting them taken out doesn't sound fun.

Re: did they put anything inside you? i can't remember.

[http://users.livejournal.com/lion_/]

whoa whoa whoa, what HAPPENED, though? i dont remember this at all.

m's backstory

[aslant.livejournal.com]

don't you remember when mordicai moved to new york and then got jumped by some thugs one night? they beat him with clubs and such and he barely made it home, half his face had to be rebuilt.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

wait, to which one of us? i got punched in the face with brass knuckles & it knocked my face apart.

[bettyray.livejournal.com]

ouch

[aslant.livejournal.com]

yes. but less ouch than when it was broken!

[weetziefae.livejournal.com]

um wow!
you're hardcore!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

ehh, i am a big baby about most of it. i have a very low pain tolerance and i pretty much panic when other people try to touch my leg. which doctors pretty much want to do continuously.