In 19 days, no more metal crap!
Hi there, Dave here with a bit of significant leg news to report (finally)...
I went for a visit with my new orthopaedist, Dr. Browner (after 2 hours in the waiting room!!). Sometime on Monday, April 11th, I have an appointment at UCONN Hospital, right here in Farmington, to remove this thing, this external fixator, this (as my Mother eloquently put it) "oil rig," this (aw heck, what's one last colloqiual among friends and family?) STAINLESS STEEL RENDERING OF SATAN'S LOWER INTESTINE.
It will be replaced with a permanent metal plate, after a bone graft is extracted from my pelvis and applied to an area currently being taken up by a toe-sized dead bone fragment. Now, the doc's initial instinct was to try and leave the fixator in place during the procedure (and thereafter for another few months!), since it has done a remarkable job re-aligning the bone. Or, as the doc put it when he saw my x-ray, "when I look at this bone alignment, it's like POW!" I had to grudgingly agree that it's caused me no pain, and there's never been any infection. But all things being equal, after seven months, I'd still prefer it was melted down in the volcanic furnace of Mount Doom. But then he took another look and decided he wasn't happy having to operate between pin sites so close together, so it's outta there.
As for the bone extraction, forgive me for sounding mad, but the whole thing sounds darned cool. What happens is, they'll burrow deep inside of the biggest part of the pelvis with a drill, and with a little ice cream scoop take out some of the spongey stuff on the inside. That stuff's gonna grow all back within weeks. And with the help of some kind of protein paste, it'll turn into leg bone. I'm likely to have more pain/suffering in my waist than in my leg, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two.
And hey, I'm already one step (sorry) closer to normalness. As of right now, the issue of rust is no longer a real concern since the long-term condition of the fixator is hereby moot. This means...I can take a SHOWER like a normal human! Hooray! No more sticking my head under the bathtub faucet while Satan's intestine dangles over the edge.
As for the rest of my current state of normalness, I have actually enjoyed a not-terribly-unpleasant lifestyle these past few months, walking with a cane (and even without it around the house!), driving my new car (with only moderate discomfort after distances greater than a few miiles), going out, playing in a band, etc. I'm not exactly hacky-sacking, but I'm not in pain, either. This is the only real annoying part for me...going from a relatively active life back into the hospital bed. But I'm confident that it'll all be over soon, and will end well too!
So that's it. Monday the 11th I begin the new leg (sorry) of my adventure. I'll be in the hospital for however many days I need to, or however many days I can mentally stand...whichever is less.
The procedure's date will undoubtedly come as rotten news for my CO2 bandmates, since there is a gig planned for the *very next day* (Tuesday the 12th), opening for a major recording act (called "Adema"...they're pretty good) at the Webster Underground in Hartford. Hopefully they can make do without me as they have so many times already during this extended recovery. In my defense, I asked after a later date, but it would have been well into May.
--Dave
I went for a visit with my new orthopaedist, Dr. Browner (after 2 hours in the waiting room!!). Sometime on Monday, April 11th, I have an appointment at UCONN Hospital, right here in Farmington, to remove this thing, this external fixator, this (as my Mother eloquently put it) "oil rig," this (aw heck, what's one last colloqiual among friends and family?) STAINLESS STEEL RENDERING OF SATAN'S LOWER INTESTINE.
It will be replaced with a permanent metal plate, after a bone graft is extracted from my pelvis and applied to an area currently being taken up by a toe-sized dead bone fragment. Now, the doc's initial instinct was to try and leave the fixator in place during the procedure (and thereafter for another few months!), since it has done a remarkable job re-aligning the bone. Or, as the doc put it when he saw my x-ray, "when I look at this bone alignment, it's like POW!" I had to grudgingly agree that it's caused me no pain, and there's never been any infection. But all things being equal, after seven months, I'd still prefer it was melted down in the volcanic furnace of Mount Doom. But then he took another look and decided he wasn't happy having to operate between pin sites so close together, so it's outta there.
As for the bone extraction, forgive me for sounding mad, but the whole thing sounds darned cool. What happens is, they'll burrow deep inside of the biggest part of the pelvis with a drill, and with a little ice cream scoop take out some of the spongey stuff on the inside. That stuff's gonna grow all back within weeks. And with the help of some kind of protein paste, it'll turn into leg bone. I'm likely to have more pain/suffering in my waist than in my leg, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two.
And hey, I'm already one step (sorry) closer to normalness. As of right now, the issue of rust is no longer a real concern since the long-term condition of the fixator is hereby moot. This means...I can take a SHOWER like a normal human! Hooray! No more sticking my head under the bathtub faucet while Satan's intestine dangles over the edge.
As for the rest of my current state of normalness, I have actually enjoyed a not-terribly-unpleasant lifestyle these past few months, walking with a cane (and even without it around the house!), driving my new car (with only moderate discomfort after distances greater than a few miiles), going out, playing in a band, etc. I'm not exactly hacky-sacking, but I'm not in pain, either. This is the only real annoying part for me...going from a relatively active life back into the hospital bed. But I'm confident that it'll all be over soon, and will end well too!
So that's it. Monday the 11th I begin the new leg (sorry) of my adventure. I'll be in the hospital for however many days I need to, or however many days I can mentally stand...whichever is less.
The procedure's date will undoubtedly come as rotten news for my CO2 bandmates, since there is a gig planned for the *very next day* (Tuesday the 12th), opening for a major recording act (called "Adema"...they're pretty good) at the Webster Underground in Hartford. Hopefully they can make do without me as they have so many times already during this extended recovery. In my defense, I asked after a later date, but it would have been well into May.
--Dave
posted by Dave at 7:36 PM
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