Its a writeoff

Thats probably a better offer than I'll get from the ins co,

 

Clumsy ****
GWS.

 

If only it were that few. I still get twinges and aches 3 years on
from my ribs/back.

 

Only 2 and a bit, but I'm still not 100%. Been suffering a bit the
last coule of weeks, mainly due, I think, to sleeping on crap beds in
various hotels. But it highlights my need for more physiotherapy.

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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
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`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
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Do you find that physiotherapy after 2 and a bit years still helps?

What benefits does it give you?

 

Well I've not been having any for a couple of months, but yes, it was
still helping. And it's just a year and a bit after the last surgery,
to remove the metal spine supports, so it's really only from that
point that the recovery was able to start.

I still haven't got full flexibility in the spine and the rib/spine
connections, so we were working on that by manipulation. Around May
this year I was on high doses of painkillers, mainly to counter the
fact that I was trying to lead a normal ski season, which would
involve full days of balls-out off-piste skiing, the effects of which
were not really conducive to a pain-free existence.

I upped the physio to once a week at that point, and by August felt
that we'd pretty much got it taped, but then when my scrip ran out
(the doc can only write-up 9 appointments at a time) I didn't find
time to get a new one, and have consequently started suffering again,
although in a different area from before.

So I'll be going back shortly, for as long as we can still look for
improvements.
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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
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`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
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Ah, different requirement from physio than me.

Same here, you only live once so enjoy it, do whatever you want and take
the pills and suffer afterwards.

If I remember right after the final plate in the leg worked and the leg
healed, I did physio for about 6 months after. (had a lot more in the
preceeding years of course)

After that the hospital told me that the problem was shrinkage in the
ligaments over the knee (caused by the leg not being used and bent at
the knee for months), and ligaments can shrink but they cannot be
stretched (more than a very small amount), they just tear.

So no matter how much physio I did I wasn't going to get any more knee
bend than I had at that point in time.

I could goto the gym and strengthen the leg muscles to help support the
knee (both posterior and anterior ligaments are still completely torn
ever since 2001), but the knees damaged and only has so much life left
before I need an artificial one, so its a balancing act, and balancing
on the side of a lazy bastard has won so far

They weren't wrong about the ligaments not stretching - my legs broken
exactly where the ligament attaches to it when gravify tried to force it
to bend right back. Bloody string things those ligaments.

 

Well that's not _quite_ how I see it - clearly my main battle is for
full skiing fitness, which by definition means I'll be more fit than
probably >90% of men my age. If I can acheive that then the back
injury will have been pushed out of the equation. So my overdoing it
was at least as much based on the desire to achieve full fitness in
the shortest possible time as it was simply on a 'have fun while you
can' logic.

True, although it is possible to lengthen them slightly with surgical
intervention. But it's risky.

Let's face it - you were never exactly an athlete in the first place,
so even if you'd had more surgery to improve the knee bend it would
have only brought marginal improvements to you, at best. So probably
not worth the risk.

Aye, in some people they seem to be. Jude snapped her other ACL
earlier this year - it's now been reconstructed and is pretty much
fully recovered, although in the interim, putting more weight on the
other knee has shown up just how badly injured that one still is,
which can't be surgically addressed, at least nut until they invent a
new cartilage-regrowth process.

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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
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That maybe some of my recent aches, crap hotel beds. Longish stints on
the bike and hauling around dive kit set things off but since the
alternative is not to do stuff I'll keep going.

 

They said they were going to wait for the hole in the middle of the
femur to fill in before they tried to repair/replace the ACL/PCL.

In the xrays taken a few weeks ago the bottom of the femur still looks
like a polo mint, so I think the previous plans going to have to change.

Depends, ideally I'd like the knee and leg to be healthy enough and not
to worry about wearing the knee out, so I could take up fell walking
again, ride the puch bike and ride any motorbike I wanted to.

The odd game of tennis/badminton/footy that I used to enjoy I can live
without.

So really I don't care about the ACL/PCL, but do want the knee ligament
extended.

Pass on my GWS to her.

 

I'm confused. Which ligament do you mean by 'the knee ligament'? AIUI
there are the two cruciate ligaments you've mentioned (ACL and PCL)
plus the lateral and medial ligaments, which run down either side of
the knee. I can't see how either of these would restrict the maximum
bend angle. Am I missing something?

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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
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Patellar ligament.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patellar_ligament

Quadricep muscle comes from femur, splits into three main lots of
ligaments, two go either side of the knee, the patellar goes over it,
and they all join back up on the tibia.

 

Another factor for me is that my recovery is still ongoing, so I'm
still finding things progressively easier to do, like just running
halfway across town if I'm in a hurry, which I couldn't have even
thought about just a few months back. So there's clearly also a lot
more opportunity to push things a bit too far on accasion, just
because you can.

Just been and booked some more physio sessions, so hopefully I'll be
ready to push to the next level when the ski season proper starts.

--
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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
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What Bear said. You should be fine, as long as you can find some
bone-growth mojo. How's that going, BTW?

I wouldn't worry overly. I've twinged medial and colateral ligaments a
couple of times, as well as having cartilage tears to both knees
surgically repaired. Arthritis is there, of course, by definition[1]
but it's not of a progressive type, and it doesn't really cause any
problems. Sure, I get knee ache now and again while sitting on a cold
chairlift, but it's no biggie.

[1] Inflammation of the joint. Which can be caused by osteoarthritis,
often related to trauma. It's this that you and I may suffer from, but
it doesn't usually get much worse over time, except as normal wear and
tear takes its toll. The other main cause, rheumatoid arthritis, is an
auto-immune disease, completely unrelated expect in its symptom of
joint inlflammation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthritis
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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
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Sounds good then, but as you say, who knows?

Shall we pencil you in chez nous in Engelberg?

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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
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