For the second season I've had to deal with a surgery that is haunting me from an accident 30+ years ago. Last year was an osteotomy, rod (nail) installed in the tibia, muscle flap and split thickness skin graft. This year, Sept 4th, there has been a non-union of tibia so they did a "nail exchange", swapping a 13mm for a 15mm. Recovery this go round has been much faster. Last year I didn't touch a saw for 3 months, this year, today was the day. Our church had a cluster of 3 Ash that needed to come down. I dropped 2 since the last one has way too much lean towards a small shed. Felt good to be productive again! Also, finally got around to having a buddy put a clutch in my John Deere 870. It's one of those projects I've been wanting to do but have had to many medical issues. It's good to have it join the Kubota MX5100 in wood gathering. Today has been a very good day! Pic of non-union and new rod taken Sept 19th.
You have had more than your share of troubles. Let this be a new start on a new life for you. Glad you got to help in getting those trees out.
That's a nice load of ash, and it looks like you had beautiful weather. I'm glad you were able to use your leg to get it done!
Guess I should have read the post more throughly. No, the tibia didn't heal from the osteotomy last year. It got super painful to walk on around Memorial Day weekend. All summer was a struggle while the doctors tried a bone stimulator for 8 weeks. Sept 4th they did a nail exchange and found another crazy strain of microbes hanging out in the leg. I had Unisyn every 6 hours via pic line for the month of Sept and first week and a half of Oct. Now I'm on Augmentin 875mg twice a day. Pain is nearly gone and seems to be getting better. Hopefully the Xray shows healing, it feels like it is.
Well....looky here.... Doc says knitting is occurring. Compared to the pic above taken Sept 19th, you can clearly see healing is finally taking place. Top two images are shot from the anterior (front): This is medial view: I'm feeling pretty good in general, as well as about the healing taking place. Rod keeps it pretty stable but rotational forces aren't the best idea yet. It may be a few more months of healing before the wedge on the anterior/medial side heals in.
Are those screws self tappers or do they predrill them? Imagine seeing your surgeon at Lowe’s and he’s buying a bunch of screws?
The physician assistant who took the external fixator screws out 32 years ago gave me the drill they used to do the procedure. We were talking about it after a visit and he said, "I know exactly where that is". Now they use a DeWalt. I'm pretty sure they are self tappers. Anesthesiologists are worth their weight in gold.
