Orlando 76 man down

Had an educational conversation with the representative of the company who makes the hardware, he was present during surgery and called me this morning. Some of the interesting things I learned:

1. The area where there’s no screws because the tibia is in too many pieces. I asked why not put hose clamps around that area. Well the do in extreme cases but there’s blood vessels that run along the bone/in the bone and clamping it kills blood flow.

2. Due to the contours of the plates I assumed it was a bendable hurricane strap essentially. He said no, the plate is unbendable. 90% of the people have the exact same contour of that part of the leg so the plates are generically made.

3. I’m still unclear on whether the screws get loose in the bone or if the bone calcifies around the screws but the screws are essentially indexed to the plate so once they bottom out when being tightened they click and lock into place and will never back out of the plate.

4. The bottom of the tib and fib becomes another bone, lateral malleolous and medial malleolous which I broke as well. Those bones are what keeps your ankle from turning upward left or right. Hence, why I could see the bottom of my ski pointing to the sky while it was still on my foot.

The bone will grow and your screws should stay put for life.   Sometimes it is better to pull the hardware out after the bone heals but that is not always the case for sure.
Many people are walking around with hardware.
I met a 72 year old that has broken his ankle a few times water skiing. I believe he has the current course record for a 72 year old. I think it was a couple balls at 38 off.
He showed me his ski.   He has a custom made snap in plate now so if he falls his plate with both feet in it separates from the ski.   He said he has never had an injury since making his plate.   He is a hobby machinist and proudly showed his contraption.
It was very high quality and I bet expensive to make but it allows him to ski.
I met him at random, he had some parts for sale on Craigs List I needed, I saw a Nautique poster on his garage wall and mentioned owning my second Nautique.
It made for a very interesting stop.
BTW: I was buying a Trailer Hitch for my 1966 Corvette, I thought it would be cool to be able to pull our Nautique with the 66 some day when I get it back on the road.
This guy pulled his Nautique with his 1967 Big Block Corvette, said it got only about 6 MPG. I believe he said it was built to about 600 HP, He sold the car and kept the hitch. They are no longer available so I was happy to find it.

Heal fast and follow the Dr. Orders, he/she will know how long the bone needs to heal and be strong again.

Tod,
We have plenty of this in my dept. at the HD!



Then in the hardware dept. plenty of Tapcons.

Geez man. I'm always freaked out about ski injuries.

Get well soon!

Wow....Todd "T-800" Varhol.....

Holy stainless shinbone! That looks complex!

Hope you are managing the pain. Right leg or left?

Best wishes Todd, that hurts for me to look at! Awesome that you had such a capable friend with you to get you to help quickly.

Also hope your son is well and gets home soon to be with you! If anything gets you up and about quickly it will be the little kid.

Yikes! Ouch! Speedy recovery to you.

oh man.... That sucks... Hope you heal up soon..

Sorry to hear this Todd, Rest up and get well, hope you and your son get home soon.

Prayers to you and the family. Hope all comes out OK.

Yeah Joel I know it’s a matter of hitting things just right which is scarier when it happens to you because you don’t know how to do it different next time.

Ted used the scissors we have for working on the course, maybe regular scissors but the maybe medical scissors for cutting bandages. He said the binding was surprisingly easy to cut.

Jerry I was on Lake Ola, Ted lives on the lake, I live across the street. In fact I think you looked at buying the house in front of mine at some point? I’m at Waterman Hospital which isn’t really my first choice (and out of network) but was closest and Ted personally knew and always recommended this surgeon.

Brutal, hang in there! A good friend of ours missed a step going down the stairs at night, totally shattered both tib/fib. One of them was "dusted", as the surgeon described. The MRI and images were sickening, lots of hardware. Seriously gross. Two surgeries, external fixation, the whole bit. This was in July and she's walking around now. Keep in mind this is someone in their late 30's who is otherwise healthy, just missed a step going down the stairs and blam. Disaster. Doesn't even have to be a ski or binding incident!

MrMcD wrote: Brace yourself, when that pain block wears off, or they take it away it will get tough.

Oh it’s now worn off and you are very correct. It hurts like hell now.

Orlando76 wrote: Haha, break. Bad news is my inlaws came down to help out.

Ok this has me laughing. Best of luck with the recovery. Mentally you sound well.