Orlando 76 man down

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.

Holy stainless shinbone! That looks complex!

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

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

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

Get well soon!

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



Then in the hardware dept. plenty of Tapcons.

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.

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.

8122pbrainard wrote: Smithfamily wrote: tryathlete wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: Tod, Then in the hardware dept. plenty of Tapcons. Ya—hopefully the doc used titanium and didn’t shop at Pete’s to make a few extra bucks! This created a visual in my sick mind......6-8 Doctors dressed in green scrubs, in the HD, "Pete's Aisle", all patiently waiting to speak to Pete to purchase screws and straps..... The Tapcon picture I used was chosen because it's the stainless version!

It was the galvanized strapping that had me most concerned!

Larry I would only consider a release system such as the MOB from now on and I would say the same for you. I used to feel release setups were for short line skiers. Man if I could go back a week ago..... I somehow slipped out at peak acceleration. As if I got lean locked and couldn’t transition for the pre turn. I know for certain the Ski was always in front of me. I keep thinking about one of my ski partners. He’s upper 59 maybe 60, won some national titles in the 90’s and he skis mid -39 with a Reflex black Hardshell bolted to a plate bolted to the ski, no release mechanism. He stands zero chance of pulling out in a fall. For years we’ve tried talking him into a release, even bought him one but he refuses.

quinner wrote: Dang Todd, so sorry to hear about this :( One of my scariest falls was my front released and the back didn't, doh. Hurt for a while but no break, I was lucky. Ditched the back boot for a toe plate and never looked back. I am going on the carving table myself next month, right hip replacement Dec 20, Left on Feb 28, I should come down to FLA and we can have walker races. Cheers to a speedy recovery!!

Walker races. There may be some entertainment value in that! Naturally there will have to be alcohol involved. Good luck on the hip!!

Orlando76 wrote: 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.

yep, the screws can indeed back out. depends how hard you go after the therapy.. My daughter shattered her elbow once and two screws backed out so far they damn near poked back out of the skin. her's were supposed to be taken out eventually so maybe they didn't use the red lock tight on those???

Orlando76 wrote: The area where there’s no screws because the tibia is in too many pieces.

Smithfamily wrote: Walker races. There may be some entertainment value in that! Naturally there will have to be alcohol involved. Good luck on the hip!!

I found a preview of the race ..........

Orlando 76 vs. Quinner race

One great thing is the PT nurse that comes to the house said the surgeon has a 0% infection rate so far. I would think a lot of that is because of the hospital too, not solely the surgeon. And I’ll be honest, I’ve always doubted this particular hospital and was very hesitant to go there but I knew my friend wouldn’t steer me wrong with the surgeon.

OMGosh...I hurt the whole time I read this thread.

Hoping you heal quickly and smoothly.



john