Decision??????

[luv2ride94]

Thanks everone! Alot.

First I think I worded it wrong the first time, when I said I was making this decision on my own. My parents are helping me, they just want it to be something that I am Ok with. Usually I have alot of my own different opinions and don't want any help with decisions even when its offered... But I am getting better at listening to other peoples opinions!


I spent the weekend at a swimmeet and talked to my mom alot and my coaches and got some great advice (THANKS wahine) and i think this is what I want and hopefully its right.. We are going to go back to my doctor and talk to him about it too and see what he thinks.

Try a different physical therapist or maybe even a different type of therapy before going the surgery way.. Make it a last resort, we thought this was all but have been looking and there are alot of different kinds of therapy I guess.

If it needs surgery I'd rather wait till after march 12 which is the last day of our 3-state championship meet. Hopefully I can pull of some decent swims even without a completely functioning arm and win a few. AND MAYBE the therapy will work and I will have full range of motion or atleast closer

Anyways I hope this doesn't mess anything up but I really dont want to lose this whole season and I want to try everything before something huge like surgery cause those recoverys are LONG too. Anyways THANKS again! KT

[chickwhorips]

good luck with everything.

keep us updated on how your doing. hopefully everything goes well.

good luck this season!

[Brandi]

I definatly think trying everything you can to help it before deciding on sugary is very wise. I have the same thing with a foot problem. I am doing a therapy right now and doing everything i can to make sure if I do sugary it is because I exhausted all other options. But like some of the above opinions you are young and will heal better then some of us older mature ladies here myself included! Good luck and keep us posted.
By the way the thought about :you never know what the future might have in store for you, you might have a job the requires full arm motion" I have to agree with that one. I am a sand sculptor and use every part of my arms for my work. I can't imagine not being able to do what I do for a living. www.sandscapes.com check out what we do!

[bacarver]

Hi Katie -

Take time to really ponder your decision here regarding surgery. Educate yourself, ask questions, be your own advocate, think of your future, get the second opinions, don't just let the doctors and therapists sell you on the ideas they think are best for you, and be brave.

Once you make your decisions, believe in yourself and the choices you make because we do the best we can at the time. Don't look back and blame yourself.

What a life lesson you are learning. You are such a neat kid.

Barb

[Duck on Wheels]

I was awake through the surgery on my broken elbow. At one point the surgeon told me that things had fit together really well. Sort of kidding, I said, "So I'll play the violing again?" I did play violin in my teens, but hadn't played much for years prior to the broken elbow. Still, the surgeon couldn't know how much I played. He didn't answer the question. In fact, the whole team went silent. As it turned out, I can play but the twist on the left arm is a bit harder to get right and my left arm doesn't stretch out quite straigt. I gather from conversations with surgeons, both about the arm and a later broken ankle, that some scarring is inevitable when a broken bone heals. After all, the regrowth that heals the bone is ... scar tissue. So I gather what they're telling you is that they can limit, or reduce, the distortion caused by scarring.

Some good questions then are: How precise can they get this? What are the chances of infection etc. from the surgery (there is always some chance of surgery going wrong, even though that chance is nowadays quite small in most surgeries)? Can you talk to someone who's had similar surgery by the same surgeon? What would the post-surgery PT process be, and why would that work better than what you had after the first round? Judging by your posts on this, you're very intelligent and have a good sound dose of skepticism. Given that, I think the way to a decision is to ask the hard questions and see if the surgeon can convince you. I also think your strategy of trying some further PT first is a good one. See what you can achieve with the healed bone as it is, and if that's causing you pain, physically or emotionally such as through loss of activities, then go back and ask how far further surgery could help and at what risks. Medicine these days can perform minor miracles, but it's not perfect. There are always risks and the miracle results can be successfull and yet fall short of our greatest hopes.

[Wahine]

Thanks everone! Alot.

First I think I worded it wrong the first time, when I said I was making this decision on my own. My parents are helping me, they just want it to be something that I am Ok with. Usually I have alot of my own different opinions and don't want any help with decisions even when its offered... But I am getting better at listening to other peoples opinions!


I spent the weekend at a swimmeet and talked to my mom alot and my coaches and got some great advice (THANKS wahine) and i think this is what I want and hopefully its right.. We are going to go back to my doctor and talk to him about it too and see what he thinks.

Try a different physical therapist or maybe even a different type of therapy before going the surgery way.. Make it a last resort, we thought this was all but have been looking and there are alot of different kinds of therapy I guess.

If it needs surgery I'd rather wait till after march 12 which is the last day of our 3-state championship meet. Hopefully I can pull of some decent swims even without a completely functioning arm and win a few. AND MAYBE the therapy will work and I will have full range of motion or atleast closer

Anyways I hope this doesn't mess anything up but I really dont want to lose this whole season and I want to try everything before something huge like surgery cause those recoverys are LONG too. Anyways THANKS again! KT

Hey KT,

I just saw this today. You're welcome and I'm glad I could help. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[luv2ride94]

Thanks everyone for all the advice and encouregement!!

Everytime I wonder if I am going to be ok and ever get back to where I was I read these and feel all sorts better!

I guess it is a good life lesson but its one I really didn't want to learn!!

KT

[margo49]

Thanks everyone for all the advice and encouregement!!

Everytime I wonder if I am going to be ok and ever get back to where I was I read these and feel all sorts better!

I guess it is a good life lesson but its one I really didn't want to learn!!

KT

We *love* to give advice!!!

Re: life lesson
We all feel like that but I have come to the conclusion that I would rather have learned "x" lesson without the "x-perience". Which is of course impossible. It will get some historical persoective in the future, believe me, I know these things (like a lot of us here at TE)

[CyclChyk]

My brother had an accident at work where he slipped on oil and landed on cement on his knee. Shattered his knee cap. After surgery and reattaching tendons etc, physical therapy, etc, the mobility of his knee was drastically limited due to the scar tissue.

The doctor basically decided for my brother that they were going to FORCE his knee to bend as close to 180degree angle as possible, thereby "breaking" the scar tissue which ultimately would help him have more use of his knee.

He said the pain was worse than the actual breakage of his knee HOWEVER it is greatly improved and he is bending it now at a 90degree angle, plus some, whereas before it was about 40-45degrees bendable.

I am not telling you this to scare you. I am telling you this so you can decide if the pain is worth the benefits the "operation" could offer you.

You are only 12. I would hate for you not to have full use of your arm the rest of your life if the only thing preventing that is some pain.

My prayers are with you.

[silver]

KT, It looks like you've gotten some really good replies. I was hesitant to say anything before, but it sounds like you've developed a wonderful strategy.

I did want to tell you a little about some of my experiences hoping that you might get a little insight from them. But I certainly don't want to influence you in one way or the other. Again I think it's such a personal decision. Just maybe my experience might help you think of more questions to ask....I don't know.

These are the injuries I've had:

1. Broken left heel bone (from running marathons)
2. Avulsion (small chip of bone pulled away from the bone and held off by a ligament) Fracture of the right second metatarsal (second toe) (again from running)
3. Bike wreck - 5 broken ribs, deflated lung, broken right arm

I've also had 2 cosmetic surgeries

The first broken foot didn't require anything but immobilization and crutches and it healed fine

The second broken foot was more difficult. First I had trouble with the doctor. He said it was a stress fracture and put me on crutches and in a boot for a couple of months and then said it should be fine then. It was not better than before. That doctor only looked at the x-rays which never actually showed a fracture he just assumed from my symptoms AND he never actually TOUCHED my foot. I went to another orthopaedic doctor (doctor number 2) who concurred with the first. Then I went to a 3rd doctor who worked with my foot for 45 minutes and who actually took the x-ray himself and found the chip (x-ray had to be taken from the precise angle to see the chip) I then traveled to Indy to see a 4th doctor (biggy specialist) who concurred with the 3rd doctor. The only solution was surgery to remove the chip.

Now the interesting thing here is that the only thing that I couldn't do because of the chip was to run. I could pretty much do everything else but run. So I had to make a decision was this surgery worth it to me. I was a marathon runner prior to the injury. During the time of diagnosing the injury I got my bike. I wore a boot around but would take it off and ride my bike for miles and miles. It gave me freedom. I'm thankful that I found the bike during the injury. I had to think about even though the only thing that was a problem at the time was running, would there be bigger problems down the line.

I decided to have the surgery. It was successful and I recovered well. I've not tried to run a marathon since then and don't know if I will, but I can run. I never have any problems with that foot. I don't regret my decision.

I did a lot of research about surgery in general before I had my cosmetic surgery (which was before my foot surgery) One of the things that I found is something to ask about is how they put you under. They can use general anesthesia, they can use nerve blocks and they can use something called twilight anesthesia (I think there are different names for this - it's when they administer a sedative through your IV to just put out under)

I chose twilight because I didn't like the fact that they have to intubate you to use general anesthesia (I'm not a doctor and I'm probably mangling the facts so research and verify anything that I say please). It works well for me and doesn't make me sick. I always remeind the anesthesiologist that I'm tiny and probably don't need much. They probably know this but I'm really tiny for as tall as I am.

During my foot surgery they let me wake up and the doctor showed me my bone chip but he wouldn't let me keep it

I also used twilight for my chest tube placement after my bike wreck.

I hope that I've given you a little insight for your research. It's hard to make these decisions, I know.

You're brave and smart and I hope the best for you!!!

Please keep us updated!!!

[luv2ride94]

Thanks Everyone, everthing you all say makes sense and gives me more knowledge. My dads favorite saying is "knowledge is a key that fits every lock" I understand it now. Your all great!

Silver, what you said was kinda what we were talking about over the weekend. I don't ever want to NOT be able to do something even if I never do it. I think that kinda made sense? Mom asked me to rate from 1 - 10 what the importance to ME right now and looking in the future a little bit it was to regain full or the closest thing possible to full range of motion and that is with wieghing in all the different things that could happen. I said 10 and she said then we need to do whatever it takes. So thats the plan, narrow down my options till something works or if not then we'll go with surgery. Thanks ALOT!!

Tomorrow I am going for a new kind of manual therapy I think it is and we'll see what they say. I'm a little nervous but kinda excited too.. Say a prayer for me

I'll tell you how it goes after I get back home!