Decision??????

[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!

[chickwhorips]

good luck! let us know how it goes.

[silver]

Hope it goes well today! let us know!

[mary9761]

Good luck I hope all goes well for you.

[luv2ride94]

Hey everone!

Went to the manual therapy place today for my first app. It was WEIRD...
They did a whole body evaluation and then some work. First the videotaped me walking, then walking fast, and then took a whole lot of pictures of different things I think it was flexibility and range of motion stuff.. arms, legs, standing, laying, neck, posture, bending, straight.. Then they did what they called Mapping and my whole body was a still spot? Not good, did something to get the tissue moving and mapped again and my whole left side showed it had issues, from my neck down to my hip, shoulder to fingertip. And the spot on my head right under where my helmet was dented. And They said I have a desended sacrum? Anyways, they put their hand on different places of I think they said release and my whole body was shaking like I couldn't stop shivering but I wasn't cold.. REALLY odd... BUT heres the great part, when I got there i was 7 degrees from straight, and when I left I was 1!!! And it feels less tight.. I don't know how it works, but I'll take it!! I go back for a 2 hour session next thursday again.

[Wahine]

Hey KT. Good news!! What they did with you is called myofascial release and they may have done some cranioosacral work as well. It's based on the principle that our body parts are directly connected, from head to toe, by connective tissue under the skin, through the muscles and around the bones. Sometimes this connective tissue does not move quite right it can cause all sorts of restrictions.

This type of treatment can work very well for some people. I read an article once about a competitive diver that had to stop diving due to dizziness. She had a similar assessment to yours and they told her that the problem was related to changes in the connective tissue related to an old knee injury!! She had the same types of treatments and her dizziness went away and she returned to diving. I'm glad it's helping you.

I'll be really interested to hear how it goes after the next session.

[silver]

Wow! That's interesting! I sure hope that it helps you!

Now that my bones have healed from my bike wreck I've found a couple weird little things myself and am working with a chiropractor. I didn't think of it in your case since we were talking about your arm, but now I see how it's related.

My weird little things: My right groin and left shoulder have hurt since the accident. Seems the right groin was the opposite injury from the right hip impact in the wreck. And the left shoulder seems to be slight tear from the wreck. But with all the other things going on, you don't really seem to notice these things. x-rays can find broken bones, but they don't reveal these small soft tissue issues.

Keep us up to date!