External Fixator vs. Dremel

One of our biggest concerns with this external fixator is that it's a swinging ball of death when I'm crutching around. It destroys our things by ripping them apart with its sharp metal prongs.

Yesterday, I got permission to take a Dremel to get rid of the sharp edges. This made me happy for several reasons:

1. No more sharp swinging death
2. My external fixator is now an at-home DIY project

I should have taken this opportunity to make an instructional home video instead of a really boring video of a piece of metal being filed down flat. But how many people out there watching this video actually have an external fixator? And of that small group, how many can safely own and operate a Dremel?
This was one of the 12 death prongs before I took a Dremel to it.

After some grinding, no more death spikes. It was kind of exciting to modify an extremely expensive and important piece of equipment, attached to my leg no less.

Pin Site Update

The pin site we were concerned about has improved quite a bit. Brooke's hydrogen peroxide magic did the trick and cleaned it up before we went into the office today. The oozing you see is probably plasma. The fact that it's clear is a good sign.

They need to be cleaned up a little bit more. You can see some scabs in some of the threading, particularly in the left pin.

I'm making sure to capture close-up images of the pin sites so we can track any significant changes to their appearance. So far, everything looks great.

Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Center Friendships

Here we are at the end of August -- seven months after hitting a tree with a snowboard -- and this is our first picture with Dr. Matthew Buchanan.

Dr. Buchanan is an excellent surgeon and, more importantly, consistently professional and personable. Brooke and I both highly respect him and everyone on staff at the Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Center. We just wish we could stop hanging out at hospital operating rooms and the clinic.

We didn't see Josie in the office today, so we didn't get a chance to grab her for some forced blog photography.

Dr. Buchanan's nurse, Janelle, has been awesome handling all of our anxious calls and questions. Thanks for all of the help for the last six months and thanks in advance for all of our future calls and questions.

Our other doctor, the lovely and always smiling Dr. Evetta Borden, refused to get her picture taken today because, as she put it, she was having a bad hair day. Ridiculous! Apparently, she's simply postponing it until next week.

I'm not leaving the office next week until we get a picture together.

Meet Ashley (on the left) and Amy (on the right). We've been hanging out since February. Both of these lovely ladies are highly skilled at putting up with my crap while dressing my ankle wounds and taking x-rays.

We just recently gave our new friends at the clinic the address to the blog. To my surprise, they've been reading it. So, Amy, Ashley -- if you guys are reading this stupid post, we hope your office inventory party kicked as much butt as it sounded like it would.

If you got tired of counting Casttoos, just remember Casttoos are totally awesome.

What, is his cast on fire? No way!

If you're on Twitter, you can follow the Orthopedic Foot and Ankle center at @footankledc.

In all our pictures I'm sporting my Marshall Brewing Company t-shirt. They're one of a few Tulsa-based brewing companies. The owner and our friend, Eric, was with us on the ski trip when I had the accident.

Eric was a top runner for most epic mustache on the trip.

Egg Recall Strikes Pelvis

My pelvic incision has felt a little neglected on the blog. If you recall, I bled like a stuck pig during surgery and developed a massive hematoma underneath my skin. The bruise is gone now.

But, especially from this angle, it appears as though a giant egg has been installed in place of the hole they left in my iliac crest.

Of all five incisions I had from my third surgery, this one bothers me the most. It feels like a sore or bruised muscle. It's not very aesthetically pleasing, either. It's one more lump to my already lump packed situation. And as 2010 has gone so far, I've not had many opportunities to address the lumpiness.

This got me thinking. As years go, 2010 has not been a good one for the team. Let's recap some of the truly amazing events of this otherwise injury plagued year.

February 4th: Pants on the Ground Single Released by Larry Platt

Yes, there is a single of this amazing song that you can buy right now.

March 19th: Justin Bieber Releases My World 2.0

Remember -- if anyone asks, this teen heart throb broke my ankle.

June 23rd: Kansas City Royals Lose Series 2-1 to the Washington Nationals

My team is so awesome, they occasionally forget to include the letter 'O' in the players' jerseys.

August 30th: I Follow Rod Blagojevich on Twitter Because He's Insane

We're all jealous of the hair.

That's about it. I can't think of anything else important or significant that's happened this year nationally or anywhere else in the world.

I can't wait to see what @governorrod tweets next! Hopefully it's as good as this.

Snowboarder vs. Brett Favre

For those of you that follow the NFL, you know that Brett Favre has already had three surgeries on his left ankle. While the Iron Man of the NFL may hold the most consecutive starts record, he barely ties me in the ankle operations category (presently this record is not officially tracked by the NFL Records Office). Brett's most recent operation in May was to remove bits and pieces from several bone spurs.

From this article by Peter King in Sports Illustrated today,

Noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews did the most recent surgery May 22..."They took out a cup full of stuff -- bone and all these other loose bodies," Brett Favre said Saturday night. "Deanna watched and told me, 'If you don't feel a lot better, I'll be shocked.' "

Brett called his last surgery a "grease fitting." I might have to get my own grease fittings in the future.

The quarterback that preceded Brett, Don Majkowski, went out of a Packers game in 1992 with a torn ankle ligament. Brett filed in his spot and started every single game after that injury until 2007.

I found out today from The Professor, John Clayton, that Don Majkowski had three surgeries on his ankle to treat bone spurs while he was in the NFL (like Brett, Don was only able to tie my record while he was a player). He had eight more operations after he retired and ended up with an ankle fusion.

Favre and I potentially face the same fate as Don. This puts us in an elite, select, special group of top American athletes that have suffered injuries due to the sports we love. After my fourth surgery three months from now, I'll be leading Brett Favre in the ankle surgery category. I'm pretty pumped about that.

Might need to make a t-shirt.

My appointment to see Dr. Buchanan has been moved up to tomorrow in order to take a look at the pin site. I looked at it today and noticed a significant improvement in its appearance. But it's still better to take every precaution this time around, so I'm glad I'm going in a day earlier.

More Awesome Pictures!

Tonight was the first time to reveal the ankle to everyone at home. Guess what? It's still really gross. We believe that the most proximal pin in my tibia might be infected, so we used some diluted hydrogen peroxide to clean it and applied ample amounts of antibacterial ointment. I'll call the doctor's office tomorrow to follow up on it. Fortunately, I see them again Wednesday.

Onto the awesome pictures...

American Health Care

Brooke and I just got our bill from the Virginia Hospital Center for our three-day stay. It came in at just under $40,000 and our insurance covered all of it. We'll still get a separate bill from Dr. Buchanan, his PA, Josie, and the anesthesiologist.

But I decided to quickly run through how much our insurance company has been billed since my accident. Here's the run down:

• $2,429 - Breckenridge Emergency Clinic
• $1,691 - Ambulance to St. Anthony's Summit Medical Center
• $651 - Emergency Department at St. Anthony's Summit Medical Center
• $73,512 - First Hospital Stay at St. Anthony's Summit Medical Center
• $3,345 - Surgery by Dr. Peter Janes
• $669 - Dr. Peter Janes' Physician Assistant
• $2,000 - Anesthesia at St. Anthony's Summit Medical Center
• $31,348.50 - Second Hospital Stay at Virginia Hospital Center
• $1,650 - Anesthesia at Virginia Hospital Center
• $5,100 - Surgery by Dr. Matthew Buchanan
• $38,272.60 - Third Hospital Stay at Virginia Hospital Center
• $1,829 - Radiology Imaging and Reports
• $200 - Wheelchair Rentals
• $4,000 - Bone Stimulator
• $5,000 - Wound Vacuum
• $4,000 - Apligraf
• $1,594 - Lab Work
  
• $4,600 - Dr. Evetta Borden, Podiatrist
• $2,135 - Physical Therapy at Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Clinic
• $264.41- Dr. Didace Kabatsi, Family Physician
• $2,694 - Dr. Matthew Buchanan, Office Visits

Grand total: $187,000! I still have several office visits to go and a fourth surgery. This also doesn't count all of the costs we've incurred for home supplies, medications, and taxis.

Oh. And the giant hole I ripped in our comforter with my satellite dish the other night. I did that, too.

Oops.