Orthopedic Surgery Advice...

[SkyDivingDeacon]

I'm hoping to get some responses from the all-knowing pit on this one as a lingering injury is starting to drive me crazy.

On January 16th, 2012 I took a nasty fall playing basketball, landed on an outstretched left arm and consequently broke my radial head, blew up the cartilage in my elbow and cracked my Ulna in two different places.

Now, almost 18 months later, I've undergone two arthrogram MRI's, god knows how many rounds of x-rays, bone stimulation treatment, PT and microfracture surgery to only still be in terrible pain and unable to do a simple push up or swing a golf club without my elbow swelling up after the fact.

One of the doctors that I've spoken with mentioned that we could look into something called bio-cartilage after completing another microfracture surgery, but another doctor said that I probably shouldn't consider it. Both Orthopedists are very well respected and I'm at a crossroads as to what I should do.

I am supposed to go to Yosemite and hike half-dome this Fall and am just sick of dealing with this injury at such a young age when everything else is seemingly in great shape and would like to get it fixed before then and back close to 100%, so I've got about 3.5 months to make a move and get back on track.

Has anyone ever dealt with something like this before or are there some doctors that can elaborate on some of the options I may have?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Go Deacs!

 

[Billy Mitchell]

I'm a lawyer, not a doctor, so take this for what it's worth.

I had a case where that same surgery was requested. The same issues re: effectiveness came up. We went ahead and provided the surgery, and so far the results were good. It was just a few months ago, though.

From my research on it, the surgery seemed to be a "we don't know what else to try, so let's do this" type procedure. I'm sure an actual doctor has a more valuable opinion.

 

[SkyDivingDeacon]

They did biocartilage or microfracture?

Microfracture is fairly common, but I haven't found a reputable clinic that does biocartilage for liability reasons. I mean, you can go to a University hospital and sign a waiver as a trial candidate, but I'm not going to do that. Virginia Commonwealth apparently does a ton of sports injury/biocartilage procedures, but the wait list for the doc is close to a year long.

What clinic did the surgery?

I'm a lawyer, not a doctor, so take this for what it's worth.

I had a case where that same surgery was requested. The same issues re: effectiveness came up. We went ahead and provided the surgery, and so far the results were good. It was just a few months ago, though.

From my research on it, the surgery seemed to be a "we don't know what else to try, so let's do this" type procedure. I'm sure an actual doctor has a more valuable opinion.

 

[BacktoBack]

Does this mean we can't play golf this summer? I thought with your injury I might have a chance

Wish I could be of help but this is a pretty tough situation. There are a ton of great orthopedic hospitals around, might be worth a trip. You seriously don't want to deal with this forever. I'd consider Pittsburgh and Freddie Fu. Mass General. Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. I'm sure you know all those.

 

[Billy Mitchell]

I might be mistaken. I'm looking at the deposition transcript, and the doctor says that a bio cartilage surgery is a possible next step, but I don't see a record confirming that they actually did it.

 

[SkyDivingDeacon]

Oh, dude injury or not you have more than a chance of beating me on the golf course!

Yeah it's really weird. I played a few weeks ago as you know and struck the ball well and putted like shit so everything seemed to be back to normal. However, fast-forward two weeks later and my elbow is still swollen from playing and I can't extend it enough to flip down my shirt collar in the morning (to give you an idea of how swollen/tight it is) so something must still be messed up with it.

I thought the recovery was going well, but it seems to have been derailed by a simple round of golf.

Anyhow, I'm seeing a group in Raleigh that works with the Carolina Hurricane players and has apparently done this surgery for one of them recently so I'm going to see what they have to say. After that, though, the search is on and I'll broaden my list of hospitals to check out. I actually had not heard of Freddie Fu. at Pitt, but I have family outside of the city there so maybe that's worth checking out. Thanks, man!!

-JC

Does this mean we can't play golf this summer? I thought with your injury I might have a chance

Wish I could be of help but this is a pretty tough situation. There are a ton of great orthopedic hospitals around, might be worth a trip. You seriously don't want to deal with this forever. I'd consider Pittsburgh and Freddie Fu. Mass General. Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. I'm sure you know all those.

 

[SkyDivingDeacon]

I might be mistaken. I'm looking at the deposition transcript, and the doctor says that a bio cartilage surgery is a possible next step, but I don't see a record confirming that they actually did it.

Exactly. Same thing here. Biocartilage was mentioned as a possible next step, but nobody has done them around here and I'm a little skittish of being someone's lab rat.

I mean seriously, though, shoot me a PM with the doctor's name or something if you can so I can see if they have actually done the procedure. It seems like every other Orthopedist I have spoken with mentions it as a reliable/effective way of solving the problem I have but none of them have done the surgery...

 

[Chill22]

Last summer, my wife was having hip issues. She saw an orthopedist, who said she needed surgery to reattach a tendon. She got a 2nd opinion.

It turns out that she had uterine fibroids and needed a partial hysterectomy.

Don't do anything until you've talked to your OB/Gyn.

 

[SkyDivingDeacon]

Hahahaha

Last summer, my wife was having hip issues. She saw an orthopedist, who said she needed surgery to reattach a tendon. She got a 2nd opinion.

It turns out that she had uterine fibroids and needed a partial hysterectomy.

Don't do anything until you've talked to your OB/Gyn.