Bone Isotope scan!

Well, today was the day of my bone isotope scan.
I was a little nervous, but grateful that after this scan i would know for sure what needed to be done to me!
The bus dropped me at the private clinic where i was to have my scan and i headed up to the doctor...sorry, correction...nuclear physician's office, for my scan.
I was asked to lie down and they injected me with the substance in my right arm. It was luckily only a needle full and didnt hurt too much.
I was asked to return in a couple of hours, so i headed off for sum breakfast down the road.
When i returned, i lay down in a machine not dissimilar to an MRI machine.
I lay still while the machine slowly spun around me and took images of my lower body.
The whole procedure took about an hour, and then i was on my way.
Or so i thought.
I had the bus drivers number to call when i was done, so i gave him a call and he said that he was on the road back to where i had come from, 2h away, and that he would get another bus or ambulance to pick me up.
After 3 more phone calls over the next couple of hours, he eventually returned back to pick me up 3h after my original call!
Then i was off to the provincial hospital to get my file. They had to phone up to the orthopaedic section to let them know i was coming as it was already so late in the day.
When i got upstairs, i sat and waited another 2 hours before the specialist i had been seeing all along came walking up to me with another man. He introduced us, and he turned out to be the head of the orthopaedic department.
We went into the consultation area and he pulled out my scan results and put them up on the xray viewing machine.
The scan showed up that there was still action around the fracture sites, which meant that the bones were still healing. He told me that bones can continue to heal for up to 2 years, so based on the scan, he would not recommend another op before that period is up. This would only be in October next year. And obviously only if the bones still weren't grown back together by then.
The other area of the scan which was just a big blotch of activity was the knee!
He said that this indicated that the knee was extremely unhappy, which is why i am experiencing a lot of pain in that area.
He said that until they go in and see what is the matter they would not be able to do anything about it.
So, with my knee scope already booked in for March (thank God, as the new date had it not already been booked earlier, due to demand, was only in May!), all that was left to do was strengthen the quad muscles as much as possible before the op.
He told me that normally he would want the affected legs quad muscle to be 120% of the good leg's strength. At the moment i can just about lift my leg straight form a bent position, but i am sure i could lift more were it not for the pain in my knee.
He said that it was a bit of a catch 22 i was in as i needed to exercise the quad muscle even though the exercise meant hurting my knee!
We also checked my blood tests and they were perfect. He said that he had never seen an infection reading as low as mine. Everything was great.
So, basically what needs to happen is that over the next 3 months up to the 5th March, i need to work on my atrophied quad muscle as much as possible in order to get it ready for the op which will immobilize it again for possibly another month or more.
I have done a bit of research online and have found that an electric muscle stimulator might be very helpful for my quad muscle as it could exercise the muscle without the need for me bending my knee.
I have found one online and am in the process of ordering it.
So, another visit to the hospital and another different diagnosis!
At least this one is based on the scan, and not some doctors hearsay.
Apparently the recovery period after the scan is 3-4 months, so this would mean that all things going well, i will be walking by June/July 2013...
But i wont know for sure what the outcome will be before the scope in March. I am still very optimistic that the scope will rectify the problems with my knee, and that come the middle of next year i will finally take my first steps!

Round & round we go...!

So, today was meant to be the fitting of my orthotics.
So i thought.
It was another long day, but at the end of it, i hope, a faint light at the end of this tunnel?
It all started with collecting my file and heading up to see the orthopaedic section.
Wednesdays are crazy days at the hospital! About double the number of people i have been used to on a thursday.
Eventually my name was called and i headed in to see the guys for my fitment.
The first thing the doc said to me was to ask me why i was wearing a knee brace?
I replied that it was for lateral support for a torn LCL ligament. He asked when the accident was, and i told him, 14 months ago. He shook his head. Then he asked me how long i have been walking for. I told him i haven't been able to put any weight on my left foot for the entire 14 months because of the pain.
He was astonished.
He said that this was impossible. I should have been walking after 6 months!
He asked me to get up on the bed and take off the knee brace.
He preceded to push and pull and twist my knee in all directions, causing a helluva lot of pain! I am pretty sure the other side of town could hear my screams!
He tested the knee for lateral laxity in the MCL and LCL ligaments, and told me that they were normal. The LCL was a little lax, but this was still acceptable.
So, what this basically meant was that the LCL ligament was ok. It had repaired itself over time. The problem lay elsewhere...!
He told me that often he would get people come see him complaining of knee pain, and the result of the pain was the hip or somewhere else.
He said pain transferal to the knee was a common thing.
He asked his colleague to come in and make sure of his findings, and he went thru the same procedure of twisting and pushing and pulling!
More screams of pain!
He was amazed at how much pain i was in from even the slightest touch.
He immediately booked me in downstairs for a full set of xrays from head to toe.
So off i hobbled down to radiology.
2h later i was sat back with the othro guy and we were looking over the xrays...
Neck - perfect.
Spine - pristine.
Hip - brilliant. Very happy with the fracture healing. Perfectly mended.
Femur - erm....not great...possibly a non-union...!
Knee - looks fine.
Tibia - wow...what an ugly job! Possibly a bone infection as well!!
Lovely news!!
So, what it all boils down to is that my femur may not be grown back together where it was repaired, which could be resulting in pain when the leg is limp and the muscles arent supporting it, which seems about right.
Also, the tibia bone didn't look very healthy. It wasn't nice and white and solid. It was looking a bit like a piece of cheese! A bit mottled! Not good at all!
And the repair job on the tibia apparently was not good either!
I was sent for blood tests to ascertain whether or not i had an infection to the tibia, and was told that he wants to operate on the tibia again. He would need to open up the knee again and move it over, bang the nail out, clean out the infection (if there is one), ream the inside of the tibia, and then insert a new nail down the shaft of the bone.
The femur would need to be done in the same way if a non-union was found! They would need to cut my hip area open again, bang the old nail out, ream the bone, and insert a new nail.
I am booked in for wednesday next week for a bone isotope scan, where they inject a mildly radioactive substance into you intravenously, and a couple of hours later, once the substance has distributed itself throughout your body, you are gamma scanned for abnormalities.
Basically though, it will tell if there are any problems with the bones, including non-union and infection.
Based on this scan and on my blood test, i may have to undergo surgery to both the femur and tibia fractures all over again!
I will know for sure on wednesday what the prognosis is, so will update again then...
I cant believe that the specialist i have been seeing until now could have missed this?!
Thank God the guy i saw today knows what the hell he is doing!
So, after 10 months of wondering why i am not walking yet, i now may find myself under the knife again for a complete do over of the original op 14 months ago!
Not exactly the news anyone would want to hear, but i consider it a step in the right direction (excuse the pun) nonetheless!
Here's hoping for positive news next week...