Think You Got It Bad?

[splat]

Check out this guy's story. Maybe you know of someone who can help him.


http://snowboardermag.com/columns/elf/

[GT40]

Now that is an interesting and heartfelt story. Thanks for the link.

[Big E]

Wow. Scary stuff, wish I knew someone that could help. When Steadman says "I wouldn't even know where to start" you know this is not your day.

[spanky]

Wow. Thats a nasty injury. I forwarded the story to my knee doctor... He's the head team physician of the NY Rangers. Maybe he can help.

[splat]

Nice, Spanky. That's what the interweb is all about when properly applied.

[Free Range Lobster]

Sent to my surgeon also.


Thats pretty fucking hardcore.

[fiddler]

All of a sudden my knee feels pretty damn good. Hope he finds someone.

[gonzo]

fuck. i cant even imagine. forwarded to my buddy whose dad has been going through a similar struggle. maybe he can give him some tips...

[gonzo]

This is what my buddy sent Elf. Hopefully it will help!
__________________

Elf,

A buddy of mine ([Gonzo], I cc’d him on this email) passed your story along to me, in part because my own father has gone through some similar agony with his own knees (although not via nearly as traumatic of an event) and because I’m a medical student and have a little more knowledge than the average Joe about knee joints. Needless to say, it sounds like you’re willing to try anything, so I figured the email wouldn’t hurt.

I’m not even going to try speculating on what has and has not been tried or postulated about the best way to solve your situation, but my father had his right patella removed (from surgery 30 years prior), 2 consecutive knee replacements on his right knee, and during the rehab process endured a broken femur, a completely scarred rectus femoris tendon and patellar tendon, and his own orthopedic surgeons in Connecticut basically gave up…leaving him without full extension (so he couldn’t stand upright, and developed back pain as a result) and minimal flexion. Finally, he looked up Dr. Douglas Padgett, a member of the orthopedics team at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

Dr. Padgett was not able to fully cure him (and it sounds as though you’ve accepted that fact), but he was able to fix the extensor mechanism and improve knee flexion, so my father can now stand upright without problems or pain, and only walks with a slight limp. He’s now 55 and back to hiking, biking, rollerblading, and can walk 18 holes without problems, and he’s even getting into skiing again.

Dr. Padgett used a few techniques to achieve this – specifically radiation therapy to stunt scar tissue formation of the muscles and a radical procedure of using a cadaver patellar tendon (called an extensor mechanism allograft) to achieve the extensor capabilities. The allograft essentially replaces the damaged extensor mechanism without inciting an immune response, because it is dead tissue.

Here are some medical abstracts on the procedure: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed)

If you haven’t already spoken with him, I suggest making the phone call, it can’t hurt. Here’s his profile, and I know he also corresponds via email, as my dad contacts him regularly.

http://www.hss.edu/Physicians/Profiles/Padgett-Douglas

Please contact me if you have any questions. Hope this helps, best of luck.

-Scott

___________
edit: wtf is with "husky latin women" popping up in cut and paste stuff? this was from hotmail...with no HLW references...