Rough Times, Need to Vent
It's been a really rough year for me. I had my right knee replaced Aug of last year. It went very well, so well I wanted to get the left one done also. Easy Peasy, right? I wound up with complications on my left side. Immediately upon waking up I felt a weakness in that leg I didn't experience on the right. I just thought maybe it was my muscles a lot weaker or it's my off leg. I ended up falling a week out of surgery and I tore my left quad tendon. I didn't realize this and so weeks went by, my PT trying to get strength back, but I still couldn't do a straight leg raise. I finally asked for an MRI, which I received 2 days before Christmas. Saw the ruptured tendon and they scheduled me for repair surgery on Dec 29th. I was in a straight leg splint at this time to prevent me from buckling my knee and/or falling. I finally could take the splint off and my knee was still buckling. I had 21 falls from my knee buckling. I contacted my neurosurgeon and they looked hard at my lower back. Nothing to explain my issues, so they said let's go higher.
MRI on my mid and neck vertebrae showed the problem. I had been in a car wreck back in 2022 that messed up a good portion of my spine. C4 - C5 was pushing HARD on my spinal cord and caused partial paralysis in my left leg. So I had my neck fixed surgically in April and I lost my paralysis and weakness, but... it kept buckling. I was doing intense PT. I still couldn't do straight leg raises, nor lift my left leg. So another MRI to the left knee and I have another quad tendon rupture in my left knee. Went back to wearing the splint full time. Think I tore it a second time from it buckling. So I had surgery August 10th. My ortho surgeon repaired it again using mesh, but this time he did external fixation. Refer to pics below. I look like a Frankenstein experiment gone wrong. Had my incision cut open a third time, so I had to wear a device that helped it heal. Called Prevera system and it was used on my incision to help it heal... but also felt like I was carrying around a baby alien or something. The external fixation went well, but I don't know how to dress.
So I look like a freak and I get that. I also wear shorts with it because sweat pants get to be painful when they pull on my hardware. I personally don't care if I wear shorts and people can stare all they want, it's metal rods. My parents are taking care of me and my mom keeps bugging me about it. Have to have my bandage removed today and I'm not in the mood for a it. My mom keeps suggesting pants or wrapping around my leg with a short tied on. I dont really know how I'm supposed to dress with this thing. I find I don't really care, I just can't tolerate pants pull on it. Maybe you call can give me some tips and pointers. I can't tolerate things being on the implants, it is major ouch!