Psst! Hey, kid, you wanna see something cool?

[Cooley Hurd]

As some might or might not know, I was in an auto accident three weeks ago and hurt my leg pretty bad. Before you say, "ugh, here's another pity thread," let me say that my reason for posting this is not because I'm trying to garner sympathy. The accident was my fault - I was about to put my Porsche up for the winter and decided to take her for one more spin before storing her. I went to an uninhabited back road to "blow her out" one more time, so to speak. Unfortunately, I wasn't as familiar with the road as I thought and, after failing to recognize the end of the road, launched the car into a grove of trees and demolished it. I shattered my right tibia just below the plateau, but I feel lucky because, according to everyone who has seen my car, it could've been a lot worse for me.

Okay, that said, I had my latest x-rays digitized and, since I'm a sick exhibitionist, I thought I'd share them with you. :D The first one is of my right leg - from the front:

That metal work you see probably cost as much as my car...

Here's my leg from the left side:


Finally, here's an x-ray of a Yak. He wasn't involved in the accident:


I'm not going to replace the Porsche - screw that driving fast shit! :) :thumbsup:

[CanuckAmok]

1. That's nutty!

Is all that stuff permanent, or does will it be removed at some point? You've got more metal than an high-school smoking area!

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Permanent...

I told my sister that when I die, she should have all the titanium removed and put it on eBay. Or hang a picture or two...

[trof]

2. Yer grounded!

You'll never fly again.
Never make it through the metal detector.
;-)

[Bake]

17. Actually, I have a titanium plate in my neck

And it doesn't set off the airport metal detectors, not even in Cincinnati at the Delta terminal, which has the friggin' most sensitive detectors in the country!

Bake

[Cooley Hurd]

4. That's a good point...

I heard that I have to get a special card that says I have metal in my leg, in order to pass thru a metal detector with getting hassled. Anyone know where I can get the card? Dr? DMV?

[CanuckAmok]

5. I thought surgical steel/titanium was metal-detector invisible?

:shrug: ?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. That would explain why my piercings don't set off the alarms...

Now I have an answer to people who say things like, "how do you get through the airport with those ears?"

Of course, my new all-time favorite comment was the old guy in Starbucks who tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around he said, "Your thong in showing." I said, "okay" and turned back around. It wasn't even in a weird, lecherous way, just like a simple observation. Like someone might say, "you have short hair."

[Blade]

8. You got a pic of that thong?

lmao JK, jk. :evilgrin: :hi:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. I have been hearing more and more about people with

medical devices getting beeped in the new scanners.
Sometimes it has lead to a visit to the little room to get naked.
When they see the scars, they pass them on.
One person I know who has lots of screws and shrapnel and steel ball bearings in his body travels with his most recent x-rays.
I suggest the latter instead of a card, unless the card is from the TSA.

[VOX]

6. Awright, alg0912 -- "Robo-Leg!"

Man, that's a lot of hardware in there -- you might need a spot of machine oil on damp days.

Glad that you are healing up and are more life-loving than ever before.

Be careful out there! :toast:

[Blade]

9. You...

need to change that subject line. It sounds like it came from an old perverted man trying to lure kids into his car. :evilgrin:

Those are some wicked X-Rays. I can't top those. Hopefully your leg will get better!

[Liberal Christian]

11. Wow! Nasty

I'm sorry about your accident and about your leg.

Please do what I didn't do when I basically performed a spinal fusion on myself using a Ford Tempo instead of a surgeon. Find out from a naturopath or some other healer what you can take in terms of supplements to keep your bones strong and healing well.

Twelve years after my accident, I'm seeing some bone degeneration which is resulting in fairly chronic pain. It's no picnic.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. That's good advice - I'm 38 and the thing I'm fearful about...

...is how this is going to play out @ 48, 58, 68, etc... According to my Dr, he used some sort of new orthopaedic cement, along with all those screws, to hold the bone together. He says the cement will settle and the screws will loosen over time. He also said to expect arthritis in my knee in a few years. Couple that with the natural aging of my bones, and I'll probably have chronic pain for years to come. :( That's okay though. The outcome of my accident could've been much different, given the speed I was driving and the ultimate condition of my car. I don't have "after" pics of my car yet (it's still @ the wrecker yard with my stuff still in it...), but from what everyone has said (that have seen it), the outcome could've been much different. You can take pills for pain (hey... ask "Fatboy the hillbilly heroin addict" about that), but you can't take pills for death. Besides, if I missed the 2k4 election on account of being "dead," I would've been pissed! ;)

Did I mention that, during the week I spent in the hospital, I missed the HELL out of all you guys? The first thing I did when I got home was to log onto DU to see what I missed... :)

Thanks to all for the kind words during the last few weeks of my convalescence. Yeah, it's been sucky, but the bright side has been that I have all this free time to spend in GD... wait, that's been sucky too... :evilgrin: Thank heavens for the Vicadin!

Again, thanks, DUers, and ABB!!!

[silverlib]

12. Thanks-

I type medical transcription for an orthopedist, and I've typed this fracture before, but have never actually seen the end result!

Gee, I do hope you have a quick recovery.

[kayleybeth]

13. YIKES!

Could have been a lot worse I guess, but that looks terrible! OUCH!

[Lefta Dissenter]

14. Well, thank god the YAK was safe!!! :)

Yikes, the leg looks quite festive!

We have a friend (a kid) who was skateboarding, wiped out, and totally trashed his arm. His most valued possession is the polaroid picture that the docs took of his arm in the E.R. It was busted into a "U" shape below the elbow. I think there were two joints there that didn't belong, and bone poking through the skin.

He must have been in shock after it happened, because the paramedics in the ambulance said that he was joking all the way in to the hospital, and then he got pissed off at the doctors because they wouldn't cut his shirt off his body like they do in the movies. And that was BEFORE he got the drugs!

I don't envy you that experience. I happen to hate pain, and I prefer to do all I can to avoid it (except for giving birth a couple of times, which, I suppose, given the right precautions, I could have avoided, as well).

[proud patriot]

16. Cool X-rays but I have to say

S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N

[Cooley Hurd]

18. Ya don't have to tell me that twice!

Like I said, screw that driving fast shit! :D

[proud patriot]

21. Yeah ... It gives people a better chance to see your bumper stickers

:hi:

[Lisa0825]

19. That is very cool!!!

When I was 9 years old, I fell from the top of a playground swingset (about 15 ft), while trying to unwind the swing. I tore ligaments in my neck, and would have likely been left paraplegic, except that I was born with 2 sets of two vertabrea fused together... a birth defect saved my life and/or abilities.

anyway, I had those X-rays from before and after surgery, in which they inserted a piece of bone salvaged from my hip, between 2 vertabrea to fuse them together, and then tied the ligaments with a piece of wire, to reinforce my neck. Fast forward 4 years... it's science fair time... my bacterial culture experiment isn't going as planned.... so, my mom pulls out my X-rays... I did a display of my injury and surgey, with detailed description... and gladly showed my scars to anyone who asked. 2nd place winner!:-)

I hope your recovery is going well!!!

[Cooley Hurd]

20. Amazing what an orthopaedist can do isn't it?

I showed my PT the x-rays for the first time on Friday and he was so amazed at the amount of work my surgeon did, he went around and showed all the other PT's in the office.

BTW - You deserved 1st place at the science fair. Scars are always way cooler than bacterial cultures... :)

Glad to hear you're doing well - that's great encouragement for me because I fear losing some of my mobility. All I ask for is that I can still ride my bike...

:toast:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

22. Beats being called stupmy, which would have been your name

only a few years ago.

[rppper]

23. "we can re-build him...we have the technology....."

:kick:

[Cooley Hurd]

24. I was making that sound in PT the other day...

...you know, that "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch" sound Steve Austin's bionics made evey time he used them. Even the eye made that sound. Weird...

The PT is my age and he got the joke. :)