Surgery Stories

[Jay Bee]

Anyone had some interesting surgeries?  I would be especially interested in surgeries similar to those that some of our players have had recently... and information about the rehabilitation process and overall results (were you slower / bounced back no problem / gimp for life / same injury later in life / etc).  But any surgery story would be wonderful - gruesome details are encouraged.

Also, any examples of other athletes with similar surgeries and the impact on the players career would be interesting.  Are there a handful of players that had great careers after, say, a ruptured achilles? 

And finally.. if you have on-the-court tales of injury that you have seen first hand.. that wouldn't be bad either. 

[wadesworld]

Nothing too exciting but I had surgery on my ankle 2 summers ago.  I tore the ligaments in my ankle 2  years previous to that and they never fully healed, so they were loose and needed to be tightened up.  Essentially they cut from the middle of my ankle down all the way around the bottom, cut ridges into my bone, and pinned (tacked? I'm not sure what they used) the ligaments down to those ridges in order to tighten them up.

I had a hard cast on and no weight baring for 3 weeks, then got a walking boot for another 4 weeks, and then an ankle brace for 4 more weeks.  The scar is pretty decent but nowhere near the worst I've seen.  There was quite a bit of dry blood when they took the cast off.

I started physical therapy right after I got the hard cast off, just with rotating it.  It was very tight and the PT was first to loosen the ligaments back up and then to build the muscles back up.  Some of the stuff I had to do to strengthen it back up was pretty painful.

The surgery definitely did what it was supposed to do.  It still feels fairly tight, but definitely not unbarable.  It still gets pretty sore after playing sports and I feel like I have lost some quickness and jumping ability but definitely not a lot.  I don't play sports as regularly as I did in high school so if I did my guess is that I would be back to 100% normal.  What strength and range of motion I didn't get back through PT they said I would get back naturally just through everyday use.


As far as other surgery stories I just know multiple people who have broken their pinky and had to have pins put into it in order for it to heal.  They usually have a hard cast for 3 weeks and then are in a removable cast for a month and a half and then have to go through a month or so of PT before they're back to full health but obviously it's not something that will really hurt somebody long term when it comes to athletics.

[GGGG]

I had a vasectomy.  The physical therapy was a bitch.

[Josey Wales]

Playing basketball I had a compound dislocation of my ankle, very gruesome, lots of blood. My tibia literally fully dislocated and popped out. They said it was worse than a break because it tore every ligament on its way out.  I was rushed into emergency surgery and miraculously needed no metal of any kind. Rehab was very long and very painful. I am back to playing bball, but I still feel occasional pain. It took a good two years to feel like an athelete again, but of course I was not on a D-1 rehab program.

[MU B2002]

I tore my hamstring about 4.5 years ago, and then was told it was by a trainer that it was just a strain and I would be fine.  9 months later I still was experiencing discomfort, found out the "base"(not sure if that was the right word) had healed but had a ton of scar tissue.  I had to go to PT for 8 weeks 3 times a week, excercises, electro stimulation and the most painful deep tissue massage I have ever experienced.  To this day my hamstring is not the same, and extensive stretching must be taken before I lace it up for my slow pitch softball games.   

[muwarrior87]

I had an emergency appendectomy when I was 4 after my appendix ruptured. The first hospital my mom took me to near our house, in Mount Pleasant near Racine, the doctor that saw me thought it was just gas or something minor.  My mom wasn't convinced so she drove me up to Children's Hospital and immediately they scheduled me for surgery when they heard my symptoms.

[Jay Bee]

Over the years, I have taken my share of falls playing sports, as well a couple of seemingly minor car accidents… but, the cause(s) of this I’m still unsure of…

I went in thinking I had a torn rotator cuff or something broken in my left shoulder.  Turns out I had a herniated disc in my neck.  Shortly thereafter (not quite a year and a half ago) I had ACDF of c5-6.  The disc was pushing on my spinal cord.. freaky to see on the MRI pics.

2-inch incision at the front of the neck… the neurosurgeon then pushed some things to the left, some to the right, to clear a path to the spine… they took out the disc in between the 5th and 6th cervical vertebrae and in its place put a donor bone… a titanium plate was then placed and screws drilled into the vertebrae.. hopefully the donor bone is now well fused with the 5th and 6th vertebrae.

Just 30 hours in the hospital… 4 weeks wearing a soft collar/brace, then a couple months of PT (started off with soft tissue massage and ultrasound therapy, both of which were great, but then it got into dreadful weights and back and neck strengthening exercises.)  I learned that bendy-straws have an enormous value.

I’m still cautious when I do some things.. and haven’t tried playing hoops, softball or even bowling as of yet, but for the most part ‘back to normal’.  Played a round of golf, but took it very easy off the tee (so my drives go about 100 yards instead of my normal 110.)  Impact on range of motion is minimal, but some of the other discs are mildly herniated and future surgeries are possible.. range of motion will be impacted more substantially with further surgeries.. so I am really really hoping I don’t need to go that route, at least for 10-20 years.

Mike Alstott had ACDF surgery and played after.. for a little while, but ultimately the neck made him stop playing.  Chris Duncan had surgery for the same level as me (c5-6) in August 2008… but, instead of fusion he had the disc replaced with some new metal dealy (he had been told he wouldn’t be able to play at the professional level if he had fusion surgery, so he tried this more rare option, which supposedly doesn’t affect range of motion)… spring training went fine, then I believe he hit a couple of dingers early in the season for the Cards, but quickly turned into a complete suck.  Optioned to AAA, traded to the BoSox, who optioned him and ultimately released him.. don’t know what will come of his career.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/10/Bucs/Is_this_Mike_Alstott_.shtml

http://www.disabledlistinformer.com/?p=644

[ZiggysFryBoy]

wait til you hear the story about 4never getting gelded.