Give Up, or Fight Like Hell......

Lance Armstrong said it in his first book "It's Not About the Bike", as in we have two choices. I have said that to myself, daily for the past 2 years , 2 months and 10 days, starting within moments of the impact.

G & I went down to see the orthopedic specialist, Dr. J. Tracy Watson (credentials include: orthopedic specialist, world renown surgeon, cutting edge of technology doctor, all around nice guy who did my tibia nail, graft etc. in 3/05 , and the best part, he tolerates me) at St. Louis University Hospital this morning, after the tibial fracture still being non-union. He thought he was rid of me, but to no avail. The other doctor assisting, Dr. Phillips is a really nice guy, who we met before my last round of major surgery in March of 2005. We reviewed more x-rays, and Dr. Watson layed out a couple of options:
1. Do nothing further, although the tibia will probably always be non-union, and I can live my life as is, or
2. Surgery, meaning something to the effect of many options, such as: "re-nail" the tibia with a larger one, ream the tibia out, to take place of a bone graft and make way for the new, larger nail, remove a portion of the fibula and use it for grafting, or all of the above in some fashion or another, and add some Bone Morphogenic Protein, which is super secret DNA biological "stuff" that the experts get to use.

If you have known me for about 5 minutes, you would guess I selected option 2. I have to get my "move on, with my move on" at some point in my life, and I really don't want to be racing against the pro's when I am 5o years old, when I get through this. I have grown accustomed to the cane, but it's really a pain when trying to run a marathon. The upside to the cane is that little old ladies will open the door for you. (Not a great return on investment if you ask me.)


Of course, Dr. Watson knows me too well by now, and would not commit to any of the above procedures, as I may hold him to it, the day of surgery. He told me to get a CT scan, and send it down to him for review. So, I politely ask, are you going on vacation soon? He quickly responds that he CANNOT do my surgery before Thanksgiving. Rats! I pulled that trick on him last time he did my tibia.......it went like this, "so.......Dr. Watson, when do you think you can do the surgery?" "Anytime" was the response. "Great, see you next week, let's rock & roll"

Ok, maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but I am a willing patient, and want to see some progress here. This is my Christmas morning, opening presents, with the exception of medical hardware, blood, swelling, pain etc. Yeah, just like Christmas morning!

So, schedule the CT's, send them down, his people will talk to my people, and we'll set something up. I need to get this behind me, once & for all. After a while, you get sick & tired, of being sick & tired I guess.

So here we go again, in the ring and fighting like hell!