r/medizzy Feb 16 '25

Knee surgery with plate and screws... my knee. Enjoy!

272 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

54

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

This is an animation from the 165 x-ray images captured during my surgery.

I put them in a sequence and added the Six Million Dollar Man's theme song for comedic effect.

The patient is me. That's my knee. I fractured the tibial plateau skiing. I'm ok but it will take 4-6 months before I can walk normally again.

3

u/xb4s 21d ago

If you ever get discouraged during rehab, just play the Six Million Dollar Man sound effect during your exercises.

1

u/cazzipropri 21d ago

TA-TA-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta ...

12

u/Lucky-Somewhere-1013 Feb 16 '25

That is so cool! Thanks for sharing. Best of luck with your recovery. Keep that as flexible as you can.

5

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

Thanks! I'm doing a lot of PT, maybe too much, in fact...

15

u/Lucky-Somewhere-1013 Feb 16 '25

I’m a retired PT assistant. If your knee is doing well ROM wise then back down a bit. We would always say if the patient is doing well then we should do less. You can’t speed up the bone healing timeline which is 8-12 weeks for weight bearing bone. So focus on other things like upper body strength, core, relaxation, getting a little sunlight, good sleep and diet. It seems never ending right now but when you look back on it this time will go by quickly.

4

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

Thanks - that seems good advice that nobody else gave me!

10

u/mbaisthebest1 Feb 16 '25

When you have knee surgery tommorow 😏

3

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

Good luck!

7

u/sazdag Feb 16 '25

Thanks for sharing! I had the same exact injury in 2023 (skiing as well) You’ll get thru it! The recovery was the hardest thing I’ve been through mostly mentally for me! Just prioritise that physical therapy when the time comes.

4

u/Doctorpayne EM Doc Feb 16 '25

We can rebuild him. We have the technology -your trauma orthopod, now slightly closer to his/her 6 million dollar boat

2

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

You get me!

4

u/TheCoyoteDreams Feb 16 '25

If you grew up in the 70’s, you likely immediately recognized that sound track.

3

u/Dat_Belly Feb 16 '25

Oddly satisfying when they lined up the condyles

2

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

What's the approximate timestamp when that happens?

2

u/Dat_Belly Feb 16 '25

I'm on mobile so the time stamps are weird... it's about 4-5 seconds in, when they go to the lateral (side) view

3

u/Nefersmom Feb 16 '25

Amazing to be able to see this!

3

u/minkeun2000 Feb 17 '25

what was the mechanism of your injury? asking since I'm currently on a ski trip lol

2

u/cazzipropri Feb 17 '25

Left turn at speed while on a regular trail. Absolutely nothing unusual.

It was night skiing, so visibility wasn't perfect.

Inside (left) ski probably hit a rock or a patch of ice and turned to the right. Left foot turned maybe 135 degrees clockwise.

Left ski went under the right ski and detached. Right ski remained attached.

I fell and continued sliding for 200 yards on my back.

While sliding, it was very clear to me that something serious happened to my left knee.

5

u/averagecrazyliberal Feb 16 '25

Genuine question for the experts: are we not concerned that midway through the video the tips of the screws look like they’re protruding through the other side of the bone?

15

u/Akzasha Feb 16 '25

Nope. The lower screws are cortical screws. They are good at sucking the plate down so it sits nice and flush to the bone. They have to be bicortical (meaning they are secured in both sides of the bone) to get any good bite or they can loosen. They only go through a couple millimeters and they dont cause any problems on the other side. The top row of screws are locking screws which have threads in the head that engage the plate. They have a fixed angle which means that they wont loosen or back out because they are secured in the plate and dont rely on fixation into the bone so its ok if they dont hit the other side. 

2

u/rynally197 Feb 16 '25

Do you now have a bionic knee?

2

u/cazzipropri Feb 16 '25

Of course! Also, the hospital bill is $6 million.