Injury Update

It's now been a little more than two weeks since the big wreck. The surgery on July 4th took care of the compound fractures of the tibia and fibula by inserting a metal rod down the leg with a screw by the kneecap and two by the ankle. The good news is I didn't need a cast to hold everything in place, just a fiberglass splint with an ace bandage. Last Thursday I had a follow up visit with the orthopedist and the bandages were removed. I got the first post-surgery view of the leg, and it's pretty nasty. There's a few pictures below but be warned, they're pretty gruesome. Right now the leg is out in the open and recovering decently. I have a walking boot which is kind of an oxymoron because I can't put any weight on the leg for 4 weeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive 4 more weeks of being off my feet, after just two weeks I'm bored out of my mind.

One of the ironies of this injury is that despite my accident prone past this is the first time I've broken a bone or had surgery. To think I've rolled an ATV, laid down a motorcycle, crashed on a longboard at 25 mph while getting towed behind Vespa (that was a fantastic set up, one of my college roomates had a vespa and we attached a wakeboard rope to the back and he would tow us up hills so we could longboard down), it's crazy. I once went down this monster hill and got the speed wobbles at the bottom, I was going so fast that I bounced from the middle of the road onto someone's lawn, and all I got from that was a mild concussion and a few staples in my head. That did lead to a hilarious emergency room conversation:

Doctor: "So, any drugs or alcohol involved in this?"
Me: "No"
(Doctor looks at my dad for confirmation)
Dad: "No, my son's just an idiot"

All that and I finally break a bone while doing a few turns in the driveway, just ridiculous. I guess that's the universe's way of evening the score. Anyway, here's the photos, you've been warned:

The incision on top of the kneecap is where they opened up the leg and slid the metal rod in. The other scar on the inner leg is from the screw to hold the fibula in place.

The two lower scars are from the screws that hold the tibia in place. The third is a remnant of where the bone broke through the skin