Sh1t Happens: Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis:
http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Osteomyelitis.htmI contracted Osteomyelitis (Infection of the bone) near the beginning of April 2012 during surgery to remove Titanium plates from my leg which were their to support my shattered Tibia following a motorcycle accident 30 months previously. A fortnight of hospital, three further operations and a great deal of pain and discomfort followed.
My recovery is going reasonably well at the moment, but the experience was not pleasant. I am still taking four lots of heavy duty antibiotics daily as well as injecting myself in the stomach with an 'anti blood clot' solution and visiting the doctors to have the wound checked and repacked every day.
I currently have a 40mm x 20mm x 20mm cavity in my leg that will hopefully get smaller daily as it heals. I'm not going to do much jogging for a while but tablet effects permitting I'm able to get on with my life and work to a large extent.
Thanks are due to my wife, for everything, my family and friends for visiting and support and the doctors and nurses at
Derby Royal Hospital who despite having to work with some of the most archaic procedures, rules and regulations, did a great job overall. The food was also surprisingly good, I recommend the Macaroni Cheese, and the quantities adequate (cheers Matt !). Special shout out to the lovely nurses on Ward 204.If squeamish - do not look at the pictures !
I'm Back !
Back from hospital, mostly fixed and ready for anything. Many thanks to all who sent good wishes and visited. Cheers - Steve 
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Busted Leg - The Verdict
I attended the Derby Royal Hospital again this morning, I had an appointment with my consultant to discuss the results of my MRI scan and what I can expect in the future concerning my leg following my motorcycle accident.
The good news is that the ligaments are intact. The bad news is that it is unlikely to get any better. I can only bend my leg 90 degrees at the knee and I will continue to need a stick to walk, almost certainly for the rest of my life. The pain may get less after the metal is removed from my leg at the next operation in six months or so, apparently some of the screws are responsible for some of the pain due to their proximity to ‘stuff’ (I’m no doctor )
In practical terms driving a manual car will continue to be impractical for any distance, motorcycles and maybe even quads will be out of the question, I might be able to use my mountain bike or road bike at some point though if I’m lucky.
Anyway, according to the surgeon I am lucky I didn’t lose the leg - it was a bit of a mess apparently. Life goes on so I’ll make the best of it, I must admit I never expected my life to turn out this way, but Sh1t happens and you can’t always see it coming.
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Accident Update Jan 2010
I was at the hospital again yesterday for the triple thrill of Xray, Consultant and OT Splint appointments.
My consultant went to great lengths again to explain how serious the injury was and finished by telling me that another operation will definitely be necessary, but not until the healing has been completed, and that could be 1 to 2 years !
The problem is that the leg below the knee is held in place by ligaments, which in my case are shredded, this means that my leg has become bent quite significantly.
A new splint was created for me yesterday that puts the knee under stress so that it is once again aligned correctly with the top of my leg. This is quite painful and has meant my ability to move and drive has been put back a few weeks.
I have to now deal with the fact that the next couple of years will be tough. It will be an effort to walk, difficult to drive and impossible to ride my motorcycles. For anything other than the shortest of walks I will need to use my wheelchair.
Other than a (hopeful) reduction in pain, as I am now is how I am going to stay for the next couple of years. So I guess I’d better get used to it ...
Sh1t Happens
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Good News and Bad News
The appointment went well, the injury is healing ok and I can now start to put partial weight on my leg, I can even do a small amount of driving once I can bend my leg a bit further.
The bad news is that my brace has to stay on until at least my next appointment in January, and I may well need another operation in the new year to straighten the leg as it has healed slightly crooked.
I’ve abandoned my wheelchair and crutches and am now limping around the house with only my new (rather stylish
) silver finish carbon fibre walking stick which my wife bought me for Christmas. My progress is extremely slow at the moment but it can only improve RSS Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Lonelyhacker
An Update ...
I did however speak to my consultant who told me exactly what is likely to happen in the future as regards my injury. He was impressed with my progress going as far as to say that he had not seen anyone with this type of injury start recovering so quickly - but he didn’t pull any punches regarding my future use of this leg. The best I can expect is to suffer from Arthritis in the knee, followed by a knee replacement operation in five years.
The problem is that the break to my Tibia Plateau consisted of approximately six large pieces of bone and over one hundred smaller pieces ... This has obviously been repaired as well as possible but there is a good possibility the repair will not take my weight and allow me to walk. I should know in four weeks time when I will try and apply some weight to the joint.
I’ve looked at all the options and possibilities and have contingency plans in place, it’s going to take more than a smashed Tibia to put me in a wheelchair
If there is one thing that I learned from my time as a soldier in the British Army it’s that our capabilities are far beyond our expectations and so much can be achieved through sheer belief and determination. Following a Mountain Bike accident a few years ago I have had and recovered from four operations on my spine. I’ll get through this latest inconvenience in the same way.Every cloud has a silver lining and in this case the silver lining is the fact that I have stopped smoking. My last cigarette was October 2nd, around 2pm as I lay in pain, barely able to move and watching a yellow Air Ambulance helicopter landing a hundred yards away. It’s surprising how easy it is to quit smoking when you are confined to bed in hospital for a fortnight
On the business front things have also been busy. Due to my being confined to a chair at the moment I have had to turn down two lucrative contracts, a Software Development contract and a Security Audit. I have however accepted one software development contract as it came via an old friend who understands the current situation and is willing to act as liaison between myself and the customer. I’ll be starting that contract next week. The last week or so has been spent releasing ooSooM and completing ContaX, which will be released later this week.
ooSooM has been incredibly successful, receiving several five star reviews and having over 1000 registered users already. Of course it helps that ooSooM is released as Freeware !
I’ve had great support from family, friends and customers. Deserving of particular praise is my wife, Judith. While I spend the day sat in a chair like Henry VIII being waited on hand and foot, Judy is responsible for making sure I have food, drink, tablets, toothbrush, cleaning stuff etc. etc. When this is over and I am back on my feet I am going to treat her somehow, show her how much her support and love means to me.
Incidentally, when I mention Henry VIII, I mean I’m more like this one:
than this one: 
Incidentally, please have a look at this page. I have set this up to gather donations for the Derbyshire Leicestershire Rutland Air Ambulance. Please consider donating.
http://www.artenscience.co.uk/artenscience/Pages/donate.html
Anyway, that’s enough for now. Time for me to go and get some work done. ContaX won’t release itself
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Not for the Squeamish !!
The scars left and right of the knee are where the plates and screws where inserted and all the rebuilding work was carried out. The staples came out last week and recovery is going very well, you can still see some of the swelling and bruising, however.
It looks likely that I will walk with a stick when I can finally walk again, so if I’ve got to have a stick I’m going to get a nice one
Any recommendations ? Something modern and stylish, maybe carbon fibre ? It has to be a proper, strong stick first and foremost though - not a fashion accessory.
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Post Hospital Progress
For starters, my left leg cannot accept any weight whatsoever and can only move 20 degrees, limited by the full length leg brace. This means that I cannot go anywhere without my two crutches. Even with these crutches there are many things I cannot do without the help of a willing third party, in most cases my long suffering wife, who so far has been brilliant.
The nature of the break is such that even the slightest movement causes pain in and around the knee joint, the large metal plates that have been inserted each side of my knee make the whole area slightly bulkier and more swollen that normal and to be honest the pain is constant which mentally is a challenge.
My day at the moment basically consists of the following:
I wake up around 0800 and my wife brings me a cup of tea, a couple of slices of toast and my medication. Following a bed bath, partially by me with my back and legs done by my wife, I get up and come down stairs stopping via the toilet on the way. Coming down the stairs is easy, basically consisting of hopping down each stair using one crutch and the stairs banister rail.
I spent the rest of the day in my chair in the lounge, which has been hired to make it possible for me to get out of the chair without help if necessary. I have small table to the left and right of my chair that contain my essentials, telephone, coffee, Lucozade etc. I then have a ‘TV Table’ which fits over my lap which contains my trusty 15’’ MacBook Pro.
I then work using my computer for the next 6 to 8 hours stopping for a few minutes for lunch. Yesterday I managed to release an update to R10Cipher, answer several dozen emails and sort out most of the after effects of two weeks virtually incommunicado in hospital.
Bed time is where the fun begins - trying to get up the stairs is ... interesting ... the first night it took over 2 hours, last night around 20 minutes so it’s getting easier !
So for the next 3 months my life will follow the above pattern most days, interspersed with the occasional visit to the hospital or physiotherapist.
As I will not be able to meet with my networking groups or new customers for many months, my custom software development business will tail off, that is to be expected. What I have to look at is increasing the marketing and sales of my commercial software products to fill that inevitable gap in my revenue stream.
I don’t expect the next few months to be easy either personally or from a business perspective. Problems however are just challenges I haven’t solved yet.
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Out of Hospital
I apologise if you have experienced any delays in replys to email or anything else over the last fortnight.
Although the I’m not going to be driving or riding this side of Christmas, I am still working on existing projects both custom and commercial.
Thanks to everyone for their cards and best wishes.
-Steve
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I've done a 'Cracking' Job This Time ...
Apparently the CT Scan showed the damage to be worse than already expected, these injuries are rated on a scale of 1 to 6, 6 being the worse. Mine is a 6 ...
The operation is on the left Tibia and will involve reconstructing the whole joint. There will be two plates inserted, one down each side of my knee joint. They may also need some bone from my hip to use in the reconstruction. The bone graft can be as painful as the main operation I was told ...
The leg will never be the same again. I can have no weight on it at all for 6 weeks and it will be at least 3 months before I start to get reasonable use from it. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to cope with work, we’ll have to wait and see
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