O.T. prayer request

IA Roy

Well-known Member
Three weeks ago I walked into the service pit in my shop in the dark. I managed to hit the bottom without damaging anything but my left foot. However I did that exceptionally well. The 2 leg bones went right thru the heel bone and shattered it into about 50 pieces. 6 ft deep with a concrete floor.
Tomorrow I go in for surgery
I hope for the best, but it is a life changing event. Probably won't walk normal again. If the surgery goes well, I can still expect severe arthritis
in the future. If bad enough they might fuse the joint between leg and heel in the future.
Thanks in advance for you're thoughts and prayers.
Roy.
 
Prayers for you to have patience while your body heals. Prayers for your body to heal and Prayers for wisdom for you Doctors and your care givers. Dsmythe
 
Roy I will keep you in my prayers. with the doctors now days I think you have a good chance for a good recovery. About the same thing happened to my daughter. She jumped off a runaway horse, and shattered her heal, about the same thing you did. Ended up fusing her bones together. She gets along just fine now. She is 48. Stan
 
Absolutely! Just said a prayer for you, IA Roy... and will add you to "my list".

Man, oh man, that must have hurt.

I hope all goes well and you get really good results from your surgery.
 
Roy, prayers sent....and continuing!!

I injured my right ankle about 35 years ago. Was at top of a CB antenna mast when everything came down. Landed on a pile of firewood that I'd split, but not yet stacked. Total dislocation, but no broken bones -- plus I had youth on my side. Was told I'd never run again and might not walk normal again. I got lucky -- lived a normal live up til about 5 years ago. Now keeps getting worse. Some days can't be on my feet more than an hour collectively all day.

Prayers sent!!
 
IA Roy, I hope you make a good recovery with only a few side affects. A foot injury or surgery takes a long time to recover from. I had 4 surgeries at one time on my right foot. I slept on the floor for 6 weeks afterward with my foot/feet up on the seat cushion of the couch.
You need to put a railing around your pit or cover it while not in use. Pits are dangerous as you now know. They also hold heavy fumes or gasses that don't support life so consider yourself lucky that this wasn't the case. I thought of putting a pit in my shed many times and was going to cover it and put a vacum system in it so it would suck any unwanted fumes off the bottom and push them outside. Since I have decided not to put the pit in. Years ago when I worked in a garage in St. Louis Mo., we always had to wear an oxygen monitor when we went into our pit. Even though our heads were above or at the same level as the floor in the shop.
 
Wow. Your experience can at least be a warning for us to BE CAREFUL. Thanks for thinking of us in your time of need, we'll be thinking of you.
 
Prayers and best wishes for a complete recovery.

Since I'm still recuperating from major surgery on my back a couple of weeks ago, I can relate.
 
I wish the I best of luck to you. I also have made that nasty fall. I did not install a pit in my new shop when I built it just for that reason. I was a younger man when I miss stepped into mine. I still did get some injury though. Al
 

I had that same broken leg and shattered foot/ankle three years ago and can tell you a couple of things I wish I had known to hammer my surgeon about in advance.

Make sure he understand that you demand your leg to come out to be the same length it was before! That sounds like you should be able to take it for granted, and I did, but I also came out nearly a full inch shorter on that leg and it will cause me grief the rest of my life as orthotics and lifts are not the same as having legs the same length. They can use cadaver bone if needed (so yes, sign that permission slip for the cadaver bone!)

Make sure he knows you expect your foot to point in the right direction! I also took that for granted and now my left foot points outward 40 degrees and causes pain.

Have him do his best to leave you as much movement as possible in all joints. If he freezes your ankle you will not be able to go down stairs without a lot of pain and hassle. I have to go one at a time, carefully, and I still have some motion. If my ankle was frozen I would have no pain, but would be seriously restriced on even getting in and out of my house.

Do not be in a hurry (yeah right - I was sick to death of waiting on things). But I am three years and three months out of my surgery and it still gets a little better every month. I actually put on a soft canvas brace and used the walk-behind mower to mow my medium-sized lawn yesterday. You cannot imagine the pain of walking that much on an uneven surface, but the pride of doing that simple job is amazing. I even walk on sloped sidewalks and ramps better now, although going down is a lot better than going up.

When you have healed and are ready to walk again make sure to get the very best, most supportive shoes that you can. I like New Balance with leather uppers because they support so much better than mesh shoes. With my orthotic being so thick it still fits in the NB shoe OK and that gives me less pain than others, although there is still pain in every step.

You are right - it is a life-altering event and I pray for you. I am just thankful that in my case I was already retired when it happened otherwise I would have been forced to retire.
 
I'll offer a different kind of prayer. I pray that you will find an orthopedic surgeon as good as the one I had when I shattered my wrist falling on ice a few years ago. After some ridiculous ideas were passed by me by several "sports doctors," along came this surgeon, looked at the x-rays, and came up with a fix that involved stretching the wrist out to cause the bone fragments to move back into place. I was immobilized for about 6 weeks as healing took place followed by several months of physical therapy. After all of this time, I still have 100% range of motion and use of my arm/hand/wrist.
might be a long recovery time, but in the end it will be worth it.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top