6 months later
Before the accident I had two previous surgeries, the last resulting in human donor tissue being placed in my ankle. My family called it my "bionic leg" because it was so strong. My last surgery, before this fall, was 11 years previous to the injury and that ankle was supposed to be indestructible.
The fall was October of 2003 and in December I underwent surgery to correct the damage. My surgeon was also the surgeon for the MN twins so I had a lot for faith in his experience. Besides how bad could it be compared to the injuries he was used to treating.
The surgery was successful, as much as it could be, and again I have a bionic ankle. The report afterward was that it was the worst ankle tissue injury that he had ever seen.
What he could not correct and was yet to be known, nerve damage. The debate continues between the doctors as to whether the fall caused the injury or the surgery. First, does it really matter and second I know. I experienced in the seconds after that fall a pain that was unexplainable and ill-proportioned for the incident. The nerves were injured during the fall.
Being such a great doctor as he saw that my pain was not receding as I physically healed. He diagnosed me with RSD, Reflex Symathatic Distrophy. It is also call CRPS, Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome. Basically my nerves do not know that they are not being torn apart every second of the day. There are multiple stories out there of people with this disease that are not diagnosed of treated for years.
It is like phantom leg pain; people who lose their limbs can sometimes still feel pain in them. Nerves are incredible things that unfortunately the medical world still needs to learn a lot about.
Any stimulation, a touch, a slight breeze or walking causes horrible pain. No cure, little treatment and a life changing diagnosis…
