More surgery needed
At least it isn’t for my AT. I have osteoarthritis in both thumbs, at the metacarpophalangeal joint, that’s the second joint from the tip. The left is much worse than the right. Last night on an easy group bike ride, I had significant pain and that has actually kept me off my bike a lot this year. The usual procedure is to fuse the joint at a 20-30 degree angle using wire or screws. You have to wear a cast for about 6 weeks. I was hoping to get this done on the left hand so I will be back to normal when ski season starts. Surgery was actually scheduled for yesterday, but after finding out the surgeon uses one of the two absorbable sutures that I will not allow in my body, and is unwilling to use anything else, I canceled it. I have an appointment with the only other hand surgeon in town on July 7. In the meantime I’ve talked with his nurse and told her about the suture materials I won’t allow. She said she would talk with him and let me know what he says. If he won’t use something other than those, there’s no reason to meet with him. I’ve had cortizone injections and the first time it was marginally helpful, but it was a couple of weeks before I ruptured my AT so using crutches didn’t help any. The second cortizone injection did seem to help but the last one didn’t. NSAIDs don’t do much good. Anybody know anything about this surgery? For anyone interested, the suture materials are Panacryl and Vicryl.
June 22nd, 2011 at 9:36 pm
No help here, other than good luck, Gerry! But if my experience is any guide, we recent ATR patients can have some excellent outcomes from unrelated surgery!
June 24th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
I just found out yesterday that I have osteoarthritis in both my thumbs, trigger finger and a ganglion cyst near my ring finger(my new trigger). I had the cyst aspirated(ouch) and the trigger finger got a cortizone shot(biggest ouch ever). My arthritis isn’t as far along as yours but ain’t it a bitch? I just felt invincible again with no problems from my achilles in a while. Piece by piece the old body keeps breaking! So I feel for you but can’t say I know anything about the surgery and hope I don’t have to come by it first hand(ha)
July 4th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
I had problems with spitting stiches & 15 months after sugery my ankle started draining again after a 50 mile bike ride as it did for 4 months after the surgery. I had a large lump on the incision, but was told it was scar tissue. Absolutely no pain. Had it reopened sept 2010 and the scar revised. They found that the fiber wire sutures in the tendon had never dissolved and my body had been trying to reject them. Now I’m having problems in the last month with my running shoe rubbing a blister on the scar. Did you reject the stiches after your AT repair?
July 5th, 2011 at 11:10 am
First, Fiberwire sutures are not meant to dissolve, they are supposed to be permanent, but they apparently do partially dissolve in some people, like you. When that happens, people have bits of suture material working their way to the surface because it is being rejected by their body. My case was a bit different, I think. The problem I had was caused by an excessively large knot where the basically inept surgeon tied the stuff off using multiple knots. The knot caused an abscess to form around it and that was the source of the drainage. It also acted like wire brush inside and any pressure over that spot ranged from pretty painful to excruciating. Once the knot was removed I never had any other problems, other than really intense internal adhesion from four surgeries, only one of which, the last one, was really necessary. I can wear any of the boots or shoes I own without any discomfort at all, even wearing ski boots or heavy duty backpacking boots all day. Find a store that sells Vibram Five Fingers and go try on some Bikilas. I recently got a pair of these, my second pair of VFFs, and they are amazing. I’ve used them for running a few times and while I have to change from being a heel striker to a mid foot striker, they are super comfortable and do not come up as high on my AT as my other running shoes do. They might help. Good luck.