The worst case assumption is that the infection could get into the marrow; either by the suction as they remove the metal through the entrance hole below the knee or that the infection has already reached the marrow; because the screw holes have allowed the movement of infected materials INTO the marrow/rod region.
I had a screw back out on me in early 2005 almost two years after the car versus pedestrian accident that almost cost me my life. It was surgically removed in February of 2005; just two months before I received the brown recluse spider bite while exercising in my back porch. The screw was made of Titanium.
I didn't seem to be allergic to the screw, it just turned itself around some 6 turns of 8 and backed itself almost completely out of the nail /rod head and my tibia. It protruded just under the skin like some mini volcano almost an inch and a half; stretching my skin to almost the ripping point, but just.
While "Having a Screw Loose" was cause for some hilarity within the medical community, my family and friends wondered what that meant for the rest of the hardware in the leg. The bones had knitted quite well and I was told that the callus and bone material had strengthened quite a bit in two years. I was also told that the rod wouldn't move very much with only one screw left in the top of the pole and that it shouldn't bother me too much; but that if it DID, we could certainly arrange to take it out after another year or so.
I have asked many doctors over the course of the past almost 3 years, if the vacated screw hole could be leaching metal infected lymph material into the surrounding flesh when the leg swells; either from cellulitis infections or when I've been on my feet too much.
Most of them have just laughed and blown off the question. Why is that so far fetched? For instance: Look at what happens when you pierce your ears. A canal of scar tissue is created around the open or not quite open hole and it can REMAIN there for the rest of your life, with or without the continued use of posted earrings. I still have my canals even though I haven't worn pierced earrings in years. All I have to do to reopen the canal is to put a posted earring in my ear, give it a little push to remove the plug of sebum that tends to collect there and voila! I can wear posted earrings again.
Look at how these screws & nails are put into our broken bones. The surgeons use a bone marrow drill to drill out the marrow to make room to drive the nail or post and thread the broken bits of bone onto them, then they straighten the leg/ arrange the foot so that it lines up and then they either cast the leg or somehow immobilize it until the bones have a chance to knit and the skin around the incisions if not around the complex {bone through skin} wounds have also healed. We are told that the bone normally fills in after a screw is taken out or the surgeon can opt to pour cement into the hole to stablize it. Why wouldn't it follow the same example as a pierced ear and leave a channel open to the marrow and the rest of the metal which could port lymph material out to the outter layers of the skin surrounding the scars and open wounds?
Have I somehow touched on a taboo subject for surgeons & the office staff that work for them? Is this a real issue that's being swept under the carpet along with other little mentioned no no's?
No comments:
Post a Comment