Road to Recovery: Hightlights During Week 8, Walking in the Pool

1. Today is the first day of Week 8. We went to see Dr. Tonks for 2nd followup. Just before that, a new pelvis X-ray was taken. It showed that everything is fine, although Dr. Tonks could not tell every status of the cracks in the bone, since the plates blocked his view. He said that during the surgery he fixed the cracks 100%, such that I just have to give it enough time, i.e. until end of Nov, before walking again.

Our annual Disney membership expires Oct 25, so we visited Disneyland and stayed at Grand California Disney hotel. We took advantage of handicap lines (really fast) at one of the rides, then the kids went on the rest of the rides with mom, and I spent most of the two days in Disney swimming pools.

1. 
   
2. Dr. Tonks said OK about walking in the pool, so I did just that tonight at LA Fitness. It was very awkward to walk. My left leg and left foot felt a bit painful. Nonetheless, I walked for about 10 minutes in total, and was getting better towards the end.
   
   

He also assured me that I won't have arthritis, because the both-column acetabulum fractures distributed energy of the impact well such that the inside wall was not damaged, and the bone fragments were large.

However, he asked me to stretch the muscles for moving left leg backwards while keeping upper body straight.

For the most part, I stopped using the walker and the wheel chair: I use crutches that Will Shao lent me most of the time, in preparation to going back to work.

Acetabular Joint

The picture here is in Chinese that shows the acetabular bone.

I took a closer look at the report Dr. Tonks wrote about my surgery. One thing struck me was how the human pelvis functions. Acetabular joint looks insignificant on the X-ray, but its sophistication can only be appreciated in a 3-D model like this one. From Dr. Tonks' report, one of the worst part of my injury was the both-column acetabular fracture.

see this link for more background in Chinese:

http://waike.hxkang.com/diedasunshang/yyzl/46594.html

see this link for more background in English:

http://www.hss.edu/conditions_14420.asp

Road To Recovery: Highlight During Week 7

During week 7, foot-massage has been added to PO (Physiotherapy), besides swimming:

1. Around Oct 7, we bought a Shiatsu Foot Massager with heat. It helped to relieve pain of my foot on the injured side.
2. Oct 11, Ms. Zhang gave me one massage session. The outcome was mixed. While I felt relief immediately afterwards, my upper left leg turned at night to be more painful. Waken up by pain in the middle of the last night, I switched to differ postures, even thought about taking one NORCO (pain killer). After about 20 minutes, I fell asleep again.

The other highlight of Week 7 is that I spent more than 15 hours working on Taylor's go-cart. I learnt how to use spade bits to drill holes for galvanized flanges, half-inch in diameter. We also used 6.5amp drywall screwdriver to finish the front and back axles of the go-cart. The go-cart manual is at:



Today for the first time since A-Day (Accident Day), I drove a car.

Road to Recovery: Week #6

This is week 6 since the accident. I have started exercising in the swimming pool since Sept 27, 2008 (a week ago).

At first, I did some mild stretching in the hot tub at LA Fitness. Slowly I have added some breat-stroke, although I feel a little bit painful at the left pelvis.

Yesterday I swam 600 meters, mostly breast stroke. Afterwards I felt mussle-aches at both left and right pelvis. Why right pelvis? I don't know.

Physiotherapist, Katie Mason, came today because Barbara is sick. Barbara is my normal PO. We figured that it is OK for me to start bench press and other work-outs as long as there is a trainer with me.

More on Accident: X-ray Images

The most complex injury consists of the extensive left hemi pelvis fractures:

1. Fracture through the left iliac crest


2. Distraction of the more lateral fracture fragment and up to approximately 2.2cm of displacement of the peripheral fracture fragment anterior medially.


3. A comminuted intra-articular fracture complex involving anterior, middle and posterior thirds of the left cetabulum with small displaced fracture fragments seen.


4. Fracture lines extend to the articular surface both superiorly, medially, anteriorly and posteriorly.


5. The widening of left hip joint compatible with effusion/hemarthrosis.


6. Fractures of the left superior and inferior pubic rami


7. Left inferior pubic ramus fracture is angulated approximately 144 degrees using 180 degrees as a straight line reference.

The fracture was so complex it took two separate operations.

1. The first operation was to do an open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of the posterior aspect of the acetabular fracture and the iliac crest. Incision made Kocher-Langenbeck in the posterior aspect of the pelvis and carried down through skin and fascia. ... the external rotator
2. The second operation was an ORIF of both-column acetabular fracture, left hip, and pelvic fracture, anterior pelvic ring, using plates and screws, accomplished through an anterior approach, ilioinguinal. See: http://www.wheelessonline.com/ortho/ilioinguinal_approach_to_the_acetabulum

For back ground information, see paper below:

Reduction and Internal Fixation of Acetabular Fracturesthrough the Kocher-langenbeck Approach. Tips and Tricks.

FRÉDÉRIC LAUDEClinique des Lilas - 93260 Les LilasHôpital de la Pitié - 75013 Paris - France

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.maitrise-orthop.com/corpusmaitri/orthopaedic/mo74_fractures_cotyle/fig5.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.maitrise-orthop.com/corpusmaitri/orthopaedic/mo74_fractures_cotyle/index_us.shtml&h=225&w=300&sz=9&hl=en&start=15&um=1&usg=__Bu62FnPvjDwRfkfAL9FHKVylyyc=&tbnid=Ey_Eql11-9VwJM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dacetabular%2Bquadrilateral%2Bplate%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GZEZ%26sa%3DN

This X-ray was dated Aug 24, 2008. It shows 7 broken ribs.
This X-ray was dated Sep 2. It showed the pins, plates and screws still in my body. Total weight according to Dr. Tonks: about one pound.

I received over 90 staples to close the incision (or surgical cut).

The other party of the accident

The other party drove a green Ford F-150 XLT truck, 1997 model, that looks like the one left.

Photos after Car Accident Aug 24, 2008

The accident took place 8:58am Aug 24. There was a report on San Diego Union Tribune at:

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2008/08/seriousinjury_accident_in_rber.html

The email below documented some details too:

> Date: Thursday, August 28, 2008, 2:52 PM>
I just heard that the surgery went well with Mengtao. He> went into the operation room at 3:10 pm PST. His doctor came> out at 9:20 pm announcing a perfect surgery. Mengtao is very
> tired and back to room 408B.
>> He is expected to stay in the hospital for another week to
> clean his lung. It'll take another 3 months before he> could walk again. Total mobile recovery is expected to take
> 6 months.
> So it's going to be a long battle for Mengtao and his
> family.
> My husband said that some one from our church already got
> Mengtao an iPod with lots of music on it. So we need to
> think of something else to help him and his family through.
> This time, I'm thinking about something practical. I
> have some ideas:
> 1. A gift basket plus a collection of dinner gift cards to> relieve his family from some cooking burden
> 2. A get away vacation package for Mengtao's family to
> have a nice vacation after total recovery.
>> What do you think? Your ideas are also welcome.
> Meanwhile, can some one remove Mengtao from
cs82_reunion@yahoogroups.com temporarily so that he will not
> see all these messages.>> Ouyang


Subject: RE: ??: RE: [cs82_reunion] RE: prayers and support> for Zeng Tao>>>

So sad to know both two news. Pray for Zeng Tao and hope him to recover soon.>> Best wishes to you all,> Peihong Shen @Vancouver

Pray and best wishes for Zeng Tao!
>> BTW,remember Prof Zhang Shilong ? The former head of
> our Computer Dept, Peking Univ. He just passed away on
> Aug. 25, after realized his dream - watching the 2008
> Beijing Olympic Games. A simplest mourning ceremony as
> he expected will be held tomorrow morning. I'm so sad
> about his passing away. God bless him!
>> Pingjie Zhao>>

: Wed, 27 Aug> 2008> > 11:40:41 -0700Subject: [cs82_reunion] RE: prayers

> > and support for Zeng Tao> >> >> >> >> >


Hi Ouyang, I am so sad to hear the news. Just> > talked to your husband (Zhu Quan) this morning and

> > knew a little more details. Hope Tao can recover

> > soon. ( I also added cs82_reunion@yahoogroups.com> <mailto:cs82_reunion@yahoogroups.com>> > group email to the reply list),

Zhiguo>



> > Dear all,>> > On Sunday,> > August 24 at around 9:00 am, a driver who failed to
> > stop at a red light ran into our dear classmate,>

> Zeng Tao (also known as Mengtao and Thomas) causing'
> serious injuries. As you can see from the following

> news report that the car ran into Mengtao's car

> > right at the driver's position

Mengtao was rushed to Scripps Memorial Hspital and stayed in ICU for two days. He was finally moved ut of ICU this morning. When my husband went with> > some other people from our church to visit the> > hospital this morning, Mengtao was in good spirit.> > He's now waiting for second opinions from doctors> > from our church whether he should undergo pelvis> > surgery.> > Mengtao's wife and two children> left for> > Taiwan last week and Mengtao was scheduled to fly> > out to Taiwan today. Now the plan had to be changed.> > The family are coming back this Friday. Mengtao said> > that he did not want to alarm his father and sister> > at this time. So please help keep this from them.>> >> > The direct line to his room is (858)626-6458. But my> > husband said that Mengtao was still weak in talking> > and had difficulty with breathing due to punctuated> > lung. He's also taking a lot of pain medicine. So> > phone call is probably not a good idea. > >> Nurses> > said that we can send flowers but no soup, fruits,> > or other food. If you're interested in sending> > flowers or cards, the address for the hospital is> > 9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla, CA 92037 and Mengtao> > is in room 408B. > > I'm thinking music> would not be> > a bad idea. (My husband said that Mengtao mentioned> > that his first thought when he regained conscious> > after the crash was "what happened to my> iPod") So,> > I'm wondering if some of you may be interested in> > joining me to get a iTune collection for Mengtao.> > I'm not familiar with iTune at all. But I imagine> > there could be a way to set up a common collection> > then each one of us can select and pay for one or> > two songs to be included in that collection. If you> > are interested in such token of love for Mengtao,> > could you please let me know? If there are enough> > interest, I will explore the possibility.> > For> > some reason, I was not able to find my final> > distribution list of emails from our reunion. So if> > you happen to have one, could you please forward> > this message to that list? Thanks.> > In any> case,> > please extend your thoughts and prayers for Mengtao> > and his family.> > Ouyang>