I went w/ Troll to the Joint Replacement Doc yesterday. Shot the knee replacement option completely down...there just isnt anything left of the knee to make it work. No muscle or tendons to actually make a replacement function. So, sucks, but he has 2 options. Fuse it or amputation of some form.
As far as fusing it you can do that 2 ways.
One: Do a transport and stretch the bone (takes about 12 months) then do the fusing. So youre looking at about 1.5-2 years before hes walking again. Hell always have a limp because the right leg will have to be shorter than the other to walk effectively.
Two: They can drill into the upper & lower bones and insert metal in there to fill up the space and keep the leg stiff. Bad side of that is bacteria has a great place to hide there and he might end up losing even more bone and have hardly anything left there at all.
Amputation...he can try a procedure where they take the good right foot and make a knee out of it (means he would still have to do the transport) and have a below the knee amputation or he can just take it off where the femur ends.
I feel so bad for him. I cant imagine having to make a decision like this. Im trying to assure him that no matter what Im always going to be there for him. Were going to talk to all the docs that would do the fusing or amputation/prosthesis just to be educated and then he can go from there to make his decision.
No matter what its still such a LONG road ahead.
As far as fusing it you can do that 2 ways.
One: Do a transport and stretch the bone (takes about 12 months) then do the fusing. So youre looking at about 1.5-2 years before hes walking again. Hell always have a limp because the right leg will have to be shorter than the other to walk effectively.
Two: They can drill into the upper & lower bones and insert metal in there to fill up the space and keep the leg stiff. Bad side of that is bacteria has a great place to hide there and he might end up losing even more bone and have hardly anything left there at all.
Amputation...he can try a procedure where they take the good right foot and make a knee out of it (means he would still have to do the transport) and have a below the knee amputation or he can just take it off where the femur ends.
I feel so bad for him. I cant imagine having to make a decision like this. Im trying to assure him that no matter what Im always going to be there for him. Were going to talk to all the docs that would do the fusing or amputation/prosthesis just to be educated and then he can go from there to make his decision.
No matter what its still such a LONG road ahead.
