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Ken's injury is one of the worst I've ever seen in sports. Physically he may be okay. He's got great doctors and facilities. I think the mental part might prove tougher to overcome in the long run.
I have a couple retired Pro Football player friends, man from all the knee and ankle dislocations those guys are about crippled, can barely walk around the golf course. They can't believe with all the broken bones I've had I'm barely even bothered by them.
I reduce dislocated elbows on a weekly basis. Most do not need surgery and go on to make a full recovery.
Does the pain come from the bone or the joint and muscles?
If any of those breaks you listed happened, were the joints in all likelihood impacted also?
While a generalization, it is also a fact that joint injuries have decimated more moto careers than fractures. Ken puts himself under a magnifying glass with his public updates, but multiple surgeries for a single injury would have anyone guessing as to whether he can return to competitive racing.
It's beneficial to have an MD weighing in on the situation, but the condescending comments are unnecessary.
Tough s.o.b.
I have no medical training, but isn't this a generally correct statement? I presume the recovery from his compounded radius is near complete, where the recovery from the severe dislocations is a long way off.
But for being able to hold onto/control a dirtbike at the level Kenny rides at requires so much strength/flexibility/movement from the upper body. Im sure the strength will return and hopefully there aren't any issues with movement.
I hope for the sake of our sport that Kenny can come back and keep pushing the sport in the direction he has been, more about enjoying it being open to everyone who watches. The closed off riders like Villo, Carmichael, Stew are legends in their own right but werent the crowd pleasers like Kenny is.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've seen him disclose any ligament details. Zero. He dislocated his elbow and blew up his radial head. He had surgery to salvage his radial head, repair his wrist, and an external fixator given that swelling prohibited them from closing the skin initially. I bet his elbow was reduced at the first hospital. It's not a hard procedure to do. I do them at least once a week.
Joint dislocations MAY be bad if they disrupt large neurovascular bundles (knee for example) or disrupt multiple ligaments. We have no idea about his ligaments. However, we do know that his radial head was severely damaged and necessitated either metal hardware or a cadaver transplant, the later of which apparently gets better results.
His multiple surgeries were due to the soft tissue trauma from his fractures and likely also do to delay in initial treatment. He sat in California getting bumped from the OR until he made the good decision to fly to Vail.
My point in all of this is that everyone is speculating on various injuries that he hasn't disclosed. I haven't seen him say he has any nerve or ligament injury (although he likely damaged several ligaments in both his wrist and elbow - in my opinion). All he said was that he had early compartment syndrome and had to undergo a fasciotomy for that reason.
I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on his injury and I'm not even going to predict where he will be in 3-6 months. I'm wishing him the best and hope we see him next SX season.
"Never Give Up"
Pit Row
And I'm with you...heal up Kenny and we'll see you at A1 next season!
I'm pretty much in total agreement with MD. But, I also have to somewhat agree with the gentleman who generalized that "broken bones are easier to come back from than severe joint dislocations". Here's why I say that: When you are talking about a SIMPLE/UNCOMPLICATED fracture of a long bone - let's say your Humerus (upper arm bone), as long as it's aligned properly and immobilized, it will heal pretty much as strong as it ever was in a couple of months. Again, this is for a very simple, uncomplicated, basic fracture, with no joint, vascular, or neurologic associated damage or complications. Hard tissue (bones) heal very well (as a rule) as long as they are immobilized properly. There are exceptions to this of course, but this is a generalization.
Damaged soft tissue, however, can be a very different story. Soft tissues include muscles, ligaments, and tendons, vessels, etc.. Ligaments are what join two bones together, and tendons join muscle to bone. When we talk about ligaments, you have to realize that they have a very good nerve supply (pain receptors), but not the best blood supply. Anyone who has sprained an ankle knows how painful it can be, and that it takes a long time to heal. And unlike bones, they often don't heal 100%. This is due to inflammation. Inflammation is a normal process, and we need it to keep us alive with such things as infections, etc, but for sprains, it can actually "over-react" and cause problems. When a ligament is injured, inflammation results, and this leads to scar tissue formation. These things called fibroblasts come in to form new tissue. Unfortunately, the new tissue formed isn't the same as the old tissue. It has more nociceptors (pain receptors), is less elastic, and weaker than the normal tissue it replaces as it heals. This can lead the injured area to have chronic pain, less range of motion, and be more easily injured in the future. I know many of you will say you have sprained your ankle before and it feels fine now, but I bet if you looked at the tissue under a microscope, it would be different.
This is why, as a very general rule, I would rather have a simple/uncomplicated fracture as opposed to a severe sprain (ligament damage). Again this is a generalization, and this whole thing is thrown out the window when you change to a comminuted fracture, a fracture into the joint, vascular and neurologic damage, etc, as the good doctor mentioned before. Also, one must realize that when you have a fairly serious fracture / multiple fractures, quite often you have severe ligament and other soft tissue damage along with it. Again, I agree with the good doctor that Ken most likely has some pretty significant ligament damage going on that he hasn't mentioned.
On another note, what can you do for a ligament sprain to help it heal most effectively with the least amount of scar/abnormal tissue? The keys are movement and reducing inflammation. With a bad sprain you'll most likely have to keep it fairly immobile for a day or two. As long as you don't have a very severe injury in which the ligament is totally severed or destroyed, you need to get it moving as soon as possible after the first 48 or so hours. You don't want to force anything - just gentle movement as far as you can tolerate. It may need to be passive movement - such as someone else gently/slowly moving the joint for you. This movement helps align the fibers along their normal lines of function, instead of being laid down in a haphazard/random fashion, which leads to the weakness and inflexibility previously mentioned. The other aspect of optimum healing is reducing inflammation. This can be done with ice, anti-inflammatory medication prescribed by your doctor, and various physical therapy modalities. The last thing you want to do for a sprain is to keep it immobile for weeks and months. Motion helps soft tissue injuries heal the best, immobility is for hard tissue (bone) healing. Again, these are generalizations for typical, simple, non complicated sprains. Hope this is helpful.
Roczens original X-rays show how bad the dislocations are and if they displaced for a long time that would make it even worse. I don't think he has meantioned anything about dislocations, ligaments and so forth, those Doctors have been busy worrying about just saving his arm so he can wipe his butt with it, riding will come later.
I really was just speaking from personal experience and I have a bunch of friends and Pro friends that ride. My worst pains come from both shoulders being dislocated so bad that on 3 different occasions I had to have the hospital put the right one back in place.
That guy has probably never broken or severely dislocated anything. If he's a doctor he may have not even ever fallen off the couch!
I too have some experience. I also see more acute ortho trauma than most orthopedic surgeons.
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