Amputees

Edited Date/Time 1/21/2012 4:00am
Ridge, Bobby, or ?

A friend of mine's foot was crushed by a drunk/drugged fool on his Harley about 3 years ago and after many surgeries he's considering just having it removed. Very limited movement (possibly none if they fuse it at 90 degrees), excessive pain, and way too many pills would be significant reasons for the possible amputation.

Any chance he could chat with you guys, given your experience? If so, shoot me a PM with your e-mail or phone and I'll forward it to him.

Thanks.
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YZKEN250
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7/3/2009 9:50am
Matt, I have a fused ankle and its pretty painful. The ankle doesnt hurt, its everything around it that does. You can email me at yzken250@aol.com if you want to talk about that.
ridge
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7/3/2009 10:08am
YZKEN250 wrote:
Matt, I have a fused ankle and its pretty painful. The ankle doesnt hurt, its everything around it that does. You can email me at yzken250@aol.com...
Matt, I have a fused ankle and its pretty painful. The ankle doesnt hurt, its everything around it that does. You can email me at yzken250@aol.com if you want to talk about that.
That reason is why I got my leg cut off!



Matt, I'll PM you my number. He or you can call me any time.
YZKEN250
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7/3/2009 10:10am
Ridge, How long was your ankle fused before you got it cut off? Im going on 9 years. It sucks. Very painful. I turn 40 this month.
jay_547
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7/3/2009 10:15am Edited Date/Time 7/3/2009 10:17am
after my injury, i had complications and was "in danger of losing your foot" - my doctor's words. later, after the risk of amputation was gone, he practically begged me to have my ankle fused. i said that i wanted to wait and see how it turned out. seven years later, i'm glad i didn't do it.

The Shop

Big Lenny
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7/3/2009 10:17am Edited Date/Time 7/3/2009 10:21am
I take my hat off to you guys....You guys are badass..
andymoto
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7/3/2009 10:26am
Big Lenny wrote:
I take my hat off to you guys....You guys are badass..
Agreed.
jimmie
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7/3/2009 10:31am
jay_547 wrote:
after my injury, i had complications and was "in danger of losing your foot" - my doctor's words. later, after the risk of amputation was gone...
after my injury, i had complications and was "in danger of losing your foot" - my doctor's words. later, after the risk of amputation was gone, he practically begged me to have my ankle fused. i said that i wanted to wait and see how it turned out. seven years later, i'm glad i didn't do it.
Similar situation here.
I had my ankle surgically broke and repaired a year later....................still pain but,enough range of motion to walk normal.
Try EVERYTHING before fusion or removal. I know in some situations that might be the only choice. I was very fortunate, I wish your buddy all the best.
jimmie
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7/3/2009 10:42am
Just a P.S. here, a little story............One orthopedic doctor looked at my x-rays " a year after the botched repair". His words were "You can make chicken soup from a chicken but you can't make chicken soup from chicken shit, and you have chicken shit to work with" How wrong he was.
YZKEN250
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7/3/2009 11:40am
I had 3 surgerys on my ankle. The Dr. botched the 2nd surgery and removed bone. The whole thing fell apart in less than a week of walking on it. They were going to try and fix it but after opening my ankle up, they discovered that there was no cartilige left between the bones and didnt have a choice, so they fused it.
ridge
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7/3/2009 12:04pm
YZKEN250 wrote:
Ridge, How long was your ankle fused before you got it cut off? Im going on 9 years. It sucks. Very painful. I turn 40 this...
Ridge, How long was your ankle fused before you got it cut off? Im going on 9 years. It sucks. Very painful. I turn 40 this month.
It was completely locked up...and it was bad.





I was still racing in the pro class in both pictures.
Digger437
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7/3/2009 12:45pm
There are many a day when I wish I could just cut my ankles off after my 04' crash. It's been five years already. I'm glad I have my feet still though. Pain everyday, yes! But I can still lead a fairly normal life and also got to get back to riding which helped my mindset tremedously.

I luckily was able to avoid fusing them, but I basically have no movement anyway. I fall down alot, trip and walk with a gimp most of the time when I have been on them to long. For me though, to be able to drive, ride, play with the kids etc. it is all worth it. Am I looking for a better solution for them? Yes. But for now, it is what it is.

The part that bothers me is pain meds. I hate taking medicine for anything, and I do take quite abit of Ibuprofen. I try like hell to fight through the pain sometimes but have to give in.

Funny thing though, my wife found some stuff called Synovium a pain reliving gel that you just rub on your ankles. I put some on last weekend for the first time before going to the race. For whatever reason, when I came back from my first moto, my feet were "on fire" and I had to take my boots and socks off and literally have my nephew spray down my feet with the water pressure. As the weekend wore on, I did have less pain than normal, so I guess there is always going to be a give and take?
7/3/2009 12:52pm
Got your PM Ridge, thanks.

I forwarded that and a link to this thread to my friend. He'll register and explain his deal himself. Better to get it straight from the horse's mouth.

Thanks again, hopefully he'll get some good insight from you all.
7/3/2009 12:59pm Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 12:43am
When I was 20, I smashed my foot in 15 places and shattered the navicular joint in the ankle/foot, they crushed the shattered bone and made a paste from it and filled the hole where the joint would be. I can't bend my foot inwards and it's an odd shape. I have some pain in it every day, some days worse than others, depends on the weather.

My Doctor told me at the time that I would need it fused very soon within the next 5 years, or they could do it now and that I also would never ride again, I opted not to have it done, that was 11 years ago and I'm still racing today and it's not really any worse pain wise than it was when I done it.
catatonic
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7/3/2009 1:11pm
Big Lenny wrote:
I take my hat off to you guys....You guys are badass..
agreed
YZKEN250
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7/3/2009 4:09pm
YZKEN250 wrote:
Ridge, How long was your ankle fused before you got it cut off? Im going on 9 years. It sucks. Very painful. I turn 40 this...
Ridge, How long was your ankle fused before you got it cut off? Im going on 9 years. It sucks. Very painful. I turn 40 this month.
ridge wrote:
It was completely locked up...and it was bad. [IMG]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c138/EMIEVEL/WARNING-injuries-WARNING/4b936a77.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c138/EMIEVEL/WARNING-injuries-WARNING/053b58d2.jpg[/IMG] I was still racing in the pro class in both pictures.
It was completely locked up...and it was bad.





I was still racing in the pro class in both pictures.
Ridge, That top picture looks like my ankle. But I have that scar on both sides and scars on my foot and leg from the external fixator and lots of little ones from all the different screws and hardware.
ChrisB
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7/3/2009 6:14pm
Big Lenny wrote:
I take my hat off to you guys....You guys are badass..
catatonic wrote:
agreed
Yeah, you guys make my issues seem like a papercut. mucho respect.
jimmie
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7/3/2009 6:44pm
YZKEN250 wrote:
Ridge, That top picture looks like my ankle. But I have that scar on both sides and scars on my foot and leg from the external...
Ridge, That top picture looks like my ankle. But I have that scar on both sides and scars on my foot and leg from the external fixator and lots of little ones from all the different screws and hardware.
Hey, YZKEN250 did you by chance experience the Illizarov fixator?
Dang that was painful, pins sticking through both sides of my ankle, huge screws buried in the shin..............................awful. Five months of that and the doc. wanted to redo the surgery and apply another external fixator! Thank God I hired another ortho. to take over.
TerryK
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7/3/2009 7:42pm
Big Lenny wrote:
I take my hat off to you guys....You guys are badass..
catatonic wrote:
agreed
ChrisB wrote:
Yeah, you guys make my issues seem like a papercut. mucho respect.
x10
ridge
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7/3/2009 9:34pm
YZKEN250 wrote:
Ridge, That top picture looks like my ankle. But I have that scar on both sides and scars on my foot and leg from the external...
Ridge, That top picture looks like my ankle. But I have that scar on both sides and scars on my foot and leg from the external fixator and lots of little ones from all the different screws and hardware.
Oh, like this?



lol
ASH510
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7/3/2009 9:47pm
ooooooooooooooooooouuuuuch wow shit i am hurting looking at that
ridge you are one tough dude
what class do you run now still pro?
ridge
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7/3/2009 10:08pm
ASH510 wrote:
ooooooooooooooooooouuuuuch wow shit i am hurting looking at that
ridge you are one tough dude
what class do you run now still pro?
Actually, I don't really feel that tough. I just got hurt and made a smart decision to get rid of the pain. I still cry when I scrape my elbows. lol.

I race the vet class mostly. I raced an SRA GP at Glen Helen about 6 weeks ago and led the first 7 or 8 minutes of the expert class, but I had to pull off to re-adjust my leg. SRA isn't too competitive so I don't really brag about that! hahaha
oldx
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7/3/2009 10:24pm Edited Date/Time 7/3/2009 10:25pm
Kudos's to you ridge, you're one hell of a racer.
Scotty
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7/3/2009 11:23pm
Hey Ridge do you have the "phantom" pains? Buddy of mine had his leg amputated right above the knee after a horrific mx crash.. That was 5 years ago and he still gets the phantom pains every once in while. He also said every once in awhile he feels an itch on his foot( the one that got amputated) Crazy stuff!
heytrap
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7/5/2009 11:11pm Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 12:46am
Matt,

Thanks for starting the thread.

Everyone,

I am the guy Matt was talking about. It was hot summer morning in Nor Cal. I am a certified MSF instructor. I was heading home from the morning class with best friends kid behind me on his bike. It is normally 60 mile ride filled with twisties that can be fun but was be extra careful because of the kid. 1245 on the 24 June 06 changed my life for ever. A drunkin & drugged up 57 year old fool on 1200 sportster drifted over two lanes in a blind corner and hit me head on. I was in my lean when he hit me. I guess I was the berm. I sent him back into his lane. It destroyed my 02 FZ1(just went over 40K miles and just paid it off the week earlier) and sent me over the high side. It was kind of weird because I done this on dirt a few times but never on the road. I looked over my self and had a couple injuries. Travis was lucky enough to avoid the whole thing. Thank God.. I on the other didn't fair so well. I had something cut my jacket arm over 3/4 of the around the arm to the bone. Second injury, it ripped a steel toe boot off my foot like a slipper. I double knot my laces. I put some pictures up later once I figure it out.

That is my story but couldn't believe there are people in my same shoes. I have been up on street yet but have done a few trail days and few track days. I can't wait to go out again may be this weekend. It will be the first since Jan 10th.


Please keep the advice and stories coming. I need all the information I can get to make it by this difficulty time in my life.

heytrap
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7/5/2009 11:18pm
MXerDW
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7/5/2009 11:31pm
You have to put (upload) the photo on the web some where first. Like in the photo section here on vital or photobucket.com.
Or just send the photo to me at mxer4life@netzero.net and I can post it for you.

I am very sorry to hear what happened to you.
kaboom645
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7/6/2009 7:21am
Back when I was racing professionally, there was a guy showing up to qualify for the show with only 1 arm.. I cant remember the guys name, but he was pretty fast... If he can do it, I would think just about anybody can
tatonka
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7/6/2009 10:03am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 12:46am
My hats off to anyone dealing with these injuries and trying to make the right decisions for themselves. It's a tough deal, we've had several cases of guys going through something similar over at RiderDown.org. We've also worked with a few guys who are back riding and racing, here's some pics and a video of the Adaptive X race at the Moto X Games last year;







Ride ON!!
ridge
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7/6/2009 10:04am
Scotty wrote:
Hey Ridge do you have the "phantom" pains? Buddy of mine had his leg amputated right above the knee after a horrific mx crash.. That was...
Hey Ridge do you have the "phantom" pains? Buddy of mine had his leg amputated right above the knee after a horrific mx crash.. That was 5 years ago and he still gets the phantom pains every once in while. He also said every once in awhile he feels an itch on his foot( the one that got amputated) Crazy stuff!
Yeah, i have all the same stuff going on. It's not too bad and definitely not as bad as the real pain I used to have.
ridge
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7/6/2009 10:07am
tatonka wrote:
My hats off to anyone dealing with these injuries and trying to make the right decisions for themselves. It's a tough deal, we've had several cases...
My hats off to anyone dealing with these injuries and trying to make the right decisions for themselves. It's a tough deal, we've had several cases of guys going through something similar over at RiderDown.org. We've also worked with a few guys who are back riding and racing, here's some pics and a video of the Adaptive X race at the Moto X Games last year;







Ride ON!!
That was great that you guys helped out Shane Tacker!

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