As some of you may know, my left leg is my "bad" leg with the ankle transplant and stainless steel plate. My right leg is my "worse" leg with the titanium knee joint. The knee bothers me from time to time, but nothing like what sprung up last night. As I laid down to sleep, I felt a terrible throbbing pain extending from below my hip all the way to the ankle. No matter what I did, I couldn't get comfortable, and the pain kept me up all night. This morning I went to the student health center to get it checked out.
As I expected, the doctor didn't find anything spectacularly obvious after poking, flexing, and x-raying the leg. She ended up giving me some anti-inflammatory drugs and sending me on my way. If the pain lasts more than a few days I'll make a quick trip back home to have my orthopaedic surgeon take a look at it.
Anyway, none of that is important. It's all just backstory to how I got these cool pictures:
This is a front view of my lower femur. Near the top you can see how the bone has regrown around the upper part of the titanium joint. I think it looks like candle wax. At the bottom you can see knee joint itself.
This is a front view of both knees. Here you can see the titanium hinge very clearly and the hole in the upper tibia where it sits. In the good knee, note the weird (and completely harmless) bone growth above and to the right of the joint. Sue thinks it makes the bone look like a guitar.
This is the coolest picture. You can see the true shape of the implant as well as the strange stuff they did to the knee cap.
A front and side view of the lower leg.
This picture is looking down at the top of the knees. It really shows the difference between the natural knee cap and the "bionic" one.
I find it amazing what the doctors were able to do. I am continually thankful that I am able to walk across campus normally thanks to effective cancer treatments and all that hardware.
If you found these pictures interesting, you'll enjoy this virtual knee surgery.