I just had an accident in our backyard and had a complete tear of the quadriceps tendon on my right knee.
I won’t be posting any graphs for awhile because I can’t bend the knee and need surgery
Do NOT worry about this Site. Your health is the only thing that matters!
Medical attention your only concern!
Hey Mike,
Sorry to see this. Godspeed for a successful surgery and a comfortable, fast as possible recovery!
Mike, WX said it better than I can
"Sorry to see this. Godspeed for a successful surgery and a comfortable, fast as possible recovery!"
Up waiting for surgery In a few Hours . Couldn’t speep all night. They told me it will be 6-12 months to recover and at my age it won’t be 100%.
OOUCH!! I work at a Rehab on Sundays, see alot of knee & hip replacements. Patients with torn ACl's and alike have told me its a slow recovery. Feel better and do lots of rehab!
Hey Mike,
Hopefully it will be closer to a 6 month recovery and as close to 100% as possible! The myriad of leg related issues typically take 4 months minimum. My broken foot last year likely took 4 months to near complete recovery. I was on crutches or in a boot for a couple of months. My plantar fasciitis on the other foot has already lasted nearly 3 months and is no better.
Thanks vey much for the positive messages.
The surgery went well according to the doctor. …..however, what doctor would tell you something like “when I cut you , I accidentally severed some nerves that mean you won’t have any feeling in your right leg the rest of you life, sorry about that that but your knee will only recover to 80% at best.“
This guy, however, Dr. Green lef me feeling extremely confident in his skills, both operating and communicating.
I’ll show a picture later, with an anatomy lesson on the leg later today.
The tendon that attaches the quadriceps muscle to my right knee cap was completely torn/severed from a fall backwards. Pulling a rope with all my might, that Was stuck on the roof and it finally gave in, causing me to fall hard backwards. The knee never touched anything.
For 99% of the population, there would have been ZERO damage on the front side.
But I have Ehlers Danlos , a connective tissue disorder.
When I fell back, the strong reflexive reaction by my legs to rebalance was more than my brittle, compromised quadriceps tendons could bare and the spike higher in load completely tore the right side away from the Quadriceps muscle.
This dislodged the position of my knee cap, which after the tear was facing perpendicular of its usual position of the knee cap and stuck in place on the OUTSIDE of my knee.
EXTREMELY odd and painful, with a hole where the attachment above the knee was normally was and impossible to the knee at all.
No way for me to even try to go anywhere, with the knee completely locked in,place so it was 911 and the EMT.
I like these people a lot. Their mindset of having a job to help people and sometimes save lives Is one that truly makes the world a better place.
Mike and cutworm,, have spent some of their off time doing jobs like this, I think.
Hats off to all of them for providing assistance for all kinds of emergencies to 10s of millions of people in this country each year!
What a breathe of fresh air to interact with THE BEST people in society compared to exposing some of the worst in politics and media.
Even in the hospital, we have a group of people doing jobs to make people better.
Health is EVERYTHING! Worth more than money.
If I was offered the choice of being rescued and having surgery to become functional again or instead losing that completely and getting a billion dollars, the choice would be easy.
functionality and health come out on top every time.
Hey Mike,
I’m sorry your knee will recover to only 80% at best :( but am quite glad it was overall successful. :) Let’s hope it recovers to 80% and that that would allow you to eventually resume most of your pre-injury normal activities!
Thanks for the update!
Thanks, Larry!
I hope to have a better than 80% recovery, next year at this time.
There were some things to be happy about. They were able to do the surgery in less than 24 hours which leads to a better outcome than waiting and trying to reattach a retracted tendon after a longer period of time
Also that I didn't hit my head hard. Because of my condition and blood clotting disorder, a brain bleed is extremely likely to kill me.
I'm sharing a few articles on this topic that are most interesting to me and very helpful to anybody that wants to learn about it.
It includes the anatomy and comprehensive discussion of this topic.
The internet is so awesome!!!
Quadriceps Tendon Tear
https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/quadriceps-tendon-tear/
The four quadriceps muscles meet just above the kneecap (patella) to form the quadriceps tendon. The quadriceps tendon attaches the quadriceps muscles to the patella. The patella is attached to the shinbone (tibia) by the patellar tendon. Working together, the quadriceps muscles, quadriceps tendon, and patellar tendon form a pulley mechanism to straighten the knee.
To reattach the tendon, small holes are drilled in the kneecap (left) and sutures are threaded through the holes to pull the tendon back to the bone (right).
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/quadriceps-tendon-tear
Quadriceps tendon tear (quadriceps tendon rupture) is a rare but serious injury that makes it difficult for your knee to work properly. It most often affects physically active people over age 40. Complete tears require surgery to repair torn muscle and restore knee function. In most cases, outcomes are good.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9959605/
I might have mentioned earlier that I have Ehlers Danlos and an excessive bleeding disorder is one of the issues with it
As a result, if I hit my head hard enough to have even a small brain bleed(aneurysm) its curtains for me.
I actually had a previous distal biceps tendon rupture just 4 years ago from a fall forward and the Ehlers Danlos(that was surgically repaired). Its easy to catch yourself going forward to avoid your head smashing into the ground.
Not so falling backwards, uncontrolled and with a tremendous amount of force, like with my fall.
However, I did NOT hit my head because I had ingrained the principles of protecting your head in a fall like this.
This is a good thing for EVERYBODY to learn to protect their/your heads/brains.
Here are the videos I learned from BEFORE this fall which caused me to fall in a manner that protected my head/brain.
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/how-to-fall-safely/
 | Falling Safely: How To Fall To Prevent Injury - AARP While you can’t prevent all slips, there’s plenty you can do to improve your footing. Be here now. Practice “mindfulness” — focus on the present and be aware of your surroundings, instead of being lost in your thoughts. Fix your blind spots. If you can’t see it, you can’t avoid tripping over it.Have your eyesight and eyeglasses checked regularly. www.aarp.org |
Falling backward? "Tuck your chin to your chest so your head doesn't hit the ground,
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https://www.pinnacol.com/blog/fall-safely-step-by-step-guide
 | How to fall safely: Use our illustrated step-by-step guide A “safe fall” sounds like a contradicting term — if you’ve ever taken a spill, you know nothing about it feels safe. But you can do things to reduce the impact and damage from a fall, which is important because falls can cause serious injuries. www.pinnacol.com |
Just remembered another extremely fortunate situation.
Deb and Cyrus were playing outside in the backyard when this happened.
Me working outside when Deb is there happens around .001% of the time............almost never.
I couldn't move after it happened and never take my cell phone with me.
I would have needed to yell really loud if she was home or wait until she got home and yelled really loud, hoping that she heard me from inside of the house.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the falling safely tips!
When I broke my foot last August, it happened so fast that I didn’t have time to think and try to control how I fell. A brain fart caused my fall. I reacted to something falling in the adjacent room, which is separated from the room I was in just before the fall by two steps. When I heard it falling, I had a reflex type of reaction to turn around and try to catch it. When I did that, my brain forgot about those two steps!! I had never tripped on those steps before in the thousands of times I had walked on them.
I was lucky I didn’t hit my head. My foot got badly twisted on the steps and I think I caught myself with my hands as I fell forward, which was a reaction I didn’t think about. But doing that may have saved me from hitting my head.
Thanks, Larry!
What you stated makes complete sense with your fall.
It's not like we ever practice a technique beforehand to use at some future point when a random fall happens.
Or even have time to think about it because our minds can't process the information fast enough to be thinking ahead, once the fall starts.
The reaction has to be split second and instinctive an instant after our brains realize that a big fall is in progress. Honestly, I didn't realize that's what I did until the EMTs and others kept asking me over and over about hitting my head.
I kept insisting no, I didn't hit my head but had to think about it numerous times to be sure because it didn't make sense for me to NOT hit my head.
When we fall forward, our hands/arms catch us instinctively. When we have an uncontrolled fall straight backwards, we have to twist our bodies unnaturally and quickly during the fall to divert the force to keep our heads in the UP POSITION, above our spines/back.
It's actually just physics but understanding physics is no help. Doing the head lifting thing is all that matters and honestly, looking back I'm surprised that's what I did.
Only then did I appreciate what my instinctive response was, like doing a sit up crunch forward and curling my head forward during the fall. I think that redistributed/imposed a new force on my legs/knees which severed the quadriceps tendon of the right knee (along with my brittle tendons from Ehlers Danlos) because the injury that I got, based on the event should have been a brain injury.
Again, I have a serious blood clotting disorder that would have continued the brain bleed before it, and the swelling would have cut off oxygen from the pressure and caused massive cell death. In cases like that, they would operate quickly to lower the pressure inside the skull in hopes that O2 can be restored to the brain as well as trying to stop the bleeding if possible.
However at that point, there is already brain damage and they are just trying to keep the person with their brain damage alive.
These were some pictures that my wife, Deb took.
Immediately after the fall, my knee cap was on the side of my knee. I worked it back in place but the knee was still locked and i had to be taken out on a stretcher.
Fortunately, Deb was outside playing with our 2 year old grandson, Cyrus at the time(which almost never happens when I'm working out there) and she was able to call 911 right away.
Otherwise, I would have had to yell loudly and hope she could hear me from inside of the house or if she was gone wait for her to get home to hear me yelling.
I NEVER take my cell phone with me outside..............that will change!
PRAYERS FOR YOU, MIKE
_______________
I HAD STROKE #3, IN OCTOBER...I'VE LOST A LOT OF EYESIGHT & CAN'T READ MUCH AT ALL, BUT... WHAT I DID GATHER FROM YOUR POST...IS QUITE SERIOUS.
I THANK THE GOOD LORD FOR SPELL CHECK & A 175 FONT SIZE.
I'LL TRY TO KEEP TRACK OF YOU. REST ASSURED... YOU'RE IN MY PRAYERS
BIC HUGS
JEAN
Good to hear from you Jean. You are in my prayers.
We miss you, Jean!
Keep doing your best with whatever you have and try to minimize comparing it to what you had.
Acceptance of permanent physical losses is one of the toughest things for us to do. Your losses are pretty extreme and we feel great compassion for you but you can still reconfigure your expectations to dial in the losses as the new normal as much as possible. .......which you've probably already done.
Mike,
Sorry to see this, "Wishing you strength, courage, and patience during your recovery journey."
Thanks gedigan and everybody!
Jean, who has lost most of her vision from another stroke would love to be in my position. This is why I feel so fortunate to have avoided slamming my head backwards on the bricks and causing a brain hemorrhage/bleed.
That condition or an Aortic tear in my heart are likely to get me at some point.......but NOT today!
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14480-brain-bleed-hemorrhage-intracranial-hemorrhage
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A leaky, broken or burst blood vessel causes a brain bleed. As a result, excess blood pools in your brain. A brain bleed can happen after:
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Since I have a bleeding/clotting disorder, from Ehlers Danlos, it would be near impossible to manage a brain bleed.
just heard the news MM. In my prayers for quick and complete recovery
Hey Jean,
It’s of course not good to hear that you had another stroke and worsening eyesight, but it’s wonderful to see a new post from you!