[TheForge] Frosty bones and drybrushing

[Jerry Frost]

Thanks Lee:

This break was the most damaged in the fall, actually 
two breaks. One goes across the humurus just above the 
elbow joint, the second starts roughly half way across 
the first break and is a squarish piece knocked out of 
the bone. The piece that was knocked out took a lot of 
hammering while the rest of the breaks were happening 
and ended up pretty rounded off. It looked something 
like a basketball sitting on a step after the 
surgeries. Hopefully the ascii thingy (poor things that 
they are) lessens the confusion some.

l __l
l  lO
l     l

It healed into the main part of the bone right away but 
where it meets up with the lateral break there was just 
too much space between it and the next part. We gave it 
time and I kept up with the bone stimulating exercises 
but it was a no grow. Last January I had to have the 
hardware removed, I was popping the heads off screws. 
At that time he filed, scraped, etc, the necrotic bone 
off, applied OP1 bone stimulant protien goop and 
replaced the hardware with the bone pressed in hard 
contact.

The xrays at my last checkup showed it still wasn't 
healing where the largest gap is, above the "O" in the 
ascii "art" thingy. Actually it was healing but it's a 
large gap and it's growing slowly.

This surgery was all soft tissue except where he 
drilled the graft material from my iliac crest so I'm 
healing pretty quickly this time. I'm out of the splint 
and there's no articulated brace this time so I'll be 
back to complaining about a 10lb restriction soon. all 
I have to do right now is keep from popping the 
staples, keep the incision sites clean, etc.

I'm doing the PT, using the bone stimulator, quit 
smoking, taking the vits and mins, eating well and 
exercising. I'm not sure what else to do but give it 
time and be as patient as I can. At least I can do some 
forging and fab stuff now I have some lift capacity in 
the shop.

Still . . . <sigh>

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "lee robbins" <naturadoc1 at yahoo.com>



>
> Frosty glad to hear you are on the mend
> with repeated nonunions, bear in mind how it works. 
> The skin has good blood supply and vessels cut look 
> to branch and link at wound edges. Bone fractures and 
> bone grafts need stimulation. When i was in africa 
> during training, the kids regularly fractured their 
> femurs. the stretched the legs with a weight and then 
> put the kids in a cylinder cast letting them walk 
> after a week. About 10% had funny bends to their legs 
> but the pressure across the fracture site led them to 
> heal in 3-4 weeks unlike the 12 weeks with hardware 
> and total immobilization. THe lack of 100% 
> straightness is unacceptable in the US.
> Range of motion activity without weight and mild in 
> line isometrics without any jarring motions will 
> create some hypoxic, low oxygen signals and stimulate 
> the weaving of new vessels which will improve the 
> laying down of new bone. Lots of motion, little 
> force. good luck.
>
> Dry Brushing:
> After you load up a brush with the highlighting 
> brush, dry it by painting most of the paint onto 
> absorbent newspaper till you just about see the paint 
> then use the brush on the piece. it never hurts to 
> put too little added highlight and repeat for effect. 
> Also how long you wait for the base color to dry can 
> add to the vehicle of the first layer to mix with the 
> dry brush, cleaning on newspaper keeping the 
> highlight fresh.
>
> Lee Robbins MD
> Flying tortoise forge studio
>
>