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I got into a car crash and went to the ER to get an X-ray done to make sure nothing was off, not this was a week after the crash. Anyways hurt like a bitch and after awhile of waiting the X-ray gets done and the tech just kinda looks at it for a minute, turns to me and says “Two bits of good news, your knee is just inflamed and swollen no breaks, also Ive been doing this for awhile and your bone density is absurd” which is how I found out that I’m a freak of nature who has borderline unbreakable bones. Explains why I struggle to swim in fresh water so much.
I have this exact same anomaly, I learned about it from a dexa scan.
Yeah it’s not too uncommon as I understand just not the norm. Though with me being so short it does give me the joke that evolution is trying to reinvent Neanderthals and I’m it’s Alpha version.
Basically they told me that I was in the top 1% of their data collection efforts And I want to say he said something about it being two standard deviations off normal.
Fair enough, like I said me finding out was just an X-ray tech pointing it out and saying it was kinda cool. So I have no clue where I fall within actual standards.
One time I was in the ER, and a doctor noted that my heart beat has a rather pronounced split s2 rythm which is something that doctors need to learn to discern when listening to a heartbeat, so for the next hour as I was waiting around, I had several other younger physicians stop by and say “hey I was told to come listen to your heartbeat.”
Made me feel a little special in a very peculiar way I haven’t known since.
A girlfriend’s father had a condition where his organs were mirrored to the opposite side of the body and his circulatory system ran backwards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situs_inversus)
Him and his family doctor loved bringing new coworkers in to do a “liver check” or something like that, and watch the person probe around with their hand and slowly get confused, then kind of freak out, when they couldn’t find organs in the body.
They did it for many years and both thought it was hilarious.
I’m left-handed and always secretly wished I had this and a right-handed twin so we could literally be mirror copies of each other.
Couldn’t they just, you know, simulate it on a computer? Or listen to a recording? I guess it’s possible you’re very old.
Not a doctor, but am in various situations where I have to pick sounds out. There’s something very valuable about having a natural example, especially if the person listening has to find that example all on their own.
They were told they should listen to the heartbeat. Also I’ve worked at several colleges, I’ve seen what they train with - it’s very impressive. They can definitely simulate it today
Notice how you used the word simulate?
Until you use the world “replicate” I’m going to go ahead and say that real world experience is still better. Maybe not much better… but when it comes to doctors, I’ll take “just better” 7 days a week.
A simulation and a replication are the same thing. Neither word implies anything about quality or reliability.
One is about an action and the other an object typically in this given context.
Replication would also more accurately be the repetition of something. So a repeated simulation of a heart beat is a replication of a heart beat.
Don’t infer meaning in meaningless word choice where no meaning is implied.
“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”
“The good news”
“We’re going to name the disease after you”
“Well, then what’s the bad news?”
“We’re going to name the disease after you”
When you put something back together and end up with spare parts.
Um… so looking at the tibia, that is 100% an intramedullary tibial nail:
…which means their tibia was broken as fuck, and there’s a pretty hefty chance the fibula was also broken as fuck in that same injury.
My guess is the missing segment was fragmented to the point of not being saveable, and removed during the same operation the IM nail was placed.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the OP is bullshit - maybe they had some new resident docs, or nurses, or techs or w/e who hadn’t seen that before and it was a genuine wtf moment for them. I love it when new staff get that look!
Is it not a problem to have part of your fibula missing? Can you operate without it?
You’re fine until the Bluetooth disconnects.
The comments on this thread are gold 😂💜
It’s not an issue, and pretty easily as it’s not a major weight bearing structure. It mostly functions as an attachment point for various muscles and as A part of the articulation of the ankle joint. Part of it is commonly harvested for use as a bone graft.
The most commonly harvested area starts right at the top of where the missing section begins, so I suspect this post may be bullshit.
To be clear, othopedics is not my area of expertise,
edit - ortho specialty chimed in. Sounds like it’s responsible for much less than I understood - see the next comment in the chain.
so grain of salt, but to my understanding, it’s basically the radius bone, but of the leg. Aim your toes forward in the normal anatomical position; now rotate your entire foot to the left or right. That’s your fibula working. Without it, very limited rotation; but otherwise you can still walk and function mostly normally, just a bit impaired.I have no idea how ‘chunk missing in the middle’ plays into that. Guessing you’d still have some rotation, but without a secure anchor point, it wouldn’t be great.Aim your toes forward in the normal anatomical position; now rotate your entire foot to the left or right. That’s your fibula working. Without it, very limited rotation; but otherwise you can still walk and function mostly normally, just a bit impaired
Eh… I do specialize in orthopedics and rehabilitation. You can still do all these things without a fully functional fibula, just to a reduced degree. The fibula only contributes to a few degrees of range of motion in the lower limb, we are talking about millimeters. It can be noticeable given enough time or a high enough level of vigorous activity. Most people would live a fairly active lifestyle without noticing this kind of damage to the fibula.
It can be noticeable given enough time or a high enough level of vigorous activity.
So are we talking this would impact you if you’re an elite athlete, but not an advanced amateur? Or is it more that it’ll impact sports where changing direction quickly matters (like any football or court sport) but not more steady ones (like cycling or running)?
You’d probably notice it more if you were doing sports with a lot of lateral movements, pivoting, and changing direction. Not so much with something like cycling. You might notice over time it if you were doing something like marathons as it does help absorb some ground force reaction on heel strike.
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
I don’t think we’d have lasted long as a species without a little bit of “redundancy”.
I don’t know horses get pretty screwed when they break a leg even with the best medical technology at the owners disposal.
To be fair to horses, their legs are fingers, which doesn’t help the problem.
I’m imagining sports would be a lot more brutal if once a player got injured, they send out “the vet” onto the field to destroy them if they got any broken fingers or toes.
Is that like non-functional doomed, or like we can’t use them for sport any more so we opt to kill them doomed? I’ve heard the spiel about horses breaking a leg before, but I’m not actually sure what it’s supposed to imply.
It’s doomed as in they’ll die with most bad leg injuries. Horses cant support themselves on 3 legs. They’re just too big. There was a foal with 3 legs that lived for a couple years and made its round on social media, but it was eventually put down because it just grew too large. Poor thing should have been put down immediately because the life it lived was of terrible quality despite getting specialized care.
I’ve seen a few horses get put down for a bad leg injury. Almost had to put down my childhood mare after she fucked up her leg in a fence. She made a full recovery, but it took almost a year for it to heal. Her leg got caught in the wire fence and it got shredded to the bone. It was awful, but she was able to stand on it enough to keep herself upright and all that, so we decided to try to get it healed and were miraculously successful
It’s always a great feeling when a doctor looks at something from you and then calls their colleagues to look as well…
My eye doctor did that on one of my recent visits. Apparently my astigmatism is exceptional…
“Good news, you’re about to have a disease named after you!”
Is it better when it’s a bunch of young doctors?
The students just want to see freaky stuff. E. g. my appendix ruptured when I was 15 and it took my mother a few days to realize I’m not faking. So I have a bunch of scars, some parts are missing and other’s just look a bit off. Nothing I don’t know or can’t live with.
But when they call their fully grown colleagues to look at THAT. That’s creepy. That’s not good.
I’d say yes. If it’s regular rare it’s interesting for the younglings, if its extra rare it’s interesting even for the experienced.
Back in school went to the school clinic for strep throat, and upon listening to my heart, he said “just a moment”, then pulled in the med student and quizzed them on what they were hearing and how it was abnormal.
Which led to a follow up echocardiogram where the technician was explaining everything we were looking at and what it was, until a very specific view then she shut up, tapped a bunch of things on the device, printed out something, then moved to another view and resumed describing everything except what she just saw.
How… reassuring… did she ever tell you what that was about?
Oh the tech wasn’t allowed to discuss medically relevant stuff.
The doctor followed up and I have an essentially benign heart anomaly. Growing up first doctors didn’t think it was worth exploring, then doctors said it went away, that was my first visit to a doctor after moving to a bigger city and those doctors were shocked a doctor would say it went away and not even bother to image it before dismissing it.
It probably was not recoverable when they repaired whatever made that Titanium splint and screws neccesary.
Edit: apparently the middle portion of the fibula is so non-essential for weight-bearing that it is the most common bone harvested for bone grafts elsewhere in the body
Oh so the caption is completely made up
Not necessarily, it could be a group of people who weren’t aware of removing the bone being a thing, but it’s probably a lie for internet points.
Ah, I guess I assumed “everyone” referred to medical professionals involved in the treatment, and that if there was an explanation OOP knew that it would have been included, but I can see how it’s possible
If it makes you feel better, the picture is also old as fuck.
Based on what I read after, given the injury to the Tibia, Mabe the Fibula’s middle was sacrificed for a bone graft, rather than cutting open his good leg as well.
Doesn’t really look like it’s been taken out for a graft, at least not anytime recently. My bet would be he acquired a atrophic nonunion fracture the same time he broke his tibia. The rounded edges of the bone look more like they’ve been subject to resorption instead of being excised.
Honestly not that rare for fibular fractures, though the segment missing is fairly large. So it’s probably a fairly old injury.
They didn‘t put everything back after the operation. That’s how I end up with random screws after any repair I do.
[doctor sweeping piece of bone under carpet after surgery]
They try to use it in the next operation. Somebody out there with mismatched bones. One leg longer than the other.
And a paternity test that doesn’t match the mother
Can’t have shit in Detroit
As a person who has successfully stolen shit from Detroit? I dont think youre correct.
PS : Detroitians. Please lay off the deep dish pizza. AND eat more fibre please!
The defibrillator strikes again!
Full disclosure: I am not a doctor.
Defibulator 😂
CLEAR
…of fibias!
All that hardware tells us otherwise.
Could be doctors trolling the staff.
I have the same nail in my tibia. I Also fractured my fibula and they said that they don’t normally do much for a fibula break.
I hope you got titanium. It’s bio compatible with bone and will fuse together. Took about ten years for me. I was told it’s not important to have a fibula but I think mine probably merged back together since it doesn’t feel like razor blades in my leg.
Looks like major leg construction, someone removed it and forgot to put it back in
“… limb lengthening surgery side effect may include missing bones , desire to reverse the surgery,… death… and other terrible things. Results may vary. No batteries included . No refunds guaranteed. Ask your doctor today.”
🌟🌟 Happy Go Lucky music continues to play in the bacckground 👯💃
Didn’t think of limb lengthening
That’s not what this is. That hardware is to set a bone, and those bone lengthy rigs are more complex.
Most likely scenario is either the bone was shattered enough that repair wasn’t possible, or it was used for a bone graft. The fibula is a common bone that’s used because it’s not very load bearing.
Someone yoinked it while you were under for surgery or something??? Lmao
I saw a guy selling fibulas on the black market and I thought it was humerous. He had that too but it cost an arm and a leg.
