Atlanta, GA | Non Union Fracture & What You Need To Know | Interventional Orthopedics of Atlanta

Herbert talks about a non union fracture he had in his wrist and getting the right treatment with Regenexx.

Transcription

Herbert Staley: So I'm just an everyday guy, just like anybody else, a heavy equipment operator in the union. That's what I do for a living. Everyday I wake up around 4:30. Get to the gym by 5:00. Workout for about 40 minutes, then I leave there, go straight to work. Usually work from 6:30 to 3:30. That could be eight hours or I could go 16 hours. I never really know. Anything can break. Something happens during the day and in a refinery, things change all the time. It was the day after Christmas, I'd just got some new pieces for my bike. I wanted to test them out. That's when I flipped over my bike and broke my wrist. After I broke my wrist, it never healed. It turns out it was a nonunion fracture in my wrist. Nonunion means a fracture that just doesn't heal.So I decided to go to an orthopedic. He pretty much tells me there is no other way to isolate this. It's one of them bones that just don't heal. That we're going to have to put a screw in it. It's affecting the way I work. It's affecting the way I play with my kids. All the hobbies I do. I pretty much lost all the strength in my wrist, can't deal with it any longer. It's affecting my life too much. And I started talking to some guys at work who've had similar surgery or they broke the same bone and have the screw, and they were telling me all the problems they've had with it. And discomfort, loss of range of motion.Instability can occur if the ligaments around the carpal bones are damaged. Having surgery, whether open or percutaneous is going to lead to possibly further arthritis down the road.And I heard about Regenexx.Where we did have that option of having the Regenexx procedure because his fracture was non-displaced.After talking to him, I felt really confident that Regenexx was the right thing for me. They numbed the area real good. I was awake the whole time.And this is the scaphoid bone and I've circled in red where the swelling in the bone is. And you can see this dark fracture line. This MRI was from last week and as you can see, there's... The fracture's healed and there's no more swelling in that portion of the scaphoid bone.Six to eight weeks and I was back to normal. Playing with my kids, enjoying my everyday life just as I was. No discomfort whatsoever. All my strength was back. I went back to normal life without any screws. Every day at work, I could have been in discomfort, loss of range of motion. It could affect the way I operate equipment and go about my life. It could affected the way I play with my kids.You ready? Daddy, I'm not going to go with you.Next time.Yeah.Good job. All my hobbies I do. It's really gave me my life back. I'm able to do everything I can just the way I was before.