Continued from the post on Machinery Talk found here.

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=911548

I've not talked or told many people about my injury on Ag Talk but I had an injury last fall that was my first serious injury requiring my first ever surgery. Other than a couple annual visits for routine blood work I avoid the Dr's but I knew I was in trouble right away this time.

I had a mini bulk bag of some old seed wheat that I was wanting to use up sowing in places where water tends to wash and erode. I lifted it with the skidloader and did not want to crawl out under the raised boom as there was a younger guy a while back North of me with the same skidloader as mine that the hydraulics failed and it fell and crushed and killed him. I think that may have even been mentioned on Ag Talk at the time.

I was lifting the partial mini bulk bag of wheat up to empty into my drill fill auger. I climbed out over the top of the boom and jumped down just like hundreds of times before.  When I hit the ground something popped in my right knee. Like it popped out of joint then back in. I knew right away something was probably torn. I hobbled around and the next day went to the after hour's clinic. They pulled and yanked on it and thought it was maybe just a really bad sprain since I was not yelling in pain when they moved it around but that I should follow up with family Dr.

This happened on October 12. Got an x-ray in a couple days and showed no bones were broke. Still very swollen and very stiff. They wanted me to stay off it, ice it and elevate it and I said "can't do it" I'm a one man show and I still have 1/2 of my harvest to complete. I bought a brace and tried to minimize moving it or bending it and hobbled on through the rest of harvest. Nobody could seem to say what was the real issue or whether further damage would occur so I erred on the safe side by limiting movement.

Had several family Dr. follow ups without much in the way of results. I pushed right away for an MRI. Everyone drug their feet and wanted to keep waiting and seeing and sating the swelling had to go down before the MRI could show much (I’ve since learned that is not always true.) I finished harvest over the next 4 weeks hobbling around being careful as to avoid making anything worse than it already was. Naturally I had all my late beans left to run (which were notorious for wrapping on the reel) and with the late planting they were the worst wrapping things I had ever seen. Green, tough stems that simply would not feed well. So here I am with a swollen and tight knee climbing in and out dozens of times per day to cut off the wrapping stems. I even resorted to getting some solid drain tile and covering up the miserable pipe reels that I continue to hate vs my old rear drop bats. While that helped a lot it still did not eliminate the wrapping issues.

 Finally got everybody on the same page that an MRI was needed and had that done on 11/15.

A couple days later I got a frantic call from the Dr. that I should be on crutches ASAP as they saw a small fracture as well as torn/ruined ACL ligament. I’m thinking hey I've only been walking on it and climbing in and out of the combine and trucks for a month now.  Took until 11/26 to get appointment with the orthopedic surgeon.  His first words, “why are you on crutches”? I said they claimed it was a fracture. He said there is no fracture.

He only had 2 surgery days left for the year. 12/11/and 12/18 . He did outpatient surgery on 12/11 went in at 6 am and was out at noon. No complications and they did the donor graft type repair. Followed up on 12/18 to remove staples and set up rehab. Some more mix up on getting rehab set up and arguing where that was to take place plus Christmas and New Years. Finally got therapy started in January while wearing leg immobilizer and not allowed to put full weight on it and having to go with a walker or crutches.

I am back to being able to put full weight on it but I’m still wearing a knee support brace and trying to get rid of using the cane and working on getting flexibility back. I'm at 101 degrees of bend as of Friday with a little ways to go yet. . It's been a very long and slow frustrating process. I've virtually been stuck in a 12x24 room at home for most of the winter but at least have everything set up there. Set up my computer to run on TV, elevated platform for recliner, single bed, table for paperwork and office work/tax prep. Just a few steps to bathroom and kitchen and no stairs except 2 outside. Mostly trips to Dr. or therapy and little else.

It's also something that cannot be rushed or risk re-injury and undoing things. I'm hoping to be ready to go good by planting time but the whole healthcare system and insurance is a major pain. Like I said this was my first major injury and first ever surgery which really had me freaked out about being put under.  That was all fine though about 3 breaths was all I remembered and then I was waking up with it over.

There were some more actual disturbing but not really surprising things encountered going through this whole process that I am unwilling to go into the full details about at this time.

 This has been an eye opening event for me. I was already well on the way to try and make things simpler handier and easier. After all of this, I have more to do so I can keep on farming for years to come.  There will be no more jumping down off stuff either.

Father time sent a message and it was received loud and clear.

To all whom I have wrote and talked about this with privately, thank you for your words of encouragement and support and thank you for not discussing this until I was ready to reveal this on my own time frame.