It’s been a long time coming but Zola is finally hardware free. Yesterday the doctor removed the bone plate and screws that were used to repair her fractured left femur. At one point we thought that we could just leave them in there, who needs extra surgery? Then we considered the potential of bone cancer as a side effect of the plate and screws. Compared to cancer, what’s another surgery?
The crowning blow was that Zola could not run. We anticipated that by this time she would be able to run in a 5-k race, but she limped and ran 3-legged much longer than anyone imagined. It turned out that the plate irritated the quadriceps muscle “on flexion for prolonged exercise” (so says the surgeon’s notes). That lead us to the final decision to remove the plate, remove it now and get on with life.
So here we are, six months and three surgeries later we have a bone plate and 8 screws in a plastic bag as a souvenir. The latest rumor, only 4 weeks left until Zola is back to “normal”.
