Or Meccano, if north of the 49th?
My new hardware...
red lines denote approx where the old part was cut out and the recycled part installed with the new hardware.
(this is from a panorex xray. The film, or in this case the image receptor (film is so 'old'), rotates about the head on a vertical axis in order to capture the flat image.) The recycled bone is perforated to promote the integration of new growth with the old.
(https://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/djmbucket/oddsnends01/mandiblereinforcedcroppedcutlines.jpg)
I used to love playing with my erector set!
Wow, you got some neat new pieces!
Bruce
Cool, Don.
That looks pretty brutal! Hope you're feeling better.
Don is the hardware just on the exterior of the jaw? You would think that it would be braced from both sides. Hope the graft is taking well. When can you start using the new stuff with regular food?
Right now soft foods are okay. Something chewier will have to wait a few weeks still. At present opening wide enough to stuff a burger is a challenge that is too difficult due to muscle stiffness. I have to work on that slowly without stressing things.
I think the reason there is no internal plate and bolt through is that this was all done from the outside. The skin inside the mouth was not broken at all. That was done to keep all the nasty germs that are found in the mouth away from all the surgical goings-on.
What a great topic, I was all excited till I found it was about Don's jaw again, ;)
The piece in your jaw reminds me of my least favorite part of an Erector set, I much preferred the larger girder like pieces, the ones with the much sharper edges. Now for my erector set story, for several Christmases in a row my two cousins and I got identical Erector sets, and we would get to open them at my grandparents house on Christmas morning. We were all excited to play with them, But.......our uncle's would always have a better idea, They would show us how to build stuff....So we were stuck sitting there while they combined every part of all three sets to build something really huge, of course we eventually got to "PLAY" with them by taking apart and sorting out all the parts.
I did have an extensive array of Meccano parts, the original bolt together toy. Too bad it's long gone. As I grew older the parts got passed to cousins and they disappeared over the years. Of course back then who wanted to save, hoard old toys when there was the cool up and coming battery powered electronic stuff.
Didn't I see a jaw like that in a James Bond movie.......?
The body is an awesome thing...congratulations on your healing progress.
One day, I may let you all see my pictures ... but I don't think I even want to THINK about having surgery like that!
And yes, I had Erector sets, and TinkerToys, and my favorite, Kenner's girder and panel sets...
hmmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here. Guess I just love to build things ;D
I'm very glad to see you're on the mend, Don!