First off, I am 33 and was born unable to walk.
I had the first double correctional suregry in the Uk (so I am told) at the age of 6 weeks. I was a big baby, over 10lbs and premature...poor mother.
At the time doctors said it would be quite a feat if I would ever walk properly. during the first 3 years or so I wore special callipers a la Forest Gump, which then progressed into custom made shoes and boots. During the early teen years I was actually a competing cross-country runner, fit as a fiddle and would regularly run 13miles minimum a day, sucess.....
fast forward a few years to 18 and the struggles begin. fast forward a few more years and its my wedding day and i'm sectetlry necking morphine just so I can give my wife the first dance..... why? Because I am not classed as disabled under the new PIP standars, yet I cannot walk.
If only Carbesberg made ankles...they would sell like hot cakes and I would be queing all night.
What I wanted to dicuss was a method of correction I actally saw on on TV programme about pets believe it or not. it was Noel Fitzpatrick on Supervet.
He operated on a massive dog that weighed more than me at the time and used one of his own techniques to rebuild the dogs ankle cartlidge using its own stem cells.
I know this has been done on humans but why is it not more widespread? The options I have been given are either fusing my knees and ankles or double amputation. So the first I will walk like a pirtae, the second I will forever be the pirate (to my friends children at least). I wish i had my own but I cannot bear to bring a child into this world to a father who cannot walk with the, play in the garden with thema nd do all the things most people look forward too. ( I know that sounds bad as people are in much worse positions than myself but we are entiltled to our own opinions).
Does anyone on here know of any surgeons in the UK who do this stem cell treatment?
