Stumpy's Blog

This blog is about my return to Walter Reed to get a new leg. I am an above-the-knee amputee. I lost my leg in April 2007 in Iraq while riding in a Humvee that was struck by an "explosively formed projectile" -- a molten metal jet stream released from a homemade roadside bomb. My left knee was shattered and later amputated at Walter Reed. I rushed through rehab to get back to Alaska quickly. But my leg continued to change, and now my prosthetic doesn't fit, and I need to begin again. I'll keep you posted on my progress and experience. This time, it will work.


About me

Joshua Ferguson

I joined the Army in 1996 and my position is as a forward observer. My dad was in the Air Force and I'm the oldest of four with one brother and two sisters. My wife is Danielle, and we have three young children, J.J., 5 in June, Corinne, 3 in July, and little Madeline, 1 this month. My goal is to complete a full 20 years in the military, and then retire to become a teacher at the elementary or high school levels.

FEATURE STORY

New life & limbs

Read reporter George Bryson's account of how Ferguson ended up on his way back to Walter Reed.

Archive

Iron Dog - 11/11/2009 6:45 pm

Running and Snow - 11/9/2009 3:40 pm

Waszack - 10/29/2009 7:38 pm

Waiting for the rut! - 10/29/2009 6:20 pm

OK hunt was Awesome! - 10/20/2009 11:51 pm

Football - 10/5/2009 5:50 pm

Golf & Football - 10/1/2009 5:11 pm

Crossroads - 9/23/2009 11:47 am

Where were you? - 9/11/2009 7:34 pm

Facebook is crazy - 9/10/2009 1:39 pm

Two more - 9/9/2009 11:27 am

Hell of a year - 9/6/2009 7:24 am

New 4/25 guys at Walter Reed - 6/28/2009 4:23 pm

Tournament on Friday - 5/6/2009 2:25 pm

Still slacking - 4/29/2009 4:39 pm

Slacking - 4/7/2009 12:28 am

Less than a week - 3/24/2009 4:49 am

Still unclear - 3/23/2009 11:43 pm

More surgery? - 3/12/2009 7:06 pm

Gone again - 3/9/2009 4:41 pm

Good Morning! - 3/3/2009 3:37 am

I hate sleep! - 2/20/2009 12:08 am

full archive »

More surgery?

Posted by stumpysblog

Posted: March 12, 2009 - 7:06 pm

Comments (0) |

So I thought I was out of the woods. I had a scanogram a few weeks ago and, from that angle, everything looked fine. We could not explain the pain though. The area around the distal portion of my hamstring is extremely weak and tender to any external pressure. The last few weeks I have even been waking up from the pain.

I had thought that some of the pain may have had something to do with my workouts, but I hadn't really made any changes. Other than another myodecis (sp?) failure nothing really made sense.

I spoke with one of the Ortho docs who scrubbed in on my last revision. There are three possible causes. The first is the chance of a residual infection. Since I have had re-occuring infections that is a possibility. That doesn't explain the waking up at night from the pain though. The two more likely scenarios are either nebolo(sp?) or another failure. The first, of the two, is where the end of a nerve that has been cut tries to reattach. It ends up growing into a bundle of nerves which are extremely sensitive. That is not uncommon, however if it is down towards the distal end, it would be under alot of pressure from the socket.

The next is plain old muscle failure. There is an angle on my last shots that may show a tear in my hamstring. If that is the case, it has either ripped already, or it is in the process. I guess we'll see. I am getting an MRI and a PET scan soon. That should narrow down the possible culprits.

That's it for now, when I find anything out, I'll keep you updated. Thanks for checking in again. I'll talk to you later-Josh


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