Conditions + Treatments
Ankle Injury/Condition
I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Montgomery, AL with my parents and older brother and sister. However, my father served in the military for about 20 years, so I grew up moving around a lot and have been all around the United States as well as Germany and Africa.
I had a relatively good childhood except for the fact I was diagnosed with asthma as a kid and was prescribed tetracycline when I was young, as a child tetracycline will react with calcium in the bones.
When I got to high school, a time in which integration was being implemented, I became a drummer for the high school marching band. I was pretty good and my mom even cashed in some of her savings so that she could buy me a snare drum to march with.
I even became good enough to go to the University of Alabama and play in the Million Dollar Marching Band. While in the band, I learned some very valuable lessons under the leadership of Mr. Hollinger. The lesson I learned best at this time was that excuses lead to failure, and I still remember that to this day.
While in college I also studied engineering. I became a registered professional engineer in the state of Alabama as well as a principal engineer, also in the state of Alabama. I first worked for Alabama Power and then headed to work in nuclear engineering. I later moved into parcel design which then eventually led to me becoming a principal engineer with Southern Company.
I worked at Southern Company, in instrumentation and controls, up until my retirement, which was 38 years later. Now, I love riding my Motorcycle, a 22 Street Glide Special, and living on Logan Martin where my kids can come and visit.
Back in 2014, I was at Logan Martin Lake with my family and I went to bring down the paddle board for my daughter to use. When I was grabbing it, my left leg slid and my right leg snapped. Until this moment, I had never broken a bone. I was taken immediately to a local hospital, as the break resulted in my bone protruding out of the skin.
I was taken to a doctor who performed the surgery, but unfortunately I had complications from surgery. At the time, I did not know better to check reviews and ratings of doctors and I wish I had been more active in my initial visits. I had an ORIF (open reduction and internal fixation) surgery, and after the surgery I ended up getting an infection. Later I was told that the infection was due to my bone protruding out and it being likely that lake water infected the wound. The Infection took a long time to heal and caused me to lose weight and walk with a limp.
Five years after this accident, I finally decided to go to Andrews Sports Medicine to get them to look at my leg and ankle. During these five years, I had been in much pain and was walking around with a limp. In fact, I thought I was keeping my discomfort discrete, but I was not. My friends and family finally got tired of seeing me deal with the pain that they pushed me to go to Andrews Sports Medicine to get help.
In October of 2019, I had my first appointment with Dr. Norman Waldrop. I immediately liked him. He did not pull any punches and was straight and honest with me. He said that I had significant osteoarthritis of the tibiotalar joint, joint space narrowing. I still had my hardware intact from my surgery in 2014. Dr. Waldrop officially diagnosed me with right ankle posttraumatic osteoarthritis.
Dr. Waldrop discussed several options that would help me deal with or relieve pain. He described a right ankle arthroscopic fusion with removal of medial ankle hardware surgery. I was so tired of dealing with the pain that after our discussion I decided to go forward with the surgery. Initially, after the surgery, I was in a wheelchair and walker for a little bit and had to undergo a lot of physical therapy. Overall, the recovery timeline was about a year long. It was an extremely tough process but I kept remembering the lesson I learned in the band about not making excuses and to stay humble.
Now, it has almost been 10 years since the initial accident and surgery and about 5 years since my surgery with Dr. Waldrop. I am finally able to walk around freely. I no longer have any pain and can tell a drastic difference in my overall well-being. I can get back to living my life.
I am extremely grateful, not just to Dr. Waldrop and his staff, but to everyone at Andrews Sports Medicine. I wish I could go back 10 years ago and find my way to this Andrews, so that I could have recovered sooner, but I am just grateful I came when I did. Dr. Waldrop is a great man and surgeon and it was my pleasure to be able to meet him.
My name is John Bryant and I believe in Victory Over Injury!
