“Back in 2020, when I was working in the garden in Opperdoes, I turned around to place my tools on the ground and fell backwards as I turned. The fall broke the head of my radius into several pieces. All because of one wrong move.”
“I went to the Dijklander Hospital in Hoorn, where they repaired it all. But because the head of the radius was shattered, all the ligaments had also torn. It ruined the joint and the solidity, and my hand moved every which way. My radius kept touching my ulna, which hurt a lot.
So then, they shortened the ulna by a few millimetres. Trauma surgeon Arwin Noor said that was all he could do for me, and the prognosis was that they would eventually have to fasten the joint, turning my arm into a stick with fingers, as it were.”
Scheker prosthesis
“I didn’t want that. I wanted to go to a clinic in Amsterdam, but Dr Noor referred me to trauma surgeon Niels Schep, of the Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam. He was an old classmate of his who was highly regarded which is how I – luckily – got to see him. He told me: we aren’t going to fasten the arm; we are going to reconstruct it.
They did put the broken joint back together, but could never make it fit the way it used to. They made 3D printed moulds based on the intact joint in my other arm, then sawed the joint into pieces and put those back in the right position with a 3D printed titanium wrist plate. That went well, but the pain remained on the side of my ulna. It hurt 24/7.
Finally, Dr Schep sawed the head off of the ulna and placed a Scheker distal radio-ulnar joint prosthesis, to connect the ulna to the radius. That was last August, and now I can move and turn my wrist again, like normal.”
10 kilograms
“The prosthesis does have one limitation, which is that it can only take a maximum load of 10 kilograms. That’s not a lot of weight – it’s about one bucket of water. Of course, there are many things I could also do with two hands, but I can’t handle a whole day of roadwork anymore.
I’m also an avid mountain biker. I got one a couple of years ago with dual suspension, which makes for a great ride. But during a ride a while ago, I couldn’t manage. That was before I had the brace – I remember standing in the woods, and felt like throwing my bike in the bushes and walking home instead. I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m a really active person, and that part of my life had been taken away from me. All because of that freak accident.”
Mountain biking
“Dr Schep referred me to Manometric. He also works at the Spijkenisse Medical Centre and Manometric has surgery hours there. They made a custom brace specifically for my wrist joint. I’m still testing it out, but I am very pleased with it so far.
It’s great, though it does take away a bit of mobility. But of course, it has to in order to prevent me from making a wrong move. It offers nice stability, and it fits like a glove. Of course, it’s sturdy, but that silicone comes in handy when I’m biking through water and mud: it’s very easy to clean. And when you’re on a mountain bike, that doesn’t matter.”
Making a switch
“In January, we moved from Opperdoes to Elsloo, in Friesland. We had been planning to move there for a time. An old friend of mine, who we’ve visited often over the past fifteen years, lives nearby in Drenthe. We now live right on the edge of Drents-Friese Wold National Park. From our house I can look one way and see pasture, and the other to see heathlands. Mountain biking here is fantastic (…) No, I haven’t joined a club yet.
I’ve had quite a tough time, with five operations in two years. And it’s had quite an impact: I have to get back in shape first, and both of us just started new jobs here (…) I recently biked without my brace, which I can manage without too much pain if I don’t go too far. But I have to be careful too, because this prosthesis is easy to damage. I’m determined not to break it. And it’s essential for me to just always wear the brace. But making that switch does take some getting used to.’’
– Sjaak Smakman – March 2023 – From Manometric Magazine 3
