Living with Bilateral Quadriceps Tendon Tears and Repairs

This POST is intended as a forum for those who have or have had bilateral quadriceps tears (and subsequent repairs). You can post here or e-mail me at JimClawson@virginia.edu . My new friend, Jim Falvo, has also had this. Here's Jim Falvo's Amazing Story .

(The short introduction) On 9/2/06, I was descending a flight of stairs in Istanbul, Turkey, and both my legs gave away. I heard a distinct "pop, pop, pop" in both legs as they collapsed. The next day, MRI's confirmed the diagnosis, bi-lateral quadriceps tears. It was very painful, terrifying, and confusing since I had no sense of weakness, fatigue, or advance warning. Getting home from Istanbul was a grueling experience made possible by a generous client and the warm flight attendant staff on a Delta flight. Since then I've learned that this is a relatively rare event; the first surgery on bilateral quadriceps ruptures (BQRs) was only done in 1949, two years after I was born. If you've had or are in the middle of a BQR event, I hope my experience here will help you. And if you're willing, I hope you'll write and share your experience with me and others. I couldn't find any blogs on-line that covered this kind of experience. So I wrote a "BLIARY" (non-interactive) which if you want more details and recovery history, you can find at:

http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/clawsonj/HTML%20DATA%20and%20LINKs/Bilateral_Quad_Tear_Blog.htm

If you've had a BLQT, I hope you'll share your experience with Jim Falvo and me. Cheers.