Frank Short is a knucklehead. He’s a shovelhead, too. And a panhead.
Call him any of those to his face, and you’ll be met with a small smile peeking out from his long white beard. Harley-Davidson motorcycles and their engines, from Knucklehead to Evolution, are more than just a hobby for Frank. They’re a way of life.
“A friend of mine let me ride his motorcycle when I was 16,” Frank said. “He said, ‘If you can start it, you can ride it.’ And that hooked me.”
That bike was a 1947 Knucklehead. Two years later, Frank bought a 1965 Panhead, and the throttle was opened wide to a hobby he hasn’t retired from.
Life has taken Frank a lot of places, usually on his 1975 Shovelhead. He’s worked at a Harley-Davidson dealership in St. Louis and as a union ironworker on major projects like the newest Busch Stadium and Mizzou Arena. Each day of work was a hard one, and being on a bike would wash away the physical and mental strain.
“It's an instant stress release, and I just like the older bikes,” Frank, now retired in Hermann, Missouri, said. “All the new ones are great, but they are computer operated. My bikes are very simple and, for me, easy to work on.”
As Frank got older, the wear and tear of tough jobs started to add up, resulting in daily ankle pain. Motorcycle rides became shorter, and recovery took longer. That pain turned even simple chores into difficult tasks.
Worse, as Frank’s arthritis pain worsened, he had no comfortable place to rest his left foot while riding a bike. He talked to his primary care doctor and a friend in Hermann. Both recommended he visit MU Health Care’s Missouri Orthopaedic Institute.
“It just progressively got worse,” Frank said. “Some days it didn’t bother me so much, but some days it was excruciating. The pain level would be at a 10 or more. I figured I'd either be on crutches, or I needed to do something about it.”
The Missouri Orthopaedic Institute is the region’s largest freestanding orthopaedic center. Under one roof, patients get care from teams of doctors, advanced practice providers, nurses, imaging specialists, physical therapists and more.
Frank met with Kyle Schweser, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in ankle pain.
“Frank came to me with painful arthritis,” Schweser said. “He’s a stoic guy, but it was clear that it was affecting his life. And during our first meeting, he wasn’t aware that a total ankle replacement with an artificial joint was an option for ankle arthritis.”
Frank was struggling with the pain, and he didn’t like being less active than he was used to. He was resting and icing his ankle constantly and had tried anti-inflammatory medications, which didn’t help enough.
“When he and his wife told me what his day-to-day routine was like, my reaction was, that's not really a way to live,” Schweser said. “Together, we decided that a total ankle replacement would be the best thing for Frank.”
Like Harley-Davidson engines, artificial ankle joints have become more advanced over the years. These days, ankle replacements are as effective on average as knee replacements, and patients can expect about 15 years of effective motion from the new joint.
Schweser ordered a CT scan of Frank’s left ankle joint, and six weeks later, Frank had a new ankle. He went home the same day as his surgery.
“I don’t run or jump any more, but my ankle is a hundred percent better,” Frank said. “I can walk around and up stairs without any pain. I can’t thank Dr. Schweser enough for straightening out my ankle.”
After Schweser confirmed that Frank’s surgical incisions had healed, he started walking in a boot. The boot came off four weeks later. Less than two months after surgery, Frank was back to daily life and receiving physical therapy in Hermann.
“I feel blessed to work at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute because we’re given the freedom to pursue treatment options that are best for each individual patient,” Schweser said. “Unfortunately, total ankle replacement is not as well-known as artificial knee and hip joints, but it does the same job of relieving a patient’s pain. Having total ankle as an option, and I believe we do it very well, helps promote healing and allows patients to get back to their lives.”
Frank was so pleased with the ease and quality of care that he returned to the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute a few months later to treat hammertoe in his right foot.
Since his surgeries, Frank has more and better ankle mobility. He’s back on his feet and back in the saddle.
“I can ride without pain,” Frank said. “As long as I have gas in that motorcycle, I can ride as long as I want.”