Hello all!!!
Welcome to my first ever blog, not that anyone will ever read it. I have decided to try this to keep a record of my experience of going through knee surgery.
Here's the back story. I first hurt my knee when I was 17 during a school ski trip. The doctor at the time thought I had strained a ligament, gave me a brace and crutches and sent me on my way. It has never really been right since. Over the years it has always hurt and given way on me. Several times badly enough to put me out for a couple of weeks. I have seen 4 doctors about it with everybody agreeing that there was something "not quite right", but never agreeing on what was wrong or on any way to fix other than physical therapy, which never worked for very long. I probably should have been more persistant about it sooner, but there was always a good reason not to. When I finally had a good job with health insurance, I was in the Navy and assigned to a ship, or my kids were being born, or I was going to Iraq. When I left my last ship, I was determined to get something done about my knee, I couldn't take it anymore.
Enter Dr. Gerbino. I saw him at the Presidio of Monterey clinic where he does his Naval Reserve time seeing orthopedic patients. He did an exam, actually looked at the MRI (a simple concept, but something none of the others had done), and told me that I probably partially tore my ACL back in high school on that ski trip and that it has gotten prgressively looser over time. In his words, "you have probably added 15 extra years onto that knee."
So, I am finally going to have it fixed. I will be having an Allograft ACL reconstruction with either a repair of my medial meniscus or a partial meniscectomy. For you non-knee nerds, that means that the main ligament in my knee will be rebuilt with the tendon from a cadaver and the cartilage that sits between my femur and tibia on the inside that is torn will be either sewn back together or the damaged parts taken out. I am expecting to be on crutches for about 2-4 weeks and in a brace for 4-6 weeks, all subject to what the doctor finds once he sticks the camera in my knee.
So, if there is still anyone reading this, I am off for surgery and the road to finally having two working knees.
Welcome to my first ever blog, not that anyone will ever read it. I have decided to try this to keep a record of my experience of going through knee surgery.
Here's the back story. I first hurt my knee when I was 17 during a school ski trip. The doctor at the time thought I had strained a ligament, gave me a brace and crutches and sent me on my way. It has never really been right since. Over the years it has always hurt and given way on me. Several times badly enough to put me out for a couple of weeks. I have seen 4 doctors about it with everybody agreeing that there was something "not quite right", but never agreeing on what was wrong or on any way to fix other than physical therapy, which never worked for very long. I probably should have been more persistant about it sooner, but there was always a good reason not to. When I finally had a good job with health insurance, I was in the Navy and assigned to a ship, or my kids were being born, or I was going to Iraq. When I left my last ship, I was determined to get something done about my knee, I couldn't take it anymore.
Enter Dr. Gerbino. I saw him at the Presidio of Monterey clinic where he does his Naval Reserve time seeing orthopedic patients. He did an exam, actually looked at the MRI (a simple concept, but something none of the others had done), and told me that I probably partially tore my ACL back in high school on that ski trip and that it has gotten prgressively looser over time. In his words, "you have probably added 15 extra years onto that knee."
So, I am finally going to have it fixed. I will be having an Allograft ACL reconstruction with either a repair of my medial meniscus or a partial meniscectomy. For you non-knee nerds, that means that the main ligament in my knee will be rebuilt with the tendon from a cadaver and the cartilage that sits between my femur and tibia on the inside that is torn will be either sewn back together or the damaged parts taken out. I am expecting to be on crutches for about 2-4 weeks and in a brace for 4-6 weeks, all subject to what the doctor finds once he sticks the camera in my knee.
So, if there is still anyone reading this, I am off for surgery and the road to finally having two working knees.
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