Surgery

I had surgery on my knee Wednesday.

After seeing the doctor on Tuesday and learning that surgery was inevitable, I wanted to get it done asap. Lucky for me the doctor had an opening.

The MRI showed that there was NO cartilage between the bones on the right side of my left knee. Beautiful. Apparently it's been bone on bone for quite a while. (That light pink line from top right to bottom left is bone.)

 

There was a lot of cartilage floating around in there so he cleaned it out.

 

Then he removed the cartilage hanging from my bone,

 

along with the *pieces that were embedded in the tissue! (*My favorite picture.) GROSS!

 

Next the bones were resurfaced and tendons checked.

 

Finally, holes were made in the femur (using a tool like an ice pick) so that blood and bone marrow can come out and form new cartilage. Of course it won't be the same kind that was originally there, but it will provide a cushion and be better than nothing.

 

I've said before that I'm grateful for modern medicine. I was out during the surgery although it was arthroscopic and have only four little incisions in my knee where the doctor went in and fixed it.

 

Oh, and I figured out what happened to wreak this all this havoc!

I was carrying Logan to bed when I was pregnant with Bergen and tripped on a box of toys. I landed square on my left knee. It was the only thing to hit the ground. (No big deal. Or so I thought.) That was probably when the cartilage initially broke apart. Then a week or so before this whole episode started I banged my knee into the corner of a kitchen cupboard. And it hurt, but again, I thought nothing of it -- until the fluid started to build. Unfortunately that bump was just enough of a blow to trigger the recent developments. (That little scar in the middle of my knee is where I hit it.)




So, there you have it. I have to stay down for one week, keeping my leg elevated and iced. I will also be on crutches for six weeks, not being able to bear any weight on my leg.

Did I say I was grateful for modern medicine? I should also add Lortab. And Craig, who is working hard to take care of me and everything else for the duration.