The wonders of my knee
Saw my doc today as a follow up to the xray and MRI I had done on my knee the other week. That week of tele skiing in BC had done me in and it was time to see what was rumbling under the hood. Fifteen years has past since its last inspection and I sure got my copay's worth! You may recall that I optimistically thought it would just be a bunch of yummy scar tissue. Oh no.
1) Re-torn ACL - I AM STUNNED, yet remarkably flabbergasted at the awesomeness of my leg strength to adapt to this handicap. And in all my ignorance I cannot believe that I've been running around and trying to ski with NO ACL. Those of you who don't know this cute little ligament - it basically stabilizes your whole knee, connecting the tibia and femur, and w/o it your knee buckles and you fall and hurt more delicate features. Picture yourself with a rubber chicken as your right leg, now try to go play. I tore this ACL back in 1988 and it was very annoying to have it buckle intermittently until I finally had it repaired in 1993. She doesn't know how long it's been torn, but I have no idea when I could have done this over the last 15 years. I guess that woman rugby player who tried to pick me up at the gym years ago was right when I tried to insist that I couldn't play w/o an ACL: " I don't have an ACL," she said alluringly.
2) Torn lateral meniscus and medial meniscus - Oh boy torn cartilage!! I had one of these repaired in 1988, guess it's time again!
3) Chondromalacia - More damaged cartilage! This is more cartilage under the kneecap and on the femur. Pain increases with bending! This is why tele and walking downhill hurts like HELL. Joy!!
4) Osteoarthritic changes - Yay arthritis!! She said it's just starting and that it could be mitigated with glucosamine and chondroitin supplements and maybe surgery to clean it out.
She was expecting to put me in surgery soon, but I said NO THANKS, maybe next year. It doesn't interfere with my cycling, which is all that matters right now. So my backcountry skiing dreams are indefinitely postponed. I'll keep the fire going for y'all and drink all the Baileys myself!
5 comments:
Wow - sounds like my knee! I'm so sorry to hear you're going through that! After 3 ACL's and one meniscus - I wish I would have had sense to talk with more doctors and natural paths. Already plagued with potentially disabling arthritis as the years go by from previous surgeries, I often wonder if going back under the knife was the smartest thing? There has to be other options other than western medicine - who really wants to replace their knee when they get older and lose up to an inch of height? Wild stuff!
I'm with you though - and am more than happy to lend a hand in any way I can! Maybe another opinion is a good option? Christian Peterson at Northwest Hospital (northgate) is an excellent sports medicine doc with ankle and knee specialization.... I know a good acupuncturist too.
Good luck! The cool thing though - cycling is good for us lame ducks with missing tendons and stuff...
ooooooh you too!!! (And you're a tele-goddess?!?!)
You're the 3rd person today who has said they had these same injuries and totally regretted their surgeries (all women mind you, men are too stubborn to admit they're injured or made a bad decision). I've learned enough over the years that cartilage is sacred and I'll take some tears over some overzealous, arrogant doc sucking up more than is necessary and leaving me worse off. If the meniscus can be repaired again - great. If not, leave me the eff alone. I'll look into the ACL repair for next winter and snoop around for good recs. So far no one comes recommended!
So for now it's mass amounts of glucosamine and chondroiton. I've heard more positive results than negative and my naturopath says it could heal some of my damage. Nothing to lose, right?
And yes, hooray for bikes. They've always been my salvation through my knee sagas. I'm just not meant to do a sport that doesn't require sitting on my ass.
Ooo - doesn't sound like a good knee state. I completely tore the meniscus when I was playing hoops without an ACL. I actually didn't know my ACL was gone until they told me it had been gone for a while (probably over a year!). You're right that you don't need an ACL to bike. But you definitely need it for any sort of stable lateral movement. I actually played ball on it for over a year before I completely blew things out - another testament to how well your knee can adapt!
Even if you don't want to deal with the ACL reconstruction (which is definitely a pain), you should strongly consider the meniscus work. Knee reconstruction has changed phenomenally in the last 5-10 years. I ended up requiring two surgeries: one to repair the badly damaged meniscus (amazingly only a very small amount had to be removed) so that I could straighten my knee. Then a second one after that to repair the ACL. The meniscus work was painful, but I was pretty much walking on it after 2 weeks. The ACL took longer, but I really needed it for hoops (and it's essential in preventing more meniscus-type injuries). Definitely not pleasant, though. But my knee is completely 100% (it's my back now :P). Dr. Green at the University of Washington Sports Clinic is the dude. I had done a lot of research to find him (both my girlfriend and I arrived at the same person when we were doing our search).
Find someone who works on athletes and does the surgery multiple times a week.
Thanks for the great recommendation! I'd really like to have the meniscus repaired and will not accept removal as an option. They repaired my medial 20 years ago...hopefully it's in a state where they can do it again.
As for your ACL, what kind of ligament did they use? Hammy? Cadaver? I'd like to use the latter so my body doesn't have to experience yet more complications, which are inevitable when they use your own tissue (speaking from my experience and from others). For Joe Couch Potato that might be fine, but not for those of us who are extremely active and...uh...getting older.
They ended up using part of the tendon that is attached to the knee cap. It's pretty big and I haven't had any side-affects so far (knock on wood). And I'm a 6'4", 38-year old who still plays basketball (wassaaap;). Honestly, if you can, you should make sure you find a good doc. Someone who does a lot of these surgeries. Come to Seattle and lookup Dr. Green at the UW Sports clinic. He's my hero.
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