My knees going bad... more surgery soon?

mmglobal · #1 (**permalink**) 06-10-2008, 02:26 AM

I'd never had any knee problems before my disability. I was ironic that after I returned from total disability to normal health... my R knee went bad. After years of disability, following my 3rd spine surgery (2-level ADR), at 3 months I was playing tennis... at 4 months I was SCUBA diving and rock climbing... at 5 months I was playing soccer.

BAM... at 6 months I was having knee surgery. An osteochondritic leision had torn loose. A small chunk of 'dead bone' came apart inside my knee, making it necessary to do a pretty standard arthroscopic cleanup surgery. Amazingly, after all my research on spine, I just went to my local surgeon and did what he felt was appropriate.

The surgeon told me that for this type of surgery, he has to grind away at necrotic bone, looking for healthy bone. He said that he just had to keep grinding and grinding and ultimately removed almost 1/2 of the medial condyle. After battling back and returning to sports, he said that will not be successful at volleyball, basketball, soccer or any other sport that was hard on the knees. (He said Tennis was OK, to which I replied, "If tennis is not hard on your knees, you are not playing it right!")

I was shocked that it didn't bother me to hang up my cleats... I felt that it should have been devistating, but I didn't care because MY BACK DIDN'T HURT! In any case, I recovered nicely from the knee surgery, but after a couple of years, my R (the operated knee) started to ache substantially. On one of my trips to the AlphaKlnik, Dr. Toft did an MRI. I was shocked when he said that based on the xrays, my L knee was in worse shape. (There was no MRI of the left.)

My symptoms were not bad enough to do anything yet, so a couple more years passed with just a slight increase in ache and advancing to both sides. A year ago, I had severe pain in my L knee and an MRI shows a miniscus tear. Everyone said that they don't get better on their own, but I didn't listen.. for the last year I've tolerated very temporary bouts of severe pain 3-4 times a week.

Things have gotten much worse and I'm ready to go. If I'm going to simply repair the tear, I'll probably do it locally, but I'll be sending a new MRI to Dr. Toft. If he feels that I'm a good candidate for chondroplasty, I'll do it. I don't know how likely this is. I think a better candidate is earlier in the degenerative process and ther cartilage in both knees is pretty much gone. But I trust Dr. Toft and will most likely do what he recommends.

I wonder if I can observe my own surgery?

Wish me luck... all the best,

Mark

dshobbies · #2 (**permalink**) 06-10-2008, 05:47 PM

Growing older is bad enough but aging SUCKS!

Maria · #3 (**permalink**) 06-10-2008, 11:25 PM

I did this at Kaiser back in '83. My first knee surgery, right medial meniscus tear repair/synovectomy.

It would have been very interesting but I had too much IV fluid in prior to surgery while waiting (surgery pushed back several hours) and didn't get catheterized prior to surgery so almost *burst* during surgery (begged to be cathed but wasn't). Also begged the surgeon to "hurry up"~ he was a nice guy, said he'd never ask another woman if she wanted to stay awake and watch her own surgery again!

You'll probably enjoy watching the surgery if you are able. My second knee surgery was more involved and while I didn't even think to ask to view it one of the Residents I knew described it in detail to me at some point after I was released from the hospital (wasn't pleased at ending up w/long leg cast so wondered why I needed it and surgeon didn't give me much of an explanation).

I know that feeling of being ready to go in terms of knee pain. Good luck ~ keep us posted

ans · #4 (**permalink**) 06-11-2008, 02:37 PM

Wow, that was some first surgery!

I had a medial and lateral meniscus taken care of by arthroscopy and I was amazed at how fast my recovery time was. In two days, I was walking w/a cane. But PT is important for getting back ROM.

Good luck in your choice. I remember that excruciating pain when the cartilage "catches". - Allan

Hucky :) · #5 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008, 03:00 AM

Good Luck Mark. My brother had his knee rebuilt and it took quite a while to get over that surgery. He seems to be okay now.

Hucky

Roblin · #6 (**permalink**) 06-23-2008, 04:56 AM

Mark,
Sorry to hear that you are having knee problems that will require surgery. I have talked to so many people with spine problems and post ADR that are also now having knee problems, myself included, do you think there is any connection or is it just aging for those of us with the not so wonderful disease of DDD that nobody seems to be wanting to do much research on because it is "not lifethreatening"?
Anyway, best wishes!
Roblin