As promised, here are a few pictures of the inside of my knee.

This was taken when they went in to harvest the cartilage this past January. I have another set of these pictures taken at the September surgery; to me they look all about the same. From what I was told, in picture 4 you can clearly see the amount of cartilage I am missing in my knee. Click on it to see a larger version, Enjoy!

So I played softball last night, really just BP and shag some fly balls, and golfed this morning. I know, what a hard life I lead but it was the first time I’ve been out golfing this year. The knee help up for both activities, actually the legs were a little sore from chasing some of the balls. Riding the bike just does not exercise all of those muscles. I wish I could go out and golf more often but it is just so expensive. It happens to be one of those sports that puts no pressure on my knee and I enjoy it (except for the fact that I suck but I’m not going to get better unless I play, Ah, there’s the rub). So there you have it, I can do BP and play golf now with out much ill affect on my knee. I’m thinking I’ll post pictures of my knee taking during the last scope next time.

Something I did forget to mention yesterday. I have been taking Glucosamine Chondroitin ever since my surgery in September. My surgeon recommended it but was very non-committal on its benefits. He basically said that some of his patients have said that they get some relief from the arthritis pain. I don’t think it has helped at all but how would I know with all the work that has been going on there.

I need to mention a couple of things about it. Supposedly you need to have a very large dose for this to have any affect. My pills suggest taking the horse-sized pills three times a day. I’m relatively okay at it; I take my morning pill with my multi-vitamin religiously. The afternoon pill I am usually good at, at least on the workdays. It’s that last evening pill with dinner that I routinely forget. Lastly, those pills are expensive! At this point I do not think I am going to be getting any more once I run out of the batch I have.

Initially I was planning on using this blog just to post pictures I was using on my other blogs (see url) and I still may use it for that from time to time. On my way in to work this morning I was thinking about an upcoming knee surgery I have scheduled. It is still a procedure that is not overly used and I though, “Hey, maybe I should write about it and the recovery process, maybe someone would be interested in that”. So, that is what I am going to do.

Let me give you some general information and the history of my knee (the best I can remember). I am a 35-year-old male, 5’9”, 140, in good health and relatively physically fit. At this point I cannot do many really physical activities, most of my exercise is limited to riding the bike. Now about my knee…

About 15 (Oct, 1990) years ago I blew my knee out playing college football. No, there is no great story about an interception or runback, it was a game day practice (shorts and shoulder pads) and I just got pushed to the side, my foot stuck to the Astroturf and my knee popped. I damaged my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), and meniscus. I had my first scope where the doctor cleaned out the knee and trimmed the meniscus. I was done with football and it was a good six months before I did any real sports stuff. I built up to playing basketball about twice a week and the knee felt okay.

About 10 (Jul, 1995) years ago my knee started swelling anytime I played basketball. Went back to the doctors and surgery was once again recommended. I had the Pridie procedure done to my knee. It is very similar to the microfracture surgery that they do now; they drilled four holes into my kneecap with the hope that the flow of blood would help the re-growth of cartilage. Personally I think the procedure went very well. I was laid up for a good week (maybe more, memory) on crutches but once I finished rehab I was back playing basketball three times a week.

About a year ago my knee started to swell up anytime I played basketball again. The difference this time was the swelling didn’t go down nearly as fast and there was pain as well as discomfort. Again, after a MRI and doctor visit a scope was suggested. I had the scope done in September, 2004 were the meniscus was trimmed and the knee cleaned out. What he found was that both my ACL and MCL had tears (which I knew) and that I was missing a large area of cartilage. He recommended I see a specialist about the possibility of cartilage replacement.

I have since seen the specialist and I am a candidate for cartilage replacement. I had the harvesting procedure done in January 2005. That step was a since, very little down time and basically no rehab. The cartilage has been grown and is in a cryogenic state. So, what am I doing now? I go to the gym almost every weekday and ride the bike for about 20 minutes and do squats (not full), leg curls, and lunges three times a week. I have only cheated once by playing a pick-up game of basketball and I paid for it.

My surgery is planned for September 13, 2005. So at this point you are caught up. My next posts will not be nearly as long and there probably will not be another one for a while. I have an appointment with my doctor on August 12 and then my pre-screening on 30th. My next posts will be after those appointments. If you have any questions or comments during any of this please feel free to ask.