Friday I went to see the doctor the last time before the surgery (September 13th). He did the basic look over and asked if there are any changes, basically everything was about the same as last time and I’m a go. I had to make a decision as to what I was going to use to graft my damaged ligaments. I was given the choice of using a cadaver’s tissue or some harvested from my own body. The doctor could not guarantee that the donor was a 21 year old that could dunk and run a 4.1 40 so I went with my on tissue. I did find out that if I did go with a cadaver they would try to use a “subject” of similar age, if I use my own tissue I would have a little extra discomfort but since with what I’m doing will put me on non-weight bearing for about 8 weeks it does not matter much. My doctor recommends the use of a cadaver for younger patients that are still very active in sports and that should not really be me any more. While there I also went through the process of submitting my short-term disability paperwork. My hopes is that I will not need it, even if I can’t get into work I should be able to do a lot of it from home.

The company that grew my harvested cartilage and made it into Carticel has a rehabilitation guideline. You can find it here, it is some interesting reading. From what I’m told having the reconstruct at the same time has a better result at the end of the process. The picture I included shows the process of cartilage replacement. Steps one through three have already happened, that is when they harvested my cartilage and grew it in the labs. Step four the chondral defect is debrided back to healthy tissue. Step five they harvest the periosteal patch from the proximal tibia. Then finally, step six, they suture the patch into place and the Carticel is implanted under the patch.

I have one last appointment concerning my knee before the surgery. That will be my pre-screening on the 30th. Just one more physical I’ll need to go through before they will do my knee.