Fourth Knee Surgery

Yesterday I went in for my fourth knee surgery in eight years.  When I had an MRI taken five weeks ago, the orthopedic doctor saw lots of jagged, flaky cartilage that needed to be cleaned up.  He also wanted to check on my OATS surgery from two and a half years ago.  In my previous three knee surgeries, my doctors have been surprised by unexpected damage.  I was prepared for this yesterday, and I wasn't all that surprised when I found out that the procedure wasn't as simple as originally planned.

 Yes, there was plenty of jagged cartilage to smooth out and clean up.  Yes, the cartilage plugs from my 2012 OATS transplant look pretty good (there's just cartilage around the transplanted plugs that is deteriorating, which isn't good).  But yesterday's surprise was . . . my jagged cartilage had been sawing my meniscus in half.  That explains why I had SO much pain on the outside of my knee the past week and why I had to walk stiff-legged - my meniscus was being severed every time I walked around.  Thank goodness I was scheduled for surgery yesterday, so my orthopedic could stitch the meniscus back together again.  In order for the meniscus to heal, I need to walk with a straight-legged brace for the next two weeks.  When I see my doctor in a week and a half for my follow-up appointment, I will find out more about what he saw with my missing cartilage . . . stay tuned!