Surgery II

The second surgery went pretty well. Doctor said that he was really glad that they decided to go back in. I guess that there was a lot of blood in there that would have increased recovery time quite a bit. They also inserted a drain tube to help any additional swelling or bleeding escape. After coming out of surgery I immediately felt better, no pressure was wonderful. However, because of the drain tube it meant at least another 24 hours in the hospital.

Fast forward 24 hours...feeling much better, pain is low, annoyance is high what else can you say. After being up and around on it a few times and no additional swelling or drainage it was decided that they would take out the tube and send me home. Note to self: when the nurse comes in to do something and doesn't tell you what they are going to do...watch out! I knew they were going to take the drain tube out, but they didn't tell me that there was about 10 inches of tube wound around through the joint...let's just say it wasn't a lot of fun to have pulled out, and it was better for everyone that I didn't know what to expect.

So, I'm home now. Straight leg brace for a week just because of the 3 inch incision on the inside and 2 inch incision on the outside of the knee. I'm feeling pretty good, not too painful or swollen right now. If I can just bide my time until next Thursday to get my stitches out I think recovery should be down hill. I really think I should loosen up fairly fast and by next week the pain and swelling should be really low. At least that's my own little world.

Surgery

Please note. Picture not for the faint of heart.

The original plan was to go in and take out a piece of what they thought was bone about the size of my thumb nail and then go fishing for a piece that I thought was floating around at the base of my knee cap. Also, there has been a large "flap" of something above the knee along the outside that had been annoying me for some time so I told him to check that out as well while he was there.

Doctor Walsh had anticipated making an incision for the piece on the knee cap but otherwise it was to be a scope.

Well, as you know I never go quietly.

The end result:
Karen said that when he came out to talk to her he mentioned that he had gone to put the scope in at the bottom of the knee and "hit something" so he went ahead and made an incision about 2 inches long on the medial side of the knee. After making the incision he found a piece of bone barely attached to the medial and lower portion of the knee cap. It was about 3 inches long and 1/4 wide with a few stubs sticking out along the way. After taking that out he also took off some calicified bone on the medial side of the joint as well, had he not he thought that I would still have tendons rubbing where they shouldn't.

He also looked for the floating piece but thinks that sensation was being caused by the piece that was still attached to the cap. He wasn't able to find any floaters.

Then, since I already had an incision he went ahead and looked at the flap on the quad itself. He made another incision above the knee and found that it was a wad of sutures and scar tissue from the quad repair that was done about 6 years ago now. He cut it out.

As if all of that wasn't enough, I had just changed clothes and was eating, getting ready to go and all of a sudden I had the same sensation I did when I tore my quad...LOTS of internal pressure and pain. After consulting the doctor it was decided to keep me overnight to make sure that the bleeding stopped, if it didn't they would go back in and put in a drain. They ended up taking me upstairs right away and giving me a shot of morphine laced with something really good.

This morning I woke up feeling pretty good. Then they got me up to walk and I immediately filled with blood and pain took over again. As I finish this up I am sitting in pre-op waiting for a drain plug to be put in, since they are putting me completely out again I get to count this as 9 surgeries on this knee. As always, fun stuff.

Well, its taken me all morning to write this. Time to go take a drug induced nap again.

Note: the attached picture was taken at dressing changing time this morning. I'll post the surgery pictures once I have them.

I don't have a solution, but I do admire the problem.
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