I haven’t been around, in regards to blogging lately but there’s been a lot going on. I haven’t been on my bike since mid January. I noticed some reoccurring knee pain in both and decided to get it checked out before doing anymore cycling. It turns out, after having an MRI, both of my patellas don’t lay completely in their groves which causes them to partially sublux, they also track very poorly. I should note that I’ve had this problem addressed before and have had at least 3 months of PT for it in the past but no one thought to do an MRI.
So after going over my history in regards to wearing braces, taping my knee, and PT my sports medicine doctor referred me to an orthopedic surgeon who is in the same practice who decided the best course of action would be a fulkerson osteotomy. It involves moving the part of the bone that the patellar ligament is attached to to a different location in order (to my knowledge) to place the patella in a more natural position. We decided to do the left knee first and then, after three or four months, the right knee will be operated on.
As of two weeks post op my knee looks like this:
In addition to making an incision just below my knee, they also looked at the knee and it’s cartilage via arthroscopy which are what the two small scabs are from. That picture is 10 days post op.
I also get to wear a lovely brace that, while it’s only 3.7 oz, feels like a brick when it’s on my leg. As far as how my recovery has been – it’s been a rough 10 days. The first day wasn’t so bad because of the drugs from the anesthesia but once those went away at around 8pm I was in a hell of a lot of pain. Part of the problem was that we weren’t able to get a good handle on my pain after I woke up from surgery because the nerve block that was injected didn’t actually work. So, while I didn’t wake up in massive amounts of pain (probably about a 4.5), we were never able to get ahead of the pain as far as meds go. I also have a nasty bruise on my inner shin that I have to put quilting batting on under my ace bandages. Before I realized that solution it was near impossible to get around on crutches with my brace on – I was in excruciating pain (think an 8 or a 9…yeah, it was that bad). I also have horrible IT band syndrome which is apparently a side effect of the surgery. A week out of surgery, during my post op appt, my surgeon’s assistant touched my thigh pretty gently and I jumped because of how painful it was. That said, it’s a little less painful now but I dread the rehab that is going to have to be done. That said, I stopped taking pain meds a few days ago and my knee feels fine.
Speaking of PT, I won’t be able to start back doing PT on my knee for another two weeks. I called and asked about it today and the rational has to do with my surgeon looking at the structural integrity of the bones that were screwed together. I’m bummed out about it because I am one of those strange people who loves PT.
Semi-related to all of this, one of my friends showed me a great video done by the people at Sterling Rope. It features this amazing climber named Whitney Boland (the video is on this post of hers). The reason my friend sent it to me is because Boland has ankylosing spondylitis and is using rock climbing as a form of physical therapy as encouraged by her doctor(s) (I don’t know that she was new to the sort when she was diagnosed). One of the reasons this short movie really inspired me was because I love rock climbing and climbed competitively for two and a half years in part of middle and high school. I ended up stopping when I was 14 after having back surgery related to tethered cord syndrome. I didn’t stop because of my back surgery but rather because it was a choice of rock climbing or continuing to play in Metropolitan Youth Symphony. I don’t know if I can say I made the “right” choice or if I wish I could have stuck with climbing, but I wouldn’t necessarily change what I did. One of the main things I want to do after I rehab from surgery is rock climb but I know that that will take a year at the very least. Cycling is the sport I want to get back to doing (as my Kona Jake leans against my wall 7 feet away from me) but that will also take a number of months because, by the time my left knee will be up to riding on the road, my right knee will probably be being operated on.
