5 Days of Walking

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm five days away from my (hopefully) last knee surgery for the next decade or so. I took advantage of being able to walk and went on a hike. We may have gotten a little confused and missed a turn so our four mile hike ended up being closer to six probably. We also did a little stream hopping and scrambling up a steep slope. My knee held up pretty well, just really tired at the end of the day and sore for a few days. Definitely worth it. I'm only two months out from ACL surgerybut it seems to be holding up.

I think I'm the patient that doctors hate because I'm always pushing what I'm supposed to be doing. But without people like us, how would anyone know that you can and cannot do after an injury. I know there is some things that require time, like the scar healing and the graft taking hold, but there has to be some activities to help a patient recover that the doctor is scared to let us try. Recovery is more than physical, I think the mental recovery is tougher, mainly because everyone is more different in the way we handle interruption to daily activities than the way we physically heal.

I think each surgery has gotten easier for me to mentally recover from. Probably because I've gotten more aggressive with my recovery, pushing myself to try things a little earlier then maybe I should. But also, finding something else to keep me busy. I've been reading more, looking into language classes and other classes to improve myself. Or maybe I'm just fooling myself so that I can make it through another painful and long recovery.

Tough Day

So today was kind of tough. Not painful, just tough. I think it's really starting to sink in that I'm not going to be able to play sports for another year. Most of my life has been spent going from one sporting event to another. Everyday I was busy playing, practicing, or just staying in shape to play in the next game. Now, I no longer have the physical activity to keep me going. I miss my friends on my teams too. We're all so busy with work, that I rarely get to see them off the field.

I've discovered that for me, most of this recovery is going to be mental. Learning how to busy myself and keep my mind occupied while sitting on the couch watching the same TV shows over and over again. I'm going to have to find a new distraction. Any suggestions? Right now I'm thinking about picking up the guitar, learning Chinese, and learning Spanish. I also want to pick up some art craft, maybe painting or knitting. Or maybe I should start looking into what I actually want to do with the rest of my life, since at this point in my life I have no idea what I want to be doing in five years, or ten years.

On a good note, my range of motion is doing well. I got to zero on Friday. I'm not sure if I'm still there, but I keep trying to straighten my knee. My leg is also getting stronger. I can actually do a straight leg raise now. Balancing is getting easier too. My knee doesn't fall in as quickly and isn't as painful. Hopefully, soon my leg will be strong enough to walk up the stairs in the parking structure instead of taking the elevator.

Who I am?

That seems to be the story of my life. Surgery after surgery after surgery. Of course, this may have something to do with my inability to sit still. Throughout my life I have played sports, I've tried several different sports, but now stick primarily to soccer, ultimate frisbee, and the outdoors. Until recently I was playing on three soccer leagues and two ultimate teams. With all the sports I've also had my fair share of injuries. My inability to sit still has resulted in my impatience with recovery times after injuries. Some of which has probably led me to where I am now. Sitting on a couch recovering from a second knee in as many months and waiting for a third.

Here is my surgery history:

• February 1998 (13 years old) - Right knee arthroscope for continuing pain not helped by physical therapy. Turned out it was ITB (iliotibial band syndrome)
• Januray 2000 (15 years old) - ACL Reconstruction - I tore my ACL playing basketball. I was hit from the front while going for a ball. My knee hyperextended, stretching my ACL too much and tearing it. I also suffered from bruised bones and torn meniscus. I was back to playing soccer and basketball six months after surgery.
  
• June 2005 (21 years old) - Right shoulder labrum. I had a loose shoulder that slid around in the socket some. It finally got to be too uncomfortable and disruptive in my everyday life that I decided to get it fixed. Thankfully I found a surgeon who was willing to fix it. He did a wonderful job. My shoulder is great and I went back to playing soccer and ultimate frisbee after four months.
• September 2006 (22 years old) - Left shoulder. I dislocated my shoulder in August 2006 and decided on surgery to fix it. I was given and 80% chance of dislocating it again and I was planning on entering the Peace Corps. I felt it necessary to make sure my shoulder was tight and strong to make sure I wouldn't have problems in sub-Saharan Africe with the Peace Corps. My surgeon did another excellent job. I was back to playing soccer and ultimate four months later.
  
• September 2007 (23 years old) - Left shoulder again. Out of nowhere I lost almost all strength and range of motion in my shoulder, while I was in Africa. I had another surgery to find out what happened. Turns out, my first surgery didn't take and I still had the tear from the dislocation. We still don't know why the surgery didn't take.
• August 2008 (24 years old) - Right Knee Debridement. - My surgeon went into my knee expecting to find a small spot of arthritis (missing cartilage), clean up any loose bodies and biopsy some tissue for a cartilage implant surgery. Unfortunately, it turned out my ACL was so stretched it wasn't stabilizing my knee anymore and the small spot of arthritis turned out to be larger. He did the biopsy, cleaned up the loose bodies, and roughened the bone a bit to encourage fiber cartilage growth. I was placed on crutches for eight weeks.
• September 2008 (24 years old) - ACL Reconstruction II. - This time I opted for a cadeaver graft to ease the recovery. There was definitely less pain. Now I'm supposed to get off crutches as soon as possible and get my strength back. I have lost so much muscle strength between the two surgeries that I can't even do a straight leg lift anymore.
  

This blog will chronicle my recovery from my ACL and my ACI (autologous chondrocyte implantation). ACI is a cartilege implantation surgery that I am hoping will decrease my knee pain and allow me to get back to playing sports, albeit maybe not as many leagues at once.

I am hoping this blog will allow other people going through this procedure a place to learn more about the surgery and talk about their own experiences.