Knee Surgery

Well, after about 18 years of my knee giving me hell, I am finally scheduled to have surgery on June 11th. Basically, since the age of 9 or so my knee has dislocated itself when I do too much physical activity. I then have to wear a knee brace and hobble around for several months before it heals itself. This last time it dislocated though was in March, and it has yet to heal itself. I went to the orthopedic surgeon and apparently my MPFL (look it up if you care) is nonexistent in my knee. That means there is no ligament holding my knee cap in place, so surgery it is.

Surgery involves 2 little poke holes in the front of my knee that will be used to laterally release my ligament on the outside of my knee. I guess that ligament is too tight. Then, I will have an incision on the inside of my knee that they will use to reconstruct my MPFL. They are going to use a cadaver ligament to do this. They will drill holes into my knee cap and leg bone to attach the ligament with screws of some sort, then pull my quad muscle over the top for strength. Sounds awful, I know.

Recovery time is LONG!!!! I will be on crutches for about 10 weeks with little movement of my leg. Then, I will have to start physical therapy to strengthen my quad muscle and make my knee bend again. Should be good as new in about 4 months. Hopefully then I will be able to get back on my bike and be active like I want to be.