ART SUPPLIES

Thursday, October 30, 2008

CUT ME DOC, I WANNA RUN

OK, I stole that title from one of Scott Tinley's columns, but it applies to me.

I went to see the orthopedic surgeon today. Once he explained my MRI (see a previous post) they are actually easy to read. Apparently, along with my torn ACL, I have a torn meniscus and that's what's been causing me problems.

So next Wednesday I'm off to Kona Community Hospital for arthoscopic knee surgery. Supposedly because the doc isn't repairing the meniscus but removing it, recovery will be much quicker. A day on crutches (compared to six months the last time when I had the meniscus repaired) 10 days out of the water and 3 weeks no running. Not sure about biking yet.

And that actually works out kinda nice. I'll have approximately a month off to recover from the past year since I really haven't taken any training time off since I started a year ago, then I can start up my new season with a clean knee (no cartilage floating around) and fresh arms and legs.

Now if it only turns out that way.

The doc will only be removing damaged cartilage and WILL NOT be repairing my ACL (seems they have a new procedure for that and he's not up to speed on it.) He said that since I've managed this long with no ACL that I probably don't need to fix it now. He said to just wait and see how my knee is after this.

I could get them both fixed — the cartilage and the ACL — at once if I wanted to wait and have another doc do it, but he said with the cartilage moving around it could cause damage that they wouldn't be able to fix. So I'm satisfied with that — for now.

3 comments:

Karen said...

I'm glad you're getting it fixed. It seems strange that you'll only be on crutches for a day.
Love you,
Karen

Debbie said...

This almost sounds too easy. I will be thinking about you on the fifth. Be sure you do EVERYTHING they tell you to. I am very excited that your recovery will be so fast.

Marilyn and Robert said...

happy halloween bro.... the surgery sounds like a breeze thank goodness anyway have a good day

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