Days after the 3rd surgery

So it has been 3 days since I have surgery on my right knee to try and remove the disease once again.  Same old thing goes on before surgery, they prep you, mine was around 8 and surgery was at 10, then take you into the surgical room, ask you 20 questions, and knock you out then you wake up in the recovery room.  As I woke up, I noticed some pain but not too much, was in recovery for a few hours until I got to go to my room at around 4:00pm.  I spent 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital from Monday to Wednesday, I was taking some strong pain killers but mostly 500mg Acetaminophen (Tylenol) which I am still taking now.

So in the end, the doctors thinks that he has gotten it all out again.  He opened me up in the front in a small spot, and all the way in the back.  In the front, he said that he took out just a marble sized piece and that was about it there.  In the back, he said that he took a piece out that was about a half of a pint.










There is a picture of how much a half a pint is, to get a reference of what was behind my leg.  After I woke up, I could feel a major difference in my leg, it can almost fully extend straight right away.  I am sure the physical therapy has helped to keep me stretched out as well.  I said that I was gonna ask about getting a piece to take home, well I asked and he kinda laughed and said I am not legally allowed to give you a piece to take home.

Most of the pain is from soreness, I can sorta feel parts that they must have scraped to get the pieces off of, I know part of it was directly on my meniscus so I can feel that pretty good.  But some Tylenol helps to keep the soreness away.

When he came in Tuesday to see me, he came in with a bunch of doctors and his boss, which did his surgery many years ago for his cancer, and he was just asking me questions about my family history to see if anyone else has had anything similar to this disease, which no one has not so he said that he is even still puzzled about it and he has been doing surgeries on it for almost 40 years.

Tomorrow I start physical therapy again, gonna try to get back to work here soon.  I am walking around now without my crutches, still using them to get up and down steps just to make sure I don't fall.  Here is some pitures of before the surgery and after the surgery.

Dr. Weiss's drawings on my legs before the surgery.

 Front of my leg post surgery, didn't take a picture of it yet without the stuff over it.

  Back of my leg post surgery, didn't take a picture of it yet without the stuff over it.

So they decided to give me this kind of stuff to put on my legs, not a wrap, but just tape and a gauze thing, and when it comes off it hurts like heck, just because it rips off all the hairs they didn't shave off before the surgery.  So my next appointment for post-op is Wednesday October 8th, so I will know then anything else to post on here.

Third Times a Charm, I hope

So after visiting the Doctor this past Wednesday (9/10), I will be having surgery for the 3rd time on Monday 9/22.  I just wanted to get it done ASAP because it is hurting pretty bad, even with taking 500 mg of ibuprofen, and it is constantly stiff.  To get to the point, I will be having it removed in the back of my leg like my 2nd surgery, and he will have to cut open part of my leg in the front because a little piece grew back there.  I just told him to do what he has to do.

He and the other doctors in his office are just puzzled at this because they have never seen it grow back this aggressively before, it has literally grown back the same size, if not bigger, than my last surgery back in March and that is only 6 months ago.

This is just crazy that this just keeps coming back.  I asked about my other options that I have, in reality the only other option besides surgery to remove it is a knee replacement.  He won't do that to me because I am way too young for that, I am only 25, and I would rather not have that done right now.  He said another option is to just fire him and go to a different doctor, but in my opinion, I do not really see what another doctor could do besides what he has given to me as options.  I asked about radiation, like treating it sorta like cancer and having radiation done on it.  He said that he, and almost any other doctor won't even consider that because it isn't really cancer and it could actually cause more damage than good to my body.  Like giving me the possibility of having cancer, weak bones, etc.

One thing I do have to agree with him on, is the fact that just be happy it isn't cancer, mine was the "good" news of the day because he has talked to others and bunches of people have cartilage cancer and I am thankful that is not what I have.

When I do have surgery, which I am not too worried about since I have been through it twice already, I am gonna ask if he can give me a piece of it in a jar to take home because I think that would be awesome!!  I am just hoping that when I wake up I am not in much pain because I figure that I will be better off afterwards than I am now.  I am still doing physical therapy right now because it is keeping my leg loosened up and stretched so it doesn't stiffen up on my like last time.  But I will be doing some PT after the surgery as well because I need to get my leg back to normal.

I will update as I go, not sure if it will be before surgery or afterwards.