Update

So I haven't posted an update from my December 2015 doctors visit.

We are still good so far, nothing has grown.  I do not have to go back for 6 months, so around May-June I will be heading back to Pittsburgh for another CAT Scan and another doctors visit.  Below is my test result:

EXAM DATE: 12/23/2015 1:12 PM

PROCEDURE: CT LOWER EXTREMITY WITHOUT CONTRAST RIGHT

CLINICAL INDICATION: Age: 26 years . Gender: Male.
Stated history: " BONE NEOPLASM" Additional history: None.,

COMPARISON: CT right knee 09/02/2015

TECHNIQUE:
Thin section noncontrast CT images were obtained of the right knee
with reconstructions in multiple planes.

FINDINGS:
There is redemonstration of innumerable ovoid osteochondral bodies
scattered about the right knee consistent with synovial
osteochondromatosis. Several have migrated anteriorly into the
anterior aspect of the intercondylar notch. Several project over the
popliteus tendon sheath as well as within a small Baker's cyst. There
are most conspicuous in number along the lateral and posterior
lateral joint line, but are diffusely scattered about the knee.

There is moderate lateral patellar tilt with moderate marginal
osteophytes in the patellofemoral compartment. There is a small knee
joint effusion. There are moderate marginal osteophytes in the medial
and lateral compartments, mild spurring of the tibial spines and
intercondylar notch.

There is generalized osteopenia. No intraosseous bone lesions are
identified. There is no evidence of acute fracture or traumatic
malalignment. There is mild nonspecific subcutaneous stranding in the
posterior aspect of the knee. No additional soft tissue masses are
identified.

Impression

IMPRESSION:
1. Similar number of osteochondral bodies in the setting of synovial
osteochondromatosis, some of which have migrated into the anterior
aspect of the notch. There are most prominent laterally and
posterolaterally, and some are positioned within a small Baker's cyst
and the popliteus tendon sheath.

 In other news, I started a new job at a company called EMKA at the beginning of February.

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Until Next Time,
Brian

1 Year Later

So it has been a year since I had my last surgery on September 22, 2014.  So far it is still gone for the most part, there is still a piece lingering on the outer part of my leg, as shown in an X-Ray in May and a CAT scan I had earlier in September.  So I have to go back to the doctors once again in December and get another CAT scan to make sure that it is not getting any bigger.  Overall, I feel great, I did not even notice that there was something in my leg, and in my opinion, as long as it is not bother me, I would rather try to avoid having surgery again.  I just need this tendentious to go away, but I have been working out with a trainer and I have been feeling the best I have in over 3 years. I also believe that my leg may never get straight again, but between that and tendentious, it is way better than having surgery constantly.

Here is the results from the most recent CAT scan:

CT LWR EXTR WITHOUT CONTRAST RIGHT - Details

Narrative

CLINICAL HISTORY:
26-year-old male with osteochondral bodies seen on previous CR
imaging at lateral joint line and 04/15/2015.

TECHNIQUE:
Axial CT images of the patient's knee were obtained at 2.5 mm
intervals from the distal third of the femur through the proximal
tibia and fibula, examined on soft tissue and bone algorithm and used
as a basis for coronal and sagittal reformat images.

Comparison:
Previous CR imaging from 04/15/2015.

FINDINGS:
Multiple punctate areas of ossification are seen at the posterior
lateral aspect of the patient's knee joint prior CR imaging was
thought to represent multiple osteochondral bodies. There does not
appear to be an appreciable increase in the bodies compared to the CR
imaging from April of this year.

In addition, there is patchy osteopenia of the distal femur and tibia
which may be due to disuse or hyperemia.

There is mild narrowing of the medial compartment of the knee with
minimal osteophyte formation, and a similar degree of mild narrowing
and osteophyte formation of the lateral compartment and
patellofemoral compartment.

A small knee effusion is present. Extensor mechanism appears
unremarkable.

The coronal and sagittal reformatted images confirm the relationship
of the multiple osteochondral bodies at the posterior lateral aspect
of the knee with respect to the femur and tibia.

Impression

IMPRESSION:
No significant increase in multiple osteochondral bodies compared to
serial imaging from 05/15/2015.

So overall, it seems to be good news to me!

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.

3 Months

So it has been about 3 months since I had my 2nd surgery, therapy is going good.  They got my knee to go completely straight with the therapist pushing on it, as in what they call 0 degrees, it is also starting to bend back fairly far, it has went back to 108 degrees so far.

Cutting to the chase, I was at the doctors yesterday and had X-rays done, well, the disease just keeps coming back...  He compared the right after surgery to now, right after surgery there is no sign of it, this time it is starting to come back and Dr. Weiss has no clue why.  I am just hoping that it doesn't bother me so I don't need to have surgery and so that I can start mountain biking again.

That is it for now.

Came across my doctors Story

Came across my doctors story of how and why he started doing this, pretty interesting read:

http://www.upmc.com/Services/orthopaedics/patients/Pages/kurt-weiss.aspx

Patient Stories - Dr. Weiss Testimonial

From patient to practice: The story of Kurt Weiss*

Kurt Weiss wasn’t planning on going to the doctor’s that week. Like most teenagers, he had other things on his mind. Then at football practice, his leg started to hurt him terribly.

“My mother threatened to cancel my mountain climbing trip with friends if I didn’t go,” he explains. “So to humor her, I went.”

It was a good thing he did. After being diagnosed with sarcoma, Kurt was sent immediately to Mark Goodman, MD, who at that time was the only orthopaedic oncologist in western Pennsylvania. By the age of 15, Kurt received his last rites when his cancer spread to his lungs for the third time.

Then, in 1990, Kurt participated in a clinical trial that saved his life. Developed by researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the immune-based method was designed to destroy drug-resistant bone tumor cells. The trial worked, and with the help of Dr. Goodman, Kurt Weiss began the long road to recovery.

Unfortunately, fixing Kurt’s leg was no easy task. He developed repeated infections, and finally, Kurt and Dr. Goodman decided together that an amputation was necessary.

“Then, during finals week at Notre Dame, my leg was hemorrhaging every day,” remembers Kurt. “I called Dr. Goodman. He said, ‘Kurt, if I have to come up there and carry you to your tests, you’re going to finish your finals before we get this done.’ ”

Not only did Kurt finish his finals; he also made it to the 1996 Orange Bowl, where he marched as president of the Notre Dame band. After the amputation, he also marched, although he was able to do it even better than before.

“That experience really had a profound effect on me,” explains Kurt. “I had thought I wanted to be an engineer, like my dad and my uncles and my sister. But I really became interested in the pathologic aspects of my disease. And more than that, I admired the people like Dr. Goodman who were looking after me. I wanted to be like them when I grew up.”

And grow up, he did. In 2003, he earned his medical degree and won a Howard Hughes Research Scholars Award to do research on metastic bone tumors at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Eventually, he joined Dr. Goodman’s practice at UPMC.

Now known as Kurt Weiss, MD, he is one of only a handful of surgeons who specialize in sarcoma. Dr. Weiss is also one of the very few physician-scientists searching for a cure for this disease, and the only one who is also a former sarcoma patient. Part of the orthopaedic surgery team at UPMC, he still spends at least two days in the lab, studying the science behind the disease and looking for the answer that will stop it for good.

At the same time, his colleagues — Dr. Goodman and Dr. McGough — are beginning a clinical research study of artificial limbs that actually hook onto a patient’s real bones, and look and act just like real limbs. Hoping to be a part of the 15-institution study, Dr. Weiss, who owes his life to a clinical trial, was one of the first to sign up.

*Adapted from the Shadyside Voice article entitled “I can help you. This is what I do.”

Well Monday is the big day!!

Five more days

So I will be having surgery on Monday March 10th.  I am ready for it because I can barely walk and my knee hurts like heck.

I already had blood work done, and now all I have left to do is the pre-surgery testing stuff this Friday.  Then it is off to surgery on Monday in Pittsburgh.

They will just be doing the back of my right knee, cutting me open I am assuming to the way they did it before.  They are not going to repair my meniscus as far as I know because of how it is torn, it isn't worth fixing.

Well I will update after I am done with surgery.

Here is some final pictures of my knee before surgery.

And it's back...

Guess I never updated from my previous doctors appointment in December, but my knee has a lump on the back of it currently, I can't fully extend it or bend it back and it hurts like heck.  So my doctor told me to make a n appointment 6 weeks later and if it is still there and hurts to get a MRI.

So yesterday I went to the doctors, got a MRI and talked to the doctor.  The MRI was brutal, since my knee couldn't go fully straight, they had to "Jerry Rig" something up, and when they put padding all around it and positioned it the way it should be, the weight on my knee just hurt really bad, that was like 45 minutes of torture.  Then after that I went to talk to the doctor, he looked at the MRI and saw the lump.  It has come back really quick and he really doesn't know why.  So I need surgery again, and hopefully soon, on just the back of my leg.  The new lump is 1".  He is gonna go in a remove that, remove the other part of the disease that he missed previously, and take out the thing behind my knee that he says might be somehow reproducing it.  He said that he has to do some studying on it himself because he hasn't seen anything happening like this before and it wasn't showing up on the X-rays.

So I will update everyone on a date when I get that figured out.

One Year Later

So one year ago on this date, I had surgery on my right knee to attempt to remove the synovial chondromatosis disease.  Well over the year it seemed to have gotten better and then gotten worse.  Right now, I am unsure if the disease has grown, or it is because of the cold, or if I hurt my knee a different way because it has been really sore, stiff, and just hurting.  It has been really swollen up as of late and I can't extend it the whole way and bend it back as far as I could before.  I go back to the doctors in a few days and will put an update up once it is done and let everyone know what the case is.  I am hoping that it did not grow because I am not ready to have surgery again.

9 Months Later

So it has been a while since I have updated this, and it has now been about 9 months since I had surgery and most of this disease removed.

So I was at the doctors in Pittsburgh on Friday (9/20/13) and got some x-rays done.  Nothing major has changed, I could tell, as well as Dr. Weiss, that it has changed, but nothing that it bothers me.  It is still up to me if and when I want to have surgery.  I am just going to play it as not until it starts bothering me, like he said, it could be tomorrow or many years down the road.  Nothing new in the front of my knee, still as empty as it was since after my surgery.  My next appointment is in December, and then we will go to meeting every 6 months, then every year after a while.  No new pictures of my scars, they are generally the same as there were 3 months ago.

I bought an exercise bike and ever since I started using it my knee has gotten 10x better.  It is still sore on some days, especially with this time of year and the temperature varying like 30-40 degrees from morning to afternoon.

So other than that, I got married to Kayla on July 6th, we went on our honeymoon to Aruba, and I am one happy man cause I got me a wonderful woman!!  She is now all moved in with me in York.

Also, we got another puppy!! Here name is Hannah, so now we have Ellie Belle and Hannah Banana.  Ellie is on the right, and Hannah is on the left, she is half Black Lab and half Boarder Collie and she has a white glove, fingertips,

I also have another blog going on if you want to check it out:
http://inspirationald.blogspot.com/

It is updated almost daily.

Here is the Facebook page (that you should like!) and the Twitter feed (that you should follow and you will get a follow back!):
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/InspirationalD
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Inspirational_D

6 Months Later

Well, it is now over 6 months since I have had surgery on my right knee.  This will be pretty short, the knee is feeling good, still gets sore on days when I am on it a lot and all that.

I was at the doctors on the 21st, we took x-rays, nothing has changed and the disease is still there.  He said that it is up to me if and when I want to have surgery.  Since it is my call, I will be waiting until it starts bugging me, if it doesn't bother me, there is no need really to have surgery.  That was about it with the appointment.

I am also getting married on Saturday!!  After the wedding we are off to Aruba!!

That is about it for this one.

12 weeks later

So this past Friday, I drove to Pittsburgh to see the doctor. He said everything looks good, he would just like me to get more bend in it by my next appointment, which is on June 21st, 6 months after surgery. I will be having more X-rays done then as well.

I asked him if there is a known cause for this disease and he said none that he knows of. I asked if my knee giving out prior to surgery, and before my knee swelled up, would have been a thing that could have been this disease and he said that it most likely was it. My knee has been giving out since high school, so he said if they would have gave me X-rays and MRIs then on my knee that they would have most likely found something.

So I'm still working out, doing the Nike+ Fitness stuff and still doing my knee exercises, and icing my knee front and back. It's getting nice out so it is getting closer to mountain bike season!! My knee bugs me every once in a while, or sometimes all day. It seems to bug me as the weather changes, mostly when it's warmer out and it gets cold from when it's been warm or when it is going to or is raining/snowing.

Me and my fiancé have been looking for houses online, this past weekend we went an looked into some houses. We found one that was hard to beat that day, and overall that is within our price range. So we made an offer, they countered, and we accepted it. So we should be closing on the house by mid May. We are both excited!! Then we are getting married on July 6th, going on our honeymoon, then Kayla will officially move out here and we can start our life together with our puppy, Ellie.

Well that's about it, the balloons are still the same as before, 1 afloat the other not, and here is some pictures of my knee from today. I also added a picture of my dog being funny and playing with her squeaker squirrel and showing her belly!

6 Weeks Later

So I went to the doctors on Friday, he said that everything looks good, I am walking good and everything.  I am allowed to do anything I want on with my knee, as long as it is not bugging me.  I can now go swimming and all that as well.  I am putting lotion on it to help with the dryness.

I started work again today, I am glad because I would rather be going to work than just staying at home and doing nothing.

My physical therapy is over, but I am going to be doing it on my own in my apartment.  I am allowed to start using weights so I am going to be doing the same exercises as before just with weights. I am just adding in squats and one leg stands.

I did get some news that did upset me a little, I got there, me and my Mom got to go in early because everyone was canceling because of the weather, I went and got X-rays on my knee.  When I got back to my room and the doctor pulled up my X-rays, he noticed that he missed a piece behind my knee.  He said that it could bother me in 5 years, or never.  He said that if the disease would come back in the front of my leg and would need removed, he would just remove the stuff in the back as well while he is at it.

I have another visit in 6 weeks, then I will have to have another visit 6 months from my surgery, which is in June.  Then another a year after my surgery.  I will have to visit him every year for the rest of my life to make sure that the disease does not come back or get worse.

I was hoping to go to the doctors right after my honeymoon is done in July, but he only has office hours on Wednesdays and Fridays, so I guess I got to do what I got to do.

So that is about it, below I have pictures of what my incisions look like 6 weeks later and some pictures of baloons that my grandma got 6 weeks ago and they are still afloat.  I will try to take pictures every week for a little bit to see the progress of my incisions.  The pictures are side ways for some reason...

Doctor Check-up tomorrow

Well tomorrow morning, I will be traveling to Pittsburgh for a check-up and all that.  I just wanted to post some pictures of my knee before I go back to the doctors.

Today I am able to walk around without crutches, and am starting to be able to walk down steps without having to slide on my butt.

I think I have roughly 25 stitches in the back of my leg.

That's about it for today, will update over the weekend after I visit the doctor.

The last day of 2012

So today is the last day of 2012, and what a year it has been!

At the end of last year, yesterday a year ago I started dating a girl, she then turned into my best friend, I then asked her to marry me on July 10th of this year, we got to have our first Thanksgiving and Christmas with each others families this year.  We are getting married on July 6th of 2013 and I am really excited for that and can't wait!!  We had a rough year together, between me getting a job and having to move 2.5 hours away and I lost my grandmother and she lost her grandfather, we could only go through that and much more with each other and I am thankful for her for it all.

I got to end my year with getting surgery on my right knee, found out I got synovial chondromatosis and not PVNS.  I go back to see the doctor this Friday January 4th.  I'll be making an update after that so that is when my next blog post will be, around that time.

So my knee seems like it is healing well, I can bend it a little more each day, I am off the pain meds and just taking tylenol every 4-6 hours depending on when I remember to take it or not.  I am able to walk on it fairly well with one crutch in my opposite arm, I am trying to start walking normally with bending my knee and whatnot when I am walking.  I also tried to walk without crutches a few times, I am walk sorta okay straight legged, but when I try to walk normal with bending my knee, it doesn't go so well.

Well, I hope everyone had a great 2012, and is going to have a great 2013!! My goal (New Years Resolution) for this year is, like many people, to lose weight, or at least lose a lot of body fat, since I am getting married in July, I would like to look good for the photos that I will have forever.

Home from the hospital!!

So on Monday 12/17 I had my surgery.  Got to the hospital at about 6:00 am, Then found out that I didn't need to be there until 7:00 am because they aren't giving me any pain blockers.  My surgery was set for around 10:00 am because the doctor had an easy surgery to do before me. I went in, signed in then they took me to my holding room until they take me back for surgery.  I got naked and put on one of those hospital dresses and got into the bed.  They did a bunch of tests on me, got me hooked up with a IV, then my family came back.  As I was laying there I saw the doctor walked up to my door and gave me the signal to let's get this thing rolling. So I went back to start surgery at like 9:30 am.  Got back to the room, and I remember that it was really cold in there.  I got in there and probably said about 100 times, remember to take out the urinary catheter please before I wake up, and I remember the doctor saying the same thing when he walked into the room.  They then hooked me up with a gas mask and told me to just breath, and then I was knocked out and they next thing I know I am in another room with a bunch of other people who just got out of surgery.  The surgery took approximately 3.5 hours, and I was in the recovery room for about 2 hours, then they took my to my room where I was staying where my family was waiting for me. I didn't eat that much most of the week while I was in the hospital, the food they gave me was kinda nasty.  So I stayed there until Wednesday.  They had a tube in my leg taking out the excess fluids.  I had a pain thing going into my body via the IV until Tuesday morning when they took that off.  I was in so much pain and I kept on asking for some pain medicine and it took them over an hour to bring it to me.  I got the pain medicine, Oxycodone, I was talking two 5mg of it every 4 hours, was also taking some regular strength tylenol in between that at the 2 hour marks because of the pain.  Then on Wednesday I got discharged at about 3:30 pm and then got back to my parents house at about 5:30 pm.

So the doctor has concluded that I do not have PVNS, I have Synovial Chondromatosis.  He said the surgery went really really well, everything came out fine and he believes he got it all.  I am allowed to walk on it, with crutches, putting as much weight on it as I can.  I got a home nurse and the home physical therapist that will be coming to check up on me.  I also got to have blood thinners injected into me via a needle, my sister will be doing that on days when the nurse isn't coming.  I go back and visit the doctor on January 4th, 2013 at 9:15 am and see what he all says.  I am hoping to be able to bend and move my knee soon, and then walk without crutches soon after that.  Below I have posted pictures of my surgery marks, they can cause your stomach to get all queasy if you look at it and it bothers you.

The scar on the front of my leg is stitched on the inside of my knee, has some kind of glue on it to hold it together, and has some sort of tape over it that will come off when I am showering, it will apparently start unrolling itself and come off then I just throw them away.

On the back of my knee he cut it in a S shape and there is just regular stitches that will need to be removed.

I also added a picture that he drew on my hospital bed before surgery, just thought that it was neat and I took a picture of it.  Also in the picture is just him writing on me knee, which is still there right now until I can wash it,

I am allowed to like sponge bath it and use a wash cloth but I can't take a shower until Saturday the 22nd.  I can wash all around my scars starting then and should be all good and happy and less stinky then.

I will leave the links for PVNS on here encase someone comes across my blog looking for information on PVNS.

Tomorrows my big day

Well, in a few hours, I will be waking up to go to the hospital to have my surgery. The plan is to wake up at 430 and I have to be at the hospital by 600am.

Last week when they called me, we set up times and what not, and they said I can't take anymore pain relievers, so I haven't taken any since Friday morning and my knee is hurting pretty badly all weekend.

So I am kinda nervous but I know I will be okay, hopefully I can sleep throughout the night until my alarm at 430. I will be praying about it all night and all morning until I go in. They said surgery like around 830-900 and it will take about 3 hours to complete. So after I am out, hopefully the next thing I know is waking up in my room with my fiancé and my family around me. Then it's the long 3-4 days of staying there, I am hoping that it is as short as it can get, no infections or anything. I know God is in control, and whatever happens glory to him. In my mind I say don't worry, but I am really nervous and probably won't sleep tonight.

Sorry that I like to jump around a lot when I am writing. My next post will be at point this week after I am good enough to type. I am taking my laptop to the hospital with me so I can hopefully amuse myself with that, reading my Bible, a book by Andrew Schwab called The Tin Soldiers, and my iPhone.

Another day, another big poofy knee.

This week so far has been rough on my knee, it seems like it is hurting more and more, and I have been on crutches for most of the week because of the pain.  I am kinda excited and scared for the surgery.  This will be my first surgery, outside of wisdom teeth twice, that I will be having.  Not sure what to think of it, but it needs done and hopefully the doctor gets it all out.

So last night I decided to take some pictures of knee, because in a week and a half it won't look the same, it will have a few scars on it.  As you can see in the photos, it is fairly swelled up, or well that what it looks like anyways.  I will have to take a picture in the morning so that you can see how much worse that it gets throughout the day.

So there we go, and today marks exactly 7 months until I am getting married to my best friend. :-)

My First Blog Post!!

This is my first blog post ever, wow, I am behind on the times... haha

Well this year has been a crazy year so far and more yet to come, I started dating my now fiance Kayla at the end of 2011, we got engaged on July 10th of this year, and we are getting married on July 6th, 2013!!

I am going to try to keep these short because I am not a talker and especially not a typer.

In June of this year, I was mountain biking and I wrecked, I fell to my left and I hyper extended my right knee somehow.  So I let it rest a while figuring that if I let it rest that it will heal.  So then in July, Kayla's grandfather had passed away, during that day was a lot of standing around, I noticed a lot of pain in my right knee and it swelled up.  I thought this had to do with something with my hyper extended knee so I just ignored it.  I played softball throughout the fall.

After that, I went and saw my family doctor because it was still swelled up so he just stuck me on some meds and it did not do anything for me but cost me a dollar and some change for the meds.  Kayla is a volleyball coach for high school, her athletic trainer for her team is a physical therapist so I went up and saw her so that she could check out my knee.  She testd it to make sure nothing was torn and there was not, so she sent me to one of the sports doctors in her group.  He did xrays on me and sent me for a MRI.  The xrays showed up as what it looked like calcium deposits around my knee and the femur.  He had me get two MRI's, one normal and the other with contrast.  The one with contrast is with an IV and they inject something into you so it shows the muscles and ligaments better.  First off, I am not good with needles, I almost passed out when it went in me, after a few minutes I was fine and the MRI felt like it took a few hours.  I then went back to the doctor and he said that he thinks it's PVNS, and it is not localized in one spot, it was in a few spots.  He did not want to mess with it so he sent me to a doctor in Pittsburgh, PA, Dr. Kurt Weiss. He is an orthopedic surgeon.

This past Friday, (November 30th) me and my fiance drove out to Pittsburgh to see him.  He came in, asked the typical questions about how you did it and whatnot, he then looked at my xrays and MRI's.  He was actually kinda thrilled when he was looking at them, just because either disease I may have is rare.  He told me that I may have either PVNS or synovial chondromatosis, or it could be a mixture of both. He said he won't know until he gets into my leg to see. So I asked 50 questions and then we scheduled my surgery for December 17th, so two weeks from today.  He called me today to verify my appointment and I asked him a few questions, I asked how long the surgery would take, he said approximatly 3 hours, the reason for this is because they are opening up my leg in both the front and the back.  There is masses everywhere, on my knee itself, the side of it, my femur, and on my PCL in the back of my leg.  I then asked if they are going to be sticking a urinary catheter in me, which they freak me out, and he said of course but asked if I wanted it out before I woke up and I didn't hesitate a second and said yes please, I just got to remember to remind him in two weeks because he might forget.  Then I asked if I needed a MRI before the surgery because I couldn't remember what he said, he said no.

So that is my year in short, I will continue to update this is more on my surgery, the recovery, and whatever else I think to spam this blog with!!