4 Months Later

So it has been roughly 4 months since I had surgery on my right knee.  The past few weeks have been up and down for my knee, it has been sore and then like today, it feels great!!  I am still doing my knee exercises and doing the Nike+ Fitness program.

Last week, I was up in Canada for a few days for work.  We left on Monday, flew out of the Harrisburg airport to Toronto, then to Montreal.  The same on the way back home.  The flight there was a good one, the flight home is a different story.  Had turbulence the whole way home, the worst part was from Toronto to Harrisburg because I was on a 18 passenger plane.  It felt like an hour long roller coaster, I still have a headache today from the plane ride.

So I am hoping to get out on my mountain bike soon, not sure if I am ready to hit up trails yet, but at least to ride and get my knee back into it and to get me back into shape a little bite and to lose some weight that I picked up from this surgery.

In 82 days I will be marrying my best friend Kayla!!

Well that is about it, my balloons are dead and lasted about 16 weeks, which is actually pretty good.  Also there is a picture below of my knee, little bit of swelling still there, but still icing and the back of my leg is still hurting the worst.  The bottom picture of my leg from behind is up-side-down.

10 Weeks Later

So I missed the update for the 9 weeks later, but nothing has really changed that much from 8 weeks until now.  I have my 12 week after surgery appointment in Pittsburgh, PA on Friday March 8th, next week.

For the most part, the soreness is less and less each day, I am getting more movement in it each day, I am still doing the Nike+ Fitness Kinect Game, (which works my butt pretty well!!), and the physical therapy exercies.  My knee is getting stronger, I attempted to run over the weekend, nothing far just like 20 yards and I am still a little slow and need to get my knee better for that.

The two baloons I got are still the same, one has floated down and the other is still a float.

Below is pictures of my knee, still swelled up a bit, I need to remember to ice my knee more often...  Still no feeling on my incisions, both front and back, and on the right side of my knee in the front and parts of the back of my leg.

My fiance made me the equation in the bottom picture. Isn't she amazing? :-)

7 Weeks Later

So this past Monday (yesterday), marks 7 weeks since I had surgery on my right knee.

Since my last doctors visit, I have been working out a little bit since I have been cleared to do anything I want to do.  I have been doing some physical therapy stuff (same stuff as before but with weights), doing an exercise video, and doing some resistance band workouts.

With physical therapy, I am using an ankle weight.  It can go up to 20 pounds, but I am only using 4 pounds right now.  My knee is starting to get better with it so I am going to try to bump it up to 8 pounds either tomorrow or Thursday when I do it again.

The exercise video I have been doing is the Nike+ Fitness Game on the Xbox 360 with the Kinect.  It seems to be pretty good, works all aspects of your body.  There is some things in the game that I still can't, or not do that well.  There is stuff to do on my knees, and since I don't got complete feeling in my right knee yet, it is kinda hard to balance on it, but I am getting better and more used to it.  There is also some 1 legged things to do, I can do a few of them then I kinda have to cheat and use both legs.  I can do the balance on my right leg fine, it is the hopping around on one leg that kinda gets to my knee and starts hurting.  I am also doing some squats among other things that are working good for my knee.

The band workout I do is mostly for my upper body, I am trying to get my muscle tone back up there.  I am doing these when the Nike+ Training is not on the strength parts.  I am going to add in some leg workouts next time I do the bands.  I figure I can add in squats, calf raises, dead lifts, among other things.

Overall, my knee has been sore this past week and a half.  Just from being back at work and exercising.  I guess that is good because it shows that I am working it more than I was doing and hopefully I can be back to normal in no time.  Every once in a while I need to take some sort of pain reliever because of the pain.  The back of my leg incisions hurt every once in a while, just feels like they are pulling.  But as you can see in the picture below, there is a scab at the top of the incisions so I think that is what is grabbing onto my pants and bothering me.  My knee is still swollen a little bit, I am trying to ice it every night after I am done working out to try and help the swelling to reduce.

Well another week down, and another week closer to being fully healed.  Also, another week closer until I get married to the greatest lady ever (besides my mom haha).  My next appointment is on March 8th, which I am sure that I will be in and out of there for the most part.

Below is pictures of my knee from about an hour ago.  I took pictures of the sides of my knee as well, not sure if you can see the swelling.  I also took pictures of my baloons, just because one is still afloat.

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...

Started outpatient Physical Therapy

So this past Tuesday, 1/8, I started outpatient physical therapy at Western PA Sports Medicine & Rehab Clinic in Johnstown, PA.  Today was my 2nd time going.  My knee actually feels a lot better after doing all that.  Today I did everything from Tuesday plus some.

I started out today's workout with some electrodes, or something like that, being injected into my quad muscle and loosening it up and I had to flex the quad muscle when it was tightening it up.  I then did some typical motions exercises, then I got to get on a bike to do some more motion exercises.  At first the bike was bothersome to my knee, but once I got going it felt good, I just had to keep on pulling up my shorts because they kept on rubbing the incision on the back of my leg.  I then did some calf stretches, then some more motion exercises, then back on the bike for the second time.  After that, I iced my knee and then I was done and came home.

I am able to start walking without crutches fairly well, starting to get up and down steps without my crutches, but I keep my crutches on hand just encase I would need them.  I can't walk down steps yet normally, I can only go one step at a time with both feet on both steps, but I can go up steps with one foot on each step.

The people up at Western PA want me to get pictures of my surgery so they can see what it looks like, because I am one of the first cases up there with synovial chondromatosis, and now there have been a few more people with cases like mine in different joints, but no where near as severe as mine was.

Below is some pictures of my incisions with most of the strips off of my leg.  I also might have said in the last blog post that I am taking Advil, I am taking Aleeve instead because I miss heard what the doctor said, and they said that all the strips coming off already is good.

On Saturday, January 12th, will be 175 days that I get to marry my best friend Kayla. :-)

Here is a picture of me and my Fiance's dog Ellie, she is 3/4 Black Lab and 1/4 German Shepard.  She lives with my fiance currently, but once we get married she will then be living with me as well.  Just thought that I would share because I don't think I showed any pictures of her yet.

Stitches are out!!

So I just got back from Pittsburgh and my stitches are out.  I now got some of those strips on the back of my leg, that I have on the front of my leg, that will come off as time goes by.  The doctor said that it all looks good and I should be on schedule for healing.  I am not allowed to drive yet, I got to wait until my next appointment which is 3 weeks from today on Friday 1/25 and hopefully returning to work on the 28th.

I asked him about how often my disease occurs, he said it is about 1 in a million, but when he took mine out, it was literally as big as a hockey puck and came out in one piece, he said that's the first time he has ever experienced that.

He wants me to try to walk around my house without crutches but still use crutches when I am out and about, especially with it snowing out and being icy.  I am hoping now that my stitches are out, and I don't have to wear any wrapping around my knee anymore, that I can wear something other than sweatpants, and I know my fiance will be happy if I can look more decent when we go out, haha.

Well, here is my post stitches leg with the strips on the back of my leg.

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.

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!!