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.

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.

Surgery set for Monday 3/10

So I will have surgery on Monday March 10th on my right knee.  Not really too sure how they are going to do it, just assuming that it will be the same as last time opening up just the back of my leg.

This is the report from the doctors, whatever the heck this means I have no idea... Gotta research it...

Narrative

MRI RIGHT KNEE
HISTORY: 24-year-old male status post debridement of right knee
12/17/2012 for synovial chondromatosis, status post fall a few months
ago with hyperextension injury, increased posterior pain, decreased
flexion.
TECHNIQUE: Multiplanar multisequence MR imaging of the right knee was
performed without contrast utilizing the following sequences:
Sagittal proton density, sagittal T2 fat-sat, coronal T1, coronal T2
fat-sat, axial T2 with fat-sat, coronal proton density through the
ACL.
COMPARISON: Right knee radiographs 12/27/2013, 09/20/2013.
FINDINGS:


Menisci: There is a vertical tear of the anterior horn of the lateral
meniscus that extends to the anterior root. Medial meniscus is
intact. Mild medial meniscal extrusion is present.
Cruciate and collateral ligaments: The anterior and posterior
cruciate ligaments are intact. The medial collateral ligament,
lateral collateral ligament and posterolateral corner structures are
intact.
Cartilage: The articular surface is intact without evidence of
partial or full-thickness defects.
Extensor mechanism and tendons:There is minimal increased signal
within the distal patellar tendon. The quadriceps and patellar
tendons are otherwise intact.
Bones: No acute fracture. Bone marrow signals within normal limits
without evidence of infiltrative process.
Muscles: There is no muscle edema or atrophy.
Joint fluid/synovial: There is a moderate joint effusion. Lobulated
intra-articular masses are present about the posterior aspect of the
joint. These surround the posterior aspect of the femoral condyles.
Medially and centrally more focal rounded masses are identified.
These masses demonstrate increased signal on T2-weighted images,
hypointensity on T1-weighted images with areas of signal dropout
consistent with mineralization. The largest rounded lesion measures
approximately 3.4 x 2.5 x 2.7 cm in the transverse, AP and
craniocaudal dimensions. These findings are consistent with synovial
osteochondromatosis.

Impression

IMPRESSION:
MULTIPLE INTRA-ARTICULAR MASSES WITHIN THE POSTERIOR JOINT SPACE,
COMPATIBLE WITH SYNOVIAL OSTEOCHONDROMATOSIS.
MODERATE JOINT EFFUSION.
VERTICAL TEAR OF THE ANTERIOR HORN LATERAL MENISCUS.

So if I read this correctly, and from what my sister told me, I have a tear on the anterior horn on my lateral meniscus, and the disease is still there and if it is synovial osteochondromatosis, it is even more rare than the regular synovial chondromatosis.  My knee is really swollen and hurts like heck right now.  I can sorta feel a tender spot where I think it might be torn at.  Going to call the doctor tomorrow and see if I can get some answers on what is all going on with my surgery now that there is a whole new can of worms opened up...