Days after the surgery

So I had surgery on Monday March 10th, 2014.  I had to be there by 5:00 am and surgery started at about 7:30.  Got there, went back to my pre-surgery room, got IV's and whatnot, they also gave me a patch behind the ear to help with nausea after the surgery with the anesthesia.  So it was a little after 7:00, my parents and my wife, Kayla, were there, they came to get me and drugged me up with some relaxing stuff, and that stuff was awesome, I have never been high before but I am sure that is about what it feels like haha.  We got back to the freezing cold room, I was still laying on the bed, and they still had time before the surgery started so they started showing me stuff around the room which was kinda amusing and kept me calm.  Then they gave me the oxygen mask and I was out until I woke up in the recovery room.

When I woke up I had no pain, no IV injected pain meds or anything.  Got wheeled up to my room, they gave me 2 pain killers, and my parents and Kayla got up to my room.  Then I took one more pain killer around 8:00pm and then only have taken tylonell extra strength since then with some aspirin for blood thinners but that is it.  I then got released on that Tuesday (a day before I was supposed to be released), went back to Johnstown for the night, then headed back to York on Wednesday where I am now at.

So the Doctor said that everything looks good now.  They cut me open like they did before, right over the old scar (which I think is why I didn't really feel any pain except for an ache every here and there).  He took everything out that involves the synovial chondromatosis, he said that the one piece was about the size of a ping pong ball behind my knee and he has no idea how I was even walking on it because my knee couldn't even bend or extend.  He also got the rest of the little pieces.  He took an X-ray before they took me out of surgery to make sure that he got everything which it looks like he did from what he says.  Right from I woke up in recovery, I could see that my knee was a lot straighter than it was before I had surgery.

So I had the nurse and the physical therapist come today, nurse said everything looks good, she showed Kayla how to do the dressing and the ace bandage on my leg.  The physical therapist showed me some exercises, she is gonna call the doctor to see what else I can do.  The nurse is done and doesn't need to come back anymore unless I call, and the physical therapist will be back on Saturday.

My next knee appointment with Dr. Weiss in Pittsburgh is on Wednesday March 26th.

From now to then, Kayla and the pups (Ellie and Hannah) will be taking care of me!

Here is some pictures, I will get some pictures up of my scars and surgery marks when I get a chance to take pictures of them.

Pre-surgery:

After surgery:

Patch behind the ear for my nausea:

On my way home from the hospital:

The seriousness of synovial chondromatosis

Just wanted to share this, yesterday a lady from the UK has messaged me on Twitter, she was just telling me good luck with my recovery and that she has synovial chondromatosis as well. So I just said to her back asking when she had surgery for hers, she told me that she had surgery 7 times and had a knee replacement and it still came back. As we messaged more, she told me that no doctors around her will operate anymore and that the only doctors that will is in the USA.

To me this is crazy, I really didn't think this was that bad seeing that, from I read, that this has only a 25% chance of returning. I am thinking that it could be more because some of the medical websites say that the it is common to come back. As in it is still there in the back of my leg, I do expect to have surgery for it again in the coming years, and if it would come back in the other places that it looks to have been removed, then it comes back.

This just shows how serious that this disease that is generally unknown is. I wish that someone could figure out why this happens and that because no one literally does no know. I just pray that the lady that messaged me can get hers figured out because overall, this disease is just crazy. I know that I'm not the only one out there that hopes for a cure and that someone can figure out why this and PVNS happens, since they are sorta similar and no one knows why either happens or a cure for them besides surgery which doesn't work all the time.