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.

2 Weeks after 2nd Surgery

So today is 2 weeks after having my surgery for the 2nd time, I haven't posted up any pictures of my newest scar with stitches so I will put those up with this post.

I still got no pain back there, just mainly soreness, hard to sometimes fall asleep because of the soreness but its way better than it was last year.  I go to the doctors again on Wednesday so we will see what he all says.

These are pictures for a few days after the surgery.

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...

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.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Today has been a week since I had surgery on my right knee and I am glad that I have been home the past few days, way better than the hospital.

So my home nurse and home physical therapy have started.  I am doing just some motion exercises and straightening my knee exercises to work it out.  I am also laying on my stomach which is suppose to help straighten out my leg as well.  The nurse came today, looked at it and said everything is looking good. My pain level right now is like 1 and the highest is like a 2-3.

I am starting to sorta walk with the crutches.  Instead of taking a step and bringing my other leg up beside my already stepped leg, I am trying just walking normal but using my crutches with stepping with my right leg, which I had surgery on.  I am still cautious about walking without my crutches so I will give it a few more days of walking like this then I will try it.  I tend of have some pain when I first stand up, but once I stand there for a few moments the pain goes away and I am good to go.  I am getting better at steps, going up them, going down them I am still sitting down and sliding down them.  The steps outside my house have a double railing that I can hold both at the same time so going down steps with that is pretty easy, but inside the house I would rather prefer sliding.

Below I have some pictures of what it looks like right now, I took the picture either yesterday or the day before.  Some of the tape on the front of my leg is starting to peel and a lot of it looks to be healed.  The nurses said to just let them go and take showers and all that and let them peel off themselves, if I would pull them, they could rip open the scab.

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and remember that Jesus was born on that day!!

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.

One week from today

In one week from today I will be sitting in the hospital getting operate on, I know as it draws loser my nerves are going to rack up. But I have my faith and trust in God that he will give me strength to guide me through it and to keep me calm.

Today I went and did all my pre-surgery testing. Felt like I did more tests today than I did throughout college. First I went to my family doctor and got a physical and they did an EKG. Then I went and got blood work done. Got some subway cause I was hungry from fasting for the blood work, then got a chest X-ray. Surprised all that only took like 2 hours, normally my doctors office is slower than molasses. So that's about it for today.

And I am a big fan of squirrels, this little guy was sitting in my parents back yard, my dad feeds them corn over the winter. This guy is a fat one!!

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!!