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Today I kept thinking about a post on the bulletin board and I do not remember who started the thread. It started out by saying  " I am greatful for my knee problems because" and the post went on to list all these great reasons to take a step back and remember when you are dealt lemons in life to make lemonaid.

Meniscus transplant is only twenty years old, and has become an established procedure only in the last five. However, meniscal transplant is NOT a cure-all and is not the answer for every patient suffering the long term consequences of total meniscectomy. For example, in patients where a previous total meniscectomy has left the joint damaged, with established painful arthritis and collapse of the joint space, the results coming in suggest that meniscal transplant is likely to be a waste of time and a waste of valuable donor material.

Finding lodging for out-of-town surgery can be very stressful. The amount of time you will be staying, expense, convenience, location and safe environment are all factors. We've stayed at a variety of hotels on our many trips to Cincinnati. With Dr Noyes office now located about 20 mins drive north of downtown Cincinnati, in the town of Montgomery, we prefer to stay near his office. Staying near the hospital for surgery is very inconvenient because your time there is very limited and all your rehab will be done at the office.

It wasn't until I found myself in the position of being a prospective patient for articular cartilage repair that I decided to do a bit of reading around the area. Now you may think that as I am a fully qualified chartered physiotherapist that I should have known all about articular cartilage problems and how they are managed. The reality of things is that the only time in the whole of my physio training that articular cartilage was ever mentioned was in relation to osteoarthritis.

I am constantly amazed by some of the experiences that people tell me they go through when they go to see their physio after they have had articular cartilage repair. A couple of classics that I come across way too frequently are -

When I told my physio that I had ACI surgery they said "so you've had your ligament repaired! or 

When I went to the physio they had never heard of microfracture/OATS/Mosaicplasty/ACI (delete as appropriate!) and they had no details of my operation from the surgeon.

It was back in March 2000 when I first saw a very well respected knee surgeon who carried out a thorough examination of my knees.  On examination he found that I had very obvious and severe external tibial torsion which was compensatory to excessive anteversion at my femoral neck.  This was bilateral and probably developmental in origin.  As a result  I had squinting patellae on standing and walked with markedly externally rotated foot progression angle.  I had slightly valgus heel with pronated flat feet.  On standing on tip toe I did not develop a significant

On a lighthearted note, this is a salute to that wonderful piece of durable medical equipment known as, the Ice Machine. Whoever invented this , all I want to say is, THANK YOU.  Gone are the days of ice gel paks and leaky bags filled with ice cubes. Continuous cold therapy is the way to go.

Just a brief update:
-about 30 degrees ROM
-still bruised
-still swollen
-hurts all the time, but really bad at night
-hurts by the medial meniscus... this worries me... I've had the medial meniscus trimmed, and the bones are reshaping to compensate.  Well OS said if I was having medial meniscus pain that would make sense, and he would consider a meniscus transplant.  I'd never really had pain there, so I never worried about it (the whole idea of a transplant just creeps me out).  But now thats where the majority of my pain is... sigh....

Those were my words, when I was told I had a Fabella bone in my knee.

A Fabella bone is an extra sesamoid bone, located laterally, behind the knee. Only about 10% of the population has a Fabella bone. It is embeded at the head of the Gastrocnemius tendon. It is about the size of a pea and is very difficult to see on xray. Believe it or not, this little bone is susceptable to arthritis, fracture, dislocation and impingement.