I don't understand...

[galanbryan]

All you guys' recovery times are so long. My doctor said she's going to have me walking in 3 weeks after my 1 week check up. And I'll probably be good in 12 weeks. I don't get how you people are taking so long, no offense to anyone. Can someone explain that to me? BTW i'm 17, if that matters.

[Vickster]

Not had OATS but my understanding with all of these cartilage type repairs is that it very much depends where in the knee the damage is and also how big it is, not to mention the size of defect - a few mm defect with a single plug presumably heals far quicker than a larger defect needing several plugs or cartilage...don't see this info in your post

Also, protocol varies a lot from surgeon to surgeon, some are much more conservative than others, while others are more aggressive.

Also, OATS can be done keyhole or open and I assume the wound healing time may also have some effect - again, which was yours?

I don't know if age really affects this - everyone heals differently - I filled in a 1.5cm2 traumatic defect with fibrocartilage without intervention while for some, for example, microfracture never works - my understanding is that people can either generate fibro cartilage in this way or not!  Given mine is still tender after nearly 2 years, I am not sure if I am lucky in this respect!

[galanbryan]

My defect I believe was 11mm, and I believe they used the same incisions used for my arthroscopy so the wounds I don't think were that bad. I just went to the doctor, they took my steri-strips off, they drained my knee, which was the best feeling in the world, and told me to start ROM exercises and when I came back in 3 weeks, we would start trying to walk.

[Jaime0402]

Wow that seems really soon to be bearing weight after OATS. I'm definitely no doctor, but I have researched this recoverty a lot. I had OATS myself 10 days ago and I am no weight bearing for 6 weeks then only partial weight bearing for 2-4 weeks and progressing from there. What part of your knee had the defect mine was MFC and was 4mmx13mm, they actually did 2 small plugs versus one larger plug. Hows your pain level? I'm 31 and this is my third surgery on this knee and woweeee was this a lot worse than I had expected! I also had another ACL reconstruction and some work done on my mensicus, my surgery lasted almost 6 hours    Maybe you should tell your doctor you have ready many conflicting protocols for weight bearing after OATS but that most of them seem to be about the 6 week range and ask why yours is so different. My understanding is it's like when you break a bone it takes about 6 weeks to heal, when they put the plug in it needs about that long to heal and to become secure, bearing weight to soon can cause it to shift and can greatly reduce the likelyhood the procedure will work. Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

[galanbryan]

Thank you and good luck to you. This Monday will be 4 weeks post op and my OS told me they would start weight bearing. I will be sure to ask why my time frame is different. Otherwise, I feel great! My knee is a bit swollen but I believe it will go away with time, and I have almost all ROM back, although to be fair, I never really had full ROM on that leg anyway. But I will be sure to ask. I'm just really anxious to get walking, because I'm 17 and my activity level prior to surgery was very high, and being stuck at home is such a drag.

[Jaime0402]

How's it going? Did you begin partial weight bearing today? I saw my OS today and discussed with him being more conservative and going a full 8 weeks of NWB and then 2 weeks of PWB. Considering this is my third knee surgery I REALLY want to be extra conservative as to ensure something doesnt go wrong from WB to soon. Did you talk to your OS yet? I'm really curious what he/she said. Hope your doing well. My pain level gets a tiny bit better each day. I don't really notice a huge improvement from day to day but if I think back to a week ago compared to where I am now I notice a decrease in the pain    I still have 5 1/2 weeks of NWB to go, it definitely gets hard to tolerate doing nothing but sitting all the time but I'm to clumsy on the crutches to risk falling and comprimising the OATS, so here I sit   

[galanbryan]

Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since surgery. I actually did not do PWB and went straight to walking. I asked and she said they tend to be more aggressive in their therapy. I also have not gone to PT. I've actually been doing pretty well. Some soreness every once in a while, but mostly good. And she said in a month she may have me doing high impact exercises too. I'm very excited. BTW this is my 2nd surgery, first being the arthroscopy to investigate the problem.

[Jaime0402]

That's awesome! I'm glad to hear you are doing so well! I am still 2 more weeks of NWB, for a total of 8 weeks NWB. Then I'll do 2-3 weeks of PWB. The pain is very minimal at this point, hopefully it continues to be that way when I begin PWB. I'll start PT at that point to. This is my third knee surgery in a yr and a half, so I was already in a deficit leg muscle wise from the previous 2 surgeries and PT will be a MUST for me. At least it's warm out and I can spend some time in the pool. My other two surgeries were during the coler months so swimming wasn't an option. Are you sleeping in a CPM machine at all? Are you able to bend your knee the same as the other knee? I realy hope you have good success, your so young to be having knee problems of this magnitude    Keep in touch if you have time and let me know how your doing!

[markld]

Just out of curiosity I was wondering why none of you had a Denovo NT procedure? If the Allograft fails then you go straight to a knee replacement therefore an allograft is usually a last case scenario after a cell based technologies such as ACI or Denovo NT have failed to provide relief.......