Hello All - This is a great forum and has helped me through my situation so far.  To help others, I wanted to share my story, as well as get your input.

Quick background on me, I'm a 33yo male, very physically active until my injury (basketball, football).

I was playing touch football with friends about a year and a half ago (April/May 2010).  As I was running and coming to a stop, I felt a tearing in my left knee.  The tearing itself wasn't painful, but I knew something was wrong.  Afterwards, the pain was sever, and I had a lot of trouble bending my knee or putting any weight on it (stairs specifically).  I waited a few days to see what the deal was, and went into a doctor for an examination.  They took an x-ray and didn't see any issue on the x-ray.  The doctor came in for a about three minutes and talked to me about my situation.  He diagnosed it as a suprapateller tendonitis and told me to do physical therapy.  I tried to explain that I felt a tear, and this was not some overuse injury, but he was with his intern or doctor in training and trying to show off for her or something.  Anyway, so I did some PT, which seemed really silly.  My knee and the pain incrementally got better, but it never got back to normal.  I kept putting it off, but finally went to another doctor for a second opinion about six months ago.  This guy and his office was basically a money making outfit.  Anyway, he took a quick look and said, do more PT, and if it doesn't get better, come back for an MRI.  I tried some more PT, but knew it was not going to work so I stopped.  A quick note on this is that I notice for younger people or people who appear healthy, the doctors discount them a bit and think they are fine, instead of actually trying to help you figure out what the problem is….

Finally, I talked with some friends who had ACL tears to get a good orthopedic surgeon referral.  I met with this guy, and he said the PT isn't helping, so get an MRI and let's see what's going on.  After this it was determined that I had a significant cartilage defect.  He recommended I work with one of his colleagues who specializes in knee cartilage issues to discuss options, but that I should definitely get it taken care of given my age and lifestyle.
I met with my orthopedic surgeon and he described the defect as 7mm wide by 2cm long (long and thin) and all the way to the bone in my femur articular cartilage.  He described the various options (Allograft, Autograft, ACI-Carticel, and the newer De Novo).
I did some research and took some time to think it through, and ultimately decided on the De Novo procedure (FYI you can watch a video of the procedure on the Zimmer site physicians section).  I decided on this because of the one surgery, time considerations, and it just seemed like all the information (although still limited) on outcomes was positive.

I had the procedure on Oct 17th, 2011 and am now starting week 9 post op.  The procedure went smoothly, and included an arthroscopic examination of the rest of the knee.  No other damage was found.  The surgeon said it was good that the De Novo was used for my defect because of the shape (instead of an allograft or autograft, ACI could have also worked).  He said he had only seen one other similiar defect and wasnt sure what causes them.  I was out of the surgery after roughly three hours, and woke up with a large leg wrapping, a brace, and an ice pack.  I was given my meds and discharged shortly after that.

Recovery has been fine.  I had one episode about three weeks post op where I had sever swelling and pain in the knee.  I went in to get it checked out and the doctor asked if I had done anything, and checked for any locking or clicking, which I didn’t have.  He explained that the only risk was the graft coming lose which would be determined if there was locking from the lose body floating around in the knee.  I hadn’t done anything with my leg at that stage, just the CPM machine as prescribed.  I can only guess that I did the CPM at a bad angle that put pressure on the knee or something.  I had just gotten off the pain meds, but had to take them again to deal with the sever swelling & pain.  This all subsided after a week and I only take Tylenol now if it becomes painful after putting weight or PT.
I didn’t put any weight on my leg until about week 7.  I wanted to make SURE that graft was sitting in there.  Anyway, I started slowly adding weight to my leg/knee since that point, and can very slowly walk short distances without crutches.  However, I still use one crutch for short distances, and two for longer distances.
Everything so far appears fine and on schedule.  However, if I’m putting weight and it happens to get that spot where the actual graft was placed, it hurts like a mother.  At my six week post op the doctor said this will start to improve weeks 8-12.

Sorry for the long post, but I’ll keep this thread updated with my progress in the coming weeks. 

I did want to hear from people who had De Novo or ACI on approximately how long after the procedure any pain on the spot of the actual graft started to go away, to the point where you could walk somewhat normally without pain.

At this point I’m still hoping a year or two out from now that I can get back into some level of sports, but even if not, that’s ok as long as I can walk/run reasonable distances without pain.

Thanks and will keep you posted.

UPDATE - I'm about 13 weeks post op.  Had a 12 week follow-up with the surgeon and he says everything looks normal and to continue following the rehab protocol - trying new things and seeing how the knee reacts.  Deffinately no jogging or things of that nature at this stage.  Still noted a bit of swelling and said to continue icing as well.  Surgeon also noted that there was still significant atrophy in the quad.  I will have another follow-up in about 8 weeks.

I felt like I had hit a plateau for the last two weeks or so, but in the past few days the sharp pain I was feeling where the cartilage was placed has decreased significantly.  This deffinately has bosted my confidence in the procedure.  I read some of the various cartilage recovery info and it takes like 2 years before the cartilage gets to 75% maturity or something like that, so I know I have to be patient with this.  Also, from reading the various stories on this board, 12 weeks seems to be a turning point for a lot of people.  Everyone heals differently, but this seems to be a good gague of progress.

The physical therapist said I no longer need to come in for sessions unless I feel I need help.  My movement is basically back to normal, just need to keep working on recovery.  Getting the quad stronger is deffinately the hardest part of the recovery now.  The quad and pateller tendon are weak from surgery & the non-weight bearing period.

I did a bit more of the exercises yesterday and the knee started hurting like a mother last night.  Took two tylenol and it's bearable today.  Not too much swelling so I'm not concerned.  Should be better in a few days to rehab again.  Only 'normal' activity that still gives me problems is going down stairs or declines.

Update - 5 months post op now.  As of two weeks ago things were going really well, however, last week, I seem to have tweeked my knee a bit and caused some type of agitation of the knee/graft.  Some minor internal swelling and pain.  Didn't do anything particular to cause the agitation, just seem to have put weight while walking at a bad angle or something.  Pain has slowly improved since then, but it feels like I've gone back about a month in the recovery process.

Stairs are much easier now, walking is fine as well.  I have not attempted jogging or anything of that nature.  My body is telling me that I should wait longer than the perscribed schedule for adding jogging.  I will, however, step-up the PT this week.  45 degree wall squats, stationary cycle, lunges, lateral movement, and of course, icing!

Hi, I'm hoping maybe you can help me understand what's normal and abnormal with recovery from the Denovo NT Allograft procedure.  Based on your comment at 7 weeks post-op: Recovery has been fine.  I had one episode about three weeks post op where I had sever swelling and pain in the knee.  I went in to get it checked out and the doctor asked if I had done anything, and checked for any locking or clicking, which I didn’t have.  He explained that the only risk was the graft coming lose which would be determined if there was locking from the lose body floating around in the knee. 

I'm worried that I'm just about 4 weeks post-op of the Denovo NT Allograft and also having my kneecap reset as it was off to the side.  I'm still having some very bad days with sharp pain that is sometimes not relieved with pain meds.  I have heard clicking and popping too in my knee and what you said about makes me nervouse that maybe I still have loose bone fragments floating around.  Some days are ok and others are horrible, but I don't notice anything different that I'm doing to cause the pain on the bad days. I'm in a knee brace from mid-thigh to ankle and my dr. adjusted it to 90% last week, but I'm not able to bend nearly that far yet.  He told me I could sleep w/o it and I'm not able to w/o pain, so I've kept it on very loose at night.  I haven't been very mobile yet either.  I've been working from home and only walking around the house on crutches, since I'm still non-weight bearing.  I do start PT finally on Monday and am hoping for some answers there, but wondered if you had any advice or information that might help?

Thanks,
Sandy