Alisson's MACI Surgery :)

[Jamey1215]

Hi Alisson,

I had ACI and TTO done last week.  It has been 6 days since my surgery.  I started to get the muscle spasms in my leg last night and meant to ask about it in physicial therapy today but forgot.  I will have to remember to ask about that.  I remember this happened when I had my right knee done many years ago.  I know what you mean about your foot looking blue.  I noticed that this morning when I go up.  After moving around a bit it looks back to normal.  My doctors protocol says I can do heal slides up to 90 degrees after the first PT appointment which was today.  I made it to 90 degrees with a little assistance from a strap.  I could do 62 degrees on my own which seems pretty good for my first day.  Overall my recovery has not been too horrible.  I am kind of enjoying being able to lay around the house and not have to worry about work.  Although I would really like someone to help clean up around here!  I actually have a cleaning person coming on Thursday afternoon to give me a quote on helping out a little.  Husbands are no good when it comes to housekeeping.  Glad to see you are getting along so well!  I hope your recovery continues to go well. 

Jamey

[AlissonAus]

Hi Jamey, thank you for your comment! Well done with the range of motion, that is really great! I found my pain wasn't too bad those first couple of days when I kept completely still. I think I was lucky with pain though, I didn't find it too bad. You should totally make the most of lying around and watching movies  I hope everything goes well with your recovery


Hi all.
I would love some help/advice...the last 3 days I have been losing range of motion in my knee. Last week I was able to easily achieve 70 degrees. I am now at a rather painful 50, and if I really push the knee it gets to 70 but the pain is sharp and awful. Then I also developed pain at the back of the knee and on the side where the scar is....I am seeing my OS on Wednesday, so I thought I'd ask on here first....please help I'm a bit worried... 

Alisson x

[AlissonAus]

WEEK 7

Hi all
Saw my OS today. He told me the stiffness was just due to a lack of movement in the joint. He said my knee has been kept still for too long and it's like the other parts in the leg are now "begging" for some attention. He was able to get my knee to 90 degrees very easily and actually without too much pain. He told me my muscles are very weak, and very tight. He got the physio to give me another massage, as well as a scar massage as I complained of scar pain and pain on the side and back of the knee. He told me they might need to break down a bit of scar tissue with a couple of massages. (That scar massage hurt holy cow). He told me I should go see the physio twice a week for a good muscle massage, as well as a scar massage (eek).  He told me I am allowed to start taking the brace off at night just for sleeping.

I am currently walking weight bearing with 50 degrees flexion, still with both crutches. I can start walking with one crutch in a week's time (if my knee can handle it, my quad is pretty wasted away, when I put weight on it for the first time without a crutch today, it completely gave way, luckily my doctor was holding on to me or I would have fallen face first on the floor). My OS hopes to have me walking without crutches in 2 or 3 weeks, and then there will be only two weeks left in the brace!! I can't believe the end is actually starting sneak closer!!

My doctor is just concerned because my leg is still pretty swollen. He gave me some anti-inflammatories, so hopefully that will bring the swelling down. I am not too worried, my knee was very swollen prior to surgery and so gigantic after the surgery that it actually looks pretty good to me lol 

I am at the stage where I am already happy that I had the procedure done. I am not having any pain where I had before the surgery, and my recovery hasn't been as hard as what I expected. It hasn't been easy, bit its seriously not that bad

I hope everyone has an amazing pain free and happy week

Alisson x

[kneeproblems:(]

hey alisson good to hear about your progress! i had the cartilage biopsy op about 2 weeks ago and am now counting down to having the big second procedure.
did you have to do much physio/exercises after the second procedure? or did you just have to rest the knee in a brace
thanks for posting your experiences with the procedure, it is helping me prepare for it

[AlissonAus]

Hi Kneeproblems!

I'm so glad my diary is helping you, that was the main reason why I started it! I was so scared of this operation and I had no idea what to expect... When you do get your operation I would love to hear about your progress/experiences with it

Physio varies from doctor to doctor, and the area where you had the defect. Firts of all my doctor kept my knee locked at 0 degrees (no bending at all) for two weeks, and only allowed me to touch the floor with my toes when walking. After 2 weeks, he bent it to 20 degrees, and told me to increase the range of motion by 10 degrees every week, so at 3 weeks I was at 30 degrees and 4 weeks 40 degrees and so forth. Just so you know, bending your knee for the first couple of times hurt like crazy, and the knee feels stiff but it gets better. At 5 weeks he bent the knee to 70 degrees and kept it there for 2 weeks. I am now able to achieve 90 degrees and I am almost 8 weeks post op now.

I was not allowed any exercises until six weeks post op. I think this is mainly to do with the fact that my graft is on my patella, patella lesions are allowed to bear weight sooner. I think defects in different areas are allowed exercise earlier, but not allowed to  weight bear until much later. The physio exercises I am currently doing seem very simple but they are so hard to do! For the first exercise I place a rolled up towel under my knee and then I press my knee down, hold for three seconds and relax. The second exercise is a straight leg raise. I lay flat on my back for this one, tense my quad muscles, lift my leg, keep it in the air for 3-5 seconds and then relax. I try to do these as many times I day as I can fit in. In the beginning I couldn't lift my leg at all, but eventually I got it to move. The leg raises are very painful to do, and very hard. I wanted to skip doing my exercises so many times, but it is really important to do them everyday. After just a week of doing them I could see my quad muscle starting to firm up again. Muscle loss is something you should expect. I lost like 10cm quad circumference just after 4 weeks. My operated leg is really skinny now it is kindof depressing to look at, but I know I will build the muscles back as soon as I can.

How did you find the biopsy procedure? I loved the fact that it's a keyhole procedure, I wish they did MACI through keyhole!
Hope you have a fun weekend, enjoy going out while you still can 

Alisson 

[Jamey1215]

Hi Allison,

Have you had any issues with your knee catching or locking up?  I get this when doing heal slides now.  It is not everytime and I can straighten my leg out and it will release.  It has me a little concerened and after calling the doctors office Friday they want to see me back.  I go tomorrow morning to make sure everything is ok.  I also have a sharp pain under my patella which is where my implanted cells are.  You said you had your patella done as well so I was just wondering if this happened to you at all. 

I find it interesting how different each surgeons protocols are. 

[AlissonAus]

Hallo Jamey!

I have not had any issues with catching or locking of my knee since the operation. I had plenty of catching and locking prior to the operation though. Is the pain under your patella constant or is it just stabs of pain every now and then? I haven't yet had any pain under the patella since my op. I do think seeing your doctor would be your best call. Sorry for not being more help 

I know, I have seen people on this site doing mini squats like 4 weeks post op, or starting to bend the knee the same day of the operation! It is so weird how many different protocols there are hey?

Good luck with your appointment, and let us know what he said!! 

A

[AlissonAus]

So I thought I'd share some pics today! The first is my defect when my surgeon opened up the knee, in the last little pic the MACI graft is attached. The second is just a close up of my scar at almost 8 weeks post op

Alisson x

[kneeproblems:(]

hey allison,

my recovery from the first procedure was quite minor, i just kept of my knee for a few days and had a bit of swelling. the physio gave me a few exercises to do and within a week my knee was back to the same way it was before the surgery. the worst thing has probably been the two puncture wounds, they have been quite painful and have taken a while to heal up. 

yes my defect is on my femur so i expect my recovery/rehab protocol will not be exactly the same as yours, but i will definately have muscle loss(after my last knee surgery my leg muscles especially my quad turned to jelly after a few weeks). hopefully it will not be ridiculously severe.

thanks for uploading the photos, i asked my surgeon and apparently i will have a similar size scar in a similar place to yours. did you have any surgical staples in the incision? or was it just sown up with stiches?

the big day for me is the 4th of April, luckily in adelaide we have had some amazing weather so ive been enjoying being active before ill be confined to the indoors after the op.

hope the recovery continues to go in the right direction.

John

[AlissonAus]

Hi John

I have 3 little puncture holes from the 1st procedure, I put Bio-Oil in all my scars, it seems that they feel better after getting a bit of moisture, I also massage them from time to time and that helps with the pain too.
I didn't have staples or external stitches with my MACI. I had two bits of thread (looked very similar to fishing gut) sticking out from the top and bottom of my scar. When I saw my doctor 2 weeks post op, he literally grabbed one end of the thread with a tweezer and just pulled it out of my scar. It was really weird, and it hurt a bit! So yeah I had strange internal stitches I guess 

A 

[Jamey1215]

Nice pictures Allison.  What a good looking scar!  The pain under my patella is just when I contract my quad and goes away.  The doctor was not too concerend with the catching/tightness I was feeling.  He said when I feel it to just relax and then start my heal slide again.  SOmetimes I can do 30 in a row and have no problem and other times I can do two.  It's really strange. 

[AlissonAus]

Hi Jamey

I'm glad your doctor isn't concerned but it's also a bit frustrating not to get an answer right?
When I contract my quad I also get a very sharp pain, but it's not under my knee cap, its at the top of my scar, basicly where the quad muscles end and the knee begins. I was really concerned about it but my doctor said it's probably just scar tissue. Maybe your knee is just still a bit tender from surgery and tensing the quad irritates it or something, knees are weird that way I reckon. When the cartilage under my knee cap was bad, my pain was constant and dull, and the locking so bad I had to sit down a straighten my knee back out with both my hands when it locked...

How is the rest of your recovery going?

A 

[AlissonAus]

WEEK 8 + WEEK 9

Hi everyone!

So I am now currently 9 weeks post op and things are going great. I have ditched the crutches over the last week and it is amazing to have some freedom back! Still wearing the brace, locked at 70 degrees flexion when walking, but I am able to easily and pain free obtain 90 degrees ROM. I have not pushed the knee further than that, as my OS said we'll do that when I see him next week. My scar is healing beautifully, I know I have said this 100 times but I can not recommend Bio Oil enough! It's amazing and it smells nice. The muscle spasms have eased up a bit, nothing really helps but having a massage with Deep Heat is the only thing that has given me some relief (not even the muscle relaxants my doctor perscribed helped). I am just a bit concerned with my foot that keeps on turning blue, over the weekend I saw that a part of my calf was turning blue too. The weird thing when I turn blue it doesn't turn cold, so I'm not sure if it's a circulation thing or not. Other than that I have no issues. Only three weeks left in the brace. I thought the weeks would drag by, but this all went really quick.

Have a good week people 

Alisson x

[AlissonAus]

Hi everyone!

I just thought I'd share what a good couple of days I've been having. It's amazing to walk without my crutches!! I had my first bath in almost 10 weeks (oh how I loathed the showering with the dreaded shower chair). My bath is really deep, so I was afraid I won't be able to get out, hence why I haven't attempted a bath, but I got in and out without any trouble, and the hot water was amazing on my sore back and hip muscles!

I think my back is hurting from all the sitting. I still find sitting in a chair uncomfortable, I prefer having my leg fully supported like on my couch or bed.... Uni has been a drag, somehow they always cram all the assignments into one week.

I also have a pic I'm uploading to show my muscle loss. I've always had very firm and strong quad muscles, so it's been a bit of a schock seeing how my quad has literally sunken in, especially just above the knee. Something I've never mentoned is the fact that we have not idea where this defect came from. I've never done sport or any form of running or even exercising for that matter, I have no alignment issues or anything like that and I'm really short and petite so I've never been overweight. I guess it's just something that happened to me. My OS says it's quite a mystery, so obviously he is worried that it will happen again out of nowhere, but let's hope that isn't the case.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a super weekend, I can't wait until I can go out again over the weekend 

[AlissonAus]

WEEK 10

I just got home from seeing my OS. I got the best news EVER....he took off my brace!! I am walking without any assistance for the first time in almost three monhts.  He also upped my pt routine. He told me to start on a stationary bike, with no resistance for a couple of mins a day, until I'm able to do 30min. He gave me this elastic band thing to exercise my leg with, and told me to do lost of leg lifts, and he gave me a couple of other exercises. He told me my muscle loss was pretty bad, but in about six months my quad should be back to a normal size, but he also told me that it may never completely look the same. He also said the remaining swelling in my knee might stay there for up to another 6 or so (maybe even longer) months.

I now have to see him in 6 week intervals, instead of the 2 week intervals we were on, which also show me I'm getting better. There is two weeks of uni left until mid semester break, and then a week holiday, so I'm hoping to be able to go back to uni in 3 weeks...but I'm maybe being a bit ambitious. My doctor did tell me I'm still suppposed to take it very slowly, but I'm still pretty excited

Enjoy the rest of the week people

Alisson x