Hello-
Thanks in advance to everyone who reads this and can offer advice.  I appreciate your time greatly.
I’m a 35 year old male, 195 pounds and have had problems with my left knee since injuring it at a young age.  About a year ago I started having sharp pains occasionally upon stopping my walking motion.  Then one day on vacation it hurt horribly and continuously popped whenever I tried bending it with horrible pain to the point I couldn’t really walk.  Then it was pretty much locked (partially bent).  Went to my ortho who did MRI and scope.  Removed a fairly large piece of soft tissue and sent a sample away for possible future Carticel replacement.  I went through rehab but I can’t even ride a bike without my knee feeling weird and then locking in a bent position.  Walking is okay for the most part and steps are normally okay but sometimes it pops and I will get pain after longer walks, etc.  Running is out of the question and I see redness and swelling at the end of most days.  I apologize for not knowing all the details because my knowledge of this is limited and I took fairly poor notes.  The doc says I have a bare spot on my femur? The size is 3cmx2cm.  He told me the procedure would require bone grafting? and then patching with the Carticel.  He mentioned “medial femoral chondrial?” and “osteochondritas?” and “osteotemy”?  They also took xrays of my legs/hips and suggested they need to break my tibia/fibula? to reduce the bow-leggedness in order to reduce the pressure on my knee joint.  Supposedly the whole operation would be like a 4hour ordeal and I’d be on crutches for 10 weeks to maximize the effectiveness of the Carticel patch.  Then with rehab it would be like 1 year before I’m back to full function.  He gave me some research that indicated that most similar patients thought their situation was better than before surgery in like 90% of cases (2yr-10yr post op).

Being only 35 years old I want to maximize my time with this knee as-is so it sounds like the surgery is a good idea if not a must.  I know there are probably lots of scary stories about this stuff gone awry, but does anyone have any feedback or recommendations?  My quality of life right now isn’t horrible besides I can’t run or bike, but I don’t want to miss this window of opportunity for the Carticel only to have my knee reach a horrible/unmanageable state 5 years down the road.

Any and all feedback is appreciated.  Or if there are any questions I should be asking my orthopedic surgeon.  I need to decide in the next week or so to schedule this thing before its too late.

Thanks!!!

Hi Johnny,

I just had the Carticel implant surgery last Thursday.  I will be one week post op tomorrow.  I also had a TTO done where they move your bone and tendon so that the patella tracks better.  I had basically rubbed a 2cmx2cm area of cartilage off of my patella and there was only bone left.  I struggled with the decision on what to do as well.  Reading about the surgery scared me.  The more I read the more I wanted to not do it.  So far my experience has not been awful.  My surgery was done out patient and I was home by 4 pm.  They did a good job taking care of me as far as pain and although I have moments where I really hurts the pain medicine has been working well and keeping me comfortable.  What bothers me the most is giving up my independence for so long.  I am trying to do things on my own as much as possible but it is difficult.  I did manage a shower by myself today and I can do some minimal tasks around the house such as feed the dogs and move laundry from the washer to dryer. 

I ended up in this prediciment after years of running.  I trained and ran a few half marathons and triatholons.  This past Fall as I was training to run in November I the ache in my knee just became to much so I went to the doctor to see what was going on.  An MRI revealed Grade 4 chrondromalacia.  I did injections of ORtho Visc and intense physical therapy but I could not get back to my level of training that I once had.  I also have a few horses that I ride all the time and riding all day was starting to take its toll as well.  That is what I miss the most right now and can't wait to get back to riding.  This weekend is the first horse show of the season and I am missing it. I did have quite a bit of work on my right knee, five surgeries, one being an osteotomy.  I also had a lateral release on my left one four years ago but that did not work and possibly made my problems worse which led me to where I am today. 

Honestly I think the toughest part of this so far for me is the mental challenge.  Physically I am doing pretty well at this point, I will know more Friday when I go back to the doctor.  I am at 75 degrees in the CPM and can get to 90 degrees doing heal slides at therapy and at home.  I just started that yesterday and have my second appointment tomorrow.  I have always been a quick healer so I am hoping to put a positive spin on this surgery as I have seen many people have had a very negative expereince and slow recovery.  It is way to soon for me to say if I did the right thing but the doctor I am going to feels that in 9 months I should be running again and hopefully next summer I can start triatholns again.  I think long distance running is a thing of the past for me.  If all goes well I want to be back in the show ring at the end of the year.  Fingers crossed.  I plan on going back to work at the end of next week or the following week.  I almost don't have a choice as far as that goes, but I don't see it being impossible at this point.  I had a pretty good pain day today.  ONly three pain pills so far! 

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.  I have a lot of free time right now!

I just wanted to follow up. I had my surgery (Carticel implant and high tibial osteotomy) on June 21st so I'm about 8 weeks out.  Everything is going well and I should be without crutches starting Monday.  Progressing with weight bearing has gone well and ROM has been coming along great.  Thanks!