Thanks for the advice. Now not sure what grafts are since I pretty much checked out every time they mentioned LR. If he did do my surgery I'd just turn myself over to him. I trust him. My little local OS who I like a lot and whose PT I see (and who gives me my tiny pain med dose monthly) said last week that I might be able to convince him not to do a LR if I keep making progress. Hey, one year later and I can put weight on my peg leg! The world is my oyster!

I would say that part of finding an OS since Dr. T is not an option is to get more familiar with what exactly he would do, specifically what the graft is for. You can request your records from his office which will detail his notes, and probably even phone the office and just ask the question of his nurse. Most doctors offices allow a patient to communicate questions for the doctor through a nurse or secretary, who will then phone the patient back with the answer.

You can't find a doctor to do what Dr. T would do without knowing what all he would do.

I'm a big believer in the patient knowing what is going on and having a good understanding of what is being suggested before proceeding. That's just how I roll, it's what helps me feel comfortable. In this case, it might help you better track down a surgeon that shares Dr. T's philosophy and approach.

Dr. T is great, but he's not the only PF specialist out there and he's not the only one that won't do a lateral release on you, even though it might not seem like that.

I totally 100% agree with you about patients being educated and knowing what exactly is going on and what will be done. The problem is that I am not like you. I really struggle to understand the very basics while you seem to have a strong grasp of all these procedures not to mention, anatomy etc. So I didn't really understand what would be done. Plus what happened was as I suspected, there were all kinds of things going on in my knee that couldn't be seen on CT, x-rays or MRIs. After my surgery last week Dr. T sat down next to my mother and told her no wonder I was in unendurable pain for a year. Turned out that my knee was literally completely destroyed by the accident. I still don't understand-but there was a hole (where the cartilage was?) that my bone was falling into when I tried to walk (hence the unholy pain)

He said under my patella was completely filled with scar tissue. And I had virtually no cartilage left. None of this showed up on my tests. I could see when I spoke to him that he had thought deeply when I was under about what was the right thing to do. The surgery was 5 1/2 hours. He said that in the end he decided to try and "salvage" my knee even though the possiblity was great that I'll soon need a TKR. I know he used all his experience and knowledge and still wasn't sure. But until he went in he didn't know. He ended up cleaning me up, removing my scar tissue, loosening a ligament because I had a contracture, then doing a TTT (to help center the patella? which was permanently dislocated way to the side of my knee) and an MPFL. I won't lie-I thought I knew pain-but that was beyond my wildest imagination.
I think that my case was probably more extreme and complex than some on here. I probably should have had a TKR but I'm not sure with the extreme dislocation of my patella it would have worked(?) He said the TTT would help with a future knee replacement since my patella is now centered.
The truth is I was exhausted and out of doctors and couldn't work through the pain any more to even try and find anyone who'd understand all the stuff going on and put it together. I wish I didn't get so stressed out but as I said the pain limited everything about my life. Anyway, hopefully it will work out. Dr. T, Jessica and the nurses were wonderful. They all knew about Kneeguru.

I was on the waiting list and since August is a pretty dead month someone cancelled and I got a call. Sometimes they have a cancellation and they go down the list and no one takes it. That's what I was told.
I had a contracture. It was very tight. A loosening is not a LR or even a lengthening. Nothing is cut. That's the difference.

Maybe they renamed the lateral release the lateral loosening due to all the bad press 

RLE, it could be tone is not conveyed well on the internet, but you sound pretty apologetic in your reply to me (which I'm just now seeing thanks to the notification emails that never seem to come for me...). I wasn't attacking you (and I hope it didn't come off that way), just trying to help give you some hope of finding a surgeon who could help you since Dr. T's wait was so long. Glad you were able to sneak in on the waiting list, that's awesome! Hope your recovery is as smooth as can be.

I understand. We're all in a lot of pain and dealing with a lot of fear and anxiety and sometimes despair and hopelessness and I try and take it with a grain of salt. I know I've had physical pain this last year that I didn't know possible, at least without a morphine drip which for some reason is refused knee patients.
I'm sure there are good surgeons out there, I know some of the people who post here have found them. I also have hope because I saw that there are lots of residents being trained now to think differently which is desperately needed.

You need a good PF specialist. You know who I like but there are others on here as well. I found that a good surgeon is worth his/her weight in gold. Few and far between but I know a good doctor can fix you.