I went to an ankle specialist in January and it was confirmed that I had torn my peroneal brevis tendon from a fall I had the day after thanksgiving. He performed a fairly simple(compared to my other ones!) surgical procedure to suture it back and have now rehab’d it back to normal function.

I just had a follow-up visit with my TTT surgeon and I informed him that now that I’m 6 months out, I was not pleased with the outcome of the TTT and that after obtaining a copy of the x-rays he took in November, it was clearly indicated that I had “considerable high kneecaps” in the impression statement by the radiologist. I had not been advised of this x-ray during subsequent visits and only became aware of it because I asked to see it.  To this, my surgeon simply said it will take some time, keep working the knee and make sure to wear the neoprene knee brace. That’s it, all he could suggest, which IMO is wholly inadequate as a method.  Very disappointing to say the least, this guy was highly recommend to me as someone who is UK’s premier sports medicine orthopedic surgeon and does the majority of surgery on the UK athletes. He did nothing for me except put me thru one hell of a surgery which has left me with exactly the same symptoms. Maybe I didn’t qualify for the premium effort since I’m not 6-9, I can’t dunk and don’t have a great crossover dribble!

Anyway, I pick up the pieces from here and begin the search for OS #4. I’m now just left with speculation about what might be at the root of my problem. My ankle doc looked at my knee and thought perhaps it goes back to the PTR’s in 2011. He said sometimes following a PTR, the patella tendon for whatever reason is lengthened or the quad tendon contracts. Either or both could result in some amount of patella alta. My physical therapist has said besides the obvious patella alta, she notices a definite binding or catching in the patella femoral groove upon cycling between flexion and extension. She says something is causing huge resistance to the kneecap movement especially when attempting to lock the knee in on full extension. For the last month or so, I have gone against her advice and have started doing leg squats on the total gym. When I had done them at the PT clinic, my knees would pop so loud on each rep that it was grossing out the other patients and my PT feared I could do more damage so she had me stop them. However, nothing else has helped and I’ve decided what the heck. So far there has been no adverse consequence to doing the squats but the binding and popping remains basically unchanged.

I’m doing some research on Dr Robert LaPrade at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Co. He is identified as a complex knee surgeon and appears to be highly regarded. However, I’ve been fooled before so I plan to be very deliberate on selection of the next person to work on my knees. I have a gut feeling that at the root of my problems originated from the accident I had when ruptured both patella tendons. Something happened during that surgery and it is my hope that not only can an expert knee surgeon determine what it is, but that he or she can still do something to fix or at least give me a little bit more knee function.  One thing I know now is that when you screw up your knees, it can be a life altering event; unfortunately I’ve found that out all too well.

JC