Today I had my recheck appointment with my doctor. Good news, my fracture is basically healed. You can still see a small part of it, but he says not enough to be concerned with. Then we had to discuss the other issue, my knee cap. I have three choices: Live with the pain, which will eventually get worse, have a surgery involving screws or get a 2nd opinion.
I cannot live with the pain. I do not want to have to slow my life down because my knee hurts. I also don;t want to end up in a wheel chair because I over extend my knee and it goes out on me.
The surgery is a major one. It is called a Tibial Tubicle Transfer or a Fulkerson Osteotomy. They have to take part of the bone out and move my knee cIp back in place. If you look at the pictures above my doctor drew on my knee. The dark line is what my knee does. The light line is what it should do. There is a Q angle every one has that relates to how your knee cap tracks. Most women's is 12-16, mine is 40.
The downside to this surgery is: 35% complication rate including amputation. He has had great success with the surgery. He has had 2 patients that have had complications and they were due to a car accidents (so unrelated to the surgery) and the other due to a 17 year old going back to play football before being released to.
I would have to be in the hospital for 3 days with drainage tubes, antibiotics, etc. 8 weeks of crutches and a brace immobilizing my leg (no bending of the knee) it would take 9 months before I could run (not that I really do that now) or strenuous activity involving my knee.
The other option is to get a 2nd opinion. Well, I have my aunt Kay getting info from the doctor she works for, I have done ALOT of online research. The doctor I see is one of the top surgeons in orthopaedic surgery in the country. He really doesn't want to jump to do the surgery due to the high complication rate.
So, I have an appointment on February 11 at 2:45pm. I will need to have a decision by then. Right now I am leaning toward the surgery. Now is the best time for me to do it. I don't have anything coming up that I will miss. I am taking the semester off because I had a feeling I would be having surgery. My trip to California isn;t until August, so thats not an issue. I probably would miss the Vera Bradley sale, that will make me sad.
There are still so many pros and cons I have to weigh. I have read so many different things in regards to this surgery. But, all in all, I think this is the only way I am going to be able to get my knee back to some symbalance of normal.
So, please keep me in your prayers are I have quite a decision to make. As you all know I am quite the worrier, so pray that I will "Be Anxious for nothing".
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