The good, the bad, and the ugly

It not quite as overused as "Twas a dark and stormy night" but probably close. The ugly - man, my knee is ugly. Old scars, new incisions, brusies from the surgery and from PT. It's probably as weathered as Clint Eastwood's face. The bad - had the injection today, and we're considering the insufflation. I have also named my knee Sam. The good - hit nearly 5 degrees near the end of PT today, and even managed 30 minutes in the JAS brace. And I think Steadman's office has wireless. And a Coke Slurpee! Some things aren't as hard as you think once you try them. Feeling decent, and somewhat optimistic due to that extension numbers today. Dirk says since I'm here for 2 weeks, he's confident he can get my knee to lay on the table - although he recognized that each day it wouldn't stay there, it might get closer each time.

Should find out more from Steadman about the insufflation in PT tomorrow. A parent may fly out if I'm under general, we'll see. Unless anyone reading happens to be hanging out in Vail and wants to give me a lift home (that's not the only reason they're coming, of course) Ironically, a little more good news, the bike tonight in the condo was reasonably smooth - much less painful than any other time today. I also finished the 9/11 commission report, so it might be time to switch to Harry Potter. We'll see if we can work some magic this week...

The Morning
Hit PT this morning at 10:15. Started on the bike, and let Dirk know that Steady said Saturday he wanted to give me a shot today. Dirk ran upstairs and talked with Rae, the physician's assistant, and after some patella mobs and tight wall slides, Rae came down and brought me upstairs to a room. Steady arrived in between surgeries, and asked how it was feeling. "Still pretty tight, about the same as Saturday." "No surprise there -" with a smile. He pressed on my kneecap as always, and I showed him my pain was just below the kneecap, on the inside of my knee (to the right of the kneecap from my view) and behind the knee on inside if in extension. He recommend 5 cc of lyticane (sp) ]for pain] and 5 cc of ketalog (sp) [for the inflammation]. Back to surgery for him.

Dr. Atticus?, one of the surgeons in his fellowship, actually administered the shot. "Boy, I was just reading your chart - sounds like you've had a long haul.." (I just smile at that type of comment these days - it's regularity is almost comical) Right below the incision that was on the outside of my knee. He said the location of the injection isn't that important, since it all gets in the joint. They swabbed it, hit it with some sort of liquid ice to numb it, and then injected pretty deep into the knee - he actually had me sit with my legs over the edge of the table. This guy played pro football and mentioned he's had about 6 surgeries "or so" on his knees for a variety of things - "That always was less painful for me". "Nice to have a doc that can easily identify!" [it was for me too] Right after the injection, he slowly moved my knee from about 20 to 70 to work the fluid into the joint. Rae then indicated Steady said I could head back to PT for mobility stuff only, and also mentioned he wanted to see me tomorrow in PT and Thursday as well - insufflation might occur on Friday. While waiting for her, I move my leg up and down and heard a pop! And then another! Heard a few more through the day, so hopefully there are some changes going on in there.

Back to PT, a little more mobs, bike, and wall slides for the next hour or so. My knee felt looser, but it didn't really translate into much more motion. I didn't feel as much pain below the kneecap, but still had pain on the medial part of the knee. Dirk said my kneecap felt maybe 10-20 precent looser, and then didn't ice since I didn't work the knee to much and the fluid could distribute.

That's why I came here - Steadman saw me on a Saturday, wanted an injection. I showed up Monday and in just over an hour (with no one other than Steadman in his office aware he said this on Saturday) had a brief visit with Steadman and an injection. Proactive, Proactive, Proactive.

The afternoon
Hello, roxycotin. The bike, 30 wall slides to 93 degrees, patella mobilization. I asked Dirk was was right below the knee, and there are three tendons that meet right next to the patella tendon and then spray through the medial part of the knee right up to the quad muscle. Two of those (the two closest to the knee) he said are used for the hamstring ACL replacement. That's what I had, and my medial pain seemed to be in the area he pointed. Wondering if the remain tendon might be causing some of my problems.

He then proceeded to do a variety of stretches to my knee - tibia rotation and plenty of others - I had some pain but only at the apex of the stretches. He then massaged the back of my knee while in the prone position, and then pressed on my heel to straighten - he seemed surprised that I didn't complain too much. We then did something that really helped Lynne - a quad set but with him pushing on my tibia with overpressure. This seemed to really help - he could see my knee drop from about 3 finger widths to 2 finger widths after completion.

"Let's hammer some quad sets." "I appreciate the fact you said 'us'" :) 5 minutes with my heel about 2 inches off the table on a 1/2 foam roll, and attempted the 1 minute then straight leg raise after that. Hamstring stretches on my back, and then 30 minutes of tolerable JAS at a 4 setting! 20 minutes of GameReady on moderate pressure. Good news is the extension pain was almost all in the soft tissue in the back of the knee, and it wasn't limited to the one medial tendon like a couple days ago. Hopefully, we've moved past that and are on to new, exciting pain!

If you've read this far, thanks. It either means the above was riveting, or more likely, you care a lot. Either way, muchos gracias.