In 1986 I hurt my left knee in a colision playing soccer. And x-ray showed no broken bones, but at that time no test was done to check my ligaments. I was given and awkward knee brace to wear for six weeks and told to stay off of my leg. I lost the crutches in two weeks and the knee brace in four. My knee healed somewhat, but I did not resume playing soccer.
Over the last 10 years my knee has been unstable off and on. My knee would occasional hyper-extend and "pop out" of the joint, but it would always go back in immediately. This was briefly painful and annoying none the less. In May 1994, I blew my knee out skiing in Tahoe. Local x-rays were taken and I visited an orthopedic surgeon in Washington, DC upon my return. The surgeon told me there was nothing wrong with my ligamenture and that I should lose weight! (sick bastard) Slowly, my knee was becoming increasingly unstable. In July of 1996, I jumped down a 36inch school bus step and my knee went sour again. This time, stability did not come back, and my knee would "pop out" when I was doing simple things like walking down stairs! It is amazingly embarassing to fall down a 6inch curb outside of a karaoke bar. Everyone else blamed the alcohol!
In August I visited the Washington Sports Medicin Clinic in Kirkland. By pure chance, I picked them out of the white pages because I wanted to return to my athletic lifestyle. My doctors name is Dr. Angelo and he is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in knee and shoulder injuries. He took down my history and examed my knee and amazingly! he was able to "pop out" my knee right then and there. He told me that they could brace my knee, but that my height (5'1") would make it difficult for a brace to be truely effective. He also said that an injury this old be only treatable with surgery. An ACL reconstruction (which is actually a graft) would be my best option. He said that I had a 95% chance of regaining 100% stability in my knee after 12 months. The surgery was would be an outpatient procedure, about 1 1/2 hours of real surgery. I would undergo 3 months of physical therapy and have a brace & crutches for 3 months.
The basics of the procedures are as follows. The surgeon drills a hole in your knee cap to thread a new ligament through. Then the new ligament is secured at either end with disovlving screws. Where do they get the new ligament? I'm glad you asked! You can have the ligament taken from a cadaver or another part of your body, usually the knee cap tendon or a piece of your hamstring. Upon my uncle Ed's recommendation, I asked my doc for a hamstring graft. He said that he usually does the knee cap tendon, but that he could do both. He asked me why I wanted the hamstring, and I kind of shrugged. But being the fine doctor that he is, he said he would do the hamstring provided that it was long enough to attach from my bottom leg bone to the top of my knee cap.
I arranged 5 days of sick time for work and my surgery was schedule for Monday morning at 10:00am. My mother flew out from Milwaukee (bless her) to take care of me for the week. I would not be able to drive my manual transmission or walk around very much the first couple of days. On Wednesday, a representative showed up with a pair of crutches and a cooling device that I would use after surgery. This turned out to be the most interesting equipment ever! It was an Igloo cooler (big enough to hold a six-pack) with a rubber tube you float in the ice water. Cold water flows out of the tube (powered by a fiesty little motor) into a cooling pad that is wrapped under the ace bandages. A nurse called me on Friday and told me what to expect on the day of surgery, where to go, and not to eat or drink before hand. On Sunday night we switched cars with my brother (lucky him) and went to bed early. I was nervous as hell and barely slept a wink.
We arrived at the Evergreen Surgery Center at 8:45am on Monday. I signed in and they took me in the back immediately. I put on a hospital gown over my underwear and met up with my mom in this little waiting room. A nurses assistant said that my surgery would start at 10:30 and that it would be over by 12:00pm and that my would visit me again by 1:00pm. I signed the release form, had my blood pressure taken, and waited. And waited. Around 10:20am the nurse walked me down the hall and into the surgery room. She introduced me to the anesthesia nurse (a.n.) and I hopped up on the table. This was weird. I was expecting to be out cold before I touched the table! The rest of it happened fast. The a.n. gave me an IV, which was ok because I give blood all of the time. They took my glasses off and they drew an X on my left leg. They didn't have to shave my leg, because I did it that morning. The nurse said that Dr. Angelo would be coming any minute. She started asking me a bunch of questions about my work, which effectively distracted me (bravo!). Then my vision started going bleury and I started blinking a lot. The a.n. told me that he had given me a drug that would make vision distorted (thanks for the warning buddy) and it might be easier if I closed my eyes. I did close them, and then the nurse moved in really close and was kind of leaning on my right leg - it was extremely comforting to feel her presence. Then the a.n. placed an oxygen against my chin. and told me that they would put it on my face when I went under. He said, "I'm going to put you to sleep now and you will wake up in the recovery room". He didn't count backwards or anything which didn't matter, because I was asleep!
I woke up kind of vaguely. A nurse came right over and put my glasses on, which was nice. There was a man in the recovery room across the aisle from me. He seemed like he was in a lot of pain. I tried to move around a little, but was too tired. I think I dozed of and on for a few minutes. I woke up again and the nurse offered me water or Gatorade. I picked Gatorade and she propped me up a little when she brought it over. I was really cold and I started shivering. I was not in pain, but I was a little nauseous. The nurse said that the anesthesia was making me cold and she propped a heating pad on my chest - this was _extremely_ comforting. I noticed that the clock said 2:00pm and she said that my surgery ran long, but that my mother was waiting for me outside the swinging door. At 2:15 she gave me my clothes and let me put my shirt on. She helped me put my shorts on, because my leg was so bulky with the bandages and cooler attached. She helped me into a wheel chair and wheeled me out! I was never so glad to see my mom. She propped me up in a recliner and offered me some chicken broth. My mom told me that Dr. Angelo said my surgery went well. It ran long because my bones were too tiny to fit the hamstring graft through, so he had to grind down the bone a little. He said it may add slightly to my recovery time.