I had the op 4 weeks ago, it was a 4 hour op and I had a hamsting graft to reconstruct my Medial Collateral Ligament and a LARS ligament to reconstruct my PCL. I had it done in the Lister hospital in London, which was great, although quite expensive.
My knee is feeling much better, it is not that painful and I am able to sleep much better than before. I have flexion of 65% and I need to get 70% by next thursday, when I go back to see my surgeon.
I am still on cructhes and have a big brace on, so it will be interesting to hear when my surgeon thinks I can take the brace off. I know he wants it on to stop me going past 70% for a while. My surgeon seems pretty awesome, he take the time to write very detailed letters to me and he is excellent at explaining everything
I am now back at work and hobbling around! Getting into work by tube is not the funnest thing, but if you get in early enough you can get a seat.
My massive scar has healed almost completely, it will be interesting to see what it will look like in say a year, lucky I am not a girl or it would look pretty ugly.
I am definately interested in hearing from anyone who has had a similar op.
You definitely have one crazy scar, I just had the PCL and it was all done arthroscopically, so I have 5 little scars, but since I'm a girl, i like having small scars. Interesting though in the differences in technique, the LARS is not yet available in the US, so I had a cadaver Achilles tendon graft. When you say you can bend it to 65%, does that mean 65% of your normal knee, or 65 degrees?
ReplyDeleteI think the reason I have the big scar is because I completely tore my medial collateral ligament as well. If it was only my PCL I think it would have been an arthroscopy too. I have 5 other little scars, they will hardly be noticable, yeah I agree it will be better for you as a girl!
ReplyDeleteYeah I saw LARS is not available in the US, you have very strict medical councils and it has only had 8 years testing. I would have prefered a more natural ligament, but I would have had have it from my good knee as I already used one graft for my post lateral corner reconstruction.
I have 65% bend it is not 65% of my full bend - my leg is still swollen. I take it you are around my age, I am 26 and live in London, UK.
The LARS looks like pretty exciting stuff though, I hear the recovery is supposed to be faster with a LARS, but again, the PLC being reconstructed as well, it may play a role. I had a cadaver graft for my PCL, they took a cadaver Achilles tendon and placed it into my knee. I was told that the rehab from a cadaver graft is the longer than a graft from your own body, and there is a slightly higher risk of infection, but given that I'm young and active, my surgeon didn't think infection was a big risk, and the cadaver graft being stronger should last longer. So a little longer to get back to 100%, but I'll stay at 100% for a much longer time (hopefully).
ReplyDeleteAnd yep, we are around the same age, I'm 25, living in New York. According to my surgeon, PCL repairs are a surgery of the young, he generally doesn't do older people with PCL repairs, but will do ACL. So I think if you find another person with a PCL repair, odds are they will be on the younger side.