Knee Surgery

I had knee surgery today at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Michael Medvecky performed the surgery.

After signing in, we took the elevator to the third floor and were brought to our room. The nurse went over some stuff, and then, to my surprise, told me that the surgeon had brought me in early for a nerve block. After discussing the nerve block with the nerve block team (yes, that's a right, a team--half a dozen doctors!), I was a bit hesitant about the procedure, as I didn't want another needle--in the groin, no less. After thinking about it, and at the recommendation of the surgeon, I decided to get it. It really wasn't that bad, granted they used a local anesthetic and I was sedated. Worse, actually, was the procedure to start an IV. The nurse first tried to start one in my hand, but my vein blew up, so she had to pull it out. Then she tried to start one further up my arm; that vein blew out, too. She gave up after two screw-ups and handed it off to a doctor, who was able to start it without a hitch. At this point, I was very upset, thinking that if they can't get this right, then what the eff are they gonna do to my knee/leg?

Once the IV was set and the block was performed, I was wheeled down the hall and into the operating room. There, they put a mask on my face, and the surgeon proceeded to shave my leg. The next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room. I scarfed down four packages of saltines with a cup of apple juice. When Jess joined me, she told me about the post-op meeting with the surgeon. She got pictures, too! The most interesting of the pictures is the before and after of the medial plica. With flexion of the knee, the pictures clearly show the plica contacting the femur (likely cause of pain). The after pictures show the removed plica, which kind of looks like a torn sponge. There are also a few pictures of the semimembranosus tendon. Unfortunately, the surgeon had to remove about 20% of the tendon that had turned a yellow color (dead tissue?). But, overall, the surgery went well, and I feel great! Now it's time to rest up and, in a few days, start my exercises.

Here's to hoping that this all heals up well, and that I'm back to running again in rather short order.