Journey to the Centre of the Dodgy Knee: the sequel
On Friday, as hoped, I was given the all-clear as far as MRSA was concerned, and asked to come to the hospital for my op. I went under around 4pm, and woke up at 5pm. Just like last time, what the surgeon found surprised him but this time he struggled to explain it. Normally, removed cartilage does not regrow, it just scars over. Turns out I'm different. Here are the two photos to compare, from the operation in March and from last Friday, with cartilage regrown:
In the 4th image of the 1st set you can see where the cartilage was damaged, and this was removed in March. In the 2nd image of the 2nd set, you can see the cartilage has since regrown, with no scarring (he was expecting to find the remains of a 2mm-deep hole the size of a penny). Perhaps I should donate my body to medical science.
September's fracture is in the 1st image of the 2nd photo, in a different part of the knee than I was initially led to believe. There is a now a small ridge where the fracture has healed, but this will probably file off over time. The 4th image shows the kind of mess that was inside, with remains of the bleeding from the accident in September now cleaned out.
So once again my knee is now swollen and feels a bit fragile again, but this time the swelling is only water which should be absorbed normally. All being well, I can anticipate returning to work in three more weeks. The bandages are now off, so today I will begin liberally applying a pack of frozen peas several times a day for the foreseeable future.
In the 4th image of the 1st set you can see where the cartilage was damaged, and this was removed in March. In the 2nd image of the 2nd set, you can see the cartilage has since regrown, with no scarring (he was expecting to find the remains of a 2mm-deep hole the size of a penny). Perhaps I should donate my body to medical science.
September's fracture is in the 1st image of the 2nd photo, in a different part of the knee than I was initially led to believe. There is a now a small ridge where the fracture has healed, but this will probably file off over time. The 4th image shows the kind of mess that was inside, with remains of the bleeding from the accident in September now cleaned out.
So once again my knee is now swollen and feels a bit fragile again, but this time the swelling is only water which should be absorbed normally. All being well, I can anticipate returning to work in three more weeks. The bandages are now off, so today I will begin liberally applying a pack of frozen peas several times a day for the foreseeable future.