The One About the Knee

Well, I've been 30 for about a year now and the inevitable has happened, right on schedule. I mangled my knee. I've seen this happen to old people before, I just didn't realize I was one of them.

here's how it happened...

I was riding a horse through an Arabian desert... I mean, I was chasing a terrorist on a speeding motorbike... what I mean to say is that I was heli-boarding in the Swiss Alps... ok, you got me. It was none of those things. I hurt it playing church basketball, ok. It was a no-contact, all-by-myself moment of bad pivoting. Sorry for the story let-down.

So the details of the damage: one completely severed ACL and two torn but still intact side ligaments, the MCL and LCL. I've been sporting a fashionable whole-leg knee brace for the past few weeks to allow the MCL and LCL to heal. The good news, I got the brace off today. I am free and clear for 2 whole weeks, until I go in for surgery to repair the ACL. Then it's back to the brace, and some crutches for a while too.

There are a few options for ACL replacements these days. They all require harvesting the replacement ligament from a different site on the body except one- an allograft from a donor. This was recommended by my surgeon, and was the one that made the most sense to me, because there's no use screwing up something else if one can help it!

So, the surgery is set for the week of Thanksgiving to give me a chance to heal over the long weekend, then it's back to work on Monday. Watch this animation of an ACL replacement surgery using an allograft to see how it's all going to go down.

Wish me luck!