Hi and welcome to my blog on my personal journey to having a Medial Patello-Femoral repair and Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy.
A little background on my knee to give you an idea as to what caused me to proceed to the surgical option for my knee.
Most people assume a knee injury must mean a sporting injury but as a young teenager my ultimate dislike was sport! So i would love to say yes it was a sporting injury and sometimes it is easier to agree, my actual first knee issue was playing touch football at school, running forwards and my first knee 'give way' feeling resulting with me on the ground. See it was sport!!
I am not sporty so it seems wrong to blame a sport on an injury which i played as a one off game, a few games of indoor netball and a season or two of playing backs in hockey.
I was 15 at this time and i dont remember any Xrays or MRI's but a limping leg a few weeks later lead to look and see arthroscopy. The results of this i dont remember but mum thinks a partial meniscal tear that was tidied up.
Standing scrubbed for a 3hr operation as a theatre nurse , i was working with a 6ft 3inch surgeon and as i am only 5ft 2inch the result was me standing stationary on a stool for a long period then when i needed to turn , step and get something my knee didnt follow. Here was my next knee complaint, I was 24. This lead down the workcover road which in itself is a journey and a half. It was deemed clinically i had a partial posterior cruciate ligament tear a little time of work and i was back to normal.
Somewhere else following i had a ram bunt me up the back of my thigh again the feeling of 'giving way' following this incident, 6 weeks with RICE and i was back on track.
Funny how easily you lose track of time but again at work in recovery ward and sitting on a stool a side twisting action as i stood lead to that same familar feeling my knee just didnt follow. Again workcover related and a clinical diagnosis of partial posterior ligament tear.
3 years ago i noticed that knee feeling was becoming more common with simple things mainly walking down slopes and down steps, me worrying alot about whether it was or wasnt going to function properly and so sort a orthopaedic review privately, severe chondromalacia patella was diagnosed and i was advised that i had abnormal tracking of my patella. There was talk at this time of a partial joint replacement but as i was only 32 the recommendation for me was strapping and anti-inflammatory medications and to wait as long as i could before surgical intervention.
It always seemed post an injury 6 weeks of taking it easy, a little physio and strapping did the trick until the injury this time.
What injury- not sure 100% what happened 3 days before this issue i was doing CPR on a gent and i put my bad knee up on the bed and the natural rocking motion to do cardiac compression put alot of pressure on my knee, i have been doing new exercises at the gym - haha yes times change i found a 'sport' i love... strength and conditioning training and i had been preparing for a 35klm charity walk, so a few knee stressors there.
So on Australia day long weekend as we are about to pack the van and head to the beach i wake with a 'lock knee' alot of pain behind the knee mainly this time. Interestingly while we were away not wanting to miss out i attempted a bike ride and the knee felt somewhat better afterwards, swimming in the pool somewhat better afterwards....6 weeks later and i am still having issues which isnt normal. My physio at the time said there was no need for any surgical intervention and that the knee was good to keep strapping, it didnt feel right, it wasnt right.
So this is the beginning of my journey down the path of having a medial patello-femoral repair with hamstring harvest and tibial tubercle osteotomy.
A subluxing patella....a knee cap who has made its own decision to sit where it want to sit when it wants to sit there! Amazing how one little bone can be the cause of such grief!!
Off for an MRI, XRays and CT scans, i'll let you know how that goes,
Liss xx
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