Arghhhh...Knee Surgery!

Well, I found out the hard way that just believing something would get better over time is not always right. Several months again, we were playing wallyball and I slid across the floor on my knees trying to save a hit. With kneepads, you can get a little extra speed and get to the ball faster. However, in my haste to save a point, I neglected to factor in the reality that I've gained some weight and that compressing all that weight onto my poor knees was just a little more than they could handle...and my right knee took the brunt of it. Well, even though it hurt, I tried to tell myself it would go away soon. Fallacy #1 when it comes to knees. Then, in January, we went to eat at Market Street Grill. I stepped out of the driver's seat and my left foot hit a patch of ice, sending me sailing. Unfortunately, my right leg was still in the car and got tangled between the seat and the running boards in a weird twist. Strike two on the knee. Well, I didn't need a strike three to get me into the doctor's office....the pain was convincing enough. I checked our insurance and found a knee specialist, but he had moved his office to Park City, Utah. Since that's only a half hour or so from Salt Lake City (and they have a pletheura of Factory Stores up there always worthy of perusing!) I made the trek. I really liked the doctor, Thomas Rosenberg, and after a ton of xrays and even an MRI, it was determined that I had indeed torn my meniscus. And, because I had waited so long since the initial injury, I had developed something called lateral compression with chondrosis. This meant my lateral muscle had tried to compensate for the meniscus and was pulling my knee cap over to the right. Even with the MRI it wasn't conclusive that I would have to have this surgery, so yesterday when I went in for surgery we still didn't know if I was going to have just the meniscus surgery (a two week rehab) or meniscus and lateral release (a four month rehab). Chris says the first thing I said when I was coming out of the anesthesia was, "How many things did they do to my knee?" I tried to see for myself, but my leg is so wrapped up it looks like a tree trunk! When Chris said they only had to do the meniscus, I was elated! I had had visions of my whole summer of waterskiing, wakeboarding, air chairing and kneeboarding being shot, but now I'll be able to do all that...and train for the Little Red Riding Hood bike ride in June. Yahoo! P.S. I found out later what good hands I was in...Dr. Rosenberg is the top knee surgeon in the NATION! He did Tiger Woods knees!!! Thanks, Dr. R! And thanks to all my friends and family for your prayers and well wishes. I love you all--and that's not the Percocet speaking!! P.S.S. For those of you that understand medical pictures, here's some of the inside of my knee!