As most of you know, Tony’s surgery was yesterday afternoon. It was a big success! They weren’t sure, based on his MRI, which part of the meniscus was torn. The inside 50% of the “horseshoe” is avascular and, having no blood flow, would not have the potential to heal. The outside, vascular, half has a blood supply and can, therefore, heal. There was also the issue of cartilage damage (the area that was cleaned up during his first surgery two years ago). Surgeon wanted to check on cartilage loss in that area.
After over an hour and a half of surgery, the surgeon came and found us in the waiting room. The “bucket handle” tear WAS in the vascular half…Thank You Jesus! She made the repairs, injected some of his own blood under the tear before suturing it in order to form a scab there and give him a head-start on healing.
Upon inspection of the cartilage damage from the first surgery, she realized that area was fraying again. She said it was due to the scraping of that part of cartilage on the tear. She cleaned up that damage and upon inspection of the healthy cartilage underneath, was amazed to find hardly any loss at all! She called him a chameleon and said she had never really seen this type of regeneration before.
In a nutshell, his meniscus has probably been torn for quite some time, maybe even missed during the first surgery. All the times his knee would “lock” and we’d end up in the ER was due to the knee snagging on the tear. How this could have been missed so many times before is beyond me, but I am a very happy mama that God brought this particular surgeon to my son. I am grateful to all the Prayer Warriors that sent up their concerns and wishes on behalf of my son.
Healing time will be longer and more painful than anticipated since the doctor had to make an extra incision and burrow in through the back of the knee to really get to the affected areas, in addition to the regular arthroscopic incisions. He will be on his back for another week, and will begin PT the week after that. I anticipate his return to school week after next.
I would really appreciate your continued prayers for his healing, his pain level, and his rehabilitation. It will be a long road but Doctor says he should have a “normal” knee to show for all the work. A normal knee…hmmm, that sounds nice (sigh).
