Knee surgery ?

August 2008 I had my acl replaced and some meniscus work done. Everything healed great and after all my PT I returned to riding in April 09. My knee never really did feel exactly perfect but it was good enuff. I wore a brace on my repaired knee.

This September I crushed my knee again landing in the flats off a DU. Thought I tore my ACL again but the MRI showed it was only a small tear and since they used a graft they put a larger than normal acl in so it should be fine WOOT!

What I did though was tear the guide plate on my knee bone and my meniscus again and did some deep bone bruising. To be honest this hurt way more than tearing my ACL and it was swollen forever after, I rode a couple of times but the pain of landing was killer so I finished out the season surfing.

Now what I need done is they have to go in and drill some holes in my bone to stimulate bleeding and this blod flow will cause my meniscus and guide plates to heal and remove some pieces that are floating around and causeing my knee to lock up. The Dr. said I wouldn't be able to put full weight on it for about 6 weeks and about 3 months to full recovery.

Anyone had this done before? How did it go? How long where you out? Any advice?

what you are talking about is micro fracture. My doc told me to stay off of it for 10 weeks. You CAN NOT grow meniscus. What you are going to grow is scar tissue that will act like the meniscus. It will never be the same. I have had three cuts on my left knee they did MF twice. It feels good but not like before. Its a long road and a very unsuccessful procedure. MAKE SURE YOU STAY OFF YOUR LEG. that will give it the best chance to grow back right.
Good luck.
PM me if you have any questions.

OH AND STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM DU.

Well now I'm worried!!

Life is meaningless without double ups.

hahaha,
You know i thought the same thing about the flats after my first knee, but it made me work on my style wake to wake. Now I have wake to wake style and can still go in the flats.

I had knee surgery in May. They did the poking holes in the bone to stimulate the new cartilage growth also. When he went into my knee he didn't think it looked that bad (about 5 mm of damage) and thought that would be enough. Recovery was 3 weeks on crutches with no weight on the leg, then it was a couple months of PT, then i've been doing the PT exercises on my own since then. Doc said he's seen people make big strides during months 3-6 but I haven't made much progress.

I'm probably going back in for surgery again next month. This time he's going to take a piece of cartilage from elsewhere in the knee where it isn't quite as vital and put it where i'm having problems.

(Message edited by sloshake on November 10, 2009)

Ya it's time to do a serious reconsideration on my riding style, I swear I could be driven figure eights all day and hit double after double. Actually done it before. I just love that feeling of the double up pushing you straight up it's not so much how large you go but that feeling under your feet at take off just boosting you, IMO.

It's not even the flats really, both times I've jacked my knee it's been the same way, lazy cut at the DU without enough speed, land and board just kinda sticks and my upper body gets yanked forward. Gotta quit doing that!!

i feel your pain, i had OATS (cartilage transplant) done last november because i'm too young for a partial knee replacement and it's been a long road for recovery. before that i had a patella release. take it easy and slow.

Garold - were you able to wakeboard at full capacity this past summer?

It was whacking my knee with the follow through on my tennis serve that finally did it in, but I think wakeboard had been slowing eating away at the cartilage a little. My doc is amazed that just the racquet could do the damage it did. Not that I go very big, but I'm a master at casing the wake.

Part of me wonders if after the next surgery, if I should give up the board and stick to the skate.

I had the exact same deal. Spider cracked the base of my femur upon impact when my ACL and mesiscus exploded. When I had my surgury they shaved my bone down a bit to stimulate the bleeding rather than drilling.

I was riding 5 months out of surgery and Saturday is exactly 6 months and I'm already back to full shred capability. Knee still swells and hurts after lots of use but I'm solid on landings.

^ meniscus (sp)

LOL @ CIE Allen telling Jason to stay away from the double ups!!

That's like taking a fat kid to the buffet and telling him to just look..

He actually ASKS me to just drive figure 8's..


Good luck with the surgery J. You know I'm here to help however.

Gerald--i had two plugs drilled out the upper part of the the femoral condial, then they drilled those two plugs into where i had the missing cartilage on the bone.

Luker--for me it's been an up and down recovery. they told me 8-10 months before i could run. i did board last summer, but only lightly and for short sets. just a w2w could be pounding. the biggest thing is letting my plugs fuse into the bone. i was lightly jogging and doing plyometrics, but that set me back because it was too aggressive too soon.