Knee Update

I'm sure many people are curious about what the doctor said this past Monday so I decided to write another post to keep people updated. I saw Dr. Brian Cole at Rush University Medical Center who is a national leader in cartilage restoration surgeries. He had x-rays taken of my knee and looked at my November 15th Swiss MRI and said that I need a Osteochondral Allograft transplant as well as a Meniscus transplant. The Osteochondral Allograft transplant will fix the "pothole" that I have in a small part of my cartilage and bone. The transplant will come from a donor and he said I needed this kind of transplant because I was starting to wear away the bone. I also need the meniscus transplant because in my original ACL injury they had to take away part of my meniscus since it was damaged. It was very interesting to hear that I'm a rare case. All of this happened because I had the combination of missing some of my meniscus which cause my knee to wear in other places and my repair cartilage cells in one spot where damaged and would not allow my remaining cartilage to stay healthy. He did say that if he were the surgeon last year that he would have done the same repair as Dr. Bane and these transplants weren't needed at that time. Sounds like I just have some bad luck!

I asked him how long the recovery time would be and he said at least eight months with six weeks in crutches. To be honest, this almost sounds worst that my ACL repair because at least I was able to walk nearly crutch free right from the beginning. I'm sure if I can get through rehab for my ACL that this won't be too bad. Then I asked him the most important question of all.... would I still be able to play again. He didn't give me a definitive answer but he said that after the surgery and rehab we would reevaluate the situation and go from there. I'm still clinging to the hope that I might someday be able to play volleyball again! Right now I am scheduled to get scoped on January 31st so he can look inside my knee and has a better idea of what he is actually dealing with. After that, based on the expected approval process for my insurance, it could be as long as three more months until my surgery. This is going to be another long road full of obstacles but at least this time I know what I'm getting myself into for my rehab. And of course I have great parents, sisters, and friends who will be with me each step of the way! Thank you again to everyone who has supported me through these crazy times. A big thank you to all the people who expressed support this past weekend at the University of Illinois volleyball games. Thanks to everyone back in Switzerland who are keeping me updated on the team and wishing me the best. I'll try to keep everyone updated with further news about my knee!