As it turns out, I am 12 days from it being a year since my lateral release surgery and sadly my knee functionality is certainly not where I expected it to be. After a long slog of rehabilitation and physiotherapy, ups and downs, it still hurts. An MRI a few weeks ago confirmed my cartilage under my patella is wearing poorly and a couple of cysts have popped up from the friction. This explains the pain I’ve been feeling and why it has stopped me in my tracks of recovery. Not ideal shall we say.
A visit to my surgeon confirmed what I suspected after having the MRI results read, and it’s back for more surgery! This time he is taking a less conservative approach and going to resurface the back of my patella putting in a synthetic material in place of my cartilage. This is to reduce friction and smooth the surface so that the femur (thigh bone) and patella can articulate correctly. This means a longer hospital stay, more pain killers and a lovely big scar down the outside of my leg. There goes my leg modelling ambitions.
So in two months’ time I’ll be back to square one and beginning the rehabilitation process all over again. At least this time I’ll be familiar with the exercises and glad I didn’t give my crutches to the Salvo’s.
In the mean time I will continue to strengthen my legs with movements that only give low level pain or none at all so that I don’t lose all of the muscle I have gained. I’ll continue cycling but try to avoid too many long hills when my knee pain kicks in. Aside from that I plan on enjoying the rest of summer and know that I have a long road ahead of me this year. Still determined as ever to be pain free!!!
