[Bedivere]

That's what both docs I saw told me - Patella is strongest but again, they reserved it for the real athletes because of the difficulties with rehab. The most dramatic difference between my repair in '13 and the one back in '96 that I didn't talk about because it didn't seem relevant, was the HUGE improvement in pain management. Post-surgery '96 was the most intense pain I've ever experienced. The first 3 or so days after surgery were brutal. I was basically unconscious most of the time because that's what Oxycodone does to me. This time around I had a nerve block with a pain pump. Basically a bag of anesthetic with a pump and a catheter that went in at the top of my thigh with the tip positioned next to the main nerve bundle in my leg. This kept my leg continuously numb for three days and I experienced almost no pain. The one or two times I moved the leg wrong and felt pain through the numbness I hit the "extra dose" button on the pump and it went away immediately. Once the IV bag ran dry I ate some Oxy because I was afraid there'd be pain once the numbness wore off, but there wasn't and I didn't take any more painkillers after that. The most uncomfortable part of the whole thing was pulling about 5" of catheter out of my leg (and my neck for the one in my shoulder). It didn't hurt, it was just weird and reminded me a lot of pictures and descriptions I've seen of folks afflicted with Guinea Worm. Be sure to ask if your doctor uses this technique. The Swedish folks told me this is something they're pioneering and it's not in widespread use yet. They even had someone call and interview me about how it worked. They did the same thing for my shoulder and it worked wonderfully for that also.

[joker]

Hey everyfrog - best of luck with the surgery and recovery and the joys of PT. Something tells me you'll hit the PT hard, which is great.

[everyfrog]

Thanks! I"m actually looking forward to finally getting this fixed ... I'm interviewing another doctor on Thursday - Dr. Green at UW Sports Med. And about ready to go hamstring. My other knee that had the patella fix 17 years ago is bothering me this days (probably b/c i'm thinking about it) and I'm thinking, man do I want BOTH knees like this?

[tom roy]

[everyfrog]

So, my final decision has come down to quadricep tendon, by Dr. Green at UW Sports Medicine. Thanks for all your input!!!

[Bedivere]

Good luck with your procedure and recovery! Quadricep tendon? I've never heard of that. Why would you do that over hamstring?

[everyfrog]

I know, crazy right? I'd briefly read about it but didn't pay any attention since it's never been mentioned to me before. But this doctor was all about it for me - he's been doing them for 15 years - and gave pretty good reasons: Pros: harvest site in the quad grows back to full strength, compared to the hamstring, which never full regains full strength. no knee sensitivity at the harvest site like with the patella. Allows to surgeon to harvest a the proper sized ACL without a problem (unlike the hamstring which typically needs to be doubled up on itself, especially since i'm a small woman). Cons: longer time for the quad to get to full strength, by 3-4 months. I'll take longer recovery time and focus on religiously following rehab versus trying to push it just so i can get a ski day out of this season...