Last November I tweaked my knee throwing a football with Eric. It was an on again off again problem through out the year. I visited Hamilton Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine in January where they confirmed there was no damage to the bones. In March I received a cortisone shot which helped a lot for a few months. The end of June I injured my knee again playing volleyball and I basically took the month of July off from volleyball. I re-visited Hamilton Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine and tried physical therapy. Finally, I got scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery for 9 Oct. After passing several pre-operative inspections: blood work, physical, EKG, electrocardiogram and a stress test I finally was transported to the hospital for day surgery. Kathryn had to put Eric on the bus and work so Pam drove me to the Hamilton Hospital. I sat around during a long morning. My surgery only took about 30 minutes and post-op recovery time was an hour. Kathryn drove me home and we were home by 3:30pm.

There were loose flaps of cartilage inside and outside of the knee and the patella. The medial (inside) and lateral (outside) meniscus were both torn. The tears were removed and smoothed.

My knee had two small incisions: one for the camera and one for the surgical instruments. I felt swelling, but little pain for the 1st 24 hours. Tuesday night I didn’t sleep much. I was uncomfortable lying on my back with a large ice bag on my knee. Wednesday night the swelling and pain kicked in with a vengeance as the local anesthesia wore off. I took pain medication, but only numbed my body, not my knee. Thursday I went to work for a while and the pain lessened. Friday I tried to ride the exercise cycle but was unable to flex my knee enough to permit a full revolution. By Saturday I was able to gingerly ride the exercise bike and take a short walk in the woods. My knee felt swollen and sore afterwards, but recuperated quickly after lying down for a few minutes.

Sunday I rode the exercise bike freely for 10 minutes and walked around our pasture to inspect the minnow pond (which was filled with water). Monday I rode the bike without warmup for 15 minutes and had my stitches taken out and was cleared for full activity.