I had my 6 week post op appointment with my surgeon. My biggest concern was whether or not the fall at 5 weeks injured the graft. My surgeon basically told me the same thing as my therapist. He did not think it damaged the graft since there was no additional swelling, pain, bruising, or catching during range of motion. However, there is no way to know for sure. An MRI would not show anything at this point. And I really won't know if the graft is successful until a year down the road when I try running.
I also asked about the swelling and warmth on my knee since this really hasn't changed much since surgery. His answer was that it is normal. The swelling won't go down until I start walking and really using the muscles around my knee. At that point the muscles will begin pushing fluid through the joint and I should start to see some improvement. The warmth I feel in my knee is a normal part of the healing process.
Overall, I was satisfied with the appointment. It was a little frustrating to hear I'll have to wait many months to know if the graft was successful but that is just the nature of this surgery. My surgeon did remind me that there's no reason to think that it won't work since success rates are good and I'm not experiencing anything out of the ordinary.
No comments:
Post a Comment