13 Months Post-Op

I am not as optimistic as I was at the end of last month.  I have stopped trying to run on the alter G.  I can't get much above 75% body weight.  I also felt my gait was off.  It felt like I was favoring my right leg and when my left leg would hit it felt awkward because I would unintentionally not bend it as much as when my right leg would hit.

Overall, I am disappointed in this surgery.  I really don't feel any difference.  I feel like I have been rehabbing the invasiveness of the surgery over the last year while my injury was never actually repaired.  I still have lots of cracking and popping and pain when I try to stand on one leg and bend.  Running without the alter G is still out of the question.

I emailed my surgeon to ask what the next step was.  I haven't seen him since 5 months post op and I feel I've given this surgery a long enough chance that I want an MRI to see what's going on.  My surgeon's response to my question was three-fold:

1.  He said the first thing I need to do is make sure my quad strength is back.  I feel like my quad strength is sufficient.  I don't think it will ever be the same as my right leg but i've made a lot of progress in this.  My PT said he didn't notice much difference between the strength in my right and left leg.  Additionally I workout 4-5 times a week so I've been very dedicated to rehab.

2.  The next thing he mentioned was getting an MRI to see if I am healing as expected.  Yes, I agree.  I want an MRI.

3.  The third thing he mentioned was steroid or hyaluronic acid injections.  There has been some success relieving knee pain with theses injections.  I wasn't that excited about this option because it is not fixing my problem and just treating the symptoms.  And it's also not a long term solution.  But I'm willing to give it a try after I get the results from the MRI.

I ended up getting an MRI.  This are my results below:

I sent the disk with he scans to my surgeon.  I am very interested to see what he says.  What's concerning is the report says I still have "Grade IV chondromalacia in the weight bearing part of the medial femoral condyle."  This is exactly what my MRI said before I had the surgery. So I'm wondering what the hell happened?  Is the graft even there?  I hope after discussing with my surgeon I will get some answers.

I have no idea what the next step is going to be but I'm not excited to have any more surgeries.  I would consider a diagnostic scope but that's about it.  For the next couple of months I'll continue my workout routine but I have little doubt that I'll experience much improvement as this point.