Landon has been having problems with his left knee for over 9 weeks now. It was still swelling and in pain for the whole 9 weeks. We have had him in for Physical Therapy--thanks to a great neighbor. We went and saw an Orthopedic specialist, who has been wonderful. They did an MRI, but that came out clean. We continued therapy, but the knee conitnued to get worse and we are trying to change our insurance coverage, so we opted to do a scope to see what was going on.
We went in this morning and the Dr. said that it was a good thing. He said that sometimes the MRI just doesn't pick up on something, but Landon actually had 2 things wrong with his knee. He had Plica, which is a result of a remnant of fetal tissue in the knee. The synovial plica are membranes that seperate the knee into compartments during fetal development. The plica normally diminish in size during the second trimester. Many people have this with no adverse effects. Landon's tightened up due to knee trauma caused during basketball. They can become hard and damage the knee. I googled it, and it said that a tightened plica behaves like a bowstring, eroding the medial facet of the patella and medial femoral condyle, causing anteromedial knee pain and a clicking noise as the plica snaps over the end of the femur. The symptoms mimic other knee disorders, and are difficult to diagnose. They cut the plica down and cleaned it up.
The second thing that he had was what they call a Chondral defect. basically, due to some injury (during basketball or snowboarding), he damaged several layers of cartilage. Cartilage is not like bone and it doesn't heal itself. If it does, it doesn't heal well and what you are left with is not great. Landon had torn his cartilage and it was sticking up and so the Dr. shaved it down so that it wouldn't bother him.
Look at all that I learned today!! Landon was in surgery only for about 35 minutes and when they brought him out, he recovered quickly. They said that we might be in for 5-6 hours, but they said that he could leave as soon as he could hold down food and water. He did that right away and we were actually in and out within 3 hours. He will be bandaged up for 3 days with his leg elevated and ice on it--after that he can ditch the crutches when he feels like it and he can start to get back to normal activity. My neighbor will do physical therapy on him for a month or so and hopefully he will start feeling better soon.
2 comments:
Holy Cow that is crazy. I am glad that it was such a simple fix, hopefully it will come with a simple bill. ha ha
The things you learn... that you never thought you would. I am so glad that all went well. It is still so amazing to me how things just have "a way" of working out. Especially when you have no idea how they will. You are a family that is being watched out for. May you continue to learn and be blessed. All my love to you and your family!!
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