knee surgery

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

Hello all,

Since bad knees apparently are a major part of endurance, I figured it
was justified to have one more public post on the knee situation, to
educate and inform you :-).  THANK YOU to all who wrote and gave me an
idea what to expect.  For those of you who are interested...ACL surgery
is common in the older set and very successful.

Now, for my situation.  Turns out that the reason my knee is locked up
right now is that the meniscus (padding between the bone ends) is torn
and doubled over which is blocking the action of the joint.  It's
apparently been torn a long time, (how was I supposed to know) but just
got itself folded just right the other night.  I'll have surgery Thurs.
morning and they'll cut it away...tiny incision, no stitches.

Now, for those of you with ACL problems. My original injury came from a
mare rearing over backwrds on me in 1979. The Dr. said, "you did this 20
years ago?  Why didn't you ever get it fixed for goodness sake?" 

 I said, "20 years ago they said they don't fix them, and then in 1989
when I injured it again they said I wasn't a good candidate and it's a
difficult surgery".   He said, "1989?  Oh yeah, in 1988 I said I'd never
do this surgery, it took 6 hours and we almost always had to go in again
and again, it was not a successful surgery; but now we've gotten very
successful at it and fix them every day".    Well DUH!  Like I call a
surgeon every year and check to see what improvements they've made.

So, if you were told a few years back that they couldn't fix you, you
might ought to check back.  They're going to have a look at my ACL while
in there.  20 years of no ACL has done a little wear and tear to my
cartilage and I still may not be the best candidate...maybe I'll just get
this meniscus straightened out and still manage to hit the Summer Breeze
Ride in July. :-D

Angie 

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