Who knew how special today would really be? Today I am preparing for the idea, that I am going to be cloned this month. That's right! I am going to be cloned- at least some of me. Actually...if I am more specific only the stem cells from my knee cartilage are being cloned.
Let me do a little explaining...
This blog is being created to chronicle my journey and to help others who are facing similar circumstances. I am about to undergo a knee operation called Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation, or ACI. You can read more about the actual procedure here.
On August 1, 2011 I completed the first stage of the process. What happened was over the years my left knee has started to deteriorate to a large degree. In June 2005, I tore my ACL playing basketball when a large ogre of a man fell and rolled into my left knee. The injury left me with no ACL and two tears in my meniscus. Not fun...but not the end of the world. My doctor went in and "fixed" the issues and created for me a new ACL using part of my patella tendon in August of 2005. For the most part I was fixed and participated in fairly normal activity...though I had a nagging phobia of playing basketball.
In October 2010, the same knee was re-injured by a different ogre who attempted to tackle me while playing flag football. The result of this injury was a small tear in the cartilage. After attempting to go through life as normal as I could- the final straw that broke the camel's back came in June 2011 while bowling. Yes, and I know what you are thinking...bowling is a vicious sport.
On August 1, 2011 we scheduled an Arthroscopic Chondroplasty to inspect the knee, to clean it out, and to perform a possible micro-fracture of the knee. However, that wasn't to be the case. What was found in the knee pretty much left the surgeon speechless...what was found were multiple, large lesions (or defects of the cartilage).
Medically speaking:
- Grade IV lesion measuring anterior to posterior 4cm x 2cm medal lateral and medial femoral condyle.
- Lateral femoral condyle lesion measuring 3cm x 3cm, uncontained in its lateral-most edge (note: uncontained is a bad thing)
- 3cm anterior posterior x 2.5cm medial to lateral trochlear lesion
- 1.5cm x 1.5cm lesion of the patella central
In laymen's terms...I have one jacked up knee. To be even clearer...today I went to visit the surgeon who will be doing the operation for the first time and his first two words after looking at my surgery pictures were "Holy Crap!" (would have been even better if he put BATMAN at the end of that)
Anyways, during the Aug. 1st surgery my doctor realized that my knee was really bad and that I was a prime candidate for ACI- so he went ahead and biopsied my cartilage stem cells. Right now...part of me is in Massachusetts getting ready to be replicated. I know it sounds like something out of an old alien movie...but it is true.
When the cloned cartilage cells are ready, I will head back into surgery...January 16, 2012 to be more precise. While the first operation is performed arthroscopically, the second one is the real deal. It's called an arthrotomy, which is a fancy way of saying the patient wakes up with one of those Frankenstein scars stretching vertically across the knee (about 12 inches in length). Now after they get done ripping my knee open they will work to relocate my fibula, my knee cap, and "patch" the large lesions with tissue, and then inject my harvested stem cells underneath the patches just created. Right now we are just waiting for my cells to reproduce and to head into surgery.
What is being predicted is that I will need to spend 2-3 nights in the hospital, 10-12 weeks on crutches (non-weight bearing), and 18 months in rehab...all in hopes that I get 10 more years out of my knee before I need a total knee replacement.
This blog is intended to chronicle my adventure through surgery and the grueling rehab. Furthermore, the blog will give me a creative way to deal with my boredom and pain.
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