My Arthroscopy!

Arthroscopy

I had my first round of surgery in July 2011 - it was a fairly simple knee arthroscopy.The surgeon would go in via keyhole surgery and pull out the rogue bits of cartilage that had detached from my knee, clean up the defect and trim off the ragged edges and take a sample of cartilage for some medical facility to grow.

I'm not really a fan of surgery. I'm not really a fan of hospitals. I'm not really a fan of anything that might bring me into contact with needles or injections...yeah, I'm ever so slightly phobic when it comes to needles. I wish that I wasn't but try as I might I have never been able to properly get over my irrational fear of needles.

Needless to say, I was pretty nervous when the day of my surgery rolled around. I was undergoing the procedure at the Mater Private Hospital in Brisbane - which is quite close to my house. My husband was working on the day, so my mother very kindly offered to come down and drop me off at the hospital and take me home afterwards.

Now, the Mater Private Hospital is pretty amazing. The waiting rooms are welcoming and...well...opulant. I don't think too many public hospitals have nice plush leather seats for patients to wait in. Nor do I think they give you fluffy white robes, warmed towels and hot face clothes before they bring you in for the procedure. The staff were also very friendly and very helpful. I felt a lot more at ease then I had expected to.

The aneasthetist was really great - he chatted about what he would do and what had happened to me the last time I went under general. He explained how I would feel when I woke up and what I could and could not do. He was also pretty understanding when I mentioned me fear of needles and he was nice enough to offer to put the drip into my hand instead of my arm.

Now, everything happened really fast. I have memories of having to wait a really long time for my operation when I had last been in hospital, but this time I had barely sat down in one waiting room before they were whisking me into a wheelchair and carting me off to another room. In total I spent time in 3 different waiting rooms before they finally wheeled me into theatre.

The operation went well and I woke up in reovery feeling remarkably well. I was feeling a little bit of pain and pressure in my knee, but the discomfort was minimal. I really didn't have to wait all that long before Dr. Astori came to speak to me. The operation had gone well and he'd managed to get all the loose bits out and clean up the lesion. However (and he gave me some photos) the lesion was much bigger than he had thought.

We discussed the second stage of the surgery, but unfortunately even though the lesion was so big, I couldn't get the second round of surgery done until early december - only because that was when I had six weeks of holidays scedhualed and I couldn't afford to take off any more time.

The recovery from the arthroscopy was okay - my knee was really swollen and insanely bruised, but it didn't hurt too much. I made quick progress with my physiotherapy and now, around 5 months later, I my knee is pretty  much normal again - same flexibility and just as capable of bearing weight.