MPFL Surgery

Yeah, I know, not sewing or drinking related but unfortunately i’m not doing a heck of a lot of either right now. I have some things lined up once I can sit at my machine again, but for the next wee while the blog will focus on some makes I have done recently and some crafts I’m attempting to take up. It will be a journey in itself – come along, grab a vodka and settle in to the exciting world of bedrest and recovery 🙂 And please leave me some notes cause this shit is lonely and boring.

On the 6th March I had surgery on my left knee to fix up the Medial Patello Femoral Ligament (MPFL) where they take some Hamstring muscle and graft it around the kneecap using screws. It’s been an ongoing weakness for me since childhood with dislocated knees but surprisingly, far from the most urgent surgery i’ve undertaken, until last year. I was playing a game of netball in a corporate games night and fell on it wrong. I had assumed i’d just dislocated it again but when I looked down, my entire top and bottom of the leg were in different places. I pushed them back together as best I could, but the pain did not stop.

I did have some fun with the medics when they turned up – I was lucky enough to have ones that were training and I took great joy in my pain of making them uncomfortable and trying to get them to try the ‘good drugs’. Hospital had me all fixed up in no time but the recovery was haaaard. the x-ray showed that my kneecap was still around the back of my knee and that i’d cracked it and another bone. The ultrasound showed a torn muscle (forget the name) lengthwise down the inside of the knee and the MRI showed that the mpfl was completely destroyed along with a couple of others, but the ACL was surprisingly still intact. Nothing could be done at the time as the swelling was too great, so it was crutches and physio for 6 months before the surgery was scheduled.

I should mention that my wonderful surgeon did explain that the surgery is not done to ease the pain, as it is a very painful recovery and surgery, but it would at least be stable. For me, having the decision to have the surgery or not, really wasn’t a choice. We have two young boys and I want to be able to do sports with them as they get older and at least go for a decent walk.

Surgery was last week, it went very well. I used it as a time of great rest and it already feels more stable than it did before surgery, even though it’s black and blue – literally. Here’s ma knees…

Next in the life of recovery will be the weekend arts and crafts projects 🙂

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