My surgery - photos, both from inside and outside (one is quite graphic, you have been warned)

So, as I’m sure the majority of you will know, two weeks and one day ago I underwent surgery to replace the ligament on the inside of my kneecap, to hopefully prevent future dislocation! :)

I met with the surgeon today, who’s happy that I’m healing well, happy that the surgery has worked, and happy that in a week or two I should be able to drive, and I should be able to return to climbing within a few months! Good times :)

But, I hear you ask, what went on during the surgery? And what, Joshua, does the inside of a knee look like?

Well, everyone, it looks a bit like this :) Just incase, by some minor miracle, you didn’t read the title of this blog post; one of these pictures is particularly graphic, so if you’re easily upset (is upset the right word? I was going to say ‘offended’, but that isn’t it..) by surgery, it’s best not to look :)

If you’re curious about what knee surgery looks like.. Well, carry on scrollin'. I double dare you. (The first two photos aren’t that bad, I promise)

This first photo shows the damage to my knee after the dislocations that I’ve had - it’s not uncommon, after a dislocation, for some of the bone to chip away entirely, and to be left floating in the knee joint, where it can cause some damage, so I got away with pretty minor injuries here :) Nothing for the surgeon to worry about

This is what a dislocation looks like! Basically, on the right hand side of the image, at the top of the bone you can see a tiiiiiiny little dip, and this is where the kneecap was meant to sit. Mine didn’t. A full dislocation is what’s pictured above - where the kneecap comes entirely out of this little groove, and sits to the side. While, day to day, mine wasn’t quite like this (he dislocated it purposefully to show me what was going on), it was never quite fully sat in the grove either. Technically, I was climbing V7 with a dislocated knee. Beat that, Sharma.

This is by far the most graphic image! I’m pretty sure you can figure out on your own what this is of. The thing that’s dangling out of my knee like something out of an Alien film is a tendon from my thigh, and was used as a replacement ligament to attach my kneecap properly to the rest of my leg, and put it back in it’s groove (Bloody hell, ‘back in it’s groove’.. It’s not Austin Powers)

Finally, THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

As you can see, as opposed to before, the kneecap is now sitting perfectly in the groove to the left of the image. Result :)

And if you’ve managed to read this entire post, and not throw up a little bit, congratulations - you’re almost as sick as me, the guy who asked to watch it all live!

Love you all, and take care of those joints!

Josh :)
x

The Knee (Without stitches, bitches (See, rhyming can be cool))

So, a couple of days ago I had my stitches out! My next physio appointment is Monday, and I can now do single leg raises (SLRs) fully without any help! Good times!

So I thought I’d update you all with lovely pictures of my beautiful knee :) Also, the hair on my knee is growing back now and it feels a bit like a beard - I liked having a shaved leg; it felt smooth and magical, like Voldemort’s head

(Pictured above - My knee)

So, I’ll warn you again, incase anyone doesn’t want to spoil their dinner, here are PHOTOS OF MY KNEE ;) Here you go! :)

These were the stitches in my knee. I’m not sure if they’re technically called stitches, since they’re made of metal? But hey, I don’t know what else they’d be called!

Staples, actually.. I think it’s staples..

Now this is my knee without the staples in, as you can see, my battlewounds seem to be healing nicely :)

I’ll keep you updated with how my physio is coming along, but for now I’m pretty optimistic!

Love you all,
Josh
x

My Bandages are Off!

So, it’s 2 days on from my surgery, and I’m on the Road to Recovery. For those who’ve never been on the Road to Recovery, it’s a little like the Yellow Brick Road in the sense that they’re both curvy and winding, both lead to a great place, and both (thanks to the codeine) are bright and colourful, surrounded by witches and munchkins.

A quick warning ;) The photos below are a little bit gross (but a little bit awesome), so don't look if you mind a little bit of blood :) Other than that, mmmm, look at that beautiful leg..

Bandages on…

Bandages half off…

And there we go!

One beautiful (if slightly un-beautiful (is that a word?)) knee :) I’ll keep you all updated throughout the recovery process!

Thanks for your support everyone, you’re all ace :)

Josh x

News!

Firstly, I'd like to make an apology. I haven't been updating this blog as regularly as I'd first hoped, but since discovering Tumblr, most of my musings have gone on there ;) Yet, I promise that (since this has a counter of the number of people who've read my blog and is therefore basically a massive ego massage for me) any proper proper surgery updates will still be featured right here, as well as the path to recovery!

This should mean that, in theory, there will be a lot more posts coming this way soon :)

Secondly, I thought I’d just let everyone know that my surgery went well, there were no complications, and I’m now relaxing in a hospital bed :) Also, I had toad in the hole for dinner ;) Bonus ;)

The most incredible part though was that, while I was expecting a general anesthetic, I actually got a spinal as well as some more local for the knee, so I got to watch the whole thing!

So, you have been warned ;) If you want to hear about the operation, just carry on reading, but if you’re a wimp, just be happy that I’m okay and send your love my way :)

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I'll begin...

Hello, hardcore readers!

I know what you’re here for.. Juicy details of surgery, aren’t you? I know your game ;) Well, you’ve come to the right place :)

Basically, the surgery involved firstly putting a camera inside my knee joint, and the surgeon showed me that my kneecap is resting on the side of the groove of the knee, not actually in the groove itself, and he dislocated it to show me what it looked like from the inside, which was incredibly interesting!

From there, they made a small cut to access my thigh, before taking out a tendon, and using this as the replacement ligament for my knee. They drilled into my kneecap, and threaded it through, before drilling all the way through (yes ALL THE WAY THROUGH) my thigh bone. This was probably the most disgusting bit of the whole hour, as I watched the drill push its way out of my skin (I told you this bit was only for hardcore readers), and when this was done, the tendon was threaded through and everything firmly anchored down

The result - one stable kneecap :)