Surgery #11 was a flop! Dr. Badger drilled some holes into the end of my bone to try and get the cartilage to heal itself but that didn’t work because my knee is just too damaged!!! After waiting 11 months to make sure it really didn’t work. December 1st, 2010 was surgery #12. I had a knee arthroscopy where Dr. Badger took some cartilage tissue out and sent it to a lab where they used my tissue to grow more cells. February 4th, 2011, Surgery #13 Dr. Badger and Dr. Boyer sliced open my knee about 4 inches! They sewed a patch over the defect and took all the cells the lab had grown and filled in the hole in my bone. I am 6 weeks down with two more weeks to go until I can start walking!!! It will be a long 2 year recovery before I can be really active again but we should know in about 6 months to a year if the surgery worked or not!I posted some pictures of my surgery below just be warned they are NOT for the faint of heart!!!
PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!
This is a picture of the hole in my bone. There should be soft white cartilage covering where the hole is!
This is a picture of the doctors preparing my new cells!
This is the finished product! It doesn't look a whole lot different but by now my cells have started attaching and growing!!!
