OCD surgery

Ended up submitting my post twice due to it saying there was an error.

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I am a 31 year old female recently diagnosed and treated for OCD via arthroscopic surgery. I am in my first week of recovery after having four screws to stabilize the loose bone. I am curious to know how long you remained on crutches and how your recovery went/goes? Thank you for the update as I have 7 1/2 weeks remaining on crutches...

I am a 31 year old female recently diagnosed and treated for OCD via arthroscopic surgery. I am in my first week of recovery after having four screws to stabilize the loose bone. I am curious to know how long you remained on crutches and how your recovery went/goes? Thank you for the update as I have 7 1/2 weeks remaining on crutches...

I recently had knee surgery stemming from OCD lesions on my lateral femoral condyle. I am a 27 yr old male with a very active lifestyle. I had a feeling something was wrong with my knee when I was 17, it all started playing soccer and noticing that I needed to limp slightly while running. fully extending the knee was difficult. Keeping my knees bent was fine and I could sprint like that as long as i never had to fully extend the range of motion... It was not so much painful as seemingly broken in some way. I had xrays done back then with no result. As time wore on my knee would have tough mornings and sports especially sports with running became more diffulcult always weighing how much the knee would hurt tomorrow versus how much fun it would be today. I climbed about 6 mountains without too much pain in the years between... going up a mountain was never bad because your knees are bent so much going up and down.

Cut to age 25... finally I had full medical coverage through my job! I got the MRI I always wanted but could never afford and low and behold osteochondral lesions of 3cm in diameter. I told my doctor that I would have surgery only if it meant a functional increase in my mobility. He assured me I would and I believed him. I hope to god he is right and am now getting a little worried.

Dr. Richard Wilk of Lahey Clinic in Burlington MA performed the surgery on Oct 3rd. I spent plenty of time reading up on the subject before having the surgery as I had to wait for 10 months to recieve the bone allograft from a cadaver. Arthroscopy was not an option and im not sure why so I have a large incision running straight up my knee 2 inches below and above the patella.

I was given marcain intravenously, and dilaudid before the surgery. After passing out I remember nothing until waking up 5 hours later. My wound was completely wrapped up and placed in a brace that kept it straight and compression stockings placed on both legs. Immediately after waking the nurse started trying to tell me what i needed to do (exercises/icing/aspirin/percocet/weight bearing ability etc). This was slightly in vain and luckily my sister was there to remember some of it. THey gave me a paper explaining some of the details of my needs including quad sets/leg lifts/ wearing an anti embolism stocking. My mother and sister picked me up from the clinic and brought me home.

I woke up at midnite the night of the surgery and was in excruciating pain for 2 hours until my sister woke up... consoled me and gave me some more percocet and alleve (even tho they told me not to take alleve) I finally was able to find a comfortable position and then went to bed. The morning after was ok a little tender but ok.

week one
I tried to do as little as possible mostly sleeping for hours at a time and watching tv on my sisters couch. I tried to do my exercises but they were hard, leg lifts were impossible and heel slides were only going to back 5 or 6 inches, I could barely bend the leg.

Week two
was a little more active including trips back and forth across the street from my sisters to my house on my crutches. Going to the bathroom was a pain in the ass because trying to keep the leg straight was of course difficult in a cramped bathroom. I figured that out quick enough... showering wasnt so bad but I still has staples in my leg ans was kind of wary of getting an infection... i showered about 3 times a week... i was cheating a bit by putting weight on the leg in the second week. getting into the shower i need to put some weight on the leg and that is how the cheating started.


Week 3
time was going so slow and I was worrying about work piling up back at my job. My sister let me try to drive her chevy blazer and I was able to bend my leg enough to get in and actually drive quite safely. That was a big relief... being able to drive made me feel like i was able to take care of myself again and go shopping for food if need be. I met with my doctor for follow up this week and a nurse took out my staples. The staples werent painful coming out at all... a little nasty but not really painful. She rubbed the extraction points with a paste that looked like betadine but wasnt and then put little steri-strips on. While my doc was in the other room I read the surgery notes and noticed that they had trouble getting the bone plug from the cadever to flush in to the hole he had cut in my lateral condyle. There was some interesting info in there that I enjoyed reading and wished he would have gone over with me... I mentioned what I had read after he had gone through his spiel. He said I am not bending my leg enough and I have to get it bending.... i was kind of pissed and told him I thought I should have met with a physical therapist BEFORE I had surgery. I had never had any type of surgery before and wanted to do things right from the get go. Meeting with my physical therapist first would have helped me understand the process better and get healing quicker. When I showed my physical therapist how much weight I was putting on the leg she cringed and said NO... you need to keep less weight on it. At that point was thinking about all the times I had cheated and hope I haven't compromised that little bone plug sitting on my femur. Sometimes I sing to my little dead guy bone and let him know that he can grow and be strong . (just kidding)

week 4 Using my crutches is crucial but annoying as all hell. I am getting sores under my armpits and i can put weight on my leg without it hurting at all. I know I am not supposed to put weight on it but when sitting in my kitchen it is hard not to hobble over to the fridge and grab something without using my crutches. I have two 30-60 minute physical therapy sessions per week now. My first visit I was bending the knee about 72 degrees anything past that hurt like a BASTARD. All weekend I kept trying to bend it past that point and would hold the bend for 30 second stints OUCH. The work paid off and on Monday I had gone up to 105degrees of bend... good enough to get on the stationary bike and do some Range of Motion stuff. I am still taking percocets before my physical therapy (5 mg with 325 of acetaminophen aka tylenol) I generally take 2 before going to my appt. Man does that stuff make you itch sometimes!

today is halloween... I think I will dress up as a gimp in my hospital garments.

if you have any questions about what I have gone through or hints.. call me at 207-409-6006.

Glad to hear that your son is doing well. My son is also doing well, six weeks post-op. His doctor does not believe in the exray being definitive of his progress, but rather relies on pain and movement. At this point he has had none and has just begun weight-bearing exercises in therapy. He also is swinging a golf club and did some easy caddying this past weekend. He has no pain or swelling. He can also now stretch out his leg without feeling any pain, which is something that previously always hurt him. The doctor said no skating, running, jumping, etc. until at least twelve weeks post-op. Hopefully he will continue to make progress.

It is 10 weeks post op as of today. My son has improved tremendously. His visits to physio have now been reduced to once a week. While there, he does various stretching, and balancing exercises. In addition, he works out there with a leg press. The girth of his thigh is now a little larger than his "good" leg. As mentioned, he's good to go for hockey with no restrictions - but the season is now over. He looks like a normal kid with no limping or tenderness etc. He has just received his orthotics and has adjusted to them well. We believe that excessive running on hard surfaces put additional strain on his knee as his foot tends to roll inward. No longer an issue! Our next follow up is in two weeks. We'll know more then. We're hopeful that this will be the last visit for quite sometime. Don't be too concerned with the 4 weeks of crutch walking. You should expect 4-6 weeks (or longer) depending on the extent of repair needed. In terms of calcification, new bone growth stimulation really kicks in when weigh bearing exercises are done. This is perhaps why your son is to take a calcium supplement. Never lose hope! There's always a fix!

We had a 6 week follow up xray done yesterday. The results were good and he was released from crutches. He is allowed to skate (public skating) but no hockey yet. (No cutting or impact loading). In two more weeks, he is able to go back into hockey with no restrictions. Too bad the season just ended. He is 85% in terms of recovery. My son does physio every day at home part of which includes stationary bike riding. He also goes to see a PT twice a week to give us more exercises to do as well as to ensure there are no problems with scar tissue. The lesion appears to be a little slow in gaining some additional calcification at this point. Afterall, it has only been 6 weeks. The surgeon is not concerned as my son's progress in terms of ROM and weight bearing have been significant, and there is noticeable vascularization and some calcification where the lestion was. Next follow up appointment is in 6 weeks. That would be 12 weeks post op. I was told in my earlier discussions prior to the surgery that if any type of fixation was needed, typically atheletes (hockey players specifically) are back into the sport after 3 months. In my son's case, only drilling was needed as the lesion was stable. In addition, orthotics may be needed as my son's foot over pronates on that same leg.

My 9 year old son just had subchondral bone drilling for his case of OCD. Much like yours, he is extremely active (hockey in winter, and lacrosse in the summer). He never experienced any symptoms while playing hockey, it was only after running for a while when he began to limp. We attribute this to catching the lesion extremely early as I'm sure that pain would have eventually crept into his hockey game. MRI's confirmed my son's condition, but the arthroscopic surgery showed that the lesion was extremely stable with full cartilage intact (these two points are key to success for JOCD). It has only been two weeks since the operation and follow up xrays clearly show significant improvement in terms of vascularization and calcification. Almost to the point where the lesion is undetectable. The key is to catch it early, ideally when the patient has open growth plates, and is treated relatively aggressively. This has been confirmed by two surgeons we've seen to yield the most positive results. So far, that appears to be the case. Don't lose hope!