Considering microfracture

Hi,

I've read through most of the posts in this forum and found them very helpful, but still can't decide wether I should have the operation done or not.

I am 33 years old, have played volleyball/beachvolleyball for 17 years and am playing the swedish season during this summer, but with considerable pain and without possibility of training as I would have liked. I had surgery in october 2006 where it was determined that I had no cartilage in my right knee - the damage was "to the bone" and approx. 3x3 cm. My doctor is very well reputed and has done surgery on football/soccer players such as Beckham and Rooney with the English national team. The surgery he did on me in october was arthroscopy and he cleaned up a little, but from what I understand he did nothing that will really help me in the long run.

I have been doing my PT since day 1 and am pretty dedicated to getting back to beachvolley for the summer 2008. After surgery it took about 4 months before I could return to beachvolley, but since feb/march sometime I have been playing. The problem is I am playing with pain and my knee swells quite a bit after tournaments. It has been getting worse for a while now.

I am scheduled for the op in september - right after the season, but I am not sure if I should do it or not. Is the damage too big for microfracture to be succesful? Would I be better off trying to intensify PT and playing a little less competitively? I just became father of a beautiful little boy - 2 weeks now - which I also want to take into consideration. Cruthes and timeconsuming rehab is not exactly what I want.

I know it is difficult to help me, but if you have any advice I would appreciate it a lot!

Thank you,

Johan