texans on the autobahn

The Unhappy Triad

Just returned from Dr. Buehler. Seems like Robin and I misunderstood (not the first time and probably won’t be the last) and I was supposed to go yesterday after the MRI, fortunately Robin called the office phone number while we were standing there (he doesn’t have hours on Friday afternoons as we noted on the door). Dr. Buehler answered the phone and happened to be there and let us is. As the radiologist told us, I have damaged all three or what Dr. Buehler referred to as the “unhappy triad”, the ACL, MCL and Meniscus. However, Dr. Buehler only wants to repair the meniscus. He says that a study was done asking doctors if they would allow a doctor to operate on their own ACL and 80% of the doctors said no but the report was never published. He also said that the ACL should not be operated on within the first month after being injured, but the meniscus must be repaired. However, Dr. Buehler is going on holiday this next week so I am going to wait until a week from Monday for the 45 minute surgery. He recommended holding off on the ACL (the MCL heals on its own) for a while, perhaps I won’t ever need to have it repaired unless I’m concerned that it is too unstable. Dr. Buehler told me that if I’m having trouble dealing with the pain then he can send me to the hospital sooner to have the meniscus surgery, but I really like Dr. Buehler and trust him, so I can bear the pain, which has lessened a bit. Apparently the pain I have from the torn meniscus is similar to the pain that Robin had before he had his back surgery a few years ago, it’s being caused by a bulge that is pressing on a nerve, so the surgery will remove the bulge and the pain. He also said I will not be able to work out at the gym for 2 months which will surely cause me to have weight gain as I had been working out 8-10 hrs a week before the accident, and I’m the kind of person who must work out to even begin to think about weight maintenance. Well, there’s a reason for everything that happens. . ..Robin is scheduling all my pre op appointments right now so I’ll be having an EKG, chest x-ray and blood tests on Monday (apparently the chest x-ray is because I’m over 40!) However, he says I should be fine in time for my trip to Barcelona the first week of December with Sam and the Spanish class.

The boys are out of school all next week and we have cancelled our trip to Berlin. We might be able to go to one of the big indoor swimbads (water parks) which are really more for adults so I can sit in the hot pools for my knee.

posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 9:01 PM