Funny Drug Store Drive Through Event [Archive]

Donny Carlson

09-04-2005, 09:33 PM

Anybody ever have their kneecap debrided? I ask because I was told I need the procedure and was wondering what kind of fun I could look forward to.

Anywho, in the mean time, I'm taking Darvon for knee pain and had to make a trip over to Walgreens for a refill. This store near me has a double drive through (and yeesh, Friday late afternoons it's busy like Mickey-D's) and I'm sitting there with this late 90's Caddy pulls up in the next lane with 22's all round. I think I pissed him off, because I busted out laughing at his wheels.... but not because of what he thought. He had a set Diamond Nutz (tm) lug nuts!

I know.... I amuse myself.

Mad1

09-04-2005, 11:00 PM

Anybody ever have their kneecap debrided? I ask because I was told I need the procedure and was wondering what kind of fun I could look forward to.

Donny,

That probably depends on what they find when they get in there. If it's just a simple tear or rough edge, then it probably won't be a very big deal.

Here's a good site for an explaination. Meniscal tears (http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/meniscal-tears.html)

In all cases the torn surfaces of the meniscus are debrided of scar tissue and fibrin clot can be placed in situ(4) before the sutures are tied to enhance healing.
Repaired meniscal tears heal if there is adequate blood supply and tissue stability. A stable knee is therefore important and increased healing rates have been seen with repairs done at same time as ACL reconstruction(5,6) - possibly as other factors are liberated at the time of the operation.
Post-operative protocols vary but the majority of patients will be asked to follow a strict physiotherapy regime and avoid contact sports for six months, as opposed to partial meniscectomy when patients can resume normal activities after two weeks.

When I had my knee reconstruction (ACL tendon and torn miniscus), the surgeon used a set of clippers to trim the miniscus (cartliage pad between the bones in the joint) to eliminate the rough edges.

It looked fairly simple on the video I saw of my operation. It's under "ultra-high" magnification, so it appears to be much more chopped than it actually was when they showed the utensils afterwards to give a kind of scale. To give you an example, the patela graft appears to be the size of a heavy duty garden hose or boat tie-down rope, when it is only really smaller than a mouse cord.

If it's arthroscopic surgery, you'll have less swelling than an "open" procedure and probably tenderness afterwards. My surgery left me with a little nerve disruption, which faded after time. (If I scratched the side of my knee, I'd feel it in a different place than where I had my finger and the nerves tingled for a while.)

Hope this helped, best of luck.

Jeremy
Mad1