Hey y'all!

I'm currently under medical leave for knee surgery #5 altogether and my first set on my left leg (yes, I've had FOUR surgeries on my right knee). It's going pretty good so far, and a lot better than my right knee was doing at this point. I'm already off crutches and I think I'm going to ask to get back to work a bit earlier, just to make sure I have enough FMLA time for the second part of this two part surgery stint.

I'm undergoing what is called the MACI. Part 1 was going in arthroscopically and taking a biopsy of some healthy knee cartilage in an undamaged section of my left knee. This will grow in a lab for 8 weeks (fingers crossed) and then will be placed in the damaged portion of my knee in a second surgery. This will grow over the course of a couple years to fill in the damage and replace what I've lost cartilage wise. It's a pretty interesting, fairly new procedure that surgeons are trying with younger patients with arthritis and significant cartilage loss. It's to prevent having to replace the knee entirely, something that would have to be done every 15 or so years. Doing that at a young age means every time they have to go in to replace the knee, they have to take a bit more of the original knee each time and you can only do that so much. We are trying everything to get me walking without pain again before I have to go ahead with a full replacement. I've lived with knee pain since the age of 17. It's contributed significantly to my weight gain as I couldn't do the things I used to do to keep my body weight down. Swimming, running, riding a bike, all of those things were extremely painful after a small amount of time and I could never do enough to lose any significant calories before I'd be in excruciating pain with swollen knees.

I lived with a constant dull throbbing pain in my knees since I was a teenager. My pain tolerance is high due to chronic pain, but not having that pain in my right leg anymore is wild to me. It was such a constant and now that I've had the MACI in the right knee, it's just gone. I'm still recovering, I still deal with these pain spikes from the graft site in my right knee if I move my leg a certain way, but doc says I just need to be able to strengthen my quad in that leg to be able to stop my kneecap moving like it does. BUT I can't DO that with the pain in my left leg limiting my mobility. So here we go. Time to get the left leg done and then I'm going back to swimming regularly at my local gym and I'm buying a bike besides my amazing Rebel, Shadow, and I'm riding around the neighborhood with my headphones and going to the park to ride with my son and husband. I'm sure he'd get a bike too if the two of us had them. After my knees heal, I'm taking back my health. I'm so close to my goals and I need to start weight lifting to fill out a bit more. But I'm going Goku mode lol.

I do have a Gofundme up for the cost of the surgery and the surgery center fees. I need to do this before I fundraise for the continuous passive motion bike that I needed to fundraise for the first time. It's a bike that after the second surgery, will move my leg for me and help me exercise at home during the first stages of such a heavy surgery on my knee. This helps my recovery time and helps my knee not get stiff and immobile after the graft is placed. I need to crank out this surgery cost before needing another $900 for the bike plus whatever that surgery will cost. Hopefully they take a deposit and do a payment plan because it's not like these aren't needed surgeries to combat chronic pain and stop my knees getting any worse for wear.

Anyway, here's the Gofundme link: gofund.me/ef518bb5f It'd be amazing if you shared it around or even consider donating. Every little bit counts and helps me not tack on more to my already pretty big medical debt from my previous surgeries and procedures for my knees. I've been getting gel injections in my knee joints for the past four years prior to this. Yeah....we've been exhausting every method possible. Thanks for the consideration and the help y'all! It's much appreciated!