Progress After My Knee Replacement Surgery

Many have asked me how the recovery is going.  Here's a place you can see some progressive pictures.  I've been adding a couple a week showing the progress.

http://twitpic.com/photos/wattswhat

Knee Replacement Surgery

This week I'm finally having it done. Knee arthroplasty. Total knee replacement. Last June I had my knee scoped here's the pictures of that. http://sermons.wattswhat.net/2007/06/my-knee-surgery.html

Since then I have been under the care of Dr. Kalo at Orthopedic Consultants in Sioux Falls. We've tried many things as a treatment for the pain.  But to no avail.  Finally we decided to go ahead with this procedure this summer.  I am sure the winter would have been unbearable the way things have been for the last several months.

Here's a YouTube animation of knee replacement. It makes me rather squeamish even though it's not a real surgery.

 

My Knee Surgery...

Dear friends;

(Warning! The following post contains surgical pictures that may not be appropriate for all readers).

On June 19, I had my knee scoped. I had it all done at Sioux Falls Surgical Center. I was well cared for. My doctor was Bradley Plaga. It should have been a simple procedure to fix torn cartilage. However, Dr. Plaga told my wife that within 5 years I'd need a new knee. My local doctor said so too but I really didn't believe it. Well, for those interested here's the pictures. You can see also the wear on the bones from no cartilage for 25 years. Diagnosis Ostioarthritis.

In the following picture I think the red stuff (blood) is the torn cartilage. Lots of rough stuff here, I think everything here should be smooth.
On the upper right I believe this is a picture of behind my knee cap. On the left next to it you can see much more wear on the bone... also the bottom two pictures show the wear pretty clearly.
Here you can see the wear and tear on my bone (upper and lower left). I think the doc is cleaning up the surfaces. There is lots of debris.

As far as I can tell this is the after pic. Less rough stuff more smooth. It is another good view of the wear.
Any comments from you medical types would be appreciated.