Day 2 to 4

Day 4

Four days since the surgery and all seems to be going well. Yesterday I only took painkillers in the morning and before bed - slept from 11 till 6 then dozed till 8. Today I'm avoiding them altogether but I'll put some by my bed in case I can't sleep. Swelling doesn't seem too bad, but it's under about 4 layers of bandage, so hard to tell! I really hope BBC Radio 6 doesn' get axed as it's definitely helping to keep me sane! Cutting 10% of the wages of the top DJs would pay for it...

Posterolateral Corner

As I've said before, I tore both my Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) and my one of the ligaments in the Posterolateral Corner (I tore the often missed Popliteofibular Ligament - PFL).

Surprisingly, the tiny, insignificant looking PFL is anatomically more important than the PCL. The PCL stops the shin bone translating rearwards under the knee and anyone with reasonably strong Quadriceps can live a normal life without one. Many sports can be played with a knee that has no PCL.

The PFL on the other hand stops the lower leg moving outwards (varus translation, or more commonly "bowlegged") and it stops the lower leg rotating in a toe-out direction. For me, the most important aspect of this repair is the varus translation, as I was finding that my knee was giving way in this manner, especially when outside edging in my climbing shoes.

For anyone who's interested, and not squeamish, here's a video of the procedure of reconstructing the PFL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz_U2CWES3s

My PFL was replaced with a tendon graft harvested form my hamstring and my PCL was replaced with a ligament from a donor, called an Allograft. The allografts are usually taken from the Achilles. I recently read a decent article on the various aspects to think about if you are considering a PCL Allograft:

http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/node/2125

Four more days till I get my staples and stitches out. Then I can get into my locked, but releasable, knee brace and out of this monstrosity: 

Happy days!