Adventure Pam's ACL Allograft Surgery

Hey Peeps, I finally got my knee did, and here's the pics and vids to prove it.  If you're one of the squeamish types, I don't blame you if you don't want to look at this.  I'm usually a big puss about the insides of a human, but this time, my fascination won over my queasiness.  Hopefully, this will be an educational tool for you as well, and you never get yourself in a situation where you'll have to have surgery.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, My ACL Injury and How You Can Prevent One, I completely tore my Anterior Cruciate Ligament on my left knee, and I decided to get the Allograft procedure.  Below, are stills of the surgery performed by Dr. Bert Mandelbaum at the Surgery Center of the Pacific.  


Unfortunately, on my trip to Brazilian Amazon, I foolishly hurried down the stairs of the Jungle Lodge with my camera, not holding onto the railing, to take a picture of the fried piranhas that my group caught before everyone started eating them, and my knee gave way.  I fell down the remaining steps, and the pain was so excruciating, that I knew that it had to be more than just my bones grinding together.  The day of the surgery, the Dr. told me that I did indeed tear a meniscus, and you can see how he cleaned it up, and smoothed it out in this group of stills, and in the following video.

Menisci in images 003, 004, 007, and 008

Action shot of biodegradable screw being placed in 009 and Superhero Olympian cadaver ACL in 010

  
Video of my surgery

I decided to rent a physical therapy machine that was highly recommended by my surgeon, and here's a demonstration of how the Game Ready Accelerated Recovery System works:



Here's a pic of the only fried piranhas left after my fall down the Jungle lodge stairs:

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Thanks to Dr. Bert Mandlebaum of the Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Group, and all the folks at the Surgery Center of the Pacific who made my surgery virtually painless.  Shout out to my anesthesiologist who didn't judge when I told her how much I drank in Rio, and gave me the perfect amount of drugs.  Thanks to Rudy from Team Post-Op, Inc. and Ortho Xpress for his excellent demonstration for the crazy, overpriced physical therapy rental I'm using.  Kobe Bryant and I only have bad knees in common, not paycheck size.  *sigh*