Hey everyone,
So, I will keep this as short as possible because the past is the past and I really want to know what would be the next best step for me.
Sept. 2014 I had a surfing injury when I fell backwards (its called a layback) on the wave and the board went the wrong direction and my right knee popped as the heel on my right foot hit my lower back/butt. I stayed off it for a few weeks thinking it was just a sprained knee but progressively got worse over the next several months. So, I went in for an MRI and they found I had 2 tears in my lateral meniscus - scheduled arthroscopic surgery and got those two tears cut out on Nov. 2, 2015.
After several months of PT, my knee was not healing up. I was able to go back out surfing but could only do like 1-3 days in a row and then I would have to take at least a week off for the swelling to go down before I had enough range of motion and strength to go back out. I couldn't even jog because the constant pounding was too painful. Then, in Feb. 2016 had another MRI and it revealed I had a 9mm x 9mm piece of cartilage missing (osteochondral defect) which was the reason I still had lots of pain, but I thought it would heal itself (I was trying to be VERY optimistic) so last week I played basketball for the 1st time in over 8 months and now my knee is a wreck (I didn't fall or anything I just think the twisting, turning, running made it way worse now then even before the arthroscopy).
I just saw my OS earlier this week and they want to do OATS, or ACI, but with the research I have done I don't know what would be the best option to get me as close to 100% as possible and I defintely don't trust to go back to my OS because he didn't take pics of the bad side of my lateral meniscus during the arthroscopy - only 1 pic each of medial (good side), ACL and behind knee cap - all of which had no problems - and the PA nor the other OS in the office don't know why he didn't take the pics or video and so I really don't know what happened during surgery or where this osteochondral defect came from because the 1st MRI pre-surgery only revealed 2 tears in my meniscus. Oh and the OS who did the surgery on me is conveniently out on medical leave so I can't get any answers...
Needless to say, I just don't trust that office to do any more surgeries. So, who specializes in these procedures and sports related knee surgeries in the Orange County/LA/San Diego area? I will switch insurance in order to get someone who specializes in this if I have to! Thanks for the help in advance - this surfer just wants to get out in the water again.... Jonathan