Knee Surgery

Knee Surgery #1 (which is really #2 in the grand scheme of things)
Let me start at the beginning and paint a picture....
Gauley Season 2008. I drove across the country with my friend Ted from Portland, OR to Fayetteville, WV. Good times. They had cancelled the training day on Thursday due to low water. The lake was low and so our releases were less than normal. I was on the Upper Gauley the first day of the season at about 2500 cfs... which could've been closer to 2300. Great day. Awesome crew. They had so much fun, they requested me for the next day on the Upper Gauley too.
With two great first days under my belt, I showed up to surf for work on the 3rd day. I got put on an 11:00 Lower Gauley trip. The trip was going great.... mellow Lower Gauley day. What more could I ask for?
After lunch, below Heavens Gates, above Stairsteps, is a rapid called BFR. We call it that because there's a Big F-ing Rock in the middle of the river. Class 3 rapid. It's called Picture Rock on the map. We entered the rapid on the right and the boat kicked hard to the left, ejecting half my boat out the left side and throwing the rest of us to the left side of the boat.
When I was tossed to the left, I put my foot out to catch myself.... but instead of catching myself, my foot wedged under the cross tube of the raft, between it and the floor, and my leg twisted.
Instantly I was floored by the pain. As I sat in the bottom of the boat, grabbing my knee, I knew something bad had happened. BUT... I didn't hear a pop. I couldn't help the people in the water, I couldn't talk, I just let them handle it on their own and paddle us to shore. My leg was immediately splinted, wrapped, and iced and I made the evacuation call about 5 minutes later. Not only was my day over, my season was over. 3 days into Gauley Season, I was done. Bummer. I couldn't be evacuated until Pure Screaming Hell, a bigger rapid about 4 miles downstream. That was the scary part. How do I guide a raft through rapids, without letting my knee move, or using those muscles? Very carefully. I had to run Upper Staircase, Lower Staircase, Roller coaster, Cliffside, Rattlesnake, and Roostertail as conservatively as possible. It worked out, and I was evac -ed above PSH.

I saw a doctor in Charleston 2 days later, who concluded that my ACL was torn again, and he ordered an MRI. About a week later, the MRI confirmed a torn ACL and deep bone bruising. The doctor suggested that I disregard another knee surgery, saying that I didn't need an ACL. I liked the idea of not having surgery again, but I was doubtful that I wouldn't need one.

And so began the trek back to Portland. Since I had such a nice group of friends and a job at my rafting company, I decided to come back to the White Salmon and deal with it amongst friends. I sent out emails to everyone asking for help finding an orthopedic surgeon, and help is what I got.

My friend Allen Roberts' dad is an orthopedic surgeon, perhaps the best in the Portland area. Allen told his dad about my situation, about the same time as he was pestered with emails and calls from other people about me. Dr. Roberts agreed to help me out. He suggested that I have 2 surgeries to fix my torn ACL. The first surgery would be to remove the hardware from my original ACL reconstruction. They would clean out the torn ACL, unscrew the screws, drill the tunnels slightly bigger, and then pack in bone grafts into the holes. Sounds like fun, right? The second surgery would be to replace the ACL, by redrilling the tunnels, and putting in a new ACL graft.

My first surgery was on 12/8/08. It went well. It felt like someone had cut me open, drilled and scraped into my bone, then pounded in some bone grafts. It pretty much feels exactly like it sounds.... painful. I left the hospital with this cool machine, the Game Ready. It is a sleeve that pumps in cold water, as well as fills up with air for ice and compression. It feels really good. I wish I had it for my first surgery.

My crazy machine

Every day is better than the last. I have greater range of motion, and can do things more easily as the days go by, so that's nice to see. I took my first shower yesterday, and it was awesome. I got to check out my stitches up close and survey the damage.






















I basically only have 2 new scars. The one up on my quad is new, and the one below the big one is new. The big one is longer than it originally was, but that's no biggie.

More updates coming soon.