After waiting nearly 3 hours and missing the end of the school day, when I anticipated missing one class at most, this was the extent of the explanation I received.
I was told at this stage, from what could be determined by my MRI, surgery was unnecessary and treatment beyond physical therapy and the synvisc-one injection I had received was overkill.
I still lacked clarification. Although more invasive treatment options were out of the question, they were all presented, and I was EXTREMELY confused. I understood what a scope and debridement was, but what was ACI, and why was there not a single understandable source on what the surgery entailed?
Hearing that I had “thinning and speckled cartilage” finally caused things to click in my head. This wasn’t an everyday knee injury for someone my age, and it wasn’t the torn meniscus I was originally told I might have. This wasn’t and isn’t an injury that can be repaired in a straightforward manner, and there continues to be a possibility in the present-day that my only permanent repair is full knee replacement.
Over the next 3 months, I would continue the regime of physical therapy originally prescribed, constantly searching for a physical therapist that would focus on my whole body in hopes that would solve the problem going on within my knee. This was little help no matter how invested or qualified the physical therapist. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t bend my knee standing or lay it flat in bed.
I was confused how cartilage could control by body and my life in this way, and I begged for more invasive treatment.
Articulating My Articular Cartilage 