A Leg Straightening Adventure

I'm sure that most of you are not even aware that I have had crooked legs all my life. I've always been a little embarrassed about how my knee cap didn't line up with my upper leg (femur). I never really thought that years down the road it would start to be a problem but that time finally arrived. Years ago a physical therapist told me that because my femur and tibia didn't line up that it would eventually give me bunions but I thought he was crazy. Lo and behold last summer I had to have bunion surgery. I certainly didn't think last summer that I would continue on this summer with the next repercussion of crooked knees. Early spring, I was having swelling and pain in my knees so I consulted a doctor about the problem. He informed me that because my knee cap rode off to the side about 3/4" I would need a knee replacement because I had completely worn out the part of my knee that had been rubbing in the wrong place for 57 years. I certainly didn't like the sounds of that. I decided to try another doctor and he told me that I indeed had worn out that part of my knee but he said there might be an alternative surgery I could try. He said it would only work if I had no arthritis in the rest of my knee but we wouldn't know how the rest of my knee looked until they got in there. So on June 26th, I had my surgery. I was praying that I could get the realignment instead of a whole new knee. When I woke up I was told that indeed the one part of my knee was bone on bone and totally shot but because all the wear had gone to one spot the rest of my knee looked like a 30 year old woman's knee. So I got my wish. If all goes well, I shouldn't have to have a new knee until I'm an old woman or never. Here is a picture of Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Utah. It is a very nice hospital with very nice doctors and nurses.
The nurses took very good care of me. As you can see my leg is in a stabilizer for probably about 6 weeks. It is on there because they had to cut my bone and move the tibia over in line with the femur. Now I believe my knee cap is lined up nicely. I say believe because I can't really see my knee cap for the swelling, but it does seem straighter and my foot is straight when I'm relaxed.
As you can see, I had a great cheering squad. Duane was there too, but just taking the picture. I've had very good care starting with the nurses in the hospital to my mom, Aunt Delma, Heidi and Duane. They've all taken their turn. I feel very lazy and pampered. Thanks to everyone!


Here I am taking my first steps on a newly straightened leg. I'll start physical therapy next week to get mobility back. Boy I can't believe how I can't bend and move my leg. It's amazing how fast you lose the ability when you aren't using your leg. Once the bone heals then I'll be able to start the strenghtening part of physical therapy. The only sad part is that I have two legs and this same scenario will probably happen again next summer. Oh well, at least my legs will be straighter.