Arthroscopy?

[Possegal]

I've had a lateral release done. I am definitely much better off since my surgery. I had it done a year after I had a patella dislocation and prior to the surgery I couldn't comfortably walk up and down steps and I could only run 1/16th of a mile and even then it hurt. I had been in PT nearly that whole year.

I will say though, that the PT who had worked on me both post injury and then post surgery, said that I was the only successful lateral release she and the other PTs there had worked on. She said most others saw no real change after their surgery.

That is purely anecdotal though, but thought it worth mentioning. I'm glad that I didn't talk to her prior to the surgery, or I may not have had it. And I'm glad I did have it as it is really much better. The surgeon said my patella was textbook for a tracking abnormality.

That's a mixed bag of info and probably didn't help you much. I did have a friend from HS that had one and she was much better after it too. I remember doing some internet searching and finding all sorts of people with bad stories. Then I was reminded that the people with the good stories were out doing things on their new happy knees.

I woke up with the giant ice pack on the knee, but I never needed crutches after the surgery. I got around pretty well from the day after onward. My sister came with me and stayed for about 36 hrs, but then I was on my own and it was no problem. For me I compared it a lot to the original injury and the injury was so much worse. That may have given me a different perspective to it. PT after the injury was really rough, after the surgery it wasn't.

Pain - I didn't have much pain at all. I think I took the pain pills the first 24 hrs but then didn't bother. I went out to lunch with my niece and sister on Sunday afternoon (and the surgery was Friday morning). I'm trying to remember how long I was off work (this was a while ago) and I'm thinking I took a week off. Then the first week or so back at work, well I wasn't running down the hallways and I did wear sweats most of the time for ease of putting them on. But again, no crutches, at all. Did the Dr tell you that you'd need them? I remember asking mine if I should bring them (had a pair from the ER when I dislocated) and he was all - oh no, you won't need that. He told me to NOT immobilize it and to NOT stop from putting my weight on it. So like I said, I was very mobile very soon after the surgery.

Just my experience, but I did have the exact surgery you are talking about.