Another Perspective

Writing about the day of the surgery is strange. I read back over it and don't feel like I have actually said anything. I slept through most of the major events! In that spirit, I asked my husband to relay part of the day himself. Here is his account of a highlight: meeting with Dr. Trice after the waiting was over.

Family Waiting Room

Although Dr. Trice, Allison’s surgeon, had scheduled for eight hours, the surgery ‘only’ took about four and a half. At around 3:30, Dr. Trice came into the waiting room and found our two families (Allison’s mother and both my parents had come to visit) waiting for any news. Even through one of the many assistant nurses had called a few times during the procedure to keep me informed of her progress, I was looking forward to hearing from him. He looked understandably tired, and even though I expected it, my attention kept getting drawn to the small splatters of red that stood out against the green surgical scrubs.

After meeting the family, he explained how he found the condition of the cartilage and generally what the gist of the procedure was. He produced two pages of pictures, the first a series of four images (1 2 3 4 Warning: GR 5 for all of them) outlining the current damaged area. In these he pointed out that the surgical probe was able to easily puncture the cartilage; it looked like the consistency of curdled milk. The second page was a series of four images (1 2 3 4 Warning: GR 5) outlining the steps taken in the procedure. These pictures were the most striking, and he explained that he was able to clean out the impacted area, and implant the cultured cartilage under a thin membrane of organic material. From my obviously untrained eye, the remaining tissue looked a great deal healthier than the damaged cartilage.

Additionally, Dr. Trice shared with us a series of images from what I assumed was a successful procedure. In these, a picture stunningly similar to Allison’s damaged area was compared to the same knee after the patch had dissolved. The new cartilage was silky smooth, like an overly polished piece of pure white marble. He reminded me again that this procedure had a 70 percent chance of success, so nothing is guaranteed. Although, when compared to the option of having done nothing, I will take a 70 percent increased chance of getting a result like that. Dr. Trice wrapped up by saying Allison was coming out of the anesthetic well, and that it would be a few hours until they moved her into her room.