Here we go...

On March 24th I am scheduled to have a type of knee surgery called autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). The surgery itself is pretty easy to understand and sounds very sci fi. Basically, some cartilage cells were harvested from my knee last September and, now that the second surgery has been scheduled, they will be grown in a lab to be a larger amount of my own cartilage. The company that does this is called Carticel and they explain the details of the surgery and the recovery process on their website.

This blog isn't to educate about what ACI is all about. That information is out there. However, the experience of the surgery and the recovery is significant and not undertaken lightly. I have read and appreciated the blogs and diaries written by others who have experienced ACI (and I linked a few). So, one purpose of this blog is to add to those available resources for others who will eventually be in a similar position to where I am now. If you are one of those people reading this, then good luck!

The other purpose of this blog is to let people in my life know how I am doing. I know there are many people in my life who care deeply and would enjoy the ability to sort of be there with me as I go through this. If you are one of this group then I thank you and hope that you leave a comment, especially when things get rough. The encouragement really does help!

I have a lot to cover before I even get to S-day, including how I got here and what I am doing to prepare. There will be lots of pictures, but I know a lot of people are squeamish about these things so I promise they will all be behind a link with warnings on their gross-out factor. I think this is enough for right now. I am optimistic about the outcome and glad you can join me on this journey. Now here we go.