My Background, Injury and Course of Treatment

Ever since I can remember, I have loved sports.  My Dad is a sports junkie and as a result, sports have always been a big part of my life both as an athlete and as a spectator.  In high school I was a two time all-state track and field athlete and went on to run track at Central Michigan University (Division 1).  For one reason or another, high jump just came naturally to me.  

Even after leaving competitive athletics, I have generally always made fitness a priority.  Alright, technically that was not true my last year of law school but give me a break, law school was time consuming.

Fast forward a few years, I move to Chicago and begin my professional career as an attorney.  Once I settle in, I really started to miss competing in any sport.  I began thinking about how much I wanted to learn how to play tennis but never did.  I figured my speed, agility and decent hand/eye coordination would translate easy into the game.  But for some reason I never tried it out. So, on my 30th birthday I decided it was time to finally learn to play.  I took one lesson and was hooked immediately.  

I played a few times a week for roughly three years when I started to feel some pain in my right knee.  I began noticing the problem in early March 2016.  As an athlete, you get bumped and bruised along the way so I just brushed it off as something that would work itself out; i.e. rub some dirt on it and walk it off.  Over time, the pain got worse and was more frequent.  I had a trip planned to Greece in June 2016 so I figured that my two weeks overseas would give my knee enough of a break that when I returned, I would be fully recovered.  That did not happen.

I first sought out treatment in July 2016.  Given my symptoms, I was initially diagnosed as having Jumpers/Runners Knee which is a general diagnosis for patella-femoral pain.  I was instructed to start physical therapy which I did for approximately two months without any relief.  As such, I subsequently had an MRI which revealed inflammation in the joint for which I was given a steroid injection.

The injection provided some immediate relief and I thought I was healed!  I felt the best I had felt in months.  I even went to Arizona and played tennis at an awesome resort with The Tennis Congress.  However, a few weeks later I was back at my doctor's office asking him to do another steroid injection.  My request was politely declined and he explained that at this point, surgical intervention would be necessary.  

In December 2016, I had arthroscopic surgery to essentially clean up/out any inflamed or damage cartilage and to remove any plica that were present but not visible on the MRI.  My doctor also advised that he would take a small sample of cartilage from a non-weight bearing part of my knee "just in case" we had to do another surgery.  Following surgery, again, I went to physical therapy to rehabilitate the knee.  

Here is where we begin the profoundly frustrating part of the story.  Following my surgery, my knee never felt better.  I can confidently state that I worked hard and definitely fulfilled my end of the bargain in terms of rehabilitation and a home exercise program.  Frankly, I like to work out and I was desperate to get my life back so I was diligent in doing everything I could in terms of getting quad strength back so as to regain proper patella traction.  After a few months, I was still symptomatic so I returned to my doctor and he suggested doing a series of three hyaluronic acid ("HA") injections.  

The HA injections restored some knee function but did not relieve my ultimate symptoms.  I believe the HA injections provided some general knee lubrication which relieved some symptoms that were a consequence of surgery, as opposed to the cartilage injury, which was helpful but did not ultimately resolve my injury.  

I continued to do physical therapy and a home exercise program and even did a second series of HA injections but it was obvious that conservative options were not going to get me back on a tennis court any time soon.  

So, as you guessed, I elected to go forward with the MACI procedure.  I had surgery on June 5, 2018.