Chuck's surgery

Chuck relaxing after knee surgery. The left knee is still very swollen

as compared to the right knee.

The surgeon had to make four incisions. Each incision is closed with 6-8 metal staples.

For months Chuck has been experiencing a lot of knee pain. He finally went to a doctor in Topeka who diagnosed acute arthritis. The pain was so severe Chuck returned to the doctor about two weeks later and told him he thought it was more than arthritis (which he was diagnosed with years ago). The doctor ordered an MRI, which our insurance provider (Coventry) denied. Chuck felt the doctor only ordered the MRI to appease him and didn't fight with the insurance provider to get the MRI because he didn't really think it was more than arthritis. Chuck decided to get a second opinion and went to Dr. Wertzberger in Lawrence who is the team doctor for the KU football team. He had to wait another couple of weeks to get an appointment. Dr. Wertzberger said Chuck had the classic symptoms of a meniscus tear which can only be verified by an MRI. Dr. Wertzberger had to jump through hoops to get the MRI approved which took another week. Eventually, our insurance company "approved" the diagnostic procedure. Originally, the insurance company wanted Chuck to undergo 6-8 weeks of therapy before resorting to surgery. Dr. Wertzberger said there was no therapy in the world which would help a meniscus tear, instead therapy would have made it worse. We felt like hostages to the insurance company. Unfortunately their delay tactics caused Chuck to have to ensure unnecessary pain for several weeks longer than needed.

I left on Sunday, April 15 to go to some fraud training in Branson, Missouri. On April 16, the insurance company finally approved the MRI which verified the meniscus tear. The doctor wanted to immediately do surgery on Wednesday, April 18. I ended up leaving my training class a day early in order to make it home to be with Chuck the day of surgery. We had no idea they would decide to do surgery so quickly.

During surgery Dr. Wertzberger determined the tear was too severe too be repaired and removed the meniscus entirely. Dr. Wertzberger also performed a lateral release of the kneecap (the kneecap was over to the side and had to be readjusted) and a debridement of the back of the kneecap. The surgery was scheduled for 6:30am and we were back home by 11am. The surgery itself took less than two hours and Chuck came through fine. He was a little nauseous following surgery and of course, is still pretty sore. However, it is impossible to keep Chuck down. He was taking some work phone calls by late Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday from home. On Friday, he went to work for half a day. He has already abandoned his crutches and is just using his cane. My nagging has no effect.