Sorry for being M.I.A for so long! I’ve been very busy to put it mildly and I haven’t had any interest in writing at all, it’s been a complete roller coaster of ups and downs to be honest.
I had my surgery which was: Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy, an mpfl reconstruction and a keyhole surgery, where they removed some mucus glands. My Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy (TTO), was the biggest procedure. I had to have my shin opened up and a part of the top of my tibia had to be cut and placed lower on my tibia due to my kneecap not catching the groove in my knee, this is called “patella Alta” and means that your kneecap sorta hovers above your groove in your knee and never really tracks properly. The mpfl reconstruction aka medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction, is where you get a new ligament that holds your kneecap in place, the ligament often gets damaged every time you dislocate your kneecap and this was done by two incisions on the inside of my knee, placing an artificial ligament on my kneecap / patella with screws, and tracing it down to my femur, where you attach is there too also using screws.
Below is a more visual explanation of what’s been done to my knee / leg, one of the pictures is a bit graphic, but I promise that there is no blood. It’s basically just showing stitches and sterile strips.
It was scary, I have to admit that. I tried to keep my head clear though and managed to go through with the entire surgery without any major issues. The part where they had to put me under full anesthesia was the worst, I hate giving up any type of control, so I was fighting the drugs, but ended up being out anyways – luckily! 😅 When I woke up, I spoke English.. The doctors were a little surprised, but as soon as I found out that the poor male nurse next to me wasn’t my fiancé and that he was speaking Danish to me, I switched to danish! (My fiancé is from England and moved to Denmark to live with me)
I woke up completely confused and it felt like no time at all had passed. Although two hours went by, just like that! My surgeon was brilliant and the procedures went smooth. I was in such a hurry to get out of the hospital and home that I was a bit annoyed that I had to have a nasal cannula on.. I kept moving it cause it was annoying me and I had no idea why they were actually using it! (When my brain cells finally started to function, I figured that my oxygen levels must have been low and that’s why I needed it on). After I was cleared on my oxygen intake, they gave me some food and something to drink, I swallowed the hospital food that they gave me and without even being asked, I started to try and get dressed – much to the amusement of the patient lying next to me, due to me huffing and puffing and trying to get my legs to work. 🙈 I was in the car, on my way back home in like less than half an hour of waking up. I just wanted to go home. 😅
Day three was by far the worst… I was in utter agony, my leg was throbbing and I felt like I had to throw up. The drugs that the hospital had given me must have worn off completely by then and I was really feeling the pain that day. But after day three, things slowly got better and better – after week two I stopped with the heavy Oxycodones and was only taking regular Paracetamol and ibuprofen. I’m quite happy with that decision.
Below I’m posting some pictures of my recovery, from day one, to the current state of my leg. So a warning in advance, that the pictures might be a tad graphic.
Day of the surgery 
New Year’s Eve – day 1 
Day 3, bandage change 
Day 6 – lower mpfl incision 
Day 6 – TTO incision 
Day 9 – slowly healing 
Day 11, I removed my stitches 
Day 12 – no more stitches 
Day 16 
Day 20 
Day 23 
Day 26 
Day 28 – ankle support 
Day 30
As you see, I removed my own stitches. It was mainly because I wanted to avoid the pandemic, which was at its highest and I also knew how to remove them myself due to my education. My surgeon gave me the all clear to remove them after ten days, I gave it one more day, just to be sure and then I removed them. It went very well and I had no issues whatsoever.
I had to have an ankle support on, I am still using it when I walk, because my ankle and foot have been in a lot of pain whenever I put weight on my leg. Don’t worry, my physiotherapist had a look at it and nothing is broken, it’s probably just sprained or agitated due to the surgery. When wearing the ankle support and shoes with good arch support when I walk, I feel almost no pain.
My knee is still stiff and I’m still fighting to get it to bend more, on week two I was at 65 degrees, at week three I was at 95 degrees and now more than a month post op, I hope I’ve come a lot further! Time will only tell.. The 8th of feb, I’m going to a checkup with my physiotherapist, she will be able to measure the degrees that I bend, I really hope I’ve come further than the 95 degrees, I’ve been trying to work out as much as possible at home and I hope I can try to just do that for now and have regular checkups once a week or every two weeks to check my progress. That way I’ll avoid the pandemic as much as possible!
If you want to see more pictures and videos of my recovery, you can follow my journey on Instagram and see my progress from day one on my highlights, my name on Instagram is “Lifeasmiamariah”. ❤️
I hope you are staying safe, thank you so much for reading along! See you online x
Life as Mia 