entirely safe and fun

I have some pretty nifty souvenirs from my knee arthroscopy, chief among which is a CD full of stuff including an MPEG video, which I have yet to watch but am definitely looking forward to (it’s the feel-good movie of the year!), and some photos of the work done on my knee. Here’s one I thought was especially cool:

Part of the problem was that my lateral meniscus - the cartilage that sits on top of the tibia and cups the lateral condyle of the femur - was shredded, as you can see near the arrow. Since the femur slides across the meniscus during knee flexions, every movement of my knee was attended by rather unpleasant sounds and occasionally unbearable pain. (edit 12 May 2006: But this picture is actually of the other side of the lateral femoral condyle-lateral aspect of tibia interface - it’s of bone and cartilage grown over the tunnel through which my ACL runs. Same complaint about every movement of the joint making awful sounds/pain applies to this injury, as well as to the meniscal tear off screen in this shot.) From the inside, the meniscus cartilage looks like it’s been TPed. The sharp-toothed tool there was used to give my knee a haircut and remove the overgrown bone. Now it just needs to get a job.

At any rate, I’m doing fine, hoping to be be back at work “for reals”, as the kids say these days, by the end of the week, and ready for the Team Constructed Pro Tour Qualifier this weekend. I’m not quite a big enough geek to schedule my surgery around a Magic tournament, so I’ll have to play through my injuries, like Curt Schilling in the ‘04 ALCS. Hopefully, not so much blood, though - it warps the cards.