The Story of my Floating Knees - A New Year Update

As I mentioned in my last post, this year is going to be a turning point for my dislocating knees. It's going to be a long journey but hopefully one that will help me walk normally and be free from the discomfort in my legs and of course the dislocating!

My legs have been increasingly uncomfortable lately to the point where I can't walk about or stand for very long periods and I often feel like they are going to give way if I don't sit down.

Thankfully my appointment for the specialist in Glasgow arrived and I went to see him at the beginning of December. I was quite apprehensive about it since I'd been told by another specialist at my previous appointment that I'd never have normal legs again. You can read more about that and my knee story here.

I didn't need to be apprehensive though as the specialist in Glasgow was fantastic!  He finally explained exactly why my knees have been dislocating and explained how they are going to treat it. Firstly, he said that even if I had the strongest ligaments in the world, my knee caps could not be held on.  The sockets are far too shallow so they will need to be deepened to keep my knee caps on.  This won't solve the problem completely though.  Another factor to my knees dislocating is that my leg bones are all facing in different directions.  This means that the bones in my lower leg are at an angle where they are often coming into contact with my knee caps and therefore knocking them off.
To stop this happening, they will need to break my legs at the top and the bottom and twist the bones to straighten them.

He also explained that the reason my legs feel so tired is due to having to walk with them bent all the time. Try standing for a minute with your legs bent and you'll feel how much your muscles begin to work. Therefore spending the day with bent legs exhausts them, so no wonder they feel like they're going to collapse all the time. If I physically straightened my legs and tried to walk like that, my knee caps would just slide off. Bending them is what's keeping them on. He also said that my knees have eroded over time with dislocating and my ligaments have become so stretched they do nothing, so this will add to the discomfort.

So, after years and years of going to numerous doctors, I've finally found out the reason my knees dislocate and have been given a solution. It was quite a shock to find out exactly what they'll have to do, and I have been told that it will be painful and I'll need to find a lot of strength to get through it all but I know that it'll be worth it.

If I can eventually walk again with straight legs and no discomfort then it is entirely worth it.  If I can go on walks in the countryside, ride a bike, finally be able to learn to drive, and spend my time without the constant fear of falling I will be putting 100% into this.

My next step is another CT scan and an MRI scan which should be happening in the next month or so. After that I'll be on the waiting list for the operations. They'll be working on one leg at a time and from the scans they'll be able to calculate more accurately how long my legs will take to recover.

So this really is the year for my floating knees!

Again, if you'd like to follow the story from the beginning, head over here.