ACL surgery with Sportmedizin at Wolfart Klinik

OK so its my turn now...

I just went to the docs yesterday as I hurt my already damaged knee playing frisbee a few weeks ago.

The diagnosis is that my ACL is finally completely torn and I need the funky ligament replacement surgery. He described the options and I will probably get the patellar-bone graft.

As he himself no longer performs this operation, he gave me the name of another doc. I asked him about Alpha Klinik and he said no way... How can so many people say different things about this place?

I think I will check out the Wolfart Klinik Sportmedizin place. God I hope my health insurance is going to cough up for this...

Sorry to hear that the knee finally gave in.

yeah.. i'm a bit gutted. Thats all fun sports off for me now :-( No climbing, big hiking, frisbee, blading, ice skating, big bike climbs, kiting I guess, badminton, squash or stuff like that for 6 months to a year after the op... Will probably get it done in 2-3 months from now...

damn :-(

edit: hmmm.. I guess go-karting is on the yes list

Let me ask on Monday at the office for another place to go... there is one most of my coworkers also use, Dr. Zwiesl something! on WilhelmDeiss Weg, I did see him once when I was a Kasse patient, and felt he treated me as a person bad, so I never went back. Went to Dr. Wagner on Muhlbauerstr by Prinzregenten- not sure if he does surgery, but has helped me alot with my feet, my hands and my back.

Having heard nothing but good about Sportmedizin and Dr Ötti, I have booked my first meeting with them for Tuesday

Going to go for the surgery sooner rather than later methinks... So I probably wont make any mountain bike parks this year - which is probably a blessing in disguise

She tried to book me with a different doc, saying they are all the same, but somehow I wanted to go with Dr Ötti as thats who was reccommended to me...

Ok, so I am booked for the 21st July. woooo. He will be taking some of my tendon rather than the patellar ligament. He told me the name of the procedure, and even wrote it down for me, but I cant read doctors writing.. who ever can? I know it begins with s... semi something?

Anyone know what its called? I *think* its the hamstring tendon or something.. anyone know that thats called in german?

Wish me luck Will be in hospital for 3-5 days... Should get out just in time for the KFC grand opening

Well good luck with the operation Tom. Hope it all goes well.

(sounds a bit like you are getting a jaw modification for KFC though ?)

"Semitendinosussehne"?
I had to google it though - am not that clever
Good luck!! And KFC will be brought to your beside (whether at home or at the hospital)!

so tommysiebzehn ..i guess you will be residing in the Wolfartsklinik then ? a bit of palace i might add ...they get you up and walking at 7am but the food i remember as being good ...one minute they treat you like a king the next they're kicking your ass ..even if you are on crutches ..but then it is for your own good !

Geez if they can accomplish getting him out of bed at 7 a.m. perhaps we shall consider a move there

And on the chicken front...I have to say that you will not enjoy cold KFC hauled out to Gräfelfing...or would you? Are you that desperate?

@Tom17, Have you ever broken a bone before?

@katrina.. it wasnt that long... Semile h? k? o? and one or 2 more letters lol.. Bloody docs writing.

@2balls - Yep, will be staying there. 7am ouch.. I guess it sounds like they will be doing my day one physio then.. And here I thought I was gonna be having a nice relax for a few days lol.

@bg.. hmmm cold.. maybe they have a microwave... hmmmm soggy KFC.. OK I will have to wait

@madaxe - yep, broke a thumb using dry ice and broke my fibia(ula?) just below my knee when I initially injured my knee, but that was minor and healed quickly.

well, it's not like one little ol' nursey comes in and nicely says please can you get up, mr tom17 ...you're sort of rudely awakened after a blissed out night of morphine and valium and your kind of being pushed out of your bed by 3 or 4 people ..one wants to make your bed, the other wants to know what meal you want for lunch from the menu, the other is the physio, one wants to empty your bed pan ...still, as i remember you can manage a siesta inbetween learning to walk up stairs and how to sit on a toilet by yourself..

I'm putting myself up for hell.. arent I.

it will be worth it

i wouldn't classify it as hell ...more sort of public humiliation ...you get to wear a nice pair of string net pants, you get to have one side of your wedding tackle shaved and a cathater (spelling ?) put in the crease (or near the crease) or your groin/upper leg ..of course you whole leg gets shaved ..and as with most hospitals you get to wear a nice surgery robe thing that opens at the back showing off your arse/see-thru porno pants ...i just have two tips mind

1. before they give you the pre-surgery sedative make sure the correct leg is marked for surgery ...i was starting to feel out of it as the nurse started to shave the wrong leg and had to correct him. they do this before they wheel you off to the operating room

2. not sure if they still do these ..but prepare yourself for administering anti-thrombosis jabs into your stomach. good idea to put on weight in the gut area as this cushions the injection. and the needles you use in hospital are thin and the ones you get from the aphotheke afterwards are thick ...so you start to look like you have bullet holes in your belly. it's disturbing at first but you get used to jabbing yourself ...obviously, if you're a diabetic this is peanuts..

any road, good luck ..& remember it's not hell ..just humilation. you will be fine, dude

Umm...what kind of place IS this? They aren't even clear on what LEG to do? I think we need to reconsider...

Just do both.. 2 shiny brand spanking new knees.. alright!!

I have never broken a bone, except for my Cocyx. So I was stunned by just how much your knee does not like having holes drilled in it. For me the serious pain lasted 24 hours.

I had it done in the morning, was groggy the whole day from the anesthetic, and then refused a sleeping tablet that night, didn't really sleep, and in the morning thought what have I done? Amputation would have been better.

Was feeling better by lunchtime, didn't refuse the sleeping pill that night, and felt a lot better the next morning. Not trying to scare you, just take the sleeping pill, and ignore the first 24 hours.

OK, I am getting a Ham String graft - Semitendinosus tendon graft.

Tendon = sehne so you were in fact spot on Katrina... It just looked nothing like what the doc wrote. Thanks

8 days...

I dont mind if they do the other one too! But I would like them to get the bad one done first hehe.

Well, here I am at last. In the hospital, cheekily using a UMTS card (thanks Shaggy!).

Today has ben a bit of a timing and financial nightmare but is all ok now. I cant eat after midnight and when I wake up in the morning, I will be dragged into surgery (7:15).

Nice place here, I have a balcony and an en-suite shower - the best hospital digs I have had to date! Good thing as I am stuck here for 5 days according to the doc!

So here goes.. wish me luck

Hmm.. wonder if I should have split this thread a while ago, some might think I am talking about the Alpha Klinik...

So, where are you?

Wolfartsklinik ..i assume, mr tom17 ? you won't be needing to use the ensuite bathroom for a day or two so enjoy it whilst you can ...the place is a bit 5 star, mind

I can confirm the 5-starness (made-up word but I am tired) of Wolfart Klinik. Tom has a balcony and everything! It has a hotel feel to me. They seem pretty cool in there...told us there were really no visiting hours and stuff. Now let's see if they put his leg back together ok

@ blimegirl ...as i remember there are indeed no visiting hours but they will knock you out of the way if you're there at 7am whilst they're trying to change his sheets or when the physio is whipping tommy17 into shape ... i recommend finding out from tom17 when the feeding times are as it's worth trying the food ..best hospital food i ever had !

blimeygirl can have the hosp food and she can bring me real stuff, like bk

you could well be in the same room or ward at least that i was.

here's wishing all the best and a speedy recovery from the knife job.

room 65, 1st floor, overlooking that pavillion in the middle of the garden...

9000EUR for an Orthopedic procedure? Is this doctor any good? I'm usually very skeptical about physicians outside of North America. That is peanuts, my sister had a spinal procedure done at Stanford University hospital which cost about $80,000US.

Good luck Tom!!
Because he'll be in theatre right now - hope things go fab and a big hello to Blimeygirl! x

Well, the op is done. I have a shiny new ACL made from my hamstring but he also had to remove some damaged meniscus (my own fault for not getting this seen to 2.5 years ago). I am currently laid up with pipes hanging out of me for blood drainage etc. Now when acockreland2balls said I would be having a catheter, I assumed he meant for urine, and as such thougt he was taking the piss so I chose to ignore what he'd said . Turns out it was a "pain catheter" phew. Well, I am laying here now, in mild pain and they have been making me walk already and do stretching exercises etc. And as Andy did say, the food here is in fact good... A well nice hospital! Now I just have to battle it out with BUPA as the doc wants me here longer than Bupa have approved so far...

Have pics from inside my knee if anyone is interested, they arent tooo gruesome Oh and i'm not allowed back to work until 21st Aug!!!

Gute Besserung!!!

apologies for the misunderstanding mister tommysiebzehn ...the catheter thing is indeed for the painkiller. the thing i found was that when i started getting that feeling of the stuff travelling down through me leg i just wanted to vomit everywhere ...eventually, i could take no more painkiller and the pain was much better

any road, well done sonny jim ...you're over the worst now ...the next hurdle is administering the anti-thrombosis jabs into your abdomen, but then you could get your missus to do that...

how long are you going to be at Hotel Wolfartsklinik ? i could drop by at the weekend to take the piss like ...

Bet you'll feel a lot better tomorrow.

I didn't have catheter. In Alpha they bind the knee really tightly to slow the bleeding, and then stick a syringe in to get it all out. Their line is that catheters are inconvenient and more prone to infection.

I have those drainage tubes on previous operations, and don't have fond memories of having them removed. I think the nurse took them out too late, when the anaesthetic was already gone.

Sorry to hear about the Meniscus, but hopefully you have most of it, and its a very adaptable part.

Hope you're doing alright Tom!!! Get back to work soon!!!

thanks for the good wishes All visitors are welcome, even the piss-taking ones

If all goes well, I should be hobbling out of here on Sunday...

So, I have been hobbling about the hospital a bit today, even went up some stairs. They pulled the tubes out of my knee today which was a strange kind of immense pain. More emphasis on strange than immense, a kind of sluuurping pain if you like. The kind of sensation that I imagine the late Douglas Adams would have a very good way of describing for some reason. So, I screamed and that marked the beginning of "the worst is over". Still quite painful now but just your normal agonising aching pain, but not too intense (I imagine due to the pain killers.. mmmm pain killers).

One thing I can say, probably partially due to my baby-like fear of needles, is that I am glad I had tubes in there rather than them syringing it out all the time like MadAxeMurderererer says they do at the Alpha Klinic.

Upon looking at my knee area I am quite pleased with the "mess" they made. It is in fact not much of a mess at all. 2 tiny holes below the kneecap, one tinyer hole in my upper thigh and a small incision below one of the knee-holes, which should be the only obviously visible scar (in the traditional sense of scars being long things with stitch marks). There is no huge swelling to speak of, just a tiny amount and my self-massage and lymph drainage should help keep that at bay but we'll just see about that when i actually start using it.

As for the meniscus, all I know for now is that due to having a meniscus repair in with the mix, I can only put up to about 20kg weight on the knee for a few weeks. Interestingly, I loaded weight onto my knee once and it didn't hurt at all, but I will be following the physio's advice to the word... I am gonna pamper this new knee so much its gonna kick ass!

So now my final evening meal here included a beer - thats cool, we saw alcoholfrei beer on the menu so no biggie.. But oh, wait, no, its normal 5.5% helles. This is a truly great hospital

Nite nite

Oh yeah, wash those pain killers down with a beer. Nitey-nite.

well, certainly the same ward, as my room looked right over the pavillion. can't remember which room number i was, though.

Well the catheter is out.. Damn that was like removing a tapeworm ( I guess).. It was like 10cm long. Didnt feel it though

So now I am all de-matrixed and in relatively little pain. Went for a long walk this morning and it was fine. Alls looking good... Anyone for ultimate frisbee this afternoon? (JOKE!!!)

I leave the hosp in a few hours!!!

Good to hear it. Now we can have that leg race. I think I might have a chance of winning today, even if you do have those sparky shoes.

Ahhh finally I am at home. I currently seem to get round at walking pace * 0.25 so a 5 min walk to the train station was 20 mins.. not too bad!

Back home to Wendy, with home comforts, fluffy cat, fast internet and real food!

I saw my war wounds again today and it is really amazing how unobtrusive they are!

so TommySeventeen ...what's the status ? Still pulling a sicky ? Can you run yet ?

I'm back at work :-(

But I am walking now without crutches and its all healing rather nicely. I should be on my bike in 1 week from now but as for running.. I am not really a runner so no need

I can run (well jog a bit) now better than I ever could before I even damaged my knee!

if it's the ACL as you said earlier, u should have an option of an eipdural, which speeds up recovery from the op no end...and as far as i understnd it it involves a plasty using tissue from nearby so no drilling involved...unless you're having a complete knee reconstruction...

excuse me for knowing about this, im working on a football related project at the moment...

ok, im an idiot, i didn't bother to read that u already had it done...lol

heheh no worries. 6 months post-op now and doing good!

by the way, did the anaesthetic make u feel sick the day after? because a surgeon i know said that shouldnt happen anymore with the new mixes they use and that people who do feel sick feel like that because they are so hungry or are phsychologically fooled by their own worries...

I dont really remember any sickness the day after, but the following morning was 24 hours after the op so maybe it had worn off. I just re-read this thread and it seems I was posting ion here the next day so i can't have been feeling that bad.

However when Blimeygirl was in for her appendix a few months ago, she WAS feeling nauseous the following day so I guess it depends on the person as well as the mixes they use.