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I've been diagnosed with avascular necrosis of my knees and a couple of possible tiny spots in both ankles. ( 2mm X5mm) The ankle spots are questionable, improved by 50% from May until August. My Ortho surgeon thinks the ankles may actually be trauma lesions, rather than truly AVN.
This most likely came from some steroid injections,in combination with steroids given for an airway compromise for a neck infection secondary to the steroid injections, all complicated by anticardiolipin antibody syndrome.
There is a slim but slight possibility that dysbaric osteonecrosis also plays a part.
the knees are large lesions through to the joints in both femurs and tibias and are Stage 2. I recently had core decompression with autologous stem-cells harvested from my pelvis and injected into the right knee. This will be done on the left in 4 weeks, assuming that the cartilage damage is not too far advanced. If it is too far advanced, she will do micro fracturing of the cartilage and I will most likely need joint replacement in the near future.
I'm also doing a 12 week lovenox treatment for anticardiolipin antibodies, which has been shown to stop the damage with some good success and has been used with good relief of pain.
I'm also starting Forteo, which has a little bit of interesting successful research and is spposed to provide good pain relief for some AVN sufferers.
My biggest question is, can I dive? I really want to do cave dive and technical training but if not, just diving would make me happy. I realize that I may need to make adjustments in weight carrying, maybe change to sidemount and will need to be very conservative with my profiles. I won't dive until I'm fully recovered from surgeries.
I'm swimming for my rehab and will be doing some pretty major rehab. I anticipate getting up to 1 or 1.5 miles a day, plus rowing, after my second surgery and long before I start diving, to make up for the fact that I've been severely deconditioned,and in a wheelchair for several months.
Thanks!
This most likely came from some steroid injections,in combination with steroids given for an airway compromise for a neck infection secondary to the steroid injections, all complicated by anticardiolipin antibody syndrome.
There is a slim but slight possibility that dysbaric osteonecrosis also plays a part.
the knees are large lesions through to the joints in both femurs and tibias and are Stage 2. I recently had core decompression with autologous stem-cells harvested from my pelvis and injected into the right knee. This will be done on the left in 4 weeks, assuming that the cartilage damage is not too far advanced. If it is too far advanced, she will do micro fracturing of the cartilage and I will most likely need joint replacement in the near future.
I'm also doing a 12 week lovenox treatment for anticardiolipin antibodies, which has been shown to stop the damage with some good success and has been used with good relief of pain.
I'm also starting Forteo, which has a little bit of interesting successful research and is spposed to provide good pain relief for some AVN sufferers.
My biggest question is, can I dive? I really want to do cave dive and technical training but if not, just diving would make me happy. I realize that I may need to make adjustments in weight carrying, maybe change to sidemount and will need to be very conservative with my profiles. I won't dive until I'm fully recovered from surgeries.
I'm swimming for my rehab and will be doing some pretty major rehab. I anticipate getting up to 1 or 1.5 miles a day, plus rowing, after my second surgery and long before I start diving, to make up for the fact that I've been severely deconditioned,and in a wheelchair for several months.
Thanks!
