It could have been worse if there was any damage to the meniscus too but none.
- used a ligament from a dead person ( also known as allograft )
- extract own hamstring ligament to replace the damaged ACL ( also known as autograft )
The ligament from a dead person, comes from US and as such, it is more expensive but recovery is faster.
Using his own hamstring has a slower recovery as an additional cut would be made.
We were thinking that a speedy recovery is more important and not to take another ligament from his leg and make his leg worse.
This Dr was not very articulate and he seems more in favour of an allograft so when we feel the same, he did not give us more info on pro and con of allograft versus autograft. Also, when I queried him further for more clarification, I sensed that he was not very comfortable about it ( I am not saying that he is not a good Dr but I think he is from the older generation where they do not share information openly and not used to being queried....? )
He was prepared to do the surgery the following Thu or Sat depending on the availability of the surgery facility.
BUT he was also going away the following week so another surgeon would also be present during the surgery and would follow-up on his absence.
I was not too comfortable with this arrangement but then we were so keen to get it fixed during his semester break that we just went along with it.
So after signing the necessary forms, the receptionist would call me to re-confirm the surgery date.
Later that day, the receptionist called me to inform me that there is no stock for the allograft and we need to wait for the stock to come in and since the Dr is also going away the following week, it was best to schedule the surgery at the end of the month; ie about 2 weeks' time!
I was shocked and asked if we could get the stock in early and schedule for another surgeon to do the surgery but it seems that it was not possible ( I do not understand why? ).
I agreed to it as I was not given any choice then!
BTW, I was surfing the Internet and looking for information on allograft and autograft.
Again, too much information and mainly from US and I think they favour allograft and these cases were from people involved in mainly extremely sports. A few have even torn his ACL twice!
Honestly, I was very confused and not sure whether I made the right choice though I discussed it with Jason and my wife. I was also not in the proper state of mind too..... while I expected an operation but still it scared me and what could be the right choice...?
Jason actually said to me that he trusted my decision and would go with what I have decided for him, this added more pressure on me!
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