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Well, in December of 1998, I was involved in an accident in this car, which I happened to be driving.

         
The impact forced my left knee to hit the dashboard, in spite of seatbelts and deployed airbags.
It can be seen that the dashboard was deformed a bit.

                                     
I'd already injured this knee in an incident years before leaping from a flatbed truck. This accident did NOT help the overall condition of my knee.
The following July, I had arthoscopic surgery performed on the knee. It turns out that they had to remove material from both sides of my knee. Some
cartilage from the outer side, and trimming some of the plica from the inner side.  These pictures are from 10 days after the surgery.

I was able to get a better description of what was done to my knee. This is it:

"...Has no meniscal signs, but on flexion-extension, there is a palpable snapping over the lateral border of his lateral femoral condyle, perhaps consistant
with an atypical type synovial plica in this region.... I have discussed with him the...possible excision of the synovial plica."

"Him", in the above statements, is me, of course. And, the above was reported before the surgery. Afterwards, they said:

"Arthroscopy had revealed a medial patellar plica which was hypertrophic in addition to Grade 4 chondral erosion of the medial femoral condyle that required some chondroplasty."

What does that mean? Hell, how should I know?  Dammit, Jim;  I'm just a bozo with some web pages, not a doctor.  By the way, the "excision of the medial plica" was also
performed.  But, I actually intend to do some research so I can get a better idea of what was done. If anyone would care to clarify this for me, they are welcome to email me.
 Once again, the email address is: rickubisTAKETHISOUT@yahoo.com.
Click on the 3 images below to see them larger.

OK, I've done some research. First, I've done this quick sketch from information I found in: Structure and Function in Man 2nd edition, by Jacob and Francone. See below. .

                                                                

Of course, I was warned before the surgery that there is no guarantee that there would be improvement.
Actually, overall, the surgery did help. I may not be able to get back full use of my knee, due to the material that was removed, but I am getting most of the flexibility back.
Only time will tell if I will be able to do all of the motions that I could do before. For now, there some exercises and movements that I just can't. I guess that means that I'll 
have to discontinue my practice of martial arts.

The hell it does!!!  I just need to be careful. Take it easy.  And what's so bad about that?

Are there any MORE scars and injuries you'd care to see?  Too bad!  Well, maybe just this  one.(my page!) 

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