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Hi all… for those who do not know me my name is Charlotte Owen and I am a PE Teacher and I play number 10 for Crawley Wasps in the Women's National League.
On October 20th 2021 I had explorative surgery on my right knee after a tackle I sustained whilst playing for Crawley. This comes 5 years after having ACL reconstruction on the same knee. This has now left me unable to play football again and has really affected my everyday life. Below is the next steps that I require, the difficult journey I have been faced with and why I have resulted in setting up a go fund me page.
What have I had done?
- During the surgery they found multiple micro fractures in my bone and had to remove my lateral articular cartilage in full.
- Diagnosis - right knee lateral femoral chondyle osteochondral defect with valgus alignment.
- This has left me with no articular cartilage in my right side and is putting a lot of pressure on my left side. This can cause further complications and may require me to have a full knee replacement. (I am only 26 and they last 10 years… the maths = 3 + replacements which the body will not take to)
- I have now been told I require more surgery and more treatment which can only be done by a “super specialist” due to the complexity of the case.
- As I accept my retirement from football… I cannot accept a career change and need to be somewhat active to carry out my day to day job of being a PE Teacher.
- I am unable to stand on my feet for long periods of time, I am unable to run or do any gym work on my lower body due to pain.
What are the next steps required?
- I need to wear a full time off loading knee brace to take away the pressure from the inside of my knee and creating more damage.
- I need to fund appointments to a tertiary super specialist hospital to begin the process for my next treatment and plans for surgery.
- I need to preserve my medial articular cartilage so that I can be a candidate for osteotomy re alignment.
- This involves alignment scans and breaking my femur to realign it and then put in a cartilage plug to limit the bone on bone I am currently experiencing.
- If I can get this treatment I may avoid a knee replacement all together and be able to do my day to day job. I may even be able to go for a jog one day!!
- The waiting list for the NHS is about 2 years.
- The longer I wait for this treatment to get started… the less chances I have to be able to have the osteotomy surgery and will result in no other option than a full knee replacement.
This whole situation has been so unexpected and draining and I have not had any support from my club. I am now taking matters into my own hands and trying to raise funds for the appointments, consultations, scans and treatment through the super specialist.
Thank you for reading… and for those asking where I have been or what has happened. You now have the full story and I apologise I haven’t been able to talk about this sooner.
If you are able to donate or support in any way I would be eternally grateful. If you know me… you know I will not give up easily and hope to do my job pain free one day!
Take care,
Char
