Ava Harrison

When I was in 7th grade I dislocated my knee cap for the very first time. It wasn't until I was in 8th grade when it dislocated again and my parents and I knew something was wrong with my knees. I didn't go to HSS right away because we didn't know if it would be that serious. We just went to a regular doctor in my town. He did a soft tissue procedure on my leg. A couple months later the other leg dislocated and I got the same surgery I had before on this leg. A full year went by after the surgeries without and dislocations and I was stronger then before. The summer of 2014 going into my sophomore year in high school I dislocated my knee cap falling down a huge hill. That's when my parents and I decided it was time to see a specialist about this because my knee were not supposed to dislocate after the surgery. When I saw Dr. Subin Stein for the first time she wanted me to get an MRI on both legs to see what the issue was. She concluded that I had patella femoral deformation in both knees and my knee cap didn't have a groove for the shin bone to sit in the correct place where is should be causing my legs to constantly dislocate. She decided the best thing to do was have a surgery called a Tibial Tubercle Transfer with an mpfl replacement. She had to carve a groove in my knee cap and break my shin bone in half to move it in the correct place. I got that surgery on my right leg in September of my sophomore year. I healed very well after the surgery, but I had to get it done on the other leg as well so I wouldn't have the same problem again. I had that surgery done this July of 2015 going into my junior year. It was a very hard time for me because of all the physical therapy and having to get strong again but I did it. Its not an easy thing for a 17 year old girl to have to go through 4 knee surgeries, but I got through it with the help of the doctors at HSS.