[TOMAHAWK9521]

Was medically retired last year due to knees degrading beyond my ability to grit my teeth. Turned out I've ground off most of the cartillage under both knee caps. The army gave me 5 SYNVISC shots in each knee last spring with the hopes that it would help for 1-2 years. The stuff failed by September. Since the army wouldn't do any surgery I had to wait to get the VA to go in and do something. The VA scoped me, doing a lateral release and polishing up the underside of the left knee. The doc told me the rest of the joint looked pretty good except for my ACL. Turns out I tore roughly 80-90% in a freak parachute landing in August of '88. It was never diagnosed, even with 3 MRIs, until this operation. I asked the VA if they were going to fix the ACL. I was told no because the injury was too old and there was too much arthritis in both knees for a graft to work.