I'm not sure if this has beed posted or talked about in another thread if it has please close or merge. It sure sounds like Oden is eventually going to need an operation. If this is true and he is only out 2-4 weeks I want them to just do it now instead of waiting. I just want Oden to have a chance to play in the playoffs if we make it. I know many Blazer fans will be upset with Oden but I think with the playoffs being more physical I think Oden might shine and wouldn't get in foul trouble as much. http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=11716 Oden and Surgery: Portland Trail Blazers center will have to have surgery, it's just a matter of when. His prognosis has changed from being out three games to now at least five as the team embarks on a three-game road trip through Houston, San Antonio, and Minnesota. What is normally done in these kinds of cases is doctors wait for the swelling in the knee from the initial impact that caused the chip to recede. At that time the patient has to determine if they can deal with it or if they can't. If they can't, they have surgery. If they can, they can put off surgery indefinitely. However, when the patient is a professional athlete the discussion becomes whether or not to have the surgery now or if it can be pushed off until after the season. As mentioned in this space earlier it's a minor arthroscopic surgery. As with any surgery other things can be found once it has begun, but just cleaning out a bone chip is a straightforward process and the recovery time is generally 2-3 weeks. It's quite clear the Blazers are being extremely careful about Oden, but they also are being very quiet. It's clear they are hoping they can push it off until after the season, but it's also true that just because Oden feels he can play with it on one day doesn't mean he will be able to the next. It's possible he could play a few games, then as the chip shifts around in his knee force him to sit. If that happens in April it could affect playoff games, and no one really wants that. If Oden had successful surgery soon he could be back by the end of March, even being pessimistic. That would give him a couple weeks to get back in game shape before the playoffs started - playoffs where Portland hopes to have homecourt advantage.
Thanks for the post. I had wondered about whether he would eventually need surgery or not. Seems like if there's a bone chip in there they would have to get it out at some point or another or he would be dealing with it moving around in there and causing irritation to the surrounding tissue. I seriously wish the organization would have just had him go under the knife when this happened, take care of it, and then he could come back one week from now. Now it just seems like he'll be dealing with swelling the rest of the season. I think they were too worried about the PR effect of the "Oden needs knee surgery" headline. -Pop
That's true and I also wish they would have. I do think they would have had to wait a while for the swelling to go down. So, they might have had to wait until after the all star game anyway.
Give him the surgery now and let him heal. No point in waiting. I'd rather it get corrected than trying to play through pain and injure it further/hurt something else from favoring it. The Blazers knows how to play w/o Oden. They'll be fine. Oden will be back in time for the playoffs.
almost as surreal as bynum going down for the second time in two years, at about the same point in the season and for about the same length of time?
So Jason Fleming is a doctor now? I'm not saying Oden absolutely doesn't need surgery, but when I suffered the same injury in my patella I was wrestling 2 1/2 weeks later; the scar tissue formed around the injury held the bone chip in suspension and it stayed that way for 10 years until I had to have an ACL repair done on the same knee and they simply cleaned the fragment out. This is mostly about what kind of pain or discomfort Greg is willing to play with, not so much about causing more damage to his knee (unless the chip is rubbing an articulating surface of course).
Get the surgery done now! If he hurts it worse he may be out much longer! We don't want this. Now is the time. The good news is Greg is a Blazer for as long as we want because every other team in the NBA is not going to MAX a big man that has been hurt for almost two years of his first two years in the NBA! We've got Joel, Greg can come along as slow as he wants.
http://portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=123543682826362400 says oden wil wait till summer
“It didn’t seem to be all that big a deal,” Jensen says. “After the game, we evaluated him and it looked like he had a bruised knee. When he woke up in the morning, it was swollen.” The next day in Phoenix — where Oden was scheduled to play the Rookie-Sophomore Game during All-Star Weekend — X-ray and MRI tests were done. Blazer doctor Don Roberts flew to Phoenix to observe the results. “The X-ray was normal,” Jensen says. “The MRI showed a little crack in his patella that wasn’t seen on X-ray, so it’s very small. He also had cracked a little piece of articular cartilage underneath the patella — not the femur.” The injury is treated symptomatically. Surgery is unnecessary, Jensen says, “though should it continue to irritate, (surgery) could be done in the summertime. It’s a very small deal to take that piece of articular cartilage out of there. But Dr. Roberts thinks it will heal just fine.” Oden’s activity for now is limited to the stationary bike, but he is with the Blazers on their three-game road trip that begins Tuesday at Houston and continues Wednesday at San Antonio and Friday at Minnesota. “We’ll see how he is on this trip,” Jensen says. “I don’t see him playing Tuesday or Wednesday. If not Friday, he should come back next week. We’ll see how he feels. “He’s getting better every day. We’re not going to rush him back. We kind of elongate the process with him. We take it slow, and he’ll know when he feels good and is ready to get back at it.” Unless the situation takes a turn for the worse, Oden — who has missed nine games and counting — will be in action soon. Then we can renew the process of deciding whether the large lad is bound for an injury-prone career, or not.
Sounds like a fairly sensible plan on the part of the team ... though part of me wonders if all this kid glove treatment is doing more damage to Greg's psyche than preventing damage to his body.
I think its fair to say that Greg is injury prone and may never pan out as expected for that reason. It's no one's fault, and he was still the right draft pick at the time as hindsight is 20-20. But a broken wrist, and microfracture knee, an ankle sprain, and a knee chip in less than three years does not bode well.
I have bone chips in my ankle and I am running the Lincoln City Half Marathon this weekend. No surgery scheduled. It isn't something that is much a risk for injuring more... so put the knives away and let him learn to deal with a little discomfort. Welcome to the grown up world Mr. Oden. Edit: Damn... 4 posts since I started mine... lol
What worries me is if ya'll remember..... Greg said before the microfracture surgery it was just a little bit of discomfort and whammoooo out for a year. I hope this is just a little quick in and out, but he has been given to many games off to make me feel this is a little thing. I hope I'm wrong!
