Dear hiker123: Your post sounds like my experience. By seven months I was deeply hopeless, and by eight I was ready to give up completely. By nine I was angry and desperate again. At that point the whole leg was in pain. I couldn't stand for more than five minutes and it would immediately swell up. Finally I went to a different doctor. He is a physiatrist who deals more with muscular problems in the limbs. He doesn't do all those spine injections. He also has a background in sports mey. He touched two places around my knee and found the inflamed bursae immediately. Then he found all the other hot spots in the thigh, calf, and hip. Six sessions of sonar shockwave therapy and I am good. I walk every day. The pain is gone. The swelling has finally mostly stopped. Stiffness is reduced. Exercise is finally help rather than hurting. Some of the therapy exercises were aggravating the tissues over and over. Don't give up. Just back off and rest frequently and get a new doctor. Sometimes a change of specialty brings a fresh perspective and different background experience. Since you are an athlete you might look for someone who treats athletes. The surgeons seem to only be interested in the hardware they put in. All those body tissues around that hardware need as much attention as the joint. Get some new medical pros on your care team. Best wishes to you. You should not have to stay like you described. I am one year out and finally able to stop thinking about how bad the leg is all day long. I hope you get there soon.