To Knee Surgery or Not To Knee Surgery

For as long as I can remember I have had a bad knee that dislocates easily. I dislocated it the first time while playing the human cannon ball when I was a junior in high school. It was funny I guess, well besides that it hurt like a mother and I permenantly scarred my little sister because her face happened to be right by the dislocation. Sorry Jenny! Since then, I dislocacted it 2 more times that required a hospital visit, one, I was walking on the ice and my foot slipped behind me and my knee popped out! I was just getting done cheering at a basketball game and I remember this hot guy came over and carried me to the car (thank you annonomously hot guy for your service). My friend then drove me to the hospital where I had to call my mama, who did not believe me and thought we must be playing a joke. Hey, that's not even funny mom!!! Well a really mean nurse took me in a wheel chair and got me in a room and said "get up on the bed" um, hey lady, maybe you didn't notice I am a little out of comission right now-right!! In her disgust with me she whipped me around and smacked my bad leg on the bed and magically set my knee cap back into place. Bad, bad nurse!!! My mom said that we never did get a bill from the hospital for that visit. And finally, I dislocated it for the last time that required medical attention on the ski hill. I caught my ski in the slushy, bad snow, tumbled head over heels a few times, knocked my ear warmer head band directly over my eyes and screamed as loud as I could as to warn my fellow skiiers to stop and rescue me. Then the ski patrol was called and lucky for me the guy that came to save me was also someone I went to school with. Just to add to the embarassement. Since then and mixed inbetween I have many times popped my knee out of joint many times, but luckily I could pop it right back in. Yesterday I took the plunge and went to a specialist and he said my knee was all wrong. My knee caps tip to the side instead on sitting straight up. Well that explains a lot now doesn't it. He was very nice and gave me 2 options...I would be fine-ish and could just live with this problem forever. OR I could have surgery and fix it now. Now I just need to decide what to do. I guess the reason I am having a hard time making the call is because I expected the DR. to say "If you get this done we will have you dancing by tomorrow" and that is not what he said... he said I would have to take at least 10 days off of work and that I wouldn't be totally fine for 3 months or so. So should I live with the pain forever or should I put myself out of my misery?...but I would have to recover first. Please help me. Thank you!