Yet another knee surgery thread

[bclover]

Two days in hospital & that many drugs seems severe. Is that typical or, did you have a complicated surgery/complications during surgery?

Not one. The extra day was to try to get the pain meds correct. They told me one or two days.

Surgery itself went really well.

 

[Moemg]

Congratulations ! Hope it is all uphill from here . Don't forget to take pain meds before physical therapy and ice ,ice ,ice .

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Prayers and best wishes for your recovery and congratulations on getting through the surgery. 56 here also and also hoping to make it to 60 or even 65 before replacement. Pain and stability issues may change that for me too, time will tell.

 

[calico1597]

I've had both knees replaced this year, the first in June, second in October. Each time I only stayed one night in the hospital and yes, they do have you up walking a couple hours after surgery. I took Hydrocodone and Tramadol for pain. I also started physical therapy within a few days of surgery each time. I'm just about to the end of PT for my second knee. It's been 7 weeks since the second knee, doing well except for going down steps, I still can only do one step at a time, going up no problem. Hang in there, it will get better!

 

[Months.in.Wyoming]

We are lucky to have many good ortho docs in US - the best. However, I'm 52 now and was scheduled for Hip replacement for good reason. Bone on bone. They said 50/50 genetic and athletics (lots of basketball on a big frame). So as I'm hating what I'm hearing pre-op about the risks going forward, I learned of the Ozzie Smith center here in StL. there are like facilities elsewhere. They use Physical Therapy, Chiro, and Platelet and Stem Cell Therapy (your own adult stem cells). I cancelled the replacement. I'm done with the treatment and now need to wait 9-12 months to decide whether anything else is needed. I am 65% improved right now, and the stem cells aren't going to kick into high gear until about March. Please check out PRP and Stem Cell treatments. I would never go to the doctor given the movement I have now. Question is will it last... but glad to have my original bones for now. This stuff is changing fast.

 

[W2R]

Well, had my total knee replacement of my left knee on Monday. Two days stay in the hospital and now I'm home.

First day was vicious. Whew anesthesia wore off and pain was seriously at 10.
I'm on a drug cocktail. Oxycodone and tramadol for pain. Baby aspirin to prevent blood clots. Metaxalone and Gabapentin for muscle relaxation.

They got me up Monday after surgery to walk and Tuesday for physical therapy.

For the next two weeks I'm doing p/t at home with a app called forced therapeutics. Supposedly better for patients at the beginning, lol Methinks it's cheaper for the insurance companies

Because I live in a 3 story townhomes, we've moved stuff around so I can avoid stairs. Sleeping on the living room couch, on the same floor as kitchen and small bath

Feel free to ask questions

How did I miss your post? Congratulations! Glad all seems to be going well. Thanks for the update.

 

[Taxman59]

BClover, my TKR is scheduled for next Friday. I had heard from my Father and cousin that the first week or 2 is the period of regret. After that, as my cousin said, "Would I have done the 2nd knee if it wasn't worth it?" As for the hospital stay, I have been told to expect 3 days and they likely will send you home early. I am looking forward to the end of Jan, and trying to ignore the remainder of this year!


Best wished on your recovery.

 

[bclover]

BClover, my TKR is scheduled for next Friday. I had heard from my Father and cousin that the first week or 2 is the period of regret. After that, as my cousin said, "Would I have done the 2nd knee if it wasn't worth it?" As for the hospital stay, I have been told to expect 3 days and they likely will send you home early. I am looking forward to the end of Jan, and trying to ignore the remainder of this year!


Best wished on your recovery.

lol, everyone I've talked to has said the same thing. my surgeon told me I'd be calling him various colorful names the first two weeks. everyone I spoke too also said they wished they had gotten it sooner and are pain free.

my two biggest challenges:
1) sleeping. unfortunately this girl does like her 8 hours, so usually by the middle of the night I'm tossing and turning

2) eating halfway healthy. i should have made some easy meals before hand. pain meds have to be taken with food.

 

[rodi]

Lots of positive thoughts to continued recovery. Hopefully the app will be as good as a physical therapist for the PT part of things.

 

[Taxman59]

my two biggest challenges:

1) sleeping. unfortunately this girl does like her 8 hours, so usually by the middle of the night I'm tossing and turning



2) eating halfway healthy. i should have made some easy meals before hand. pain meds have to be taken with food.

9 days in and like you, the sleep is my biggest problem. I get about 2 hours sleep, get up and walk around, sit in a recliner watch some Netflix, fall asleep for another 2 hours, pain meds then back to bed for an hour or three. I keep thinking that if I could get a really good sleep, I would be fine, the pain would be eased, the stretching would be easier and life would be close to normal. LOL

Hope you are doing well, Merry Christmas!

 

[street]

So my question is why so many bad knee's? What do you attribute your bad knees from? I have worked in an occupation that is very hard on knee's and playing football for many years my knee's are good.

 

[aja8888]

So my question is why so many bad knee's? What do you attribute your bad knees from? I have worked in an occupation that is very hard on knee's and playing football for many years my knee's are good.

I was a long distance runner (serious one) until about 40 years old. Then work travel put a crimp in that and I stopped and only played softball and golf. No knee problems, but I do have a titanium hip on one side.

BIL had both knees replaced and he was a corporate exec, in pretty good physical condition. DW is facing one knee replacment and has always been slim and not an athlete.

I guess it's a crapshoot as to why knees fail.

 

[bclover]

So my question is why so many bad knee's? What do you attribute your bad knees from? I have worked in an occupation that is very hard on knee's and playing football for many years my knee's are good.

So a little bit of every thing. I have osteoarthritis, which for me is probably genetic as my mother had it and so did my grandmother.

Runner for many years on city concrete.
and of course age.

started p/t last week, tomorrow will be 3 weeks from surgery. Didn't travel to families in North Carolina for the holiday (lol that was a good thing) as I didn't want to ride 8 hours in car.

walking is coming along very well. like Taximan, I'm still not sleeping well, which is annoying. outside of that I feel pretty good. One thing I have noticed is that my hip is no longer hurting. when my knee hurt I was compensating on the other side, which was causing other issue.

 

[Taxman59]

Partly genetics,osteoarthritis runs in the family; partly overweight, that's all on me. I never could run because of back issues, and over time the arthritis took over.

 

[AllDone]

I took a flying puppy in the knee at the dog park. She died of old age this year and so did the remains of my knee cartilage.

 

[Bamaman]

My wife has a long history of tendonitis, spinal stenosis and arthritis. Now she has mid foot arthritis and can hardly even walk or wear shoes--which came on fast. We've learned about ortho doctors, neurosurgeons and pain management physicians the hard way.

God gave us pain for a reason. Doctors try to put joint surgery off as late as possible trying to stage future surgeries when joints wear out. But when you're completely miserable, you're also passing misery and depression to your DW, DS, DD and everyone in your life.

There are so many hero's out there trying to not take their medications, or lighten up on taking drugs. The meds are there for a reason, and it's very important that they're taken as prescribed. Do not worry about become addicted. Remember that those taking such drugs faking the pain will act goofy, while those truly needing the drugs will act normal. My wife and a thousand others going to her pain management clinic would be invalids and in nursing homes without medicine management.

To those with surgery or joint replacement in your future, good luck to you. Be thankful they continue to make inroads all the time.

 

[aja8888]

There are so many hero's out there trying to not take their medications, or lighten up on taking drugs. The meds are there for a reason, and it's very important that they're taken as prescribed. Do not worry about become addicted. Remember that those taking such drugs faking the pain will act goofy, while those truly needing the drugs will act normal. My wife and a thousand others going to her pain management clinic would be invalids and in nursing homes without medicine management.

Really? Maybe your wife got lucky? It's not universal that pain meds, especially the synthetic heroin strains, are "safe". They are quite dangerous and now that they are much more controlled than "before", many people who got addicted after being prescribed, are hopeless drug addicts. Your statement and conclusion tears at me because we buried a close family member over this pain med stuff.

 

[AllDone]

My wife has a long history of tendonitis, spinal stenosis and arthritis. Now she has mid foot arthritis and can hardly even walk or wear shoes--which came on fast. We've learned about ortho doctors, neurosurgeons and pain management physicians the hard way.

I have midfoot arthritis. It was horrible pain for a while. I could barely walk. It felt like a ten pound weight was being dropped on my foot everytime I transferred weight to it. Then I read an article in a women's magazine that demonstrated different shoe lacing patterns for various foot problems. Can't hurt, right? Parallel lacing relieved about 75% of my pain and most of the rest of the pain resolved gradually from walking and further strengthening. I've since invented my own shoe lace pattern that works for my foot. It sounds stupid, but your wife might want to give it a try. Weight loss and orthotics may have helped marginally too, but relacing my shoe was a five-minute miracle.

 

[gerntz]

So my question is why so many bad knee's? What do you attribute your bad knees from? I have worked in an occupation that is very hard on knee's and playing football for many years my knee's are good.

What's the definition of "so many"? How many should there be?

IMO, injuries happen & body parts wear out & what you're seeing pn this thread is the concentration of posters with bad knees. Few posters are on this thread without them.

E.g., when a thread on Hawaii starts, those that post are those that plan to go & those that have been. Others don't post. Same here.

 

[ivinsfan]

My wife has a long history of tendonitis, spinal stenosis and arthritis. Now she has mid foot arthritis and can hardly even walk or wear shoes--which came on fast. We've learned about ortho doctors, neurosurgeons and pain management physicians the hard way.

God gave us pain for a reason. Doctors try to put joint surgery off as late as possible trying to stage future surgeries when joints wear out. But when you're completely miserable, you're also passing misery and depression to your DW, DS, DD and everyone in your life.

There are so many hero's out there trying to not take their medications, or lighten up on taking drugs. The meds are there for a reason, and it's very important that they're taken as prescribed. Do not worry about become addicted. Remember that those taking such drugs faking the pain will act goofy, while those truly needing the drugs will act normal. My wife and a thousand others going to her pain management clinic would be invalids and in nursing homes without medicine management.

To those with surgery or joint replacement in your future, good luck to you. Be thankful they continue to make inroads all the time.

Uhh, what does act goofy mean, are you saying that someone who actually has pain won't suffer from side effects of the meds? That's a completely unfounded comment. Too many people die from pain management meds for you to be writing these kind of comments...to call someone who tries to take as few meds as possible a "hero" in a negative way is not cool.

 

[W2R]

UPDATE:
Some of you have asked about my knees and I have been tactfully pretending that I didn't see the posts because I didn't want to talk about it.

So here's what has been going on. I never went back to that surgeon because he wanted me to lose 25 pounds before any surgery, and I was waging a losing battle to lose weight for quite a while due to poor mobility.

However, in 2018 I decided to ignore what works for other people and cut back on calories and carbs until I found the point where I could lose weight, mobility or not. By ignoring every bit of available advice and doing it my way, I lost 53 pounds (did not want to stop at 25 pounds in the middle of my weight loss to have surgery, because I was "on a roll").

Then on May 13th I started having considerably more pain in my right knee, and for the past month I have not even been able to put weight on it even with my rollator walker. So, as reluctant/phobic as I am to have any kind of surgery, it seemed like now would be a good time for the new, lighter me to triumphantly go back and see the surgeon.

Meanwhile apparently my surgeon retired (how dare he? ) since he was in his mid 60's. Or maybe he was hit by a truck or something. Anyway he is no longer listed by the hospital and when you call his office, the call is forwarded to a pain clinic that is archiving his records. That's OK; I had begun to distrust this surgeon in the meantime for a variety of reasons I won't get into now.

So.... I researched and came up with a different surgeon. Might as well start again with a new surgeon and maybe this one will be more inclined to get this surgery scheduled ASAP (within insurance or Medicare constraints if any). This new surgeon is well qualified too, and in his 40's!!! Let's hear it for young surgeons. Hopefully he will be less likely to retire on me, and surely his knowledge and techniques will be more up to date.

Made an appointment to see him a week from tomorrow. Guess I am starting over from square one.

 

[bclover]

UPDATE:


Meanwhile apparently my surgeon retired (how dare he? ) since he was in his mid 60's. Or maybe he was hit by a truck or something. Anyway he is no longer listed by the hospital and when you call his office, the call is forwarded to a pain clinic that is archiving his records. That's OK; I had begun to distrust this surgeon in the meantime for a variety of reasons I won't get into now.

So.... I researched and came up with a different surgeon. Might as well start again with a new surgeon and maybe this one will be more inclined to get this surgery scheduled ASAP (within insurance or Medicare constraints if any). This new surgeon is well qualified too, and in his 40's!!! Let's hear it for young surgeons. Hopefully he will be less likely to retire on me, and surely his knowledge and techniques will be more up to date.

Made an appointment to see him a week from tomorrow. Guess I am starting over from square one.

hang in there W2, remember it's a marathon not a sprint. like you my right knee is going bye bye but I've already had the left replaced and it's now living La vida loca and loving life.

Just wanted to say hang in there and you must like/trust your surgeon. I think that is vitally important. or it was for me. I went through 5 doctors before I found the guy who actually did the surgery. now I'm stalking him for the right knee.

 

[W2R]

hang in there W2, remember it's a marathon not a sprint. like you my right knee is going bye bye but I've already had the left replaced and it's now living La vida loca and loving life.

Just wanted to say hang in there and you must like/trust your surgeon. I think that is vitally important. or it was for me. I went through 5 doctors before I found the guy who actually did the surgery. now I'm stalking him for the right knee.

Thank you so much! That's the sweetest, kindest post I could imagine in response to that update I wrote. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Dawg52]

My sis in law had her right done in March. She initially said she would not do the other as the rehab was too painful. But she got through it and has the other knee scheduled for replacement in July. So as they say....no pain no gain.

 

[MRG]

Best wishes W2R! I agree it's critical to trust your surgeon. I'm looking at paying for a surgery out of network as I don't trust any in network surgeons.