Boy I Am Tired, Finally See What You Guys Meant

[Skeet]

Haven't heard from Ref in a long time. Guess he's out there calling balls and strikes with the best of them.

 

[Weezy]

Weezy I Am Curious And To Lazy To Go Back Through Posts To Find Out. Did You Have Both Knees Done Or One? I Ask Because I Would Like Some Kind Of Measuring Stick As To When People Are Doing Things. Hope You Don't Mind My Asking. Anyway Sounds Like You Are Going Great Guns. Rowdy

Hi Rowdy...I just had my left knee done. I do need to get my right knee done, but the doc really pushed me to just do the worst one now. My left has been bone-on-bone for years, while my right still has about half of its cartilage left and so far remains fairly pain free when compared to the left.

And considering how I've reacted to just the one...I can't imagine having both done at once! I'm in total and complete awe of those who have done both!!!!

Weezy

 

[Rowdy66]

Weezy I Think We All Are Different And We All Do What We Can Do. For Me It Was The Only Answer. I Have, So Far, Done Really Well. I Have Been Able To Cut My Pain Meds Back Considerably And Today, Two Weeks And Two Days Post Surgery I Did Some Laundry, Loaded An Unloaded The Dishwasher And Cooked Dinner Tonight. I Am Able To Shower By Myself And Am Beginning To Take Care Of Some Of The Housework. I Have Not Had To Use The Walker For A Couple Of Days, Am Just Using A Cane, Although My Pt Did Tell Me To Keep Bringing My Walker To Therapy As After An Intense Workout It Is Difficult For Me To Walk The Distance From Where I Do Therapy And We Park Although Yesterday I Walked And Held The Walker Up And Sort Of Carried It. I Just Hope And Pray I Continue To Progress At The Rate I Am. I Want To Get Back To Where I Have A Life. You See My Knees Gave Me No Warning When They Went Out, They Both Sort Of Just Went From 60 To A Dead Stop In One Day. When I Had Them Scoped There Was No Cartlidge In Either Knee And Was Bone On Bone. I Have Yet To Understand How That Can Happen But It Did. Anyway, Thank God We Live In A Time Where Tkr Is Possible And We Had Good Insurance.

By The Way, Congratulations On Your Getting Your Degree. You Are Never To Old To Get A Degree And You Should Be Very Proud Of Yourself. I Have Never Let My Age Stop Me From Doing Something. I Think We Women And Men Too Are Getting Better As We Get Older. Rowdy

 

[Weezy]

Weezy I Think We All Are Different And We All Do What We Can Do. For Me It Was The Only Answer. I Have, So Far, Done Really Well. I Have Been Able To Cut My Pain Meds Back Considerably And Today, Two Weeks And Two Days Post Surgery I Did Some Laundry, Loaded An Unloaded The Dishwasher And Cooked Dinner Tonight. I Am Able To Shower By Myself And Am Beginning To Take Care Of Some Of The Housework. I Have Not Had To Use The Walker For A Couple Of Days, Am Just Using A Cane, Although My Pt Did Tell Me To Keep Bringing My Walker To Therapy As After An Intense Workout It Is Difficult For Me To Walk The Distance From Where I Do Therapy And We Park Although Yesterday I Walked And Held The Walker Up And Sort Of Carried It. I Just Hope And Pray I Continue To Progress At The Rate I Am. I Want To Get Back To Where I Have A Life. You See My Knees Gave Me No Warning When They Went Out, They Both Sort Of Just Went From 60 To A Dead Stop In One Day. When I Had Them Scoped There Was No Cartlidge In Either Knee And Was Bone On Bone. I Have Yet To Understand How That Can Happen But It Did. Anyway, Thank God We Live In A Time Where Tkr Is Possible And We Had Good Insurance.

By The Way, Congratulations On Your Getting Your Degree. You Are Never To Old To Get A Degree And You Should Be Very Proud Of Yourself. I Have Never Let My Age Stop Me From Doing Something. I Think We Women And Men Too Are Getting Better As We Get Older. Rowdy

All I can say, Rowdy, is WOW--YOU GO, GIRL!!! I am SO in awe of those of you who did two at once! Sorry they both went out so quickly, that must have been really tough. Mine have never been good. I have memories as a child crying while I walked down the stairs because my knees hurt....and I've had a total of about 4 surgeries on each knee, including a MAJOR "rebuild" about 15 years ago. You're right about being blessed to live in a day and age when knee replacements are not only available, but successful!

And I certainly agree that we get better as we get older. Heck, at 52 (next week!) I feel like I'm finally growing up and coming into my own, and I would go back to being younger for the world. I think the BEST is yet to come!

weezy

 

[Kevin Finn]

I am about to schedule surgery for October. I thought I wanted to do both knees at once, but have gained my senses. I would like to get one knee done in October and the other in early December. What is your opinion? Is that going to be pushing it?

I take heart medication that makes me tired. I don't want to schedule the second knee until I feel sure it won't sink me.

I've read many threads and am quite excited to get on with it. Any suggestions on what I should do between now and mid-October to get ready for surgery? My knees are miserable and I want to be ready to recover as quickly as possible.

One other thing. I was told I might need a blood transfusion because of the loss of blood. Anybody have comments?

Kevin

 

[JenniferG]

Hi Kevin, welcome aboard. I had both done at the same time and I'm glad I did. But I also do not take any heart medications that would add to my fatigue. What does your OS and cardiologist say? FYI, you will probably be exhausted even doing just one. Healing and PT is hard work and the pain meds make you drowsy to boot. And the blood transfusions are common with this surgery too. You can donate your own to yourself if your docs oK.

 

[Nursepair]

Hi Kevin, welcome. Recovery is exhausting and as you are on heart medication I can understand you not wanting to do two at once. To be honest I cannot imagine having two done at once, I really had to favour my other leg, even now I use it a lot to get up, but after 6 months just had a manipulation to improve my ROM, had problems with excessive swelling, not all that common, don't worry. So far most of the bilats have done extremely well and I totally admire them.

I was lucky enough not to need blood transfusion, apparently my OS rarely has to do transfusions. Keep posting and reading some of the old threads it will be helpfull in al kinds of ways.

 

[ern]

Hi There,
Sleep is a problem and it was about 4-5 weeks before I started to make it through the night, good luck'
Ern

 

[Turtlelady53]

Kevin,
Good luck to you on your upcoming TKR. I am one of those crazy people who decided to have both done at once. Although I still don't regret the decision, rehab has been tough and you have to be prepared for that. You will not a good leg to favor. If you are working, you may also be off work for a much longer time than with one. However, you won't have to go through it ever again! I exercised a lot prior to BTKR, but since my knees were shot, I did lots of it in the water. I tried lots of kicking to strengthen quads, and was pumping with hand weights to build upper body strength. That helped a lot since you have to do so much pushing off with your arms. It also helped getting off and on the (ahem) bed pan in the hospital. Just remember: if both legs are bad, and they fix one, you will continue to be in pain from the bad leg until you get that replace. That whole process would be a year or more. Good luck, whatever your decision.
Sharon

 

[referee54]

hey, Rowdy---glad to hear tht you are on the mend. It is rough going now, but each day things will get a little bit better...hopefully----at least that is the plan. Just enjoy the roller coaster ride of PT and the healing process. I was at times rather frutrated, but it seemed that I shouldn't worry---why worry about something that I have no control over, right?

Keep on keepin' on---the little victories will add up and soon you will be "normal" (as if any of us are on this forum)! you will have your life back, trust us on that.

Work hard in PT and rest well---you have the rest of your life to celebrate your victory!

Tim C.

 

[referee54]

I am about to schedule surgery for October. I thought I wanted to do both knees at once, but have gained my senses. I would like to get one knee done in October and the other in early December. What is your opinion? Is that going to be pushing it?

I take heart medication that makes me tired. I don't want to schedule the second knee until I feel sure it won't sink me.

I've read many threads and am quite excited to get on with it. Any suggestions on what I should do between now and mid-October to get ready for surgery? My knees are miserable and I want to be ready to recover as quickly as possible.

One other thing. I was told I might need a blood transfusion because of the loss of blood. Anybody have comments

Kevin

I had both done at once---I had a BOGO card! Buy one, get one free!

I knew that I was going to get both done, and my ortho said that I was a good candiate for it. The PT was longer witha Bolateral than a single, but then, I didn't have to go through the single twice---I was spaired the second set of PT.

I was on iron pills and donated two pints of blood to myself, which I ended up not needing. Best of luck to you.

Tim C.