Decision

[Trician]

I've been offered a replacement knee - an old skiing accident and no cartilage left after years of running. Thing is, I am not in great pain - unless I walk more then 5 miles. I'd love to run and climb mountains again, but for normal life, there's no problem really. I can cycle, go to the gym 3/4 times per week (no impact work).
Will all the trauma of an op. produce any significant benefit ??

 

[Texas]

Hey Trician and Welcome. If it is effecting anything you do, groc shopping, walking the dog, cleaning the house, hiking, then I would say it is time to do it. Have you tried the cortisone or synvisc shots , just some suggestions. I think you will be able to hike, bike, one lady here just went on a zip line thru the woods. It would depend if you have had enough of it. The advantage to doing it , that any pain or discomfort you have now will not go away it will keep getting worse. The operation pain will subside and you can have your normal life back again. Just saying it will never get better it can only get worse......Please post anytime, others will be along to help as well. I sure hope you get the results you want and deserve. I choose to do mine early so I could enjoy my life with no pain....Good Luck to you. We have all been thru it and would be happy to help...

 

[Josephine]

Well, this is a fairly common scenario, Trician, and it's really down to comparing how much you are having to give up with how badly you want to do those things.

It's a sad fact that we, all of us, have coped with our problem knees by slowly contracting our lives, dropping this activity or that, declining invitations, staying home when we would have gone out for a walk. Little by little our lives get reduced and contracted until they are but a pale shadow of what they once were. And it all happens almost subliminally so we are hardly aware of what we are losing.

Fact is, it's so much easier to make the decision when the pain is excruciating and one can hardly put weight on it. But most knees don't go like that. It's 'salami tactics', slice by slice, and pretty soon we look back and wonder where our life went! Beware of that.

So what I am saying is, you need to assess your life. What took you to the surgeon in the first place? How much can you do that you want to do? And just how much pain are you really in?

Take me, for example. There was some evidence of damage in the x-rays but not a huge amount. I had limited pain only but achieved that by not doing a lot of things I would have done. But I'd have episodes of bad, sharp pain when a bit of debris got in the wrong place inside the joint and I would end up on crutches for a week or so, convinced that life as I knew it was over. Then I'd wake up one day and find it was fine again. After three or four of these episodes, I decided to get the knee done before it got any worse and I had to lose more of my life. Surgeon raised an eyebrow but conceded that "it wasn't going to get any better" and so we went ahead.

On the other hand, my sister delayed and delayed. Her x-rays were ghastly! Lots of arthritis and bone damage but she still prevaricated and ended up being rushed into hospital with a locked knee and pain so bad she had to spend a weekend on a morphine pump! I determined I wasn't going to risk that and decided sooner rather than later, even though I knew what happened to her doesn't happen very often.

In the end, the choice is yours. But will it be worth it? Well, you'll be pain free eventually and able to resume normal activities, if that helps!

 

[calling_all_angels]

Trician,
Welcome!! It is so nice to meet you.
When your knee affects to much of your life, When at nite as you are trying to sleep and it wakes you up with so much pain that you want to saw it off. Then My Os said it is time to do something about it. This is something only you can decide no one can do it for you. And you will be the only one that will know when enough is a enough.
Take care.

 

[edk]

I was pretty much in your situation. I had surgery when I was nine (didn't need that cartilage) and 40 years later I had arthritis in that knee. I knew I had a replacement coming but I was living good and doing what I wanted on 9 ibuprofen a day and lots of icing. When I decided to get the replacement was when I realized that I was favoring the good leg so much that my bad muscles were atrophying. So the winter before my replacement I skiied 30 days and scheduled the surgery in March so I could recover by ski season.

 

[Pat29627]

Jo said,"It's a sad fact that we, all of us, have coped with our problem knees by slowly contracting our lives, dropping this activity or that, declining invitations, staying home when we would have gone out for a walk. Little by little our lives get reduced and contracted until they are but a pale shadow of what they once were. And it all happens almost subliminally so we are hardly aware of what we are losing.

Fact is, it's so much easier to make the decision when the pain is excruciating and one can hardly put weight on it. But most knees don't go like that. It's 'salami tactics', slice by slice, and pretty soon we look back and wonder where our life went! Beware of that. "

That was brilliant, Jo. That says so much that I've never heard put into words.

Pat

 

[Judles]

Welcome Trician! Alleviating pain is your #1 goal.....Hope you attain your goal
:thmb:

 

[loribee59]

if your quality of life is being compromised by your knee being in pain 24/7 then yes, getting the replacement to end that pain is a step in the right direction. then again, you know your own body, and it's entirely up to you to decide when you've had enough.

I just saw my xray Thursday, and I'm bone ON bone. I'm not in a great deal of pain, but it's still painful when I walk, sleep or climb stairs. plus, the knee is getting more bent, thus throwing my back out a bit. I'd rather not wait for the pain to be so horrible or that I can't put weight on my knee that I end up bedridden. I decided to do a preemptive strike by having the replacement done before my knee do me in LOL

The surgical pain is a PITA for the first two weeks, but the old pain in your knee will be a distant memory once you get going on your knee therapies.

good luck!

 

[aussie]

Hi Trician,

I had excrutiating pain, (very little evidence on x rays, in fact Docs were looking for a thigh muscle problem for a year or more). However, I still went out, but if we went out for dinner, my family and friends new to let me stand up first because sometimes it would take me 10 mins to get to my feet, that way they weren't left standing all around me while I tried to get past the pain of standing, but I still did everything I wanted to do!!!!
HOWEVER!
And it's a big however, it is only now I am painfree and mobile, that I see my silly joints didn't stop me going out but the pain and immobility stole my personality, and it's only now I can see just how much of me was lost in those joint problems.

Be aware these problems not only take away your activities and pleasures in life ("slice by slice"), they can take away you.

Best wishes with your decision making. It can be tough trying to make the correct one.

 

[lissa]

I've been offered a replacement knee - an old skiing accident and no cartilage left after years of running. Thing is, I am not in great pain - unless I walk more then 5 miles. I'd love to run and climb mountains again, but for normal life, there's no problem really. I can cycle, go to the gym 3/4 times per week (no impact work).
Will all the trauma of an op. produce any significant benefit ??

I was shocked to find no cartiledge inside one knee. Panicked, used a cane...to spare it...used to cme so much set the other knee off..took me a year to find someone to do them both same time, get it done. I also knew that someday, the no cartiledge knee would get worse, its what they do, things happen like they lock, swell, ack up when you're out hiking, leading the good like...I didn't want to wait for the next level. Also, an perfect age for proceedure, 67, in excellent health,,and thought I wonder what could happen to other parts of me in a year. If the other knee hadn't been so terribly painful, I may hae held off..but for what going thru it older? Not being 100% and knowing it...seeing too many limping caned people about...just didn't want to gie up my good next 20 years on a "gonna go dowmhill situation. Yeah I'm uncomfortable, but was fully physicslly prepared..and now in less than a year..this will just be hsitory instead of s looming cloud...messing up my days! Making the decision and going thru with it all, even my husband, with all the grief we are having (13 days out) says I'm is such a better mood!

 

[ship4]

Welcome to Bonesmart Trician! I had knee problems initially with my left knee. The pain I could live with and still skied, hiked, walked, gardened, and basically enjoyed life taking Aleve daily. However, I overused my right knee and developed a Bakers cyst which usually results from meniscus problems....
Still the pain was not unbearable, but I was becoming limited in what I could continue to enjoy. I stopped hiking, I stopped walking for exercise, I stopped skiing..... Then I went to see the OS and he said I was an ideal candidate for double knee replacement as I did not have a good leg to stand on.
I had BTKR in June of 2008, and it was a good decision. I am the one who went on an Outdoor Adventure Course a year later at 59! It was fun, challenging, exhillerating, and I would not have been able to enjoy it, or return to skiing if I had not made the decision to have my knees replaced. IMO the earlier you have the TKR, the less weakness to the muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the leg which ultimately support it.......
Good Luck with your decision as only you can make it.

 

[Jamie]

Hi, Trician. Welcome to BoneSmart. I think you are the only one who can decide when it is time for a replacement. Just be sure you aren't fooling yourself when you say all the things you can do without any pain. Really??? Is that no pain, but you're taking over-the-counter meds? Is your range of motion normal? The principal things a replacement does is restore full joint motion and relieve pain. If you don't have those problems, then in my opinion....you probably should wait. I'm curious though...why was the replacement "offered?"