Do I or don't I?

[PieMan]

Re: Arthritis grades

Dear all - thanks for your replies - much appreciated. I have a follow up appointment with my consultant in 5 weeks, so i am now armed with info. I am a NHS patient but had the arthroscopy in the Spire Bushey Hospital - my own room, telly and room service - felt like the Hilton. - normally its a hut in the middle of a fiels in Stanmore. Not sure how all that transpires but the RNOH must outsource every now and then, even got to see the consultan - chap, called Will Aston, used to be registrar for Briggs.
Anyway thanks for help.
Pieman.

 

[Josephine]

Re: Arthritis grades

That's what they do! Lots of patients are having their surgery in private hospitals these days!

 

[PieMan]

Dear Bonesmarters - this is a perennial problem, my consultant has told me "come back when your knee has fallen apart". I seem to have tremendous boughts of pain and yet i can complete a quadrathlon. Commuting is very painfull ie sitting down for an hour with a bent knee huts a lot but i can cycle 26miles without too much problem. Sometimes i can hardly bend my knee and other times the pain is very mild. It is very confusing. My consultant said that I have pain and functionality if i had a TKR i would have no pain but no functionality ?? doesnt make the decision any easier. I had a motorbike accident when i was 18yrs and so i have had pain in the knee for 30 years, maybe my body has got used to absorbing the pain. I feel i am not far off but can't quite see when it will happen. Some days i wish for it other days i don't need it and i think it will put a halt to all my activities. I have booked a 300km cycle next year - i dont know if i will be able to do it or not but i will employ denial and stubborness. Any way, thats my rant.

 

[Roy Gardiner]

... My consultant said that I have pain and functionality if i had a TKR i would have no pain but no functionality ?? ...

That doesn't seem reasonable to me -- almost everyone here talks about getting full use back, what's this about?

 

[Josephine]

Hi, PieMan - Not only have I moved your post so you don't detail carrob's thread but I have merged all your previous threads as you seem to start a new thread every time you post which leaves me to suppose you may not have read all the excellent replies you got! So could you please post in this thread from now on? It would make life so much simpler for me and for everyone else.

Well, I went back and read all your previous posts, right back from the very first one. I see you went to see someone at Stanmore and they first fobbed you off and then talked about an HTO. Then we never heard from you again! I suppose that really put you off, did it?

So here we are two years later, you still have a dicky knee and still have no resolution in sight. So what next? Have you still got that dinosaur of a GP who wants you to live in pain? Are you now ready to be thinking about a replacement? Because that's your only real answer.

Did you ever contact Stanmore again to see if you could transfer to Prof Briggs? (I think you were just darned unlucky with that other chap and he wouldn't have been a good one for you anyway. Probably a lucky escape! Would you be prepared to go somewhere else? I can think of a couple of places but I can't remember where you are located.

 

[Jamie]

Hi, Pieman.....I do hope you let Jo help you find someone else to help you. You really don't need to be in this kind of pain. Just because you can do SOME things with your knee, the fact that there are so many things you CANNOT do without extreme pain makes this a quality of life issue. Please do consider going to a doctor who will give you the knee replacement that will allow you to get on with your life. And....I promise you....that you WILL have knee functionality after a TKR. That assistant should be whipped for telling you otherwise.