The last 3 revisions are easy prior well its vague. It all started in 2003 I used to be an electrician doing lots of commercial work. This involved steel toe shoes. ladders, steps, kneeling on concrete, not to mention overweight.
The nightmare started with a torn meniscus, which led to 2 more surgeries to fix the 1st one. I have had numerous outpatient several partial along with all good surgeons.
My first TKR I was told it would last 10 to 20 years ( maybe in 2006?? ). Surgery went okay, was in hospital for 5 days - nothing unusual except still dealing with pain.
After a couple of years, pain got worse instead of better. I went to another surgeon. He felt the first replacement was not aligned properly and did my second revision.
Once again, after a couple of years, same thing with the 3rd revision. I was told the spacing of the joint itself was off and another surgery needed.
After a period of over a year, the pain was not getting better. The surgeon said he was not going to do anything, so I put up with it for almost 2 years, but pain got bad.
Having been through several surgeons already, I decided to take a chance and go with someone new. The next surgeon looked at my knee and knew something was wrong, based on the swelling. He removed a great deal of fluid and wanted to do a follow up, but he had to pass due to he needed back surgery.
The surgeon I had for the 4th revision, after x-rays and examining the knee ( wish I could remember exactly sorry ) thought that with another TKR things should get better. Ha Ha!!.
Surgery went well out of hospital in 2 days and yes the usual no driving, in home PT etc. but after 2 weeks ( this was in July 2015 ) I was watching TV and my knee started to hurt and I felt a little under the weather.
This was a Thursday. On Friday, when I got up. I felt like I had a cold. I had a slight fever 99F. By Monday morning it was at 103F. I was told by the nurse to go back to the surgeon. I waited for several hours. He told me I had an infection and he would have to operate the next day.
From what I understand, he took the revision hardware out cleaned, it along with inside the knee, and sent me home with a PIC line.
in October the PIC line came out, but they were still checking for infection. In December I was told I still had an infection and on Dec.30th had an antibiotic spacer put in.
Once again another PIC, line crutches for 4 months, plus in Feb. I Developed a clot. My right arm looked like Popeye ( cartoon ) and I had to go back in hospital for 3 days to get that fixed.
Finally, in May I had the 5th revision done. So okay, revisions take a while to heal. After a year, mine was not getting much better. My last surgeon retired and consulted with one of the other surgeons I had and he did not want to do anything because of the amount of surgeries I have had.
After almost 2 yrs, I went to another surgeon. I explained everything once again. X-rays looked great, except when they compared left to right the left was misaligned, off by almost an inch. They also did a bone scan. The results looked like a kids toy - all lit up.
Based on what he saw,, he referred me to my current surgeon, since he felt I was going to need extensive surgery to get it fixed. The new and/or current surgeon did not see a problem with fixing this. He said it did not matter how much bone was gone, he could get a prosthetic any size or length.
The last surgery was June 6th 2018. As of last visit, X-rays look fine, labs look great. However, this past summer (August) my left knee locked up. The pain was really bad. It took about 15 minutes before it loosened up. That was a first. I was walking 3 to 4 miles a day at the start of summer and at the time my primary care Dr. put me on Gabapentin 300mg, 3x a day and pain level dropped to a 4 from a fairly solid 6.5 to a 7.
So now, the pain has increased. It's currently now at 600mg, 3x a day. I saw my surgeon in Sept. Once again, all looks good, but where my knee would give out once in a while before, 2 to 3x a month maybe,now it happens throughout the week.
No I do not fall,but I have to catch myself when it gives out. I have to grab onto something, cane furniture, something.
So what do I do? I'm running out of ideas and what at one time was a 4 is now going towards a 6.
None of this is even remotely fun.
The surgeon I have is going to retire after my last visit in Dec. he will refer me to another surgeon. so what happens next I have no idea!