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PKR One Year Out - Pleased With Outcome

@EalingGran my PKR pal, I can’t believe you’re at ONE YEAR! Congratulations :cheers:

I’m so glad things are going so well for you! I’m sure it’s an encouragement to all those coming along behind you. Please do keep posting updates! It’s one thing to hear, it takes a year and maybe more. It’s another to read about someone still improving after all that time. I know those types of accounts gave me hope when I felt so behind and limited even at many months post op.

It’s been wonderful seeing your patient progress…your Pilates based therapy, your overcoming all the stairs in your house, your coffee shop walking therapy! Thanks for sharing all the stories. I hope life just keeps getting sweeter!
 
Thanks @JusticeRider I have really appreciated your support. We both have more unusual types of PKR and it has often felt difficult to know what is "normal" in this recovery. I found it so helpful reading your posts at a couple of months ahead of me. I will never be able to aspire to your riding and hiking pursuits but being back to normal city life and childcare is very sweet!
 
Happy Anniversary @EalingGran ! I am a little late, sorry. That is a great update. Thanks for always being there for me, and others. We all have appreciated your perspective through these wild months. I hope you're still feeling good and enjoying life. I am going to send out an update soon but just wanted to say Hooray for a year.
 
Thanks @Jammy .It is hard to believe it has been a year. I look at the wet pavements full of slippery leaves and can't believe I used to walk on them with crutches.The terror of falling was immense. I remember being driven to a nearby coffee shop and struggling to get out of the car and walk the last hundred yards.....
 
Those were the dark days. You've worked hard to get to this happy place. I hope in a year I will be doing as well as you are, but am not sure. I do hope you will give yourself a hug for all the help you've given other people on BoneSmart over the past year.
 
Hi @EalingGran,
Congratulations on your PKR result!

Sorry for my delay in writing. I have just read your last messages.
You worked hard and were very sympathetic about many members' recovery. You really deserve this positive outcome!

I hope you are enjoying life with that new joint ;-)
 
I have read your entire post in the last couple of days and I do so appreciate your honesty and the fact that you have continued to give updates. You've reminded me not to lose my mind with new unwanted developments, though I don't know if I could be as brave as you were through your infection! Continued good health to you and I hope to see you back on this forum again soon! Many thanks.
 
15 month update.
Just reading through my one year post and thought I would update.
There is not much change but I have noticed that any warmth in the new joint has finally disappeared.
There is absolutely no swelling now apart from the very small residual Baker's cyst at the back of my knee.
Any tightness has finally gone ( apart from the very occasional slight feeling at the very end of a busy day).
I really don't notice my new knee for 90% of the time.
I can kneel better. I still use thin knee cushions for pilates but recently I had to get something out of a floor level shelf in the kitchen. I couldn't be bothered to fetch my kneeling cushions and I just carefully knelt down and reached in.
Overall I am pleased with my PKR. I have really excellent movement (150/155 flexion). I do still have crackling/ crepitus in the unoperated femero-patellar part of my knee and very slight pain on very deep flexion ( eg getting out of the bath).
I wonder if I would have been completely pain-free with a TKR but suspect I might not have had quite such good ROM. My surgeon reckoned the other compartments were basically fine- so just hope he is right longer term...
I can walk for miles pain free.
I did try some very gentle jogging in a cardio workout recently but my knee didn't like it- so I backed off.
I also did a yoga class which my knee didn't like. I was careful not to do some if the more challenging poses but I still obviously overdid it. I think the lesson for me is to be especially careful in group classes- as the peer pressure to fit in is very difficult to resist.
 
I don't think any of us can expect to be 100% pain-free 100% of the time. My OS warned me of that. He said I'd be better but never completely pain-free. I'm not, but I'm so much better! That's what we all should be aiming for, not completely being pain-free all the time. After all, look what was done to our poor knees!
 
I agree with that too, @sistersinhim. I will get a twinge every once in awhile in one knee or the other. I'm sure it's just soft tissues reacting to whatever I might have pushed them to do. I do pay special attention to Rightie, my 13 year old :heehee:, as if I'm expecting signs of wear and tear after all these years. So far, so good.

Love the being able to walk as much as I want without pain. I couldn't have visited London last year without two new knees!!
 
One thing I have noticed more recently is that the circulation in my operated leg is not as good as the unoperated side.
I have always had poor circulation ( mild Raynaud's and rather purplish mottled legs/ livido reticulares). But the operated calf is definitely more mottled, particularly when a bit cold and I am getting chilblains on my right foot.
I can only think that cutting some of the small nerves and blood vessels did something to my already poor circulation.
I am trying massage and hoping it will improve in the Summer.
I wonder if anyone else has noticed this?
The numb patch is largely unnoticeable now unless I knock it when it is more sensitive.
 
I don't have that (do have ugly red and blue teeny ankle capillsries, hello old age!) but your theory as to its etiology is sound.
 
18 month update. This is mainly for my benefit- but also I think it is useful for others to get longer term views on surgery.
Just re- reading my thread in preparation for a review appointment with my surgeon on 5th June. The main purpose of the appointment is to check on my hip, which he reckons will need replacing at some point. It really is not causing any pain since my valgus knee was straightened- so I will leave well alone.
I don't take any painkillers now apart from some Voltarol ( antinflammatory) gel for my lower back. I do get fairly chronic lower back pain ( lumbar arthritis/ spinal stenosis) but manage it with regular exercises and pilates. The sciatica is mainly gone apart from a few twinges after long car journeys.
My knee is pretty good. The odd twinge from my overstretched MCL if I do a lot of stairs but otherwise OK. I get the odd painless click if I twist backwards but otherwise it feels very natural. I can walk any distance ( the maximum I have done is about 18,000 steps one day and I mostly do over 10,000).
I did get a bit more pain for a couple of days after I wore high heels for several hours (for a funeral). This did worry me- but I just rested the knee and it settled.
I am pretty busy with grand-childcare and supporting my niece with care for my disabled brother- in-law. I want to get back to more travelling but currently it's mainly family visits.
One of my big fears is infection ( especially since I had an episode of septicaemia last year) and I also have a congenital kidney abnormality which makes me prone to UTIs.
I am getting a private appointment to explore trying to get the new UTI vaccine (Uromune). It would be good to have one potential source of joint infection reduced.
It took a while but I am very pleased with my surgery. My knee was previously very swollen and twisted and caused a lot of pain in my hip and back.
 
Thank you - you know we do appreciate long term updates!!!
Curious to learn of your experience with Uromune, which hasn't yet been approved in the USA.
 
@mendogal
Curious to learn of your experience with Uromune, which hasn't yet been approved in the USA.
I will keep you posted. The trial results look very good. The practical problem is that it is three months of a nasal spray which has to be refrigerated. So this will limit travelling- although I can buy a special refrigerated travel pack ( but not sure about planes/ security??)
It was a six week wait to book a phone appointment with a urologist who is offering it. It will cost about £650 for the consultation and the vaccine. But I reckon it will be worth it in my case. It could be at least a couple of years before NICE ( NHS approval agency) authorise it for NHS use.
 
@EalingGran it’s great to hear you are doing so well! I do think it’s helpful to get the long term updates, especially for the rarer surgeries like ours. It sounds like your outcome was very good, so that may be a comfort to those who are on the fence about the surgery, or perhaps to those in the thick of recovery who are scared/frustrated/unsure. I’m always amazed at your daily step count! :running: And just very glad you are feeling good and your other physical challenges are manageable and not ‘cramping your style’!
:cheers:
 
18 month update. This is mainly for my benefit- but also I think it is useful for others to get longer term views on surgery.
Just re- reading my thread in preparation for a review appointment with my surgeon on 5th June. The main purpose of the appointment is to check on my hip, which he reckons will need replacing at some point. It really is not causing any pain since my valgus knee was straightened- so I will leave well alone.
I don't take any painkillers now apart from some Voltarol ( antinflammatory) gel for my lower back. I do get fairly chronic lower back pain ( lumbar arthritis/ spinal stenosis) but manage it with regular exercises and pilates. The sciatica is mainly gone apart from a few twinges after long car journeys.
My knee is pretty good. The odd twinge from my overstretched MCL if I do a lot of stairs but otherwise OK. I get the odd painless click if I twist backwards but otherwise it feels very natural. I can walk any distance ( the maximum I have done is about 18,000 steps one day and I mostly do over 10,000).
I did get a bit more pain for a couple of days after I wore high heels for several hours (for a funeral). This did worry me- but I just rested the knee and it settled.
I am pretty busy with grand-childcare and supporting my niece with care for my disabled brother- in-law. I want to get back to more travelling but currently it's mainly family visits.
One of my big fears is infection ( especially since I had an episode of septicaemia last year) and I also have a congenital kidney abnormality which makes me prone to UTIs.
I am getting a private appointment to explore trying to get the new UTI vaccine (Uromune). It would be good to have one potential source of joint infection reduced.
It took a while but I am very pleased with my surgery. My knee was previously very swollen and twisted and caused a lot of pain in my hip and back.
Really glad to hear your knee is doing well and like other have said, appreciate the long term updates - especially on the MUCH more rare LATERAL PKR.
 
glad to hear your knee is doing well and like other have said, appreciate the long term updates - especially on the MUCH more rare LATERAL PKR.
Laterals really are rare ( just 1% of PKRs).
Here is an interesting paper that I found and posted for someone on the pre-op side.
The results are actually pretty good once they used fixed rather than mobile implants.
Patellofemoral PKRs still seem to be more of a challenge.
 
I had my 18 month follow up with my surgeon on Wednesday.
He did a lot of Xrays of my knees in various positions and also of my hips.
The good news is that my hip arthritis has not deteriorated since my leg was straightened with my PKR. He described my hips as " no longer in the first flush of youth" but doesn't think they need replacing in the near future.
He thinks my bit of discomfort in the patellofemoral joint on rising from deep flexion/ squatting is just where the joint switches from articulating with the native knee surface to the lateral implant. The gist was that it was the price I have to pay for having really great ( 155 degrees) flexion. He doesn't think it will necessarily worsen, despite the crepitus. But if it does he says I can have a patellofemoral resurfacing/ replacement rather than a TKR. Apparently the earlier lateral partials were mobile rather than fixed bearing, and had really amazing mobility/ flexion but a high tendency to dislocate. I have always wondered about the trade off in implant design between stability/ pain and mobility/ flexion.
I could have been discharged but he agreed to keep me on the new system of " patient initiated follow up" for two years. It means I can go back directly to the orthopaedic clinic without having to go through my GP if my hips or knees get worse in that time.
 

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