fender unbender
new member
I had my original partial knee replacement in August 2013. I ignorantly let the OS perform this without proof that it needed to be done other than him stating "I've been in there, I know what you need." Prior to this I had undergone 2 arthroscopic repairs in the last year of my torn meniscus that did nothing to alleviate my pain, one by him and the first by another OS. This all started out not because of an injury but just because my knee hurt. My occupation was 30 years of doing auto body repairs on cars, quite a physical job and terrible on my knees, lots of kneeling and bending. I thought my knee might just be wearing out.
At 3 months post op he told me there was nothing more he could do, everything was perfect in the x-rays and he referred me to a pain clinic. At 6 months post op I returned to him because the pain continued to get worse and the first thing he told me when he saw I had returned was "what are you doing here? I told you there was nothing more I can do for you, You are going to have this pain for the rest of your life." As unbelievable as this sounds, these were his exact words!
I proceeded to visit 4 more orthopedic doctors to get their opinion on what could be done to alleviate my pain and to find out what was wrong with my knee. Three of the doctors (including one from his clinic) saw my pre-surgery x-rays and told me that from what they could see, I should not have had knee replacement surgery. He was just chasing my pain without diagnosing the cause. They all added the disclaimer that of course the x-ray only tells part of the story and maybe there was more to it than that. Unfortunately all the doctors were stumped about the cause of my pain and said that by looking at the x-rays they could see nothing wrong with my knee and the partial replacement looked great. I also had a full work-up and an infection was ruled out.
For the next two years the pain continued to increase and I was up to 40mg oxycodone and 40 mg oxycontin per day. I had two bone scans performed and they showed that there was a possibility that the replacement was loose. The OS I was seeing now at the Mayo clinic agreed that there was a chance that it was loose and gave me the option of undergoing a revision surgery. He said there was 50-50 chance that this surgery would alleviate the pain. My only hesitancy was that if it didn't work to alleviate the pain, the pain I had on the inside of my knee would now be present through my entire knee.
To describe my pain, it felt like a dull screwdriver was jabbed in my knee joint and twisted. It was a deep ache on the medial side of my knee and it felt like the pain was in my bone. I did have full range of motion and no swelling of the joint. Through this whole time I had continued to work with terrible pain and my employer was not happy about me working with all the narcotic pain meds.
in December 2015 I elected to proceed with the revision to a full replacement (hoping there was something wrong with the original surgery and I would be able to sue the arrogant person OS that had told me to go away). My OS said that when removed my old implant it wasn't completely loose but he was surprised how easily it separated from my bone. It only took a gentle tap from his hammer to remove it. Immediately the old pain was gone. The only pain I now had was just the surgical pain. Within a month I had cut my narcotic pain meds in half and I couldn't wait to get back to a normal life.
Much to my dismay, at 6 weeks post op my original pain started to return. The pain now is in my entire knee and it is still a deep ache and it feels like it is in the bone. My OS at the Mayo Clinic had no idea what was causing the pain, everything looked great and there was no infection. He sent me to a spinal surgeon who did a full work up that ruled out referred pain from my spine.
My thinking was that I must be allergic to the joint but my OS disagreed because of the limited research that has been done. I went to an allergist who did a skin patch test on me and the only thing that I had a reaction to was zinc. Now I was convinced that I was allergic to the component but my OS still disagreed. It made sense to me, the new surgery removed the part of the bone that was having a reaction so the pain went away. It took several weeks for the newly exposed bone to start to have a reaction. It sure made sense to me but other than the severe pain there is no other indications of an allergic reaction, no redness to my skin or blisters etc. Jumping ahead to this week, I finally spent the money for the blood allergy test from Orthopedic Analysis and the results came back showing that I am not allergic to the metals or cement.
At this point my OS at the Mayo Clinic has told me that I need to wait for new technology and to check back with him every six months. I always thought that once you got to the Mayo Clinic they wouldn't stop until they find a cure but apparently not. I have not been able to work since my revision surgery because of the severe pain and all the narcotic pain meds that I am on. I am currently taking 90mg oxycodone and 70mg methadone. I take this between 11 am and 4 pm and by then the pain is finally under control so I have about 3-4 hours of manageable pain, not much of a life anymore. I always walk with a cane to keep the pressure off of my knee.
A month ago I went to a new OS to get another opinion about what might be wrong. He took a new x-ray and said that the femoral component had a radiolucent line around it so he suspected that it might be loose. He had me get another bone scan and the results of this showed that there was no problem. My question for him that he couldn't answer was that if it was possibly loose now, how does that explain the pain for all but the first six weeks of the replacement? And what would cause it to become loose like the original partial replacement possibly was? And what would prevent another revision from becoming loose at a future date? He also withdrew fluid and did bloodwork to check for an infection. The only thing abnormal that the bloodwork did show was a CRP inflammation of 32.
In the last 6 months my pain doctor did a spinal cord stimulator trial with the hope that this would give me some relief but it did not. All along she thought the pain was probably coming from my nerves but after this test failed to help she said "I guess the pain is not from your nerves but it is actually mechanical pain in your bone or your joint."
Now I am at the point that I do not know where to turn to next. Because the pain is so severe I cannot understand why a doctor cannot find the cause and I am hoping someone on this forum will have a new idea for me, something the doctors are missing. To make things worse, without an actual diagnosis my long term disability insurance will be ending in 4 months. There is no way that I can work with the pain and all of the pain meds that I take. Thank you for reading thru this long story.
At 3 months post op he told me there was nothing more he could do, everything was perfect in the x-rays and he referred me to a pain clinic. At 6 months post op I returned to him because the pain continued to get worse and the first thing he told me when he saw I had returned was "what are you doing here? I told you there was nothing more I can do for you, You are going to have this pain for the rest of your life." As unbelievable as this sounds, these were his exact words!
I proceeded to visit 4 more orthopedic doctors to get their opinion on what could be done to alleviate my pain and to find out what was wrong with my knee. Three of the doctors (including one from his clinic) saw my pre-surgery x-rays and told me that from what they could see, I should not have had knee replacement surgery. He was just chasing my pain without diagnosing the cause. They all added the disclaimer that of course the x-ray only tells part of the story and maybe there was more to it than that. Unfortunately all the doctors were stumped about the cause of my pain and said that by looking at the x-rays they could see nothing wrong with my knee and the partial replacement looked great. I also had a full work-up and an infection was ruled out.
For the next two years the pain continued to increase and I was up to 40mg oxycodone and 40 mg oxycontin per day. I had two bone scans performed and they showed that there was a possibility that the replacement was loose. The OS I was seeing now at the Mayo clinic agreed that there was a chance that it was loose and gave me the option of undergoing a revision surgery. He said there was 50-50 chance that this surgery would alleviate the pain. My only hesitancy was that if it didn't work to alleviate the pain, the pain I had on the inside of my knee would now be present through my entire knee.
To describe my pain, it felt like a dull screwdriver was jabbed in my knee joint and twisted. It was a deep ache on the medial side of my knee and it felt like the pain was in my bone. I did have full range of motion and no swelling of the joint. Through this whole time I had continued to work with terrible pain and my employer was not happy about me working with all the narcotic pain meds.
in December 2015 I elected to proceed with the revision to a full replacement (hoping there was something wrong with the original surgery and I would be able to sue the arrogant person OS that had told me to go away). My OS said that when removed my old implant it wasn't completely loose but he was surprised how easily it separated from my bone. It only took a gentle tap from his hammer to remove it. Immediately the old pain was gone. The only pain I now had was just the surgical pain. Within a month I had cut my narcotic pain meds in half and I couldn't wait to get back to a normal life.
Much to my dismay, at 6 weeks post op my original pain started to return. The pain now is in my entire knee and it is still a deep ache and it feels like it is in the bone. My OS at the Mayo Clinic had no idea what was causing the pain, everything looked great and there was no infection. He sent me to a spinal surgeon who did a full work up that ruled out referred pain from my spine.
My thinking was that I must be allergic to the joint but my OS disagreed because of the limited research that has been done. I went to an allergist who did a skin patch test on me and the only thing that I had a reaction to was zinc. Now I was convinced that I was allergic to the component but my OS still disagreed. It made sense to me, the new surgery removed the part of the bone that was having a reaction so the pain went away. It took several weeks for the newly exposed bone to start to have a reaction. It sure made sense to me but other than the severe pain there is no other indications of an allergic reaction, no redness to my skin or blisters etc. Jumping ahead to this week, I finally spent the money for the blood allergy test from Orthopedic Analysis and the results came back showing that I am not allergic to the metals or cement.
At this point my OS at the Mayo Clinic has told me that I need to wait for new technology and to check back with him every six months. I always thought that once you got to the Mayo Clinic they wouldn't stop until they find a cure but apparently not. I have not been able to work since my revision surgery because of the severe pain and all the narcotic pain meds that I am on. I am currently taking 90mg oxycodone and 70mg methadone. I take this between 11 am and 4 pm and by then the pain is finally under control so I have about 3-4 hours of manageable pain, not much of a life anymore. I always walk with a cane to keep the pressure off of my knee.
A month ago I went to a new OS to get another opinion about what might be wrong. He took a new x-ray and said that the femoral component had a radiolucent line around it so he suspected that it might be loose. He had me get another bone scan and the results of this showed that there was no problem. My question for him that he couldn't answer was that if it was possibly loose now, how does that explain the pain for all but the first six weeks of the replacement? And what would cause it to become loose like the original partial replacement possibly was? And what would prevent another revision from becoming loose at a future date? He also withdrew fluid and did bloodwork to check for an infection. The only thing abnormal that the bloodwork did show was a CRP inflammation of 32.
In the last 6 months my pain doctor did a spinal cord stimulator trial with the hope that this would give me some relief but it did not. All along she thought the pain was probably coming from my nerves but after this test failed to help she said "I guess the pain is not from your nerves but it is actually mechanical pain in your bone or your joint."
Now I am at the point that I do not know where to turn to next. Because the pain is so severe I cannot understand why a doctor cannot find the cause and I am hoping someone on this forum will have a new idea for me, something the doctors are missing. To make things worse, without an actual diagnosis my long term disability insurance will be ending in 4 months. There is no way that I can work with the pain and all of the pain meds that I take. Thank you for reading thru this long story.
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