After suffering for what seems like an eternity, I, as well as 4 OS's that I have seen in the past couple years have all come to the conclusion that my knees are too far gone and my only option to regain quality of life and get back to full duties is a bilateral TKR. The past 2 years have been very unpleasant and extremely frustrating with the pain and lack of enjoyment that osteoarthritis has inflicted on my knees. I have chosen a very reputable surgeon and signed all the papers expecting to go in sometime this spring or early summer.
My knee issues began while I was a competitive provincial freestyle skier back in the late 80's which resulted in bilateral ACL tears with reconstruction. 6 years ago I hit a tree at high speeds while skiing and fractured my femur and 4 vertebrae in my lower back. I had internal fixation of the fractured femur and currently the fixation rod remains in place. The surgeon that is doing my BTKR will remove the rod at the same time as he feels down the road I will be a candidate for a THR so out it comes. For the past year I have been on LTD from my job as an advanced care paramedic and at this time I am uncertain if I will be able to go back to that role post surgery. Obviously, I am very stressed about this as I am 5 years from retirement and would like to go out on my own terms. I have been reading other stories on this forum and so glad to hear some positive comments as it really helps settle some of the anxiety and stress that I have.
If there are any other paramedics out there that have had knee replacements I would love to know if you went back to full duties and how its going now.
Thanks, Don
My knee issues began while I was a competitive provincial freestyle skier back in the late 80's which resulted in bilateral ACL tears with reconstruction. 6 years ago I hit a tree at high speeds while skiing and fractured my femur and 4 vertebrae in my lower back. I had internal fixation of the fractured femur and currently the fixation rod remains in place. The surgeon that is doing my BTKR will remove the rod at the same time as he feels down the road I will be a candidate for a THR so out it comes. For the past year I have been on LTD from my job as an advanced care paramedic and at this time I am uncertain if I will be able to go back to that role post surgery. Obviously, I am very stressed about this as I am 5 years from retirement and would like to go out on my own terms. I have been reading other stories on this forum and so glad to hear some positive comments as it really helps settle some of the anxiety and stress that I have.
If there are any other paramedics out there that have had knee replacements I would love to know if you went back to full duties and how its going now.
Thanks, Don
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