Metal Allergy Custom or off the shelf? Metal allergy?

Luluk

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TKR two years ago and I have had pain in knee ever since. Two visits to the surgeon during past year about the pain and the best he can tell me is the xrays look good, and to take Tylenol, do leg raises, take Meloxicam and no jogging.

Last visit 3 months ago he decided I have tendinitis. The pain interferes with my ability to enjoy walking and I'm miserable to be having so much pain two years after TKR with mo explanation other than “tendinitis.” Help. Anybody have similar experience?

Right TKR July 11, 2016
 
I had non-stop pain and swelling for four years starting about six months after my TKR. My OS tried more than one thing to fix it; nothing worked and I finally agreed to a revision. The x-rays all looked good and everything else seemed okay, other than a nickel allergy we found with testing through the lab in Chicago, and my implant did have some nickel.

When he went in, the lower part came right out as it was totally loose which he didn't expect due to my xrays having looked normal. He said it does happen that way sometimes but it was still a surprise as he really thought everything was okay implant-wise.

We don't know the cause of the implant loosening but we do now know it was loose and I really needed the revision. So I know from personal experience that there can be things wrong even with good looking xrays but that doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with your implant.

I'd push my OS a bit more to look deeper and maybe even consider allergy testing to rule that in or out as a cause. Good luck, and keep us posted!
 
Hello @Luluk - and :welome:

Please will you tell us the full date of your knee replacement and which knee it is, so we can make a signature for you? Thank you.:flwrysmile:

I'm sorry you;re still having pain in your knee.

I'm going to ask @Josephine , our Nurse Director, to advise you. She has many years of experience in orthopaedics.
She'll probably ask you a lot of questions. Do try to answer them as fully as possible, so she has all the information she needs, to advise you appropriately.
 
When he went in, the lower part came right out as it was totally loose which he didn't expect due to my xrays having looked normal. We don't know the cause of the implant loosening
LTCAS, your surgeon obviously didn't know what to look for! I bet I could have seen it!

Luluk, would you like to tell me where your pain is using this chart?

aa knee-references-horz.jpg
 
I hope this is the right spot.

There is some variation of pain. So sometimes there is mainly very intense pain right in middle of knee cap, about at DRF1 and DRF2. which intensifies if I flex or walk down stairs.

At other times, like yesterday, I don't remember if I took Meloxicam yesterday or forgt but the pain was everywhere, DRF1 and DRF2and CRF1 and CRF2 and DRB1 and DRB2.

Also it felt swollen and stiff and I was limping. I exercise everyday almost, walking and doing my post op leg strengthening exercise. I had not done anything out of the ordinary for me.

Thank you!
 
I hope this is the right spot.
Yes, you got it!

So you pain is here - the red is the first you mentioned and the blue is the "everywhere" one!

luluk.jpg


I think I have an idea what's going on but before I comment, I'd really like to offer you some structured advice but in order to do that, I also need to ask you some questions. Are you willing for me to do that?
 
Yes, absolutely. Thank you.
 
Still have pain with 3yr old TKR while other knee now shows bone on bone and advanced degenerative changes and osteophytes and sclerosis. The surgeon said knee is a candidate tor TKR anytime, but of course as they always say, its up to you.

I was happily thinking I could put it off til December and enjoy a fun, active summer. Well ha ha on me. Walking downstairs is very painful. The prospect of biking or hiking is scary.

And that knee locking! Every day it locks up on me and the pain is excruciating! I'm sure my sounds of agony alarm my young students! On the one hand, I need someone to push me over the edge, on the other hand, losing the summer and all my dreams for it is an unbearable thought.
 
Oh yes, yes, yes. I have been there and thought I could wait til after a planned holiday to set the process in place. I'm tough. I can do it! Trouble with for me was I didn't know how quickly things can turn to custard. I was coping with pain and disability right?
So I was on holiday in Buenos Aires. Just leaving the hotel to fly to Cuiaba in Brazil (to see jaguars) when my knee buckled and a big effusion appeared. That was the last day I could walk any distance. Pain and swelling stalked me until my TKR. I fell alot and was on the verge of being immobile.

So I think its a lottery. Hopefully if you decide to wait it will be fine. At 3 weeks post op I have much less pain than pre surgery so I would take the surgery. Recovery time is a gift especially in the summer. Each day you will improve and slowly expand your horizons. I would pick surgery over pain, disability and misery. Dream wonderful sweet dreams of summer with less suffering and no agony because that's what close for yoy xxx
 
still have pain with 3 yr old tkr
It should be OK by now, what are the symptoms? What action are you taking?
losing the summer and all my dreams for it is an unbearable thought.
And all summer you'll be in pain, and every day you'll be no closer to recovery. You know you'll only be really down for about 6 weeks, then you'll be able to enjoy yourself in lessening pain.

Come on - you know it makes sense.
 
Doesn't sound to me as if you will have any kind of "fun" summer with that bad knee. No one likes to face major surgery but putting it off will only lengthen and complicate the recovery. Get this done and get on with living again.
 
The surgeon said knee is a candidate tor TKR anytime, but of course as they always say, its up to you.
That's right - it isn't their job to make these decisions for you!
And that knee locking! Every day it locks up on me and the pain is excruciating!
Let me tell you about this pain

Prior to my surgery I had barely any ongoing pain, just what I refer to as an occasional 'stone in the shoe' pain which came and went erratically. Sometimes it lasted for an hour, sometimes for a week, once it lasted two weeks, but I knew what caused it so let me share that with you.

Arthritis has the effect of making our joints crumble like an old concrete step as you can see here

ai64.tinypic.com_wb2fr6.jpg


It breaks down, creating lots of grit and debris. Generally this stays in the pouches at the side of the joint but every so often, a craggy, rough edged bit gets into the weight bearing part of the joint and then we get that extreme pain and can't bear weight on the leg at all! Pain killers do nothing, nor do things like braces. We are just conscious of this excruciatingly horrible pain that all of a sudden goes away!

img4-jpg.68795



It's every bit as disabling as the constant bone-on-bone pain so many others suffer and is a very good indicator that a joint replacement is needed.

You don't want to have more of these crippling episodes, do you? And you will, and they will get worse and worse!

To assess your need for replacement, print off the form in this link, read the instructions and fill it in Score chart: how bad is my arthritic hip/knee
 
Thank you everybody for your support, encouragement and frankness. Today i did an experiment of pretending i had normal knees. I tried to walk with a normal gait and pace up and down hills. Everystep is painful and i cant walk normal pace or normal gait. And that exrucating pain of he crumbling concrete - yikes.talk sbout disrupting a kids piano lesson.
So i got on the surgeons schedule for july 15.

I still have fair amount of pain in the other knee replacement, 3 years out. The surgeon has no idea whats wrong.he says the x rays look good, he doesnt understand why i have so much pain.

Wondering if knee injections would be a good option to try, to help me make it to july. I have not seen good comments about the off loader knee brace.
 
I had a right TKR three years ago this July. Knee has always continued to be painful. I have been back to the surgeons complaining of pain 3-4 times and he says he doesn't know why it hurts. He has recommended Tylenol, straight leg raises, Meloxicam.
So has anyone had continuous pain, even though the xrays look great?

We are now talking about replacing the left knee and he has said I might do something different to prevent the problem you are having with right TKR. Which implies of course, he does have an idea of what's wrong!

I've been wondering if too much range of motion is too much of a good thing. I have so much bend in my knee even the surgeon is astonished.
 
Some of us do still have some pain years out from our TKR. Mine is one of them, but it is better than before the surgery, so I'm happy about that. I am going to tag @Josephine, our forum director and nurse to address your questions.
 
Surgeons usually like a three-month gap between the injections and your surgery date, so if you decide to have an injection, make sure that you have it fairly soon.
 
@Luluk The locking/catching is what finally pushed me over the edge. I've had it happen on stairs twice, to where I was just about stuck. I was coming UP though and had to scoot on my bottom to get to the top---and my husband as out of town for the week when it last happened. :hissy: I had surgery 3 wks later to clean things up enough to lessen the chances of it happening again immediately, as the quadriceps starting shutting down too due to the swelling. Both TKRs are now on the calendar though.
 
He has recommended Tylenol, Meloxicam and straight leg raises.
How much Tylenol did he tell you to take - and how often?
Also Meloxicam - how much and how often
I wouldn't do SLRs.

I've been wondering if too much range of motion is too much of a good thing.
Depends what you mean by 'too much'. What is your ROM currently?
 
He didn't specify dosing of the Tylenol, so i just followed dosing on the bottle.

Why wouldn't you do SLR?

He prescribed one 7.5 mg daily of meloxicam.
He recommended one then the other, a few months apart, not simultaneously.
I stopped the meloxicam a few months ago, having gotten worried about long term side effects.

Truthfully, my complaints about my right TKR has been overshadowed by the pain and disability of the left knee, which is now scheduled for replacement in July. So I have stopped pursuing why my operated knee still hurts so much, because the other knee is going downhill quickly.

In addition, my right shoulder had a TSR 2 years ago, and now my other shoulder is painful and crunchy.
I am a mess!

It's been so long since my ROM was measured I don't remember the numbers. But I think it is as good as is humanly possible to get. Both the surgeon and the PT were astonished. The PT never saw a ROM this good. But somewhere I read something about a spacer in the knee being too thin causing too much ROM. Which made me wonder if that was a source of pain.

I would like to go back to surgeon again and say 'it STILL hurts'. I imagine him saying I can't do anything about it now, because the other knee is worse!

One sensation I have in this knee (the already replaced one) is burning when it is still and extended. I thought burning was an arthritis symptom. He said arthritis is all gone, it was removed.

Well as I said, I'm a mess.
 

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