bertschb
member
I just scheduled my second TKR (right knee this time) and I'm wondering now if I should go through with it. Some background...
I had my left knee replaced in October 2016. It's fine. Back in February I went on an easy 4 mile walk. An hour after I finished the walk I got up from my chair and noticed my right knee was swollen and hurt. What the heck? I've never had any problems with this knee. For the next week or so I had the same symptoms I had with my left knee. Very swollen. Pain behind and around the knee. Reduced range of motion. Popping when twisting slightly. I waited a month and resumed walking. Walked half a dozen times over a couple weeks. Short walks (1.5 miles). No problems this time.
Fast forward to late May. I started doing short walks again and my knee started swelling up and hurting again. I could only walk about a mile and I had to turn around and go back home. So, I made an appointment with the surgeon that did my LTKR. He took X-rays that showed bone on bone on one side of my right knee. He asked me what I wanted to do about it. I told him I wasn't interested in meniscus repair, removing fluid or injections as none of those things helped for more than a few days with my left knee. I said we might as well replace the joint since it will only get worse. He was fine with that.
On June 5th we arrived in Palm Springs where I have an area I love hiking so I started doing a daily 5 mile hike up into the foothills. There are a number of steep uphill/downhill sections on this particular hike. Although the swelling reduces my range of motion, I have no problem completing the hikes. It hurts behind my knee when I return and sit down for the rest of the day but it's no big deal. So my knee is doing better now with 5 miles hikes than it was with short 2 mile walks last month.
Which brings me to the title of my post. There is a nagging doubt in the back of my mind about whether I really need to have my knee replaced. My wife and I talked about it last night and we both know my knee won't get better and if we do it now, we control the timeline rather than waiting until it gets really bad and I'm forced to have surgery when it doesn't really fit our schedule.
I'm not really looking for advice because I am going forward with surgery. I'm more curious if anybody else has second guessed their surgery after scheduling it. I had my left knee replaced because I couldn't walk more than a couple hundred yards without pain. As I type this, the back of my right knee hurts a bit but I was able to do my 5 mile hike this morning no problem. I do a lot of skiing, mountain biking, hiking and golfing and I can't have my knees stop me from doing these things that I love.
Did most of you wait until you basically could no longer walk before you got your knee replaced?
I had my left knee replaced in October 2016. It's fine. Back in February I went on an easy 4 mile walk. An hour after I finished the walk I got up from my chair and noticed my right knee was swollen and hurt. What the heck? I've never had any problems with this knee. For the next week or so I had the same symptoms I had with my left knee. Very swollen. Pain behind and around the knee. Reduced range of motion. Popping when twisting slightly. I waited a month and resumed walking. Walked half a dozen times over a couple weeks. Short walks (1.5 miles). No problems this time.
Fast forward to late May. I started doing short walks again and my knee started swelling up and hurting again. I could only walk about a mile and I had to turn around and go back home. So, I made an appointment with the surgeon that did my LTKR. He took X-rays that showed bone on bone on one side of my right knee. He asked me what I wanted to do about it. I told him I wasn't interested in meniscus repair, removing fluid or injections as none of those things helped for more than a few days with my left knee. I said we might as well replace the joint since it will only get worse. He was fine with that.
On June 5th we arrived in Palm Springs where I have an area I love hiking so I started doing a daily 5 mile hike up into the foothills. There are a number of steep uphill/downhill sections on this particular hike. Although the swelling reduces my range of motion, I have no problem completing the hikes. It hurts behind my knee when I return and sit down for the rest of the day but it's no big deal. So my knee is doing better now with 5 miles hikes than it was with short 2 mile walks last month.
Which brings me to the title of my post. There is a nagging doubt in the back of my mind about whether I really need to have my knee replaced. My wife and I talked about it last night and we both know my knee won't get better and if we do it now, we control the timeline rather than waiting until it gets really bad and I'm forced to have surgery when it doesn't really fit our schedule.
I'm not really looking for advice because I am going forward with surgery. I'm more curious if anybody else has second guessed their surgery after scheduling it. I had my left knee replaced because I couldn't walk more than a couple hundred yards without pain. As I type this, the back of my right knee hurts a bit but I was able to do my 5 mile hike this morning no problem. I do a lot of skiing, mountain biking, hiking and golfing and I can't have my knees stop me from doing these things that I love.
Did most of you wait until you basically could no longer walk before you got your knee replaced?