Become an Insider

Revision TKR Third and final surgery all done

Status
Not open for further replies.
Thanks Celle, and Jockette. Your words were encouraging to me. And I needed the reminder from Celle, that my almost 6 month old knee still needs attention and not "scorn" for not healing faster.

I have always been very goal driven, and have high expectations of myself. This health "dilemma" just has taken so many twists and turns without much resolution of anything thus far. I feel weary and I still have more to go.

Thanks for listening all who have, and for responding. It's been a lot for me, but others have had worse.
 
Thanks CELLE and JOCKETTE, for your hugs and encouragement.

Today, I saw my original surgeon who did both of my surgeries, including the second misaligned one. I told him what the second opinion surgeon said, and my surgeon agreed with everything. I also told him I will likely be getting a revision done mid February or so.

My main reason in seeing him today was to follow through with the return to work papers. Of course I can't return to work because I can't fulfill 75% of the job requirements right now. If I had another month or two, there is at least a chance I could. But the short term disability ends December 17 and my work would have taken me back even half time for a while because they like me and I have a good work record these past 20 years. But I told them I am a safety hazard because of my compromised balance, very stiff knees, not good balance, and inability to stand or walk for even half to one hour, among several other things. My surgeon was very cooperative and understands my physical state, and knows that I cannot work at all for quite some time, especially due to a planned revision.

I will talk to my HR person in a couple days, on Monday to finish whatever I need to do, but I did talk to my supervisor today and we both felt very tearful and sad about all of this.
I am in the process of long-term disability application through my work. It seems obvious that I would qualify, but I know that there are many hoops to jump through with these kinds of things.
I plan to see the revision specialist in early to mid January to talk more about a possible revision, and maybe even plan the date for it then.

Being unemployed after so many working years feels very strange. And now I also will incur the health insurance cost burden myself. But I am thankful that I have that opportunity and hopefully all things will work out for me.
One seemingly bit of good news though right now is that the lymphatic treatment of custom compression stockings, and use of the Flexi touch machine daily, seems to be helping some so far with my swelling and knee range of motion too. We will see if this continues to keep improving.
 
Just today and yesterday I have been reading about other Bonesmart posts regarding the types of implants used for total knee replacements. Does anyone know if Stryker is OK, CELLE, I know you had this type. Anyone, any comments on the types that are used, and the ins and outs of them?
The revision specialist I saw said they are all similar and all good. He uses Stryker. I don't know if that is true, but anybody have an opinion on this? My two replacements were Verilast.
 
Your revision doc was right. The implants are all very similar unless you are someone with an allergy or need a special implant. Lots of TKRs have Strykers. Honestly, I never asked what I was getting. :heehee:
 
kayow11,
The implants all perform about the same, the skill of the surgeon is the most important factor.
I have a Smith and Nephew hinged revision knee.
 
kayow11 said:
Does anyone know if Stryker is OK, CELLE, I know you had this type.
Click to expand...
I have a Stryker replacement in each of my knees and I'm totally satisfied with them.

Please don't get hung up on finding the "best" type of knee replacement because, in spite of the advertising hype, they are all very similar.
It is far, far more important to find a good surgeon, because your surgeon is the most important factor in having a successful knee replacement. Go with the type of knee replacement that the surgeon recommends, because he will be skilled at using that one.

Your knee is out of alignment because your surgeon didn't get it right, not because of the type of knee replacement he used.
 
Thanks to several of you for your response regarding the type of implant. I don't know anything about them, just what the poster said in the surgeons office.
The revision OS that I saw a few weeks ago, had a tragedy. The day after Thanksgiving, his house suddenly went up in flames and the family lost everything, including their two dogs. He and his spouse and three children barely escaped in their underwear. This might sound over-reactive on my part, but I wonder if he will be preoccupied in his thoughts and less focused with all of his surgeries and medical practice in general, with all he has to think about and plan for, despite his best intentions.
Any thoughts on this?
 
kayow11 said:
This might sound over-reactive on my part, but I wonder if he will be preoccupied in his thoughts and less focused with all of his surgeries and medical practice in general, with all he has to think about and plan for, despite his best intentions.
Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
Yes, it was a bad thing that happened to your surgeon and his family.

However, he is a professional and a good surgeon. People like that know how to compartmentalize their life and their work.
You can be assured that while he is operating on your knee, his attention will be 100% focussed on doing a good job for you.
 
@Celle and @sistersinhim,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I guess I can drop my apprehension about this then.
I need some comfort these days:angel:
 
Hello are you bone smarties! I haven't posted in two months and want to give an update.

I am scheduled for my left knee revision which was misaligned in September, and it is set for March 23. That will be six months out. I am having a physician that was recommended to me on this site in fact, by an advisor. He seems very confident in his ability to fix this and feels it is fairly straightforward.

I am still having a very hard time even thinking of going through this for a third time in less than one year. The first knee, the right one, which was replaced last June, never has gotten much better the past several months. It is still only at 97° of flexion and lacking 6 degrees of extension, at almost 8 months postop. It's still gets moderately swollen and stiff and painful.

My job did end on December 18 but they still hope I can come back in the spring or summer or fall of this year. I don't know how likely that is with as slow as I seem to be healing. I still don't have the ability to stand or walk more than half hour without my bilateral knees feeling very swollen and hurting down and up so my whole leg hurts.

Of course I have other pain like left arch foot pain and left back pain from the misaligned left knee. I also feel that my strength in my quads just is not returning very quickly. I still feel weak in the knees and quads and stairs going up and down is still difficult.

The left knee which is crooked is only at 95° and is five months out now. The surgeons both said that you can have issues of swelling for 18 months even.

Have any of you out there had some of the problems I am having with limited range at this point and swelling and pain with standing and walking, with all these months postop, and did you finally recover?
 
I’m so sorry you have to have another surgery. I was actually thinking about you the other day and wondered how you were doing. :console2:

I am 10 months post op and feel I still have a ways to go. I don’t have actual pain but I do still have quite a bit of discomfort.

My knee despises the cold weather, it aches and feels wooden when I am outside. It also feels very weird, stiff and wooden the second I put pants on. Literally the second I put them on. I wear shorts around the house all the time but can’t do that outside.

I also still have more limitations in recovery than I did with the arthritis I had before surgery.

And I had a partial. Promoted to be easier than a total.

So, my issues are different than yours, but I, too, am disappointed in my outcome and hope that in time I will feel healed.
 
@kayow11, we were close in our tkr times and I'm still having some swelling and discomfort after a very busy day. Sometimes, my knee will even wake me up at night. Of course, it's nothing like it was a year ago, thank God! There are times I'm sorry I had this done, but the vast majority of the time I'm glad.

These new knees aren't the same as our old knees before they got arthritis. But, to not have the arthritis pain is wonderful. If only our knees felt like our childhood knees, they'd be perfect!
 
I had swelling and pain for over a year post op. But it was bearable because it wasn’t the bone on bone pain pre-surgery. Eventually I was able to slowly build up walking times which has helped my TKR immensely.

I’m hoping this revision doesn’t the trick for you!
 
Thanks for your response KarriB and sistersinhim.

My bending is still bad though. Was yours?

I don't have bone on bone pain but this discomfort feels as bad only in a different way and my tolerance for standing and walking is still very poor. I sure hope and pray this improves. I can't walk more than 20 minutes without my legs feeling like heavy swollen clubs.

Maybe after this hopefully last surgery, my legs well decide to finally improve and heal up.
 
In my last post, I was just stating that even though I don't have the bone on bone pain anymore, the discomfort and pain issues I have now are just as debilitating as the bone pain was, if not more.
Not being able to stand or walk for more than half hour, without sitting Or laying down to rest the knees, really limits most activities. I still have frequent pain at the incision site.
Plus the knee joints are more stiff when first starting to walk, than they were before surgery.
Is it normal for some, to have this much swelling when the legs are in a dependent position, 8 or more months
Postop?
This whole thing is nothing I anticipated. So far I am very disappointed in my lack of progress and the extra problems I seem to have.
Do some people have things like this for even 1-2 years after?
I sure hope I have a new story to tell a year from now.
 
My first knee took a good year before I wasn't stiffening up and getting achy being on my feet for more than a half hour. But by about 15 months I'd say I was barely thinking about the knee. Lefty was a bit quicker. I can't say I had pain around the incision, though.
 
I was 6 months out for my left knee when I had my right one done. I can honestly say that I hardly ever thought about my left knee anymore. It would still swell some if I worked all day and then fixed dinner or did something after work, didn’t hurt but swelled. It’s been a champ in taking over for this right one, but really this right one was so bad all along, that my left one was my good leg as soon as I had surgery on it. I hope after our year recovery period is over we will all have a wonderful story.
 
I would imagine that pain will be gone after the revision. You’ll have surgical pain, but hopefully not this pain. I think it’s probably good that your job is over for now with the pain you’re experiencing.
 
@KarriB, @jboles, @kneeper,
Thanks so much you guys for your input into my last couple of posts.
I always seem to be in the small minority of people where things take longer or be weird, or go wrong. Some people just have that kind of life I guess :-)
I feel more encouraged now knowing that there are others out there that have had delayed healing Responses also. I am just trying to get my legs a little stronger, if they will cooperate, before March 23 for my revision surgery.
As I mentioned earlier, my eight-month-old first knee is more temperamental, painful and swollen than the crooked five-month-old knee. I guess you just never know how these things are going to go. But I I am encouraged and hopeful by you sharing your experiences.
I have tried to take the lymphatic issue out of the equation somewhat by using a machine that helps to the massage to stimulate the lymphatic system, and also by wearing the Jobst Elvarex stockings thigh high every day. That is all I can do for that system.
When these legs are so stiff and achy and painful and swollen continually, it seems they are never going to get better. But now I know they can.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 2,559 (members: 0, guests: 2,559)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom