puffin
graduate
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2013
- Messages
- 887
- Age
- 61
- Country
- Sweden
- Gender
- Female
Hi – I am new to the site and am very glad I found it and have read many of the articles.
I am waiting to get to the point where I can actually get to the start line of being booked in for the LTKR that everyone agrees that I need and my life is just wasting away waiting. I am British but living in rural Sweden and trying to navigate a foreign healthcare system in a foreign language.
Some background – I had a bad accident in November 2010 that the knee specialists have described as among the worst they have seen. I cannot even claim that I was doing anything exciting - I merely slipped on the ice at my home in rural Sweden which resulted in:
I am have been almost completely disabled since the accident in 2010. I cannot leave the house alone, cannot drive, cannot do things like shower, dress, put on knee support by myself. I cannot do household tasks, cooking, cleaning washing. The local social services have helped with certain disability equipment. Cannot sit comfortably for more than an hour (sometimes not that long). I have taken max doses of paracetamol and codeine since the accidents although it does not really help the pain but cannot take NSAIDs because of a serious allergy. I have not slept through the night since the accident – 2½ years ago!
I have been assessed by the Swedish social insurance agency as having a 25% working capacity and must work 2 hours/day. I am lucky that much of my work can be done from home and indeed I work a lot in bed with my knee supported and iced! But on days where I need to be at the office my husband is forced to take annual leave from his job to drive my the 200 mile (300km) round trip and act as my assistant. He also has to take time off to get me to PT. The need to keep working prevents me from taking stronger medication to control pain as I get too fuzzy headed to work. I am in a catch 22 – my sick insurance runs out in May but they won’t assess me as disabled because of the possibility of TKR. Instead they may force me to give up my job for 12 weeks to be sent on an employment training course run by the unemployment authorities (to see if they can find me a miracle job that I can do for more hours). Then after 12 weeks I can be declared “sick” again!! (It’s an anti-fraud measure introduced by the Conservative-led government).
However the knee replacement I need is being delayed for weight reasons – I was overweight before and this only worsened with 8 months of bed rest/wheelchair. The OS demands that I lose 100lbs (7 stone) prior to surgery. This is not all the weight I need to lose (and not even normal weight) but it is the weight that the OS feels comfortable operating at. He claims that my surgery will be different and more complicated than a “normal” TKR because of the other injuries. He has obtained second (and third, fourth and fifth) opinions of this strategy from orthopedic professors/OSs in Sweden, other Nordic countries and John Hopkins in USA and this is the consensus. The hospitals in neighbouring counties also have worse infection/10 year complication rates – so I am not sure that a new OS is the answer.
However it is soooooooo hard losing weight when in pain, non-mobile and put under huge pressure to work.
- I have lost 75lbs in 1½ years with UK Weightwatchers online – but I am losing less and less only ½-1lb week so at this rate it may be another year to get the last 25lbs.
- The only exercise I can do is aqua therapy – and I try to do 5-6 hours each week – although it is getting harder with the pain.
- The pain is getting worse and worse and the meds less and less effective.
The knee is now VERY unstable – my leg is not straight and the knee/lower leg twists – probably the result of having no knee ligaments and the weight loss meaning that there is nothing to hold the lower leg in place.
- I am now in a state of total exhaustion from pain and not sleeping through the night for 2½ years
- It is also taking a huge toll on my family – my husband is trying to work FT while caring FT for me (he even drives home at lunch – a 20 mile round trip). My teenage kids are finding it hard – we can’t travel to see relatives/can’t make plans …
Any suggestions and any advice for fast pre-surgical weight loss? I really don't know how much longer I can go on like this ...
I am waiting to get to the point where I can actually get to the start line of being booked in for the LTKR that everyone agrees that I need and my life is just wasting away waiting. I am British but living in rural Sweden and trying to navigate a foreign healthcare system in a foreign language.
Some background – I had a bad accident in November 2010 that the knee specialists have described as among the worst they have seen. I cannot even claim that I was doing anything exciting - I merely slipped on the ice at my home in rural Sweden which resulted in:
- Knee hyperextension/dislocation
- Ruptures ACL, PCL, LCL, MCL
- Meniscus tear
- Tibia shelf fractures
- Chondral fractures to bone surface & cartilage damage
- nerve damage and loss of feeling in leg/foot/toes
I am have been almost completely disabled since the accident in 2010. I cannot leave the house alone, cannot drive, cannot do things like shower, dress, put on knee support by myself. I cannot do household tasks, cooking, cleaning washing. The local social services have helped with certain disability equipment. Cannot sit comfortably for more than an hour (sometimes not that long). I have taken max doses of paracetamol and codeine since the accidents although it does not really help the pain but cannot take NSAIDs because of a serious allergy. I have not slept through the night since the accident – 2½ years ago!
I have been assessed by the Swedish social insurance agency as having a 25% working capacity and must work 2 hours/day. I am lucky that much of my work can be done from home and indeed I work a lot in bed with my knee supported and iced! But on days where I need to be at the office my husband is forced to take annual leave from his job to drive my the 200 mile (300km) round trip and act as my assistant. He also has to take time off to get me to PT. The need to keep working prevents me from taking stronger medication to control pain as I get too fuzzy headed to work. I am in a catch 22 – my sick insurance runs out in May but they won’t assess me as disabled because of the possibility of TKR. Instead they may force me to give up my job for 12 weeks to be sent on an employment training course run by the unemployment authorities (to see if they can find me a miracle job that I can do for more hours). Then after 12 weeks I can be declared “sick” again!! (It’s an anti-fraud measure introduced by the Conservative-led government).
However the knee replacement I need is being delayed for weight reasons – I was overweight before and this only worsened with 8 months of bed rest/wheelchair. The OS demands that I lose 100lbs (7 stone) prior to surgery. This is not all the weight I need to lose (and not even normal weight) but it is the weight that the OS feels comfortable operating at. He claims that my surgery will be different and more complicated than a “normal” TKR because of the other injuries. He has obtained second (and third, fourth and fifth) opinions of this strategy from orthopedic professors/OSs in Sweden, other Nordic countries and John Hopkins in USA and this is the consensus. The hospitals in neighbouring counties also have worse infection/10 year complication rates – so I am not sure that a new OS is the answer.
However it is soooooooo hard losing weight when in pain, non-mobile and put under huge pressure to work.
- I have lost 75lbs in 1½ years with UK Weightwatchers online – but I am losing less and less only ½-1lb week so at this rate it may be another year to get the last 25lbs.
- The only exercise I can do is aqua therapy – and I try to do 5-6 hours each week – although it is getting harder with the pain.
- The pain is getting worse and worse and the meds less and less effective.
The knee is now VERY unstable – my leg is not straight and the knee/lower leg twists – probably the result of having no knee ligaments and the weight loss meaning that there is nothing to hold the lower leg in place.
- I am now in a state of total exhaustion from pain and not sleeping through the night for 2½ years
- It is also taking a huge toll on my family – my husband is trying to work FT while caring FT for me (he even drives home at lunch – a 20 mile round trip). My teenage kids are finding it hard – we can’t travel to see relatives/can’t make plans …
Any suggestions and any advice for fast pre-surgical weight loss? I really don't know how much longer I can go on like this ...