TKR TRKR 10/13/23 - Moving Forward with Many Detours

[dubloosh]

Thank you @Jamie for your good wishes. It's more nerve pain that begins with the bottom of my spine. I'm going to take this one day at a time. Because it's cold out, my knee is a bit stiff. I'm not freaking any more and listened to you and others here that not all knee pains require attention. Ice and Tylenol are helping.

Thinking ahead about the summer and the reunion in September.

 

[dubloosh]

Changing what I wrote and shall post later. Happy spring!

 

[dubloosh]

Good morning. It's a beautiful day here. Last night I went to an alumni council meeting and came home later than planned and forgot to post. I've taken notice that my knee feels normal for the first 20 minutes when I stand in the morning, then the familiar tightness begins, no pain. Icing now until I have to leave in about an hour. Same with sitting, tightness and no pain. I checked the Other Joints (Spine) forum for spine and found a post from September that correlated with things I've posted yet that member's last post was September. Thank you again for the suggestion; I'll keep searching for posts.

Hoping much of the pain from my knee and quad will be resolved with surgery. Good news is walking downstairs after the meeting felt natural with only a bit of tightness under my knee. Enjoy the day!

 

[Jamie]

Sounds like a good report, @dubloosh. Time to relax and enjoy the beginning of Spring.

 

[dubloosh]

Thank you @Jamie. Here in New York the weather starts cold in the morning and warms by the end of the day.

Some interesting news from today: my knee felt good again, and there was no back pain. It seems the epidurals are working; however, they may not last long. I met with two surgeons today, and only one asked me for copies of DEXA scans to see the quality of my bones. I'm choosing him and did xrays and will take a CT scan. Back to my knee: after eliminating gluten again, and sugar - finally - it feels better. Knee pain may be from my back. All in all, it was a good day. Eliminating sugar is a little difficult; sugar-free hot chocolate helps.

 

[Jamie]

It is hard to completely do away with sugar, but it does seem to work for a lot of people. These days there is sugar in so many things. You have to really read labels unless you’re eating Whole Foods. When you get those cravings, try eating grapes. They get a bad rap sometimes because they do have a lot of natural sugar in them. But I find they are actually low in calories and the type of sugar in fruit does not affect my body the same way that processed granular sugar does. And I can even eat a tablespoon or two of dark chocolate chips and it gets the chocolate craving without disrupting things.

If you like hot chocolate, you might try making it yourself. The processed hot chocolates all have aspartame in them (or other fake sweeteners), which are showing to be really bad for your body. I mix a heaping tablespoon of really good dark cocoa powder with about 1/4 cup of water and mix the two until the powder is dissolved. Then I fill the cup with milk and put one teaspoon or less of granular sugar in. You really don’t need a lot of sweetener in cocoa to make it good. Then I zap it in the microwave. It’s pretty good and not much more time is required than opening one of those packets. I try to stay away from processed foods whenever possible. Until our food system gets cleaned up, I’m not willing to consume all the chemicals and other junk that’s in our foods.

Glad your day was good and hope the warmer weather continues to have a positive impact on you.

 

[dubloosh]

Good misty morning. It rained last night so the air is moist. Thank you @Jamie for the suggestions about eating grapes and dark chocolate chips, and for your recipe and kind words. I'll try your recipe as sugar-free hot chocolate contains maltodextrin, a starch. You're right about carefully reading labels. Yesterday was a good day, and today my back is acting up so the correlation to my knee. Four months post op for second procedure, soft tissue is still healing. I worry about knee pain while healing from back surgery and am sure one will resolve the other.

Our elevator has been broken - we have one in the building, and it's used for us and moving heavy furniture - since this morning so I'll walk in the hallway this afternoon.

Happy Sunday.

 

[Jamie]

I hope your ONE elevator can get repaired quickly. I don’t know what floor you live on, but I’d hate to think of you having to do a lot of stairs to come and go when you need to. I could see groceries might be a problem if that were to continue.

 

[dubloosh]

Oh my, I haven't replied to you @Jamie, and I apologize. Thank you. It was repaired, though I stayed in all day. The week went by, and I must have seemed rude. Monday was a blur, Tuesday I worked in a building with shallow steps so that was OK, yesterday it rained, and today is Thursday. I won't be kvetching save to say the lateral knee pain is from my back. Started PT for that today and noticed many exercises she gave me were also beneficial for my knee. I look forward to feeling better. Something I should not have done was a half squat as I felt a pull on the lateral side of my knee.

The therapist told me about squatting to pick up something from the ground post op. Nope. Then I found the reacher in my closet for future use.

 

[Jamie]

Glad your elevator works now and also that you located the grabber to help you out for a while. You’re on a roll!!

 

[dubloosh]

Hi, I'm sorry I forgot to post. Been a busy few days, elevator out again yet I didn't have to go outside. I have more good days than bad days re knee pain and take advantage of these, doing shopping, cleaning and am more active. It's traced to my back so I'm less upset. Tomorrow is a lumbar CT scan, and Wednesday I see the surgeon. Last week my PCP suggested I not have a fusion due to osteoporosis and that perhaps minimally invasive procedures will relieve pressure for now. I like her idea.

 

[Jamie]

Your GP is correct that if you have osteoporosis, that needs to be taken into consideration with any suggestions of back surgery. The newer arthroscopic procedures can do a lot these days, though. Is the surgeon you’re seeing a neurosurgeon or an orthopedic spine specialist? Either way you may want to get at least one other opinion before agreeing to any procedure. Glad to hear you’re having more good days. That’s only going to get better and better.

 

[Layla]

Hi dubloosh,
Thankfully you have more good days than bad! That's encouraging.
I wish you the best with your CT scan tomorrow and for the visit with your surgeon on Wednesday. Let us know how it goes. A peaceful evening to you!
@dubloosh

 

[dubloosh]

Hi @Jamie and @Layla. Thank you for your encouragement and kind words. I'm happy my knee is less painful and apologize for not writing again yesterday after I posted.

The CT scan was over in three minutes, and then I was on my way home. While the report may not be ready by my appointment late tomorrow morning, the images will have been sent to the surgeon, who is a neurosurgeon.

Initially I met with two orthopedic spine surgeons who both suggested fusion without asking to see my DEXA scans or other health information. I feel confident in the surgeon I chose and am glad he's thorough. PT was no help for my core though it may have strengthened my arms. It's good I went so Medicare can see conservative methods were tried prior to surgery.

Finally a positive post.

 

[Jamie]

Best of luck that your meeting with this doctor goes well!

 

[Layla]

Good Morning,
Trusting the medical professionals we choose to work with certainly reduces stress.
It's good to read that you feel confident in the surgeon you chose. I hope your appointment this morning goes well. Happy Wednesday dubloosh!
@dubloosh

 

[dubloosh]

Good evening @Jamie and @Layla. Thank you for your good wishes; they helped! Today went well save for the fact I called my surgeon by his first name instead of his last name as I have a neighbor by that name. He grinned, and I apologized and chalked it up to being nervous. My back surgery, a laminotomy, will be April 17. Six months after I'm to start either infusion or injections (I'll opt for the infusion) to bolster my bone density in the event a spinal fusion is needed in the future. For now, this will relieve pressure on the nerves. As was suggested, I'm going to look for other BoneSmart members who had spinal surgeries. There's a wealth of information on this forum.

 

[Jamie]

I’m assuming you’re going with the neurosurgeon, right? This is a less complicated procedure than the typical laminectomy for repair of the spine, so that’s good. And it sounds like he wants you on something like Prolia for increasing bone density. That will help in the future as well. All this sounds positive to help with your back issues.

 

[benne68]

I'm going to look for other BoneSmart members who had spinal surgeries.

This link might be of help:

Other Joints Forum

Finger, Thumb, Hand, Wrist, Elbow, Ankle, Foot, Toes, Spine

bonesmart.org

You might also want to start your own thread in this Spine Forum so you can ask questions and draw replies from others who have been through this procedure.

Keep us posted.

 

[Elf1]

@dubloosh happy to hear your knee is doing a bit better. I know it sure can get frustrating at times. I know my surgeon and I are working on figuring out what is causing the lingering calf pain I've had since before both knee surgeries. He's going to take one step at a time to cross things off the list and is even thinking it may be related to my spine.

I agree with @benne68 about starting your own thread in the other joints thread. I don't have one over there as I hadn't found these wonderful folks when I had my spinal fusion. I had to have a fusion at L5/S1 as I had spondylolisthesis and my discs were moving across my nerve anytime I bent in any direction. It was only going to continue to get worse and could possibly cause paralysis. My Neurosurgeon told me straight up that he couldn't guarantee me no pain let alone 100% but that he could and would stop anymore damage. Surgery went well, first two days weren't my best but that's kind of to be expected. I ended up with probably 80-90% improvement from before surgery.

Happy that you get to do something a bit less invasive for now and there's a plan in place for the future. Wishing you the best on the upcoming surgery.