BikerGuy
new member
Hi guys.
After some PM with Josephine, I thought it best to make a new account.
I've been very (very) close to De dica ted_ D ad for years and years, in fact, noone can really tell us apart...
but...
Let's just say the infamous D D has good reasons for not disclosing his location in places where Google might pick it up, and therefore thought it best to make a new account. Please don't type the other D D name here...
I've posted as "BikerGuy" on another knee forum, so.... I don't really know why I picked that - I love to ride - had a MC lic. before a car lic. - but am nothing like a stereotype "Biker"... Still, I did create this mess on the bike, so...
So... I drove to the Big City today, to meet with broken link removed: https://www.hopkinsorthogsh.com/CV.DSH.pdf* and the current Chief of Orthopedic Surgery (AKA broken link removed: https://www.hopkinsorthogsh.com/MH%20CV.pdf - an eminent surgeon in his own right, Top-Dog at JH Ortho next to Dad) at the world-famous hospital's Joint Replacement Center. Nothing like sitting on the paper-covered bench while two -- TWO -- of the world's best surgeons are checking you out...
We talked a bit about options - I was determined to try to convince them to fix the spacer, but they led me there anyway. The knee is loose, and will be unstable. They don't see the point in working to solve the pain problems now, knowing I'll be back in a few months complaining of the instability I haven't yet been able to exercise.
They could give me a high-dollar custom made brace which I'd need to wear all the time, but... Gee - didn't I just have a major surgery to eliminate the need for such a thing?
So, here's the scoop: I go in a month from now (I know...) and they're going to open me up, test out a few thicker plastic components and see if they'll make it right.
If not, they're going to tear the whole thing out and start over, installing a whole new knee prosthesis.
They're already planning 3 days inpatient then release to rehab - though the spacer-only option would be preferable, neither is a minor thing.
On the bright side, when I wake up it will be as good as it can be - no "that'll have to do..." about it. On the downside, I held off as long as I did (6 years) because they've told me from the beginning that I'll only get two. I hope like heck not to have to waste them both now, but... If it can make this right, and I can get something like 20 good years... I'll take it.
The fact is that I don't know if I'll live another 20 years. Further, I DO know that I DO NOT WANT another 20 if I have to live them like this. I'm an otherwise healthy and fit man in his early 40's, and I'm damn tired of being a crippled old man decades before my time.
"Whatever it takes, Doc - Please... Just. FIX. it."
Apparently that was the right answer.
I can't help but wonder if he was trying to see how serious I was about the pain - if I'm willing to agree to possibly tear-out-and-start-over then it must be bad, and thus worth the trouble to change the plastic?
Neither is a trivial operation, though the plastic-change is obviously preferable to a total revision...
They haven't seen the make/model of implant I have before - they don't use this one. They have to contact my original Doc and find out what this is, then ask the manufacturer for a selection of thicker spacers... Hopefully that will do it.
OTOH, this will make it harder for the disability jerks to continue denying my claim - if these two eminent surgeons agree I need a total revision then obviously my claims of inability to work since May must have SOME validity - no?
The downside is that this means it will be early next year before I'm fit to work- even longer than I'd expected... As I have no income, no job to go back to, and have been denied the disability insurance I paid for past May 15, this is ugly. At least they'll feed me in the rehab/hospital...
I'm working on the disability appeal, but that will take me a month to get it together and they can take 90 days before rubber-stamping the denial, after which I basically have no recourse.
Ah, helll... Sorry for rambling... My point is that I now know what's next, and how long it's likely to take to get over it.
Now, if I can just hold onto the house...
DD
* broken link removed: https://www.hopkinsorthogsh.com/CV.DSH.pdf is literally one of the top few Joint Replacement surgeons on the planet. He served as Chief of Ortho at said world-famous hospital, and the Chief of Surgery at the Joint Replacement center. His CV was just shy of 200 pages. He was the one who finally figured out what's wrong with my knee.
After some PM with Josephine, I thought it best to make a new account.
I've been very (very) close to De dica ted_ D ad for years and years, in fact, noone can really tell us apart...
but...
Let's just say the infamous D D has good reasons for not disclosing his location in places where Google might pick it up, and therefore thought it best to make a new account. Please don't type the other D D name here...
I've posted as "BikerGuy" on another knee forum, so.... I don't really know why I picked that - I love to ride - had a MC lic. before a car lic. - but am nothing like a stereotype "Biker"... Still, I did create this mess on the bike, so...
So... I drove to the Big City today, to meet with broken link removed: https://www.hopkinsorthogsh.com/CV.DSH.pdf* and the current Chief of Orthopedic Surgery (AKA broken link removed: https://www.hopkinsorthogsh.com/MH%20CV.pdf - an eminent surgeon in his own right, Top-Dog at JH Ortho next to Dad) at the world-famous hospital's Joint Replacement Center. Nothing like sitting on the paper-covered bench while two -- TWO -- of the world's best surgeons are checking you out...
We talked a bit about options - I was determined to try to convince them to fix the spacer, but they led me there anyway. The knee is loose, and will be unstable. They don't see the point in working to solve the pain problems now, knowing I'll be back in a few months complaining of the instability I haven't yet been able to exercise.
They could give me a high-dollar custom made brace which I'd need to wear all the time, but... Gee - didn't I just have a major surgery to eliminate the need for such a thing?
So, here's the scoop: I go in a month from now (I know...) and they're going to open me up, test out a few thicker plastic components and see if they'll make it right.
If not, they're going to tear the whole thing out and start over, installing a whole new knee prosthesis.
They're already planning 3 days inpatient then release to rehab - though the spacer-only option would be preferable, neither is a minor thing.
On the bright side, when I wake up it will be as good as it can be - no "that'll have to do..." about it. On the downside, I held off as long as I did (6 years) because they've told me from the beginning that I'll only get two. I hope like heck not to have to waste them both now, but... If it can make this right, and I can get something like 20 good years... I'll take it.
The fact is that I don't know if I'll live another 20 years. Further, I DO know that I DO NOT WANT another 20 if I have to live them like this. I'm an otherwise healthy and fit man in his early 40's, and I'm damn tired of being a crippled old man decades before my time.
"Whatever it takes, Doc - Please... Just. FIX. it."
Apparently that was the right answer.
I can't help but wonder if he was trying to see how serious I was about the pain - if I'm willing to agree to possibly tear-out-and-start-over then it must be bad, and thus worth the trouble to change the plastic?
Neither is a trivial operation, though the plastic-change is obviously preferable to a total revision...
They haven't seen the make/model of implant I have before - they don't use this one. They have to contact my original Doc and find out what this is, then ask the manufacturer for a selection of thicker spacers... Hopefully that will do it.
OTOH, this will make it harder for the disability jerks to continue denying my claim - if these two eminent surgeons agree I need a total revision then obviously my claims of inability to work since May must have SOME validity - no?
The downside is that this means it will be early next year before I'm fit to work- even longer than I'd expected... As I have no income, no job to go back to, and have been denied the disability insurance I paid for past May 15, this is ugly. At least they'll feed me in the rehab/hospital...
I'm working on the disability appeal, but that will take me a month to get it together and they can take 90 days before rubber-stamping the denial, after which I basically have no recourse.
Ah, helll... Sorry for rambling... My point is that I now know what's next, and how long it's likely to take to get over it.
Now, if I can just hold onto the house...
DD
* broken link removed: https://www.hopkinsorthogsh.com/CV.DSH.pdf is literally one of the top few Joint Replacement surgeons on the planet. He served as Chief of Ortho at said world-famous hospital, and the Chief of Surgery at the Joint Replacement center. His CV was just shy of 200 pages. He was the one who finally figured out what's wrong with my knee.
United States
