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Revision TKR Woohoo I'm starting to feel better!

Hi @Nana moon 27, sounds like your day went well with your boss. So nice of her to even come over and to bring the flowers and treats, lovely. I am so sorry you were in pain and I hope by now the pain has subsided. Hope everything is good now and the medication has kicked in. No fun at all being in pain. Hope you have a restful night tonight.
 
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Hi @Nana moon 27, and friends. Hope everyone is doing well today. Ann, I hope your knee is better and the right hip? That may have to be looked at. It could be the over compensation that was done when the right knee was out of sorts, but worth having it checked out if pain continues. I have been plagued by backaches on and off. Wok up this am with one. Had a bad one yesterday afternoon with left sided shoulder, neck, and arm pain. Not certain what this is all about, but will have it check out if it continues. How is granddaughter doing? Even though she wasn't feeling well herself she was still looking to assist you. That is wonderful. So sweet. I turned the heated mattress pad cover on to help with the back pain last night and this am. The warmth does make the back feel better along with pain meds. A small group of us from my church are going to an orchard today for apple picking and pumpkin buying. The place also makes the best-sugar coated donuts and pumpkin cheese cake. I believe I mentioned this before. And someone mentioned that you guys across the waters don't have pumpkins there. Anyway will let you guys know how we fair. My mom is with me this weekend but home attendant will be here with me and she will do most of her care. Last night I couldn't even get her up from the chair with my arm hurting and back not far behind. Had to call for the younger son to come help me. Everyone have a good day and let's hope everyone is feeling better today. :loveshwr::loveshwr:
 
Hi @chestnc, yes, the supermarkets are full of pumpkins at the moment. I get cross that on Nov 1st it is impossible to buy one! I love pumpkin soup, but I can only make it now, in a couple of weeks the shelves will be cleared of pumpkins and full of Christmas cakes. It's still a seasonal vegetable and you'd think they would stock a few, but no, they are just for carving, not for soup making.
Sorry about your back pain, your heated mattress pad sounds a good idea.
@Nana moon 27, I'm sorry you are a bit down today, are you doing anything special for hubby's birthday, it sounds as if you could both do with a nice meal out for just the two of you - with someone else doing the clearing up!
I've just got in from the family meeting, we've agreed that we will keep Dad at home as long as we can, increasing the level of care as necessary. He has three visits a day at the moment,plus meals on wheels, and most days one of the family goes in, but he complains he is lonely. He doesn't want a home, he doesn't want to visit a day care centre, I'm trying to contact Age Concern about their volunteers visitor service, but I can't help but feel that he is luckier than most with what he gets at the moment. I tried to get through to my two brothers that they would have to step up their visits when I'm housebound after my TKR, they can't leave it all to my sister, but I don't think they really understand how long I will be unable to help for.
On a brighter note, in preparation for my grandson and DiL staying with us next week I've been buying suitable bedding for our spare single bed, as he is now too tall for the travel cot. I've found a great idea on Amazon, a bed bumper to prevent him falling out of bed. It's just a long polystyrene block that sits on the mattress on the side of the bed. You then put the mattress cover and fitted sheet over it and it makes a ridge which stops him rolling out. Cheap, easy to store when he isn't here, hopefully it will meet my DiLs high standards.
Just off to investigate small cars again, it looks as if we can't quite agree on figures on the original one we saw, and my husband feels they are asking too much, so off we go again.
Have a good weekend everyone xx
 
Hi @Ellejay


I overdid it when my husband took my sons little boy back. I cleaned the work tops, eight trips backwards and forwards from the sink to the worktop above the dishwasher, so I could load it. I Loaded the dishwasher and put it on, cleaned all the worktops, put things away and then cleaned up the living room. My knee has swelled up terribly. I'm in bed icing and elevating and cursing myself for my stupidity. I think I was concerned there might be a repetition of last night and I didn't need that tonight as well.

He's helped me to bed, made sure I've got everything I need and seems a little calmer.

Love Nana moon 27 xoxoxox
 
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I rested last night and slept with my ice pack around round my knee and elevated it for a few hours. It's seems fine today.

Tomorrow I'm going to reduce the Morphine by 10mg for the whole week and see how I get on. Next week it will be four weeks since my surgery x x

I start my physio on 24th October.

@Josephine I know you cannot tell me what to do but I could do with your advice please. I spoke to the surgeon the other day explaining how I had been duped by the other hospital. They said on 24th February after doing an X-ray on my left non TKR knee, that they would send for me for a follow up X-ray in September. They said that If the knee hadn't deteriorated too much, they would try to save it. Ok fine. My appointment came through In September. I went. The same extended scope practitioner that I saw in February was seeing me again and I thought oh great because she was really nice and listened to me the last time. Unusually I wasn't sent for an X-ray and when I went in she was dismissive and said there was duplication and that I was now discharged to the care of the stand in surgeon who did my knee. This involves a 40 minute drive from my house just to get there. I said no this is my local hospital (5 min drive) and that I was only seeing the other one as he was the standing surgeon for them. She argued the case. She said that she was sorry but that was that. I said to her about the fact that she herself on 24th February this year, had promised me an X-ray and review of my non TKR knee. She said no that I was now under the care of Mr S and that was that, he would sort it out for me. So I left absolutely furious that I'd wasted over an hour of my time.

Anyway sorry to ramble, back to Mr S. After telling him what had happened he asked me the date of the X-ray. He had a look and shook his head. He said that there was no gap between the kneecap and the joint, with tiniest amount of cartilage. His concern was that the X-ray was taken such a long time ago and that in his opinion the only thing that could have been offered apart from TKR is an arthroscopy. I a little reluctant but because of my financial predicament come January, I need to return to work. I'm angry because the extended scope practitioner had given me false hope, that the joint could be saved from her judgement on that X-ray!

He has sent me this diagnosis in the bottom of the review letter about my revision in which he is amazed at my progress. As follows: "X-ray done in February 2014; shows tricompartmental osteoarthritis, with severe arthritis in the patella femoral joint. She may benefit from arthroscopy and debridement of the left knee but we should wait until she recovers from the latest procedure of patella resurfacing. I have advised her to continue physiotherapy and we will review her again in here months, with X-ray on arrival of both knees. Then we should consider arthroscopy left knee".

Why did patella resurfacing and a new spacer joint take so long? I was awake with no sedation. I was in theatre 9.20-11.50. Weird.

To me this sounds like delaying tactics but I suppose I'll know more once the other X-ray is done. I just wanted to see what you thought about this Josephine please.

Thank you. Kindest regards
Nana moon 27 x
 
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Wow @Nana moon 27, You have been through the ringer and back. It will be interesting to see Josphine's reply to see what she thinks. I think you have been given quite the run-a-round. I hope today is a better day for you and hubby. Did you guys celebrate or plan to celebrate today. If hubby doesn't want anything today, you could see if he would want to do a little something next weekend. How is your right hip feeling? And how does the left knee feel?
 
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@Nana moon 27
I would need to look back over my thread to be totally accurate, but in think I had about a month of walking normally before my left knee started playing up. As I wasn't doing much for the weeks after the TKR my arthritis didn't really show up in my left knee, but the few weeks of 'taking the strain' for the right one really affected it. I don't want to be pessimistic on your behalf, and I know that no two people, or their knees are the same, but just be aware, once you do go back to work, if your left knee is bothering you now, it could be a problem sooner than you would want. I know Josephine recommends that we refuse the debridement part of an arthroscopy, but that is easier said than done. I did try to broach the subject with my OS, but I felt I had to agree that he would do what he felt to be necessary, which ended up with a debridement, and has left me with no cartilage.
I'm sorry, I hope you don't think I am being a misery, I just had to let you know my experience and thoughts on the subject.
On a brighter note, after driving to Beaconsfield this morning we have bought me a car, I suspect it will mainly be used as a very grand mobility scooter, I can go up the road to the gym, the pool and the local shops without having to ask to be driven and picked up again, I will have my independence again, yay! I'll be able to drive six weeks after my TKR, but as soon as my left knee can cope with a clutch we will sell it again,so I mustn't get attached to it.
 
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Hi @Nana moon 27 - gosh, so much for you to get your head around and get sorted. I'm only glad that the original knee seems to be doing what it should now, and you are recovering, albeit slowly. If you can reduce that morphine I think you will be deafened by the resounding cheers of the coffee club crew!
Josephine will undoubtedly provide a rational and calm opinion on what's been going on. I think if it was me - given that you want and need to go back to work, I wouldn't be pushing the for the second TKR. The surgeon's appraisal appears to be that you still have some time before it is absolutely necessary, which is why he is suggesting the next step to be an arthroscopy.
My own man saw me 3 years ago and the MRI showed total bone on bone along with a few other oddities, he said I had gone beyond the point where arthroscopy could provide relief, but still wouldn't recommend the TKR 'until I felt I really needed it'. @Ellejay advocates steering clear of arthroscopy if you can. Poor Lyn, mine have all been so helpful in the past, but it is worrying that the effect can be detrimental, as she has experienced. So I would be saying, recover, get your life back where it was before this 'annus horribilis' and if necessary put up with discomfort of the left knee until everything is on an even keel again. Then perhaps your kindly GP can refer you back to the original local hospital, as a new procedure and the stand in OS will be out of the frame and stop confusing matters.
I think you have been so embroiled with the problems, pain and mistakes with this first one, that you need a chance to clear your head and take a deep breath before taking the same path again.


Love to all

XXXX
 
Nana moon 27 said:
X-ray done in February 2014; shows tricompartmental osteoarthritis, with severe arthritis in the patella femoral joint. She may benefit from arthroscopy and debridement of the left knee but we should wait until she recovers from the latest procedure of patella resurfacing. I have advised her to continue physiotherapy and we will review her again in here months, with X-ray on arrival of both knees. Then we should consider arthroscopy left knee
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This statement is, in my opinion, very contradictory. On the one hand he says there is tricompartmental arthritis which means the entire joint but then he goes on to say that an arthroscopy should be considered with debridement. Now debridement means scraping the damaged areas in the joint, a procedure I am generally at pains to impress upon people is not a good thing to have done as it merely hastens the damage that the arthritis is doing on its own anyway! I am often puzzled why surgeons do this as though it gives an 'aesthetic finish' in the joint to the naked eye, as far as the patient it concerned it only makes matters worse in a very short time. And physiotherapy will do little or nothing to improve things either. So my advice is to say "thank you but no thank you" to the scope and press for the total replacement sooner rather than later.
Nana moon 27 said:
They said that If the knee hadn't deteriorated too much, they would try to save it. I'm angry because the extended scope practitioner had given me false hope, that the joint could be saved from her judgement on that X-ray!
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Well, she shouldn't have said that if the earlier xray already showed significant damage. A very foolish prediction to make in my opinion.
Nana moon 27 said:
Why did patella resurfacing and a new spacer joint take so long? I was awake with no sedation. I was in theatre 9.20-11.50. Weird.
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Well, if you were awake, you should have a better idea than I! Were you 'on the table' all that time? Or did you spend part of it in recovery?
Nana moon 27 said:
To me this sounds like delaying tactics
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Delaying what, exactly?
 
Hi @Josephine I was on the table all that time. Ok maybe so much of it was them doing the spinal but I was definitely in there until 11.50. I had no idea what was going on. There was the biggest blue sheet obscuring my view of anything at all. There was quite a bit of thumping as my body kind of 'bumped' up the bed but maybe that was the new spacer that they fitted. I went straight down to recovery until 5.15 as there was no bed for me until then. My referral to delaying tactics was delaying the inevitable TKR. I didn't make that very clear. Apologies x

Josephine, I have to say this time it feels completely different. It's so hard to describe something that feels completely different but this does.the shape of my knee, i never had a shape before (it was a large lump of swelling) My movement, straightening (which I could not before) is fabulous. There's not a lot of swelling apart from overdoing last night but that's gone right down. I'm walking quite well and feel like I don't need two sticks. I will be four weeks this week do you think I could go down to one or none sticks? I'm still in the house and feel quite confident to do so. I've done the short distance from the bedroom to the bathroom without. My legs feel strong although the left one isn't great x I'm able to do my exercises and start physio the end of this week xxx
 
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Josephine said:
Now debridement means scraping the damaged areas in the joint, a procedure I am generally at pains to impress upon people is not a good thing to have done as it merely hastens the damage that the arthritis is doing on its own anyway! I am often puzzled why surgeons do this as though it gives an 'aesthetic finish' in the joint to the naked eye, as far as the patient it concerned it only makes matters worse in a very short time.
Click to expand...
Totally agree, this is exactly what happened to me, but it is so difficult when the OS says he will do what he feels is necessary, to argue with him, after all, he is supposed to know best?
 
Well, things can sometimes be difficult, I can tell you that, and the surgeons can sometimes be left struggling to get a small prosthesis in place. In your case he had two items to place. It's amazing how the time can fly by when you have a problem like that.
 
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