OT - knee replacement surgery

I am scheduled to have my left knee replaced in December of 2014. I have been told two things:

A.) That I will be able to kneel on the artificial knee after the surgery, but it will feel awful to do so.

B.) That even though it feels awful to kneel on an artificial knee, it won't do any harm to the knee or my legs.

I find that I have to do a fair bit of kneeling looking after my apartment block and am concerned I may not be able to look after it if I can't kneel down.

I'm interested in hearing from people in here that have had knee replacement surgery who can tell me how bad the problem of kneeling will be. I am especially interested in hearing from people who've had their knees replaced or know people who have well enough to know if they can kneel, and how much discomfort there is associated with kneeling.

This is like a Y2K question. I've never had a knee replaced, and so I don't know how bad the kneeling problem will be. And ignorance is fertile ground for the imagination to run wild. I don't know if it will just feel a little bit uncomfortable or if it will be excruciatingly painful or where on that scale kneeling will fall. Hearing what people who've had this surgery done will help me know what I'm up against.

PS: Here in Winnipeg, the Concordia Hospital Hip and Knee Institute is a veritable hip and knee replacement factory. I've heard that they replace about 1600 knees a year there, and an approximately equal number of hips. Assuming 250 working days per year, that's about 6 knees and 6 hips every single working day of the year. It's no wonder that they get the patients up and walking within a day or two of the surgery; they have to get those people out to make room for the new people coming in! But, truth be told, I am glad I am living in a time when replacing knees and hips is medically feasible. When I was born, it wasn't. If you had bad arthritis in your knees or hips, you walked with a cane or a walker and that's just how things were. Now, they can replace worn out knees and hips with artificial ones that allow people to walk normally, run, ride a bicycle, climb a ladder and even dance. But, they just can't kneel comfortably.

Reply to
nestork
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Our prayers for a great outcome are with you.

For joints and such, highly recommend 'sports doctors' they KNOW their stuff!

Father in Law's knee replacement was not too bad until the therapist idiot over extended the joint causing excruciating pain that set back the healing process immensely. My father in law believed when the physical therapist was saying no pain no gain and made him feel like a wimp.

Don't know about kneeling, he was protestant ;)

Reply to
RobertMacy

Once you have ANY replacement joints you are at greater risk of a infection settling into the replacement joint location in your body:(

A good friend was a marathon runner who wore out his knee, so he had it rep laced and did well in therapy. But he got a staph infection that settled in his new knee. he was put on IV antibiotics..They did no good and tey had t o remove his new knee joint, He had a pin and foam pad, for 6 months till t he infection finally cleared up. then had to get a brand new knee again. he very nearly lost his leg.

I need a new knee, had to quit working at harbor freight, I got in so much knee pain I couldnt walk:( I tore my miniscus cartlidge bad at age 40 after a fall on ice. surgeon said I had no good cartlidge at all:( Today I am 57

Reply to
bob haller

...

This is like a Y2K question. I've never had a knee replaced, and so I don't know how bad the kneeling problem will be. And ignorance is fertile ground for the imagination to run wild. I don't know if it will just feel a little bit uncomfortable or if it will be excruciatingly painful or where on that scale kneeling will fall. Hearing what people who've had this surgery done will help me know what I'm up against.

...

Not have had personally; still dealing with the real ones altho amazingly the worse of them actually seems to have gotten somewhat better...

Anyway, my observation amongst the friends and family I know who have had is that it's all over the place

Reply to
dpb

I'm 65 had had them both replaced two years ago. I was in excellent shape otherwise and had minimal pain. First two days on a morphine drip then Tramidol for pain.

I became allergic to the pain killer so within two weeks I just took an occasional Tylenol as needed but soon, not even that.

Some fare worse...one guy I know just had a knee replaced a month ago and he said the pain is fairly bad...but what the heck, he's walking again...and I am sure the pain is temporary.

The worst part for me was the allergy to the pain meds. I itched like hell and became grouchy. The knee replacement was not that bad...but I was damned determined to do the PT!

Reply to
philo 

Hi. A fellow working in our store had both hips replacement done. First time he had to fight infection problem and took few months to recover. Second time it was a breeze. At 56 he's like a new man. I'll be 75 in October. I am just wondering about folks having knee/hip problems. Must be due to in part their career, gene, over weight(?), injury... So far I don't know what pain or headache is. Only problem is kidney failure due to genetic defects. Going on 20 years since the operation, I am still doing just fine. Take only minimum dose of 4 different anti-rejection drugs, that's it. Fortunately so far, not encountering side effects of those drugs.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I worked in a rough industrial environment...

also I used to job a lot.

Reply to
philo 

Hi, Yeah! I have two good friends who are triathlon marathoners. They have knee troubles. Pounding the road surface is hard on the body specially for women. Even with custom fit shoes costing hundreds of $$.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Typo, s/b "jog" of course.

I jogged until I was 40 when I slightly tore my cartilage. The damage was done.

BTW: The surgeon who replaced my knees is a jogger!

I hope he does not end up like me

Reply to
philo 

knee replacement surgery is BAD NEWS, for the morbidly obese. My surgeon sa id it invaribly fails, so when anyone 80 or 100 pounds or more comes in for a knee or hip replacement he refers them for weight loss surgery. Sadly on ly about 1% of the morbid obese are able to lose most of the weight and kee p it off 5 years:(

99% fail
Reply to
bob haller

I've not needed it - knock on wood - but a long time friend did. She had it done a bit over six months ago. She isn't a complainer so the fact that she had it done tells me that she was in considerable discomfort. She had figured she'd be good to go in a couple of months. She wasn't and isn't.

Gotta remember, this is a HUGELY invasive procedure...massive cutting, prying, poking etc. It is going to take a long while to heal and (guessing) I don't think you should plan on kneeling for many weeks. FWIW, there are less invasive types of surgery requiring only 4-5" of cutting. Apparently, there is some debate over its efficacy compared to the normal one and to long term effects; nevertheless, if it were me, I'd check it out.

My only experience along this vein was having a synovial cyst removed from a knee about 40 years ago. For a couple of days post surgery I was unable to move the keg...I could try, it would not respond. The cut was about

4".

I was out of the hospital in a about 3-4 days. I was back in 3 days later with a pulmonary embolism, double pneumonia and phlebitis. I was there for a month but was only "out of it" for about a week...the rest of the time was for anti-coagulant shots. Took oral anti-coagulant for months. I mention these things to bump your awareness of possible adverse side effects, especially blood clots.

I had little trouble with the knee itself but it was a year before I was totally unaware of it. No way I would have been able to kneel for at least a month even if I had not had the complications.

Good luck to you.

Reply to
dadiOH

On Fri, 1 Aug 2014 04:29:39 -0700 (PDT), bob haller wrote in

And there are a lot of morbidly obese people in the U.S.

But keep in mind that even if the surgery invariably fails a few years down the road, the medical people still got paid.

Reply to
CRNG

And when the computer or your car invariably fails, you get your money back from the company? The OEM joint wore out, why shouldn't the replacement?

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Unfortunately, gentlemen, I don't have very much choice in the matter.

I cannot enjoy the remainder of my life with my knees the way they are, so it comes down to a matter of limping and hobbling around in pain for the rest of my days, or having the knee(s) replaced and hoping for the best.

That is, it's more of an unavoidable necessity than it is a "choice". "Choice" is the word you use when you have other feasible options, and that's not the case here.

Reply to
nestork

I write a lot about ortho stuff for the various magazines I work for. There are two main keys to a successful knee replacement. 1 is religious following of the PT, especially in the first month or two. Second is the volume of the surgeon and the hospital. The more they do, the better they get. However, some recent studies suggest that the mega providers (doing more than 500 a year) may actually have lower quality outcomes related to slightly higher infection rates. From discussions with patients, be aggressive with pain management for the first few weeks. Don't try to gut it out because it will just make movement harder, whicb makes the PT harder and also may increase the possibility for blood clots if you aren't up and moving about. Good luck.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

I didn't mean to imply that you should not have it done, just pointing out that the recovery is going to tale a while.

Reply to
dadiOH

I had it done a couple of years ago. Best decision that I ever made. Knee is in perfect shape, if I have to kneel a lot, I use a small pillow under the knee - no big deal, entirely comfortable. As a result of the surgery, my knee cap is thin. The surgeon told me to insure that during rehab they do not press hard on the knee cap, told the rehab folks, no problem. I was walking within 24 hours of the surgery with assistance, climbing steps up and down 3 days later. Down is harder than up. Lead with the new knee. Good luck, hth

Reply to
shellyf_DELETE_

So is working as a mechanic. So far I've just had arthroscopic surgery on one for a badly torn meniscus but I stopped torturing my knees for a living about 26 years ago, so I'm getting by. Good friend (a welder, among other things) just had both knees done 2 years ago and he is almost 5 years younger than me. Hasn't slowed him down much

- less kneeling pain than before the surgery but he DOES tend to sit more and kneel less.

Reply to
clare

Get 'em done. You'll likely curse yourself for putting it off as long as you have. Way better than 90% have good to very good results over the last 5-10 years. Friend has both done within a year's time. 2 different brands/styles. The first one gave better range of motion than the second. Knees take longer to heal than hips, even though hips are more intrusive (larger cuts) because the hip is a simpler joint.

Reply to
clare

I've had both knees replaced in the Comox, BC Hospital over the last two years. I did everything I was told to do, in partucular, the pre-op excerises. My results have been excellent. Similarly, I have heard of few complaints from others. From my experience, those who do not do the prescribed excercises are the ones with probelems. Forgive the gloat, but, thanks to working my knees at my gym, the orthopod told me not to bother with coming back for the 6 month check.

During the five hour pre-op course given by the physiothereapists we were told that, in terms of outcomes, Canada is the best country to get joint surgery done. Plus, the replacements used last up to 25 years. That was encouraging to us nervous folks. Actually, the worst part of joint replacement is waiting for the operation. After, its all downhill.

Personally, I can't kneel on a bare surface without some pain. Kneeling on a rug isn't too bad for a short time. However, a four inch foam cusion works well. For example, I recently regrouted a tile floor with no problems. When crawling around my crawlspace, good quality knee pads ($35.00+) are adequate, but not as good as the cushion. However, with only one operative knee you should have no problems at all; that is, the good knee can be used for kneeling.

The thing to do is get it done. You will wonder why you waited so long. People will go out of their way to relate horror stories - ignore them.

During the three days in hospital, there was no pain. Also there was no pain for about two days after going home while the hospital drugs were still effective. Then I began Tylenol 3s. (Tramacet is another option). Thus my pain was well controlled by meds, but there was discomfort. For about three weeks it was difficult to find comfortable way to rest the operative knee. You end up moving the knee around a bit seeking comfort. Something you have to wait out.

Once you have had your pre-op course, talk to OR booking to state you are available anytime in the event of a cancellation. Get it done and do all the excercises buy the book :)

Gary

Reply to
G Mulcaster

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