Saw the bone Dr today. I have almost nothing between the bones of my knee. Trying shots to see if that will help. But it looks like I will neew the knee replaced. Anyone go through this? What are your thoughts.
Join the club. According to my doctor, my right knee is “bone-against-bone.” But I can’t have it replaced until several months following my heart surgery, which won’t be until spring or summer. One cortisone shot fixed my left knee problem, but multiples have no effect on the right one. The greatest amount of pain is on steps, especially down . . . that’s the only time when they both hurt. So there are some days when I pop ibuprofen like candy.
I had my left knee replaced 18 months ago and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. Having said that it was really really painful after the op and I haven’t recovered the full range of movement and probably never will. The difference it has made to me is that I can walk without pain, go downstairs and inclines without pain and swim much faster.
My advice if you go ahead with the op is to get yourself moving as soon as you can and to do what the physio tells you and more. The biggest problem I had was that the pain was agonising when I lay down flat (as in when I was trying to sleep). It really was unbearable and I spent two months or so sleeping in a chair with my legs propped on a rest. Googling found me a knee replacement forum and I found out I was not the only one.
The good news as regards the pain is that now I can’t really remember it 
Not me, but my husband, aunt, and father-in-law have all three had replacements within the past couple of years. My husband says that it was the best personal medical decision he’s ever made, and that he felt better the day he had the surgery than in years. Recovery was rough, and PT was rougher, but after three months he was back at work, and more mobile than he’s been in several years. My aunt was a wimp about physical therapy, and her recuperation was quite a lot slower than it should have been, as a result. Looking back, though, she regrets delaying the surgery and not cooperating with PT sooner. Nowadays, instead of being cooped up at home in the recliner, she is traveling, going horseback riding, and taking dance lessons. In both cases, increased mobility has also allowed Tony and Aunt R to lose significant amounts of weight, breaking that ugly cycle of poor mobility -> weight gain -> poorer mobility, etc. My father-in-law had surgery in October, and is not inclined to follow anyone’s orders about anything. He’s currently fighting a pretty bad infection, thanks to non-compliance and poorly-managed diabetes. (This is a man who routinely washes down his diabetes medicine with a beer, though, to give you an idea of how stupid he is about medical issues.)
The moral of the story seems to be that you have to work for a good outcome, but it’s worthwhile if you do.
My mom had this done last summer at 80 years. Her knee doesn’t hurt, but she has not got her stamina back. But that is surgery for the aged. She was recommended a portable refrigeration unit that circulated cold water around the knee during the recovery, and she thinks that this was very helpful, so you might want to look into that. It was about $150 and insurance didn’t cover it.
My g/f just had her left knee replaced on Friday. She’s in the “what-in-the-hell-was-I-possibly-thinking” stage right now, but she’s getting better every day. You don’t say your age but she’s only 38. A few years ago they wouldn’t have even considered replacing her knee at that age but now they say statistically she will have a 20% chance of requiring a replacement in her lifetime.
It’s apparently an “easy” surgery as it takes less than an hour. They had her up and walking (assisted) within 5 hours of the surgery. Simply amazing.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I’ll be happy to help.
A recommendation I got from a salesman that sold all the various stuff the ortho docs install in you (pins, screws, artificial joints etc)
Was the quality of work can vary, so find a doc that does a lot of knees and comes recommended by his patients.
Yup, do your PT religiously. It’s a bastard but it will pay off.
My mother has had both knees replaced, four years apart. For the second one, she came to stay with me during her recovery, and I was her PT: 8 exercises, up to 10 reps each, 4 times daily. It was hard work for both of us.
While she was staying here, Mr. S and I had tickets to see Ronny Cox (yup, from Deliverance) perform his folk singer-songwriter stuff at a local venue. He is sweet as pie, always greets everyone at the door. I heard him telling someone at the break that he’d had a knee replaced, and I mentioned to him my mother’s recent surgery. He said, “Make sure she does her exercises!” 
Ah, following Ruby’s lead: hubby was 41 when he had surgery, Aunt R was 63, and FIL is 61. While Aunt R was recuperating at the nursing home, she shared a room with an 82-year-old ladt who had simultaneous double replacement, whose recovery was faster than my aunt’s. (Said lady actually did PT instead of whining about it!)
And yes, as with any procedure, an experienced surgeon is a good idea!
I’m down to bone-on-bone at age 54, and am currently at the cortisone-shot-stage, and the shots do help make things more tolerable…but only for a few weeks. Next step is the SynVisc stuff and THEN the blessed Knee Replacement. I truly can’t wait…the thought of being able to walk again pain-free will make any discomfort during recovery tolerable. All the little old ladies at church who see me limping come up to me and say, “Get those knees replaced! Best thing ever!” I broke my toe tonight and between not being able to put weight on the one foot and the knee pain, I’m so miserable I feel like parking at the ortho’s door and begging him to do it NOW!
Thanks everyone.
I am begining to come to grips with it may be the way to go. A little back ground so you will know where I am coming from.
I am 64, work as a stationary engineer maintaining two high rise office buildings. Three man crew, 1 chief, 1 journeyman, & 1 ulitility (entry level). If I am off they will have bring in a temp to replace me. The chief will have a fit, he really does not understand how the plant works.
I have 30 days sick time on the books. I already need my left knee operated on torn meniscus. Being 64 and being off work for a long time is not what I want.
Again eveyone thanks.
Wow that sounds lovely. I think one of those knee bending m,achines I’ve heard about would have been beneficial. Straight after the op I couldn’t bend my knee at all and it was very hard to get it started.
I’m 54 btw. It’s an early age to get it done on the NHS. I pointed out to them that my weight was only going to go up if I couldn’t walk and said I was fed up with being the one who sat with the coats at the park.
Before the op see if you can’t get a program of muscle strengthening exercises and maybe do some non weight bearing exercise like aquafit or swimming – and after the op do some more. I do an aquafit session once a week and I could track my progress each session. Once you start making progress it gets better amazingly quickly.
What is SynVisc when it’s at home?
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
SynVisc can be really good stuff. I had it injected into my ankle joint maybe 10 years ago, with the caveat that it might not work, and if it did, the pain relief would likely last for a year or two. The actual injections were a bitch (the ankle swelled up so badly after the first one that I was back on crutches for a few days), but once it kicked in, the pain relief lasted for years, much longer than expected.
As my ortho put it at the time, “just think of it as a lube job.” It’s basically synthetic cartilage derived from chicken combs. Not fun, but beats the hell out of major surgery, and might be worth a shot (no pun intended) before you decide to do a knee replacement. Can’t hurt to ask about it.
Oh, and for sure you want a doctor who specialize in knees, and who is at least willing to talk about alternatives to surgery.
Yes, Tony had a couple of rounds of SynVisc before replacement, and the injections themselves weren’t fun, but it was a temporary help. (Think of it as FixAFlat for your knee - you won’t go long distances on it, but it’ll let you limp along until you can get a more permanent fix.)
30 days sick time – you should be OK.
I had a knee replacement about seven years ago. As others have said above, it was the best thing I ever did. I could barely walk before. Afterwards, it’s like there was never a problem. I don’t think I ever got back 100% range of motion, but then I’m not an athlete or anything, so I don’t really miss it.
I had the operation on a Thursday and was back at work the following Thursday. Really. Of course, I have a desk job, but I got to work and back on the subway every day, walked around the office (on crutches for a couple of days, then with a cane, then with nothing). So you may not be out for a long time.
I was younger than you – 44 or 45 when I had the surgery. I’ve also been told that weight is a factor in recovery, and I’m pretty lightweight for my height. So maybe a week before returning to work is a low estimate. But it shouldn’t be too long.
The surgeon and a physical therapist came to my hospital room the day after surgery, and got me on my feet. Really, I could walk the next day. I remember that on the next day, two days after surgery, I snuck out of the hospital and down to the sidewalk for a smoke (which really pissed off the security guard, who didn’t want to let me out, and then didn’t want to let me back in, but screw him).
Good luck. Happy to answer any questions you may have.
Don’t worry – this stuff works. Really.
Here’s a question:
My partner has to travel a lot for business. My greatest fear is that I won’t have him home to help out during all of my recovery. Have any of you been “home alone” during recovery, and were you able to take care of yourself (especially on stairs)? And if your right knee was replaced, how long until you were able to drive?
I was pretty much alone for my recovery and was perfectly fine. although I’m pretty skilled on a pair of crutches, lots of experience. I was walking around the block 3 days after I got home, and this was Jan in Minnesota.
The hardest part of the whole thing for me were weeks 4 though 6. I was expecting to be so much farther along regarding range of motion and pain levels. I was pretty depressed. Things really started moving forward after that.
I think the best thing I did for myself, was to set a tough rehab schedule and stick to it no matter what. I did my own rehab program at home…again I have alot of experience recovering from catastrophic knee injuries. It also helped that I managed to find a doc that I could convince to prescribe me pain meds for a year while I worked out and got my quads back before surgery. They dont cut in to the quads anymore, but they are pretty sore for a long time after surgery, so it helps to have them in good shape before hand. The 10 days of opiate withdrawls were a bitch, but looking back, it was worth it.
One more thing I’d recommend is to get one of those elevated toilet seats. It makes things much easier.
I had my left knee done, so I was driving shortly after surgery, when I wasnt drug-addled. I imagined that I could have driven 4 to 6 weeks post surgery if I had the right one done.
A friend did this about 2 years ago. She was in her mid-50s at the time and had been through it all - injections of joint fluid (e.g. Synvisc and the like), cortisone shots, and some arthroscopies (two on one knee, one on the other) and was still in constant pain.
As I told my own orthopedist (seen for my own knee pain) “She’s kicking herself - or would if she could - for not doing it sooner”.
Yes, she still has some discomfort but a LOT less than before the surgery. IIRC, she took about 4-6 weeks off work after each one. She spent 3-4 days in the hospital after each one, then went home with a continuous passive motion machine that she had to use pretty much all the time she was awake, as well as some weeks of physical therapy. She had the second one done about 6 months after the first.
We’re thinking that at some point I’ll need to have it done myself (same age, roughly) though my knee pain got enough better that it’s not nearly as urgent as a year or so back.
There’s a tradeoff between having it done younger when you’re in good shape and recover faster, or older when you know it’s almost certain to be a lifetime deal. The lifespan of knee replacements is still an open question - I think they’re predicting 20+ years (though I could be wrong) but hoping they’ll last a LOT longer.