topic Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements....... in Wellness

@Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 21:57:16 GMT

How is your recuperation with your knee replacements coming along, @Annabellethecat if you don't mind sharing? Hopefully, I can dodge that bullet but today was not a good day for me. I overdid exercising. Walked a mile as well as took a cardio class and Zumba class. Now I can hardly walk. If I sit down too long, my right knee doesn't want to bend without pain. Very stiff.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Annabellethecat66 — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 22:44:28 GMT

@Mmsfoxxie Well....hummm?? My knee(s). The left one is doing great. But the right one...well..it's not so good. It just doesn't want to heal and the spot is small (really small). The Dr said it must be the Igg (blood thing) keeping from healing quickly.

Anyway, I don't think it has anything to do with it but when I sit down it hurts when I get up and bend it sitting. I KNOW it's from not being able to exercise it like I used to. When I came from rehab neither one hurt. I also know (back Dr told me the stupid back is worse than ever and it's keeping me from being able to bend the dumb thing easily). The knee Dr (they are different Drs) said he doesn't want me to exercise it. Meanwhile I think it's turning to chopped liver as far as the muscle. Boo Hoo! I'll just have to catch up.

Next trip (in about 2 or so weeks) I go back to the back Dr and he is going to start putting steroids, etc into my back. It doesn't hurt much. You lay under an X-ray machine and he injects stuff into the muscles and facets, etc. That's just the start.....

Anyway (bet you wish you hadn't asked)...Ha! All in all, if I could just get this dumb back straight, I'd be getting out those amazing go-go boots.....

Just be careful you don't walk and move so that your knee(s) don't hurt because that will throw off your posture and your back will start hurting (that's what happened to my youngest (turning 36 in a day or two) daughter. She stepped in a pot hole and broke a bone in her foot, has been wearing a 'boot' and now she has had a backache from (well...way down south)....

She's been getting massages and going to a chiropracter and it has helped for a short time.

I really get a lot of sympathy these days because she now knows how bad an aching back can feel, unfortunately. No one ever wants their kid to have any pain....Hopefully she'll get it straight.

You know @Mmsfoxxie I still relize I'm lucky because other than this stuff I'm in pretty good health, I have amazing daughters and family and my late husband left me comfortable....no real complaints.

Hope you are having a good 4th. If you lived near me....we'd probably be friends. I'm friends with@ECBG

here and @LoriLori They're both wonderful people.

Anyway, please let me know how you are doing. If it bothers you for awhile, you might want to just go to a good orthopedic Dr and make sure all is OK and it just needs a rest.

When I was 18 I was in a very bad car accident and broke my back in 3 places. It healed and didn't bother me for years. But when I was 19 I was in another car accident and they thought I'd broken both kneecaps, but I didn't. So there's a reason for these old woman boo boo(s). I figured sooner or later it would crop up....it is what it is.

I just am telling you this stuff so you don't worry because your knee is bothering you you are on your way to replacement. There's a reason for my stuff....

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:18:22 GMT

@Annabellethecat66, thanks so much for sharing. I was hoping that since I hadn't seen you mention problems, that you were ok. You still probably will. Both knees had their particular problem so the healing is just different.

Yes, we're all lucky in our way. There have been many a time that I didn't have to worry about insurance rates going up or tax increases, lol. We are doing well enough but I'm full of what ifs.

I'm under the care of an orthopedic doctor right now. In fact, I'm had three sets of knee injections. The left knee isn't bad but the right knee acts up a lot. I sleep with a pillow under it at night because that keeps the stiffness not be as bad in the morning.

Today is bad bad because I thought I was Forty, I guess. Felt ok while I was working out but by the time I got home, I could barely get out of the car.

It does seem unusual for a doctor to tell you not to exercise your knee but I'm sure he knows best. Again, thanks for sharing. Next year this time, you will be perfect.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Annabellethecat66 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:27:36 GMT

@Mmsfoxxie It's because when I flex the knee and 'put it under me' bent he thinks it 'helps' open up the wound.

The skin is still tight over both knees but it's stretching out. It's just frustrating about this stupid right knee. My brain wants to go but my knee and back says, "No".

I have had so many shots in my knees over the years. I was able to put off the operation by getting the shots. It's usually a series of 3 sets of shots.

I think one day there will be something available where we won't have to have the knee cap replaced, but they'll just put in a new pad (maybe even from a cadaver). I keep wondering if they'll start clicking or making noise. Ha! I read where that might happen, but it hasn't so far.

I was told I'd get a card to carry when I set off alarms at airports but no one has mentioned it. All they have to do is look at the X-ray machine or the big "C" scars.

I hope your pain goes away. It stinks when you want to do things and you can't.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

ECBG — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:44:16 GMT

@Annabellethecat66,I wish I could come get you for barbque!

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Annabellethecat66 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:45:24 GMT

@ECBG Hope you had a nice 4th of July. You need the rest after all you've been through lately. Take care sweet girl.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

ECBG — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:45:25 GMT

@Annabellethecat66,Are you home alone?

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

ECBG — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:48:17 GMT

@Annabellethecat66 wrote:
@ECBG Hope you had a nice 4th of July. You need the rest after all you've been through lately. Take care sweet girl.

@Annabellethecat66,Thank you love. The other day was heart wrenching and I'm still on shakey ground. His brother, whom I also taught, hugged me so tightly he lifted me. It was so hard.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Kachina624 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:48:29 GMT

@Mmsfoxxie The first time or two those injections help some, then they rapidly become ineffective. They don't want to give too many because they're steroids and not good for you. At this point, as @Annabellethecat66 says, you're on your way to a knee replacement.

Same with the back injections, Annabelle, I spent weeks one summer going to a pain mgmt specialist and each time, he'd inject a different spot, trying to find the "sweet spot". He never found it so all those injections were for nought.

I also went for several sessions of radio frequency abalation and that didn't help me either. I've taken every kind of drug, tried every procedure anyone suggested and nothing has helped my back. Hope you have better luck. Mine started when I was in college and took a bad spill when jumping a horse.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Annabellethecat66 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 01:48:47 GMT

Waiting for a call from my daughter in Denver. She's at the Rockies game. We have a routine where she does facetime with me during the games.

Also my daughter in Florida said she'd call me when her girls get to bed. She'd better call soon. I'm ready for bed!

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

CLHS68 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 02:00:52 GMT

Bless you having both knees done at once. I just had my right one done a few weeks ago. They are pleased with my recovery so far. I still have to gain strength. Just wanted to say I ask the therapist about doing both at once and he told me one usually lags behind when both are done at once so perhaps that is some of your problem.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 02:09:40 GMT

Glad you're recovering well, @CLHS68

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 02:17:33 GMT

@Kachina624, that's exactly what's happening. In 2014, I had my first one and it was like a miracle, almost no pain. In 2015, worked but not quite as well. In May, I received my third. Not as good. I get SynvisOne which I don't think is a steroid. It made up of rooster feathers or something.

My doctor suggested that I come back in six months. I told him that was too soon and he said that you can now get them more often. I didn't believe him. I almost bone to bone in the right knee. By the time I have to have a replacement, my plan F might not pay all of the cost anymore.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 02:24:19 GMT

@Annabellethecat66, at the facility that I go for working out, there are several people that I see walking around with a straight line down the front of their knee. I always ask them if they are better and it's half and half saying things are better. One of the instructors looks to be only in her early forties or fifties. Probably had an accident. She says hers turned out perfectly. Being young probably helped.

Hope your back gets better, too.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Kachina624 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 04:57:41 GMT

@Mmsfoxxie I thought you were referring to the cortisone shots but the Synvisc is similar in the way people react to it. It was made from the combs of roosters but now they've got it new and improved. I never had it because I talked to too many people who thought it was just a big rip-off to make doctors rich.

I think anyone on Medicare ought to have their surgeries ASAP. Who knows what it'll cover and how much later.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Annabellethecat66 — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 15:55:54 GMT

@Mmsfoxxie My is only complicated by my back. I'd definitely say I'm much better off after having knee replacement. I always say, "From the minute I hopped (yes hopped) down from the operating table to the hospital bed, I heard the angels singing". I am saying, I had almost no pain from the very beginning. Really, hard to believe but I had very little pain (if you knew how bad I was BEFORE the operation, you'd understand.

I can't complain about the knee, it isn't because of the operation, it's because of my back. I can feel the pull from the back muscle down to the back of the knee.

I'd advise ANYONE who needs knee surgery if the other knee is bad, please don't wait (unless it isn't that bad) to think, "I'll get the other one done in a few months". If you think about it, there isn't much difference in getting both done (again, if it is necessary).

There was no way the other knee would support the new knee, it was that bad.

Never regretted any of it for one minute. I think if people don't put in the 'work" of exercising your knees, you'll regret it. One reason my knee is still bothering me when I sit for a long time is because I'm not able to work it out like I should.

It will all come in time. I know that because it's up to me and I will see to it that it works out. Ha!

Gotta get those go go white boots a' workin'!

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 16:40:05 GMT

Glad that you see the rainbow at the end of the tunnel @Annabellethecat66.

It's a hard decision for me because they don't hurt all of the time. Just in the morning for a few minutes or when I overwork them, like yesterday. Then there's the putting a pillow under the right one at night for sleep. When I'm up and about, there is no pain. I walk very well, even fast. Can't wear high heels, though because it's hard to get up with them on from a low chair plus I have arthritis in my feet which can't be fixed.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Meowingkitty — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 18:48:29 GMT

I'm having my right knee done in October. My doctor uses a muscle sparing technique that decreases the incision size and he doesn't have to cut into the muscle thereby less pain and a quicker healing time. I'm kinda nervous but kinda want to get it done.

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Annabellethecat66 — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 23:59:38 GMT

@Mmsfoxxie Went back to the Dr yesterday (his office called me this morning and said I should come in. I went in and Dr looked at it, cleaned it and said it was slightly infected, put medicine on it and gave me some. He said it hurts because the body is TRYING to heal it and sending extra blood to the knee causing it to swell....(GREAT)! Ha!

Anyway, I have to go back again next Thursday. If you could see how small the spot is it's just stupid all of this for this tiny boo boo....stay tuned. I never do anything easy. Yuck!

Re: @Annabellethecat, regarding your knee replacements.......

Mmsfoxxie — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 00:18:28 GMT

That's great that the healing is progressing well, @Annabellethecat66. I'm assuming you're talking about the slower healing knee?

All of the knees that I have seen have a long vertical scar. One lady told me that she didn't mind it because her pain was so much better. I've seen several because I exercise at a health center where quite a few seniors go and there is a physical therapy clinic within it. I guess the clinic tells them to get regular exercise. A lot of hip replacement recipients are there, too. I can usually tell by the way they walk.