Any one had knee replacement?

Hi Gang,
well as if I haven't had enough medical issues in my life, here we go again.
Brief story… About ten years ago my left knee started hurting with everything I did, Long story short, it was drained of fluid 4 times them operated on and fixed, So far so good… Well for the last 2 months, my "right" knee slowly started hurting to the point that 2 fridays ago I couldn't stand the pain any longer and went to clinic on base. Knee was swelled size of cantaloupe and got sent to ortho specialist ASAP and he drained 120cc's "what ever that is" it was 2 big syringes of fluid from my knee, Then shot it with cortisone. I have to go back Wednesday but he said the x-rays and showing "crunchy" stuff in there and the fluid has funny stuff in it.
He said they were testing it for lymes disease and other stuff. He said I may be a candidate for a knee replacement. I'm a bit reluctant because Dr.'s have carved into me for many years and I'm a bit fearful to be honest. He also said they will most likely go in and clean out some fragments and deposits I have in the joint and that will give me some time.

Any thoughts please?? Thanks!

Dave.

 

My wife has had 2 total hip replacements and one knee replacement. Her other knee is bothering her quite a bit now but she feels very strongly about it. "There will be no knee surgeries in my future!" She gets around great but the problem comes with getting down and then getting back up. The knee has bothered much more than the hips ever did.

She did have a short recovery time with hips and knees but again, what she hates is that she is not as mobil as before. Oh, climbing is a bit of a struggle too.

 

Thanks for the thoughts all, Thanks Rotti! I may be discussing more with you if you don't mind after Wednsday, I'll see what the Doc has up his sleeve. I just can't go on much longer with drugs and pain, I hate even taking an aspirin.

 

Thanks so much for the input Larry, As I said, I'm a bit hesitant… I'm hoping they will just do the orthoscopic and have it done with. Although, the x-rays are telling a different story...

 

Hello all again, Well Friday's the day! They are going in for the orthoscopy and clean out the crunchy's and repair a tear in my knee. It's been drained twice now and that feels soooo much better after they do that. "But" something is causing the issues and they found them. The Doc don't want to do a knee replacement yet, he says he can get me about 10+ years with this and he don't really want to do a replacement at my age unless it was "that" bad. so I got some time, only thing is the arthritus will never stop and come back. My x-ray looked like I had road gravel in my knee , that doesn't really suprize me, all the years I've been on my feet, on ships and concrete something had to finally wear out. My other knee went out in 2006, he had to go in twice.

I'll do an update after Saturday.

 

Hello all,
well it's done… Two hours on the table yesterday, a meniscal repair and a cartilage repair, among cleaning out crunchy's from arthritis. My knee was so swollen it was in hydraulic lock when I went in yesterday, the Dr. said they drained 160cc's of bloody yellow fluid before they even started. The Dr. seems to think this will give me several more years on this knee before looking at replacement. He said I was to young and for them to do a replacement at my age my knee would almost have to be useless and really bad.
The good thing is, I'll be up and walking around in a few days and back to work in two weeks! One can only watch so much Jerry Springer and Maury Povach …. I have a couple good books I've been wanting to read that have been on the back burner so That looks like the plan for the next week!
Also I have all my friends here to chat with! And the good Dr. gave me "PLENTY" of real good pain meds so when I wanna take a nap, well… You get the idea!

 

No worries! The issue with me and most people "our" age is they don't like doing a replacement unless it's "ABSOLUTELY" necessary. I agree with you!!! Lets get r done. My other issue is; being I'm an active duty military member, A) Obama won't pay for it, B) my active duty career is done!… Although, that wouldn't hurt me because I'm retirement eligible. I'm basically staying for my family while my Daughter is still in college, That extra $$ helps a month.

 

My God you have no idea!!! I was living in pain since March, it was getting old!