Hi again,

I had a arthroscopy on Wednesday and it is now verified that I need a prosthesis -it seems I wasn´t limping enough for the calcium carpenter to take me seriously...

I´ll try to hold out until Oct (lot´s of reasons) but what I´m wondering about is does anyone have experience on how long it takes to recuperate?

I´m hearing everything from six to twelve weeks -I guess it´s personal but what´s your experience?

Thanks again!

I guess it depends on what one calls full recuperation. I had a knee replaced on Dec 10 2004. I hunted Cape Buffalo in the Omay in Sept 05. I was in my office before the first of the year. I was driving in about 4 weeks, driving myself to therapy. I did not feel comfortable running until a year, I do believe that was from not having the confidence to run. It also depends upon how fit you are prior to the surgery and I would suggest theraphy prior to the surgery and I would get a professional to do you a plan not just excersie on your own as they will know what needs worked. I also have not regained the flex in my knee and my surgeon has suggested I do not try to regain more flexability as it could do some damage. Another point how old you are and how long have you not been walking like you did years ago. If at all possible do it as soon as you can, every day limping deducts from
what you will ba able to do after the surgery. Oh yea I am now 68.

Believe it or not a lot of your recovery time has to do with what shape your leg muscles were / are in prior to the procedure and believe it or not age can play a factor too. I had mine done when I was in my early 30's and was in excellent shape, within 2 weeks I went skydiving for the first time and in 4 weeks I climbed a "fourteener" ( Colorado speak for mountain over 14,000'). My knee did good for both but on the climbing trip it swelled up and it did that repeatedly for over a year when I would use it hard. If I were to do it again today i wouldn't push it that hard so soon after the surgery even though I am in great shape but I'm also 45 years old now and smarter.
I'm sure some Doc's are on this forum and can tell you with more certainty but I would alot 6 to 12 weeks before planning anything extra-ordinary for it.
Good luck with yours.

Snellstrom when are you going to have it done again?

Thanks so far!

This sounds pretty good -I´m 48, in pretty good shape but I´d like to lose 10 kgs before the op (I now weigh 103 and I´m 193cm tall). I do a lot of walking so my leg muscles are OK (I can walk about 5kms on even ground without trouble) and I do that 2-4 times a week. We just had our physicals at the base and I´m in good shape according to that (I actually need to do some work on my upper body...).

In March I hunted eland in SA and walked 15+ kms a day so my right knee has degenerated quickly. My left isn´t much better and will probably need work soon...

My goal is to hunt ele in April in Zim...

quote:

recovery

Hi cewe.

I realy hope you get a swift recovery. I guess i have to bring you to my mountains and get you in better shape ..

Wish you the best of luck. I stepped in a Warthog hole the first day in RSA this past May, and it took me 6 month to recover fully..

9.3: Doesn´t look like we´ll be doing the reindeer this fall but do keep in touch and let me know some more about prices etc -2008 could be an option.

Terry: Sorry about the leg. Did you break your femur or tibia?

It's highly variable---I've had little old ladies come in at 2 weeks without a cane and had younger strapping men still using a walker at a month....

The knee is solid from day 1--it depends on how much pain you can tolerate and how hard you push the therapy. I think 6-12 weeks is a good average for pretty good function but it will continue to improve for a year.....

I have heard that the folks at Mayo Clinic have a knee replacement surgery in which you walk in, sit down in a chair, the replace the knee and you walk out!

I don't know if this is the truth, but the reporter was a person who should have know about the subject. Please look around and see who the best and most progressive "operators" are. There are differences.

Staying in good physical shape before and following a program of rehab after is very important. Kudude

quote:

Originally posted by kudude:
I have heard that the folks at Mayo Clinic have a knee replacement surgery in which you walk in, sit down in a chair, the replace the knee and you walk out!
I don't know if this is the truth, but the reporter was a person who should have know about the subject. Please look around and see who the best and most progressive "operators" are. There are differences.
Staying in good physical shape before and following a program of rehab after is very important. Kudude

Complete knee replacement, I doubt you'll be "walking out". Based on my ACL reconstruction @ 40, I would say you'll need 8-12wks to be mobile. To get into hunting shape for ele, I would want at least 6mos of 4-5day a week workouts to get ready. Look at these super athletes in football having ACL reconstruction. They are taking 9mos to get into playing form & they are in peak sahpe. Good luck w/ it, I DO truly feel your pain.

quote:

Originally posted by cewe:
Hi again,

I had a arthroscopy on Wednesday and it is now verified that I need a prosthesis -it seems I wasn´t limping enough for the calcium carpenter to take me seriously...

I´ll try to hold out until Oct (lot´s of reasons) but what I´m wondering about is does anyone have experience on how long it takes to recuperate?

I´m hearing everything from six to twelve weeks -I guess it´s personal but what´s your experience?

Thanks again!

Cewe

Do yourself a huge favor and go to this web site and just have a look before you take the surgery plunge.

www.egoscue.com

I was in need of a shoulder replacement surgery 3 months ago. I am in about 70% less pain and I am getting joint space/cartilage regeneration.

Cartilage can regenerate if the bone/joint misplacement is corrected.

The book "The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion" is I think something like $20.00 US.

If nothing else it may help relieve your pain until surgery time. But I think you'll find it one of the best $20.00 you ever spent.

It may well prevent you from having to get this surgery.

I am not in anyway connected or associated with Peter Egoscue. These exercises have changed my life. I am for the most part ache and pain free now.

Believe me I know about joint problems and aches and pains.

This is an X-ray of my neck, the jaw line is at the top.



I can't say for sure but I am apt to think that if I'd have known about this before I may well have been able to avoid the surgery I had on my spine.

This stuff really works.


Whatever you do good luck.

Well,

I can stop looking for the titanium screws I misplaced. Surestrike stole them from me when my back was turned.

Whether or not surgery is in the cards, the more exercise (of the right kind) the better off one is.

I built space for the physical therapist at my clinic. We have no financial condition, but I like having one handy. With total knee arthroplasties, the younger, more flexible and stronger the patient is before surgery, the better they do after surgery.

Cewe, your idea about dropping a few kilos is a very good one. If you can find a warm swimming poole to swim laps in before surgery, and then do water rehab in after surgery - that would be a good thing! Then you have lots of most heat to promote circulation, ininite resistance to promote strength and no impact - really the ideal conditions for healing. Other than that, take your pain meds to stay ahead of the pain, and find a sadistic (within reason) physical therapist.

There is no substitute for talent when it comes to picking a surgeon.

If you have a blood clot and croak on the table, can I have your 9,3x62??????

Thanks again and again...AR the gift that keeps giving!

I appreciate the feedback and experience from all of you and I can´t exactly say I´m looking forward to surgery but it now seems more bearable.

I can take pain fairly well (a few years ago I had a tibial ostheotomy in Nov and hunted waterbuck in SA in March) so I should rehab OK if I don´t get complications.

Lawndart: Man your last comment made me laugh! If I was to croak Boha will hold my guns until the kids are of age and can have them if they want them. If the kids lose interest in guns Boha will get first pick and he´ll sell off the rest to my friends.

That is friends that appreciate fine weapons.

You should see the work he´s doing on my 8x68...it´ll be a beauty and I hope to get him to post pics when it´s finished.

I actually built the 8x68 so I could take longer shots this year as I guess I won´t be running much i April.

One more question: Can you actually run with a prosthesis? I have been allowed to run for years and can´t really remember how it was done...

Good luck, cewe.

As one who is even now recuperating from torn rotator cuff and tendon surgery, I feel for you.

I am still in pain, but I am beginning to feel less each day and each physical therapy session.

It is amazing what these sawbones can do these days. Just get a good one, and I am sure that this will work out for you.

Hi cewe,

Here is my experence, I had total knee replacement on both knees last august, I spent 4 days in hospital, then a week in a rehab hospital. Two weeks of out patient rehab treatment. I am 54 yrs old, and was eating handfulls of valium before surgery just to get through the day. I was walking without a walker 9 days after surgery, went back to work & was driving (against doc's wishes) 2 weeks after surgery, although on light duty. Five weeks after surgery I went antelope hunting. I think the most important thing is a positive attitude, in rehab I excercised more than they asked me to, & would excercise in my room. I would excercise till the tears came. (doctor & staff at rehab were uterly amazed at my recovery time). I decided that I was going to recover fast & I did! After 24 yrs of pain, Man my knees are great!!! best thing I ever did! My knees got so bad, that I decided that I didn't want live any more, if I had to live with the pain. I am able to do things that I haven't been able to do in years. I highly recomend knee replacement, to anyone in need.

Regards Mike

I wasn´t aware that you can do both knees at once...my left knee is rapidly deteriorating so I might just discuss this with my surgeon.

Mike: I totally know how you feel. I haven´t quite reached the point you were at but I was getting close...codeine/paracetamol combo 4 times a day gets to you after awhile.

Just being taken seriously has lightened my spirits and made the pain more endurable. I´ll try to put it off until Oct due to several issues but I can wait awhile longer.

May the force be with us!

Cewe,

Think of the next time in Africa...All of us hear wish you the best and a speedy recovery....


Mike

quote:

Well,

I can stop looking for the titanium screws I misplaced. Surestrike stole them from me when my back was turned.

Lawndart,

Stealing them was easy. Putting them in was a bitch. I busted two driver bits on my Makita.

I have also had both knees replaced, 5 yrs apart. I'm 54,I had the first one done when I was 49, the other last year. My recovery was about like Mike's in the post above. First week is bad, second week is also tough, after that it starts getting much better. I spent a lot of time on the knee bending machine, and did alot of leg exercises. I was walking with a cane by the end of 3 weeks. It takes about 6-8 weeks to really get going good. No way I would have both knees done at the same time because you need one leg to limp on. BA

Bill: So you were pretty much my age when you had the surgery. Finnish suergeons seem to want to hold off with surgery as long as possible but I think they´re forgetting about the emotional stress that chronic pain causes.

Maybe one at a time is best...

If you have them both done at once it leaves you without a leg to stand on! (My patients didn't find that funny, either...)

We don't like to do replacements on younger people either but at a certain point, it's not worth waiting any longer.....

JC: Well I´d still have one leg to stand on...but I wouldn´t be standing tall!

I think American doctors are more aware of the psychological problems that chronic pain etc can cause. In Finland we´re still not taking fibromyalgia seriously (except if you´re male and then it´s called soft tissue arthritis) not to speak of CFS.

Putting this of until Oct feels a bit strange but I really want to hunt SA with Boha in April and going for major surgery during the Scandinavian summer just doesn´t appeal to me.

And the base would probably go to pieces without my guidance

Cewe, I have arthritis really bad and my doc would have done my first knee several years earlier. I tore up my left knee playing football when I was 16. My family had a dairy farm and I could not get my knee fixed until I quit milking cows. I took a LOT of pain pills over 30 something years. Everything else on me hurts, but my knees are pretty good.

You do what the Doc's tell you to do,just jump thru there hoops and what not. The key is to get better and not do anymore damage so you can walk and hunt and do all the stuff you want to do. I had a friend that didn't listen, after back surgery he had to go deer hunting and he got one, draging the dam thing out of the woods is what screwed him up for the rest of his life. Taking the season off or the whole year is a small price to pay for the rest of your life doing what you want to do.

Since they will replace the knee in October, you can pump it full of whatever it takes to get through until then.

When I come over to visit I will bitch slap as many Finnish doctors as I can about Fibromyalgia, CFS and the deleterious effects of chronic pain on patients. I have a briefcase full of all the good research articles of the last five years.

When my L-5 disc re-herniated in June of 2005 I just about went insane from the constant pain in my left leg. I told my doctor that the pain was so bad I almost wanted to kill myself to make it stop. He started to make the "Tut, tut, buck up old man...." speech to me. I told him, "you don't understand my meaning; if I decide to kill myself because I can't handle any more pain, I am going to take you with me." He saw that I was perfectly serious. I got to see the surgeon that afternoon, and had the operation two days later.

I am a lot more attentive to pain in my patients these days. It is actually pretty easy to tell when it is for real in a patient. 95% of the time it is for real. Then, as a doctor, you need to have the moral courage to treat it.

Lawndart: Man you must have broken some kind os speed record getting your back fixed -I would have liked to see the guys face when you told him the facts of life.

Not being taken seriously gets to you in a while, I started to doubt my own symptoms and wondered if I was exaggerating the situation.

That shit gets to you.

Bill: Sports is pretty much what put me where I am today -and I don´t mean moneywise either! Knees shot, back is pretty much worn out etc. I did a lot of powerlifting and martial arts in my youth and I´m now paying the price.

But working parttime as a bouncer while I studied was good money and easy work when one weighed 120 kg, mostly hard muscle!

Did wonders for my skinny weakling complex too!

And dragging dead animals through the woods probably hasn´t helped much either.

I´d do it all again though. I guess I´m dumb in that but I´ve had a good time....

Next fall I won´t be hunting much and if I do get going in December it´ll only be easy stuff -hunting from a stand etc.

Lawndart, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a family doc and had a big motorbike accident - I didn't fracture my left femur but everything below the waist was bust up.

What the doctors don't realise is that pain that you can tolerate for a day or two without problems wears you out if you suffer it for months or years.

mike