Knee surgery

[monkey104 10]

Ah! It seems I will now have to take my own advice.

2 weeks ago while off-road I went over the handlebars of my motorcycle, however my lower limb decided differently and stayed where they were resulting in a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, medial cruciate ligament and chipped bone in the knee.

Flipping painful and a shameful failure of the man test!

Ah well I am getting the most out of the crutches I bought last year.

[ANGELFIRE1 10]

Hello everyone, I will be going into hospital November 16th for total knee replacement, spinal injection, has anyone had this procedure, what can I expect?

 

 

Two of my friends had the replacement knee last year. One went to plan and the pain was minimal and he was walking well within days. The other one had bother with the wound healing and it gave him a fair bit of pain, but medication soon had him on the road to recovery. Both were very pleased with the end result.

 

Angel1,

[Billam 10]

Ah! It seems I will now have to take my own advice.

2 weeks ago while off-road I went over the handlebars of my motorcycle, however my lower limb decided differently and stayed where they were resulting in a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, medial cruciate ligament and chipped bone in the knee.

Flipping painful and a shameful failure of the man test!

Ah well I am getting the most out of the crutches I bought last year.

Monkey, so sorry to hear about your accident, it sounds really painful, I hope you go on okay, keep us informed. I am fine now, it just aches when I go to bed.

[richard15 10]

I had this operation in November 2018.It is now 6 months on from it and am quite disappointed

with the outcome. My mobility if anything is worse now than before the operation. I do need my other knee 

operated on as I have atheritis in it also.. However at the moment I can't see any point as the operation

doesn't appear to improve your condition.

[richard15 10]

I had knee replacement surgery in November 2018. Everything seemed to go to plan apart from

the reason for it all. 6 months on I do not seem any better  in my knee or mobility than I was 

before the operation. I had really high hopes that I would be running and skipping by now.

Am I just impatient?? I have been doing all the phsio exercises along with swimming and walking,

which as I say I struggle with.  Has anyone else had this operation ( it is quite common) and how long did 

it take to get some form of comfortable mobility.

 

[ANGELFIRE1 10]

Had two mates who had full knee replacements, one went spot on,and to be honest he was driving long before the advised time for him to do so. His recovery was swift and he had minimal pain. The other mate's op went "wrong" in that he got an infection in it which caused him severe pain and a return into hospital for treatment for the infection. His recovery took well over your 7 months and at times he still gets twinges from it. His experience with this knee has made him decline treatment on his other knee. So I think different people have differing outcomes even though having the same operation.

 

Hope your recovery continues, but at a faster pace.

 

Angel1. 

[B.A.Sically 10]

 Just a breakdown of our experience. My wife has had both knees replaced over a period of 4 years. Same hospital, same surgeon, first operation went okay but she had a long and painful recovery over a number of months. Followed all the instructions, had the supervised physio at the same hospital, and slowly but surely everything has turned out okay, knee now works fine but they have their limitations, you ultimately get rid of the pain, but a mechanical knee replacement does not have previous flexibility of the original.

 

Second operation did not go quite so well initially, and she was quite ill, and actually required a blood transfusion, but compared with the first replacement she was relatively pain free through the whole procedure, and has remained so. Although she has experienced some stiffness over a few months, this has now disappeared and all in all both knees are now pain free and functioning well.

 

The advice we were given by the surgeon was don't expect too much too soon, keep doing the exercises and if necessary use pain killers, this is a most brutal operation and you may experience pain for a considerable time, even for 12 months or more.

 

I don't know what you were expecting but replacement knees are classed as success if you can ultimately achieve a 90 % bend.  So I wouldn't worry to much about your present situation, its a long hard slog and obviously the time it takes for everything to settle down is far longer for some than others. Just a footnote, now its hopefully all over for us, she would want to go through it again. LOL

[MAC33 10]

I am 54 and shattered my left knee cap 3 and a half months ago as well as snapping my upper left fema.

 

kneecap was pinned back together with a metal band. Fema with a rod .

 

Still cannot near walk. Have been told it will be around a year before I can take a single step without my leg brace or walker. Full recovery in 2 years.

 

Lucky to be alive after being involved in a boating accident.

 

No pain but when I take the brace off it throbs a good bit.

 

Leg has shrunk a good two inches.

 

Just can't wait to getting my life back again. I can drive but hop around in a walker.

 

A Dutch 27 year old division one soccer player was involved in a car accident a year back and needs a artificial knee. 

 

I feel for him.

Edited May 14, 2019 by MAC33

[Billam 10]

On 13/05/2019 at 16:03, richard15 said:

I had this operation in November 2018.It is now 6 months on from it and am quite disappointed

with the outcome. My mobility if anything is worse now than before the operation. I do need my other knee 

operated on as I have atheritis in it also.. However at the moment I can't see any point as the operation

doesn't appear to improve your condition.

 

[Billam 10]

Just now, Billam said:

I must have been lucky, the exercises were awful, very painful, they had me in tears. I had the operation in Nov 2017, in Jan 2018, I went to see my specialist, no stick and no limp, he was very pleased, I have no problems, I have to remind myself that I had the operation. Stick with the exercises, I hope everything works out.

 

[DerbyTup 10]

On 14/05/2019 at 09:22, ANGELFIRE1 said:

Had two mates who had full knee replacements, one went spot on,and to be honest he was driving long before the advised time for him to do so. His recovery was swift and he had minimal pain. The other mate's op went "wrong" in that he got an infection in it which caused him severe pain and a return into hospital for treatment for the infection. His recovery took well over your 7 months and at times he still gets twinges from it. His experience with this knee has made him decline treatment on his other knee. So I think different people have differing outcomes even though having the same operation.

 

Hope your recovery continues, but at a faster pace.

 

Angel1. 

No doubt.  But developing an infection is something over and above the knee surgery, which frankly, shouldn't have happened.  Infection is a risk of any surgery, but with adequate prophylaxis it shouldn't occur.  What I'm saying is, it's a bit harsh to judge how successful knee surgery is when you bring the infection into the equation.  It distorts the question somewhat.  My understanding is that knee surgery is very successful and can massively improve someone's mobility - and is usually free of complications.

 

 I guess your other mate will have to decide whether he is going to be more comfortable and mobile with his knee as it is,  or whether he wants to have the op.  To me, it's a no-brainer - I'd take the op every time if my knee was knackered.  I wouldn't let the possibility of an infection put me off because it's unlikely to happen and it's easily treatable if it does.  But, we are all different I suppose.  

 

As to the OP's question:  I think it sounds like he is doing everything right.  He's diligently following his physio exercise routine, and doing other beneficial things such as swimming and walking.   The first thing though is that this is a question he should be asking of his doctor.  They will be able to check that things are healing as they should.  I know that may sound obvious, but, it doesn't always get done.  My wife had an operation a few months ago - on the NHS - but it was done at Thornbury.  They should have followed up with her a few weeks later - but they didn't.  They "forgot" somehow!  (We got a letter several weeks later saying there'd been a fire and they'd lost her records!).  Anyhow...

 

When she phoned up to try and get the follow up appointment she was told it would be several weeks before she could be seen, even though she was already overdue for the check-up due to no fault of her own.  We eventually resolved this and got a quicker appointment.

 

Point is:  Richard15:  you need to get yourself back in front of the specialist that treated you.   You don't say whether you still have pain or swelling, but if you do then I'd suggest that's a bit unusual after 6 months.  It could be that there is nothing wrong at all and you are just taking a bit longer to heal.  But,  for your peace of mind, they could do a few checks to make sure things are progressing as normal.  

[Billam 10]

I had my right knee replaced November 26th 2017 at Chesterfield Royal, in January 2018 I went to see the surgeon, I had no limp and did not need a stick. The operation was not that painful but the exercises were,  but if you do not do them the replacement will not work.All I have now is a faded scar, no pain at all, keep up the exercise hopefully will get better, good luck.