[TheForge] Knee Replacement

[steve Bloom]

At 09:37 AM 9/23/2008, Ltnn wrote:
>Just had an incident with my right knee.[snip]  The ER doctor
>suggests I consider a replacement.  [snip]
>What experiences, surprises do I have to look forward to?

I'm walking on two replacements -- and like you, was bone-on-bone.

First - you can put it off too long. Once you're bone-on-bone, the 
bones start to go. Let it go far enough, and the replacements may not 
work. The cited life-span of a replacement is 10 years but that's 
conservative. I'm on year 8, weight too much, and am active, and 
there is no wear yet.

Second - they tell you 6-weeks recovery. I thought - great! 1 week in 
the hospital, one to recover, 4 weeks to play in the shop (I was 
working for Florida and has 6 months of sick leave). They were right 
- 6 weeks of down time. The drugs make the first couple go by fast, 
then it gets boring.

Third - do the PT! Everyone I have ever heard of that had problems 
slacked off the PT.  I built my own "Therapy" chair -- an old Nordic 
Track with a chair bolted to the skis. You sit in the chair with your 
feet on the front bar. Use the rope and arms to pull yourself forward 
to flex the knees (w/o using the leg muscles), then push back with 
the legs. It's lots of fun tearing out the scar tissue but I've got 
100% range of motion, so it works.  I also hit the gym before the 
operation and worked the knee extension machine a lot -- the more 
muscle you have before, the more you will have after and the faster 
they will heal. In Canada, they require initial PT.

Overall, it's a major hit, a major pain, and worth doing. The 
take-home message is do the PT!

Steve Bloom (Ironflower Forge, FABA)