Knee injections and knee replacements

I understand that you are passionate about this subject, but I have to take issue with one of your statements.

"Everyone here has put in wonderful information, take it all in.  Ignore those who are negative.  Seriously...they aren't telling something."

That is the same thing as saying that no one ever has any trouble with their knee replacements unless it is of their own making, and that simply isn't true!  I am very much an advocate for going into surgery with a positive attitude and an expectation for a very successful and uneventful outcome, but to tell someone to ignore all negative experiences is very short-sighted and actually does them a disservice IMO.  

Number one, it is important for people to know what can possibly happen so they can give truly informed consent to the surgery. You cannot guarantee that someone is going to have the same positive experience that you did! I personally know two people who had very positive experiences with TKR and three people who had problems. (hence my fear of having my own knees done). In one of those three cases, it was a direct result of him not doing the PT exercises (and he had to have his knee "cracked" under general anesthesia (but no additional surgery) and start the whole PT process over).  In the other cases, the man developed nerve issues and has pain in his thigh and calf (even when he is not using that leg) and the woman has as much pain (surgeon cannot explain why) in one of her knees as she did before the TKR.

Number two, people can learn a lot from the negative experiences of others: danger signs to watch out for, the possible consequences of not following certain instructions, etc.

Even though my overall experience with both of my knees was positive (more so the second one than the first one because I had the worst one done first), I would never tell someone to ignore all negative reports because "they aren't telling something".  That is a HUGE generalization and is simply inaccurate.  

Lora 

you are very right ****rogirl...that statement was the wrong thing to say and for the exact reasons you brought up.  Sorry for that.  And thank you for taking issue with it.

since we are still on this thread, I did want to bring up one more thing.

If you fall after having your knee replacement, you will live!  Well, depending on the fall of course.  I will state though that some falls can be very bad and may require immediate medical attention.  I unfortunately have a history of falling, something that is now attributed to issues with medications and just plain clumsiness.  I have fallen a total now of 7 times since 2005, my first TKR.  Although a few of those falls have brought on my disability status, none of them caused injury to my new knees. However, sometimes you can cause damage to them and so just going to the original surgeon to look and see isn't a bad idea.

I am just saying, it won't be the end of the world if you fall.  Just use good judgement as to whether you might want it looked at to be sure it is ok.

I definitely agree on the fall issue.  In February (3 months after my second knee surgery and 11 months after my first knee) I was try to catch a loose puppy on a slight hill that had snow and some half melted and then refrozen slush, and I slid and fell. The leg with the newest knee stayed straight but the leg with the other knee ended up folded up under me and hurt like hell!  It swelled up quite a bit and stayed very sore and swollen so two days later I went to see the ortho surgeon.  He did an xray and examined it, and said it was just hyper flexed and "grouchy" and gave me some pain meds and told me to keep it iced.

I have also heard people issue dire warnings about what will happen if you kneel on replaced knees.  My surgeon said it is something I would need to limit (and indicated that, even after full healing, it can be uncomfortable for some people), but that brief kneeling occasionally is just fine.  My hairdresser slipped and fell when getting her mail, and rather than kneel just long enough to get herself up off the snowy ground, she stayed on the ground at the edge of the road until a motorist stopped and helped her up!  I'm not sure why she was unable to get up without kneeling (I learned to get up without kneeling before my knee surgeries because the original knees hurt so badly if I knelt on them), but I cannot believe that she stayed on the ground in the snow and bitter cold rather than kneel just briefly enough to stand up!

Yeah...my bionic knees do not like me kneeling at all!  2 winters ago, I slipped on an icy patch in the road, one of the reasons I am now on disability.  Getting up for me is to stick my big butt in the air and push with my arms.  What a sight!  But I still had to kneel and that just hurts like hell!

HOWEVER...so as not to scare anyone off, the nurse I had the first time had had both her knees done and she could do absolutely ANYTHING WITH HER KNEES.  JEALOUS!!

Kneeling is definitely uncomfortable for me, but not what I would call painful, so if I need to do it for some reason I can. I do avoid it, though, whenever possible since the surgeon indicated I should.

I am one of the other ones that had tkr on my left knee. I had pain before the replacement and fell a lot because it would give out on me. But since I had the replacement, I am in more pain than I was before it. After surgery I did not have pt for three weeks, the dr said his patients do not need it. But since I was not doing good he ordered it. I had several weeks of pt, it was not helping, so he went in and did an mua then more pt, still not getting any better. I am a year out today and I have more pain then I did before the surgery. My dr first said it is because I am a diabetic, then he said it is because I had previous surgeries on that knee. I need my right knee done but there is no way I am going to do that especially with him, he is the only dr in my area, so I would have to travel to see someone else. So now at a year out I can not bend my knee more than 80 to 90 degrees and to straighten it that is close to total straight but not quite. So on the other side I have met many people that have had the surgery and they are doing fantastic. 

I'm really sorry that you have so much pain with your new knee.  This is the first time I have heard of an ortho surgeon not requiring any PT for several weeks after surgery!  By then, the scar tissues is already building up.  I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to go through surgery and still have significant pain. What is an "mua"? Just curious.

My surgeon gets you standing on the knee the morning after surgery.   By day two, he has you walk 8-10 feet to the bathroom and back with the walker and doing some mild bending exercises in bed with the physical therapist twice a day. 

I think you are smart not to allow that doctor to do your other knee!  Is there anything they can do (short of another surgery) to help you get some relief from the pain?

Lora

Am I ever glad to see this post on here. I am really starting to have a lot of pain and the clicking in my right knee, happens more when I bend over (I do some bending while doing yard work pulling weeds and some gardening.)  but both knees are in pain.

I have been to the doctor and she sez I have swelling in my right knee cap. That's all she said. I have been slacking with any walking and have regained 5 lbs Again. so I am needing some answers what to do about this pain. I hear about the injections , have had that in the past for back pain, relief lasted 24 hours then pain was right back. Hate to think just to rid knee pain is to have knee replacement and/or knee surgery. I better start learning what I need to do. A lot of good info from these posts. Thanks so much to all of you sharing your experiences with your own knee troubles. Wendy

It would not be a bad idea to see an Orthopedic surgeon and get some xrays of your knees to see what is going on.  Injections (steroids) usually work for a while but then they stop after some time.  That is the action I took.  I had let my knees go so far, because I was afraid they would blame it on my weight and refuse surgery, that both surgeons came in after looking at the xrays and wondered how I was walking.

I know two women who are in their late 60s or early 70s who both have terrible pain with their knees, but their surgeons (different surgeons, and neither is the one that I used) refuse to do the surgery because they are both significantly overweight.

It makes me sad to see them suffering so much, and it seems like there ought to be something they can do to help them, but I also know how much it hurt, and how long it took to heal and get off crutches, after I had just arthroscopic knee surgery (mostly for torn meniscus) when I was 250+ pounds, and I cannot imagine how badly the TKR would have hurt if I had tried to do it when I was at my highest weight of 330+ pounds!  

Between the additional pain of a significant amount of extra weight and the general lack of flexibility and mobility, I can definitely understand why the surgeons won't do it until they lose some weight. It would have been close to impossible for me to comply with the post-op instructions and PT!