My knee, OT

For those of you who have responded to my whining about my knee, here is today's report.  I saw the orthopeadist todayf for the first time.  He was very young, cute and personnable.  His report wasn't so good.  I have stage 4 arthritus in my left knee., bone rubbing against bone and very limited movement.  He was surprised I was getting around as well as I do.  There is no fixing it other than total knee replacement.  There are some things we can try to postpone that.

The first, used today was a cortisone shot.  I had heard that they hurt but the shot was really pertty painless.  However, withing 2 hours, I couldn't move my knee and it hurt way worse than my WLS ever thought about.  I called him back when I got home from my meetings that I almost cryed sitting through.  He said it was unusual, but not unheard of and thought it would be better my Monday. MONDAY    I was heading out of town with a pony for the weekend.  So I have been sitting with it supported, icing it and am getting ready to take heavy duty pain killers and go to bed.  We'll see what tomorrow brings. 

So maybe it will just be one day of pain, then it will improve from the cortizone.  But if not, no more of these hell shots for me.  The next step is injecting joint fluid.  Can't wait since this is working so well.  DH says go for the replacement soon instead of waiting.

So I'm off to good drugs and bed.   

sorry about the pain Price! Doesn't sound good...might be better off just getting it replaced...My aunt has had her knees replaced and yes it was a surgery and painful but even 5 years after she is getting around pretty good...hope you start feeling better way before Monday..bummer!!

This morning is better.  Now it is more just like a bad day and I can deal with that.  Thanks.

Hubby had a cortisone shot a few yrs ago.   It wasnt pretty    .   I hope you find relief soon.  Cindy

I had them years ago in my hip and don't remember them being painful.  The shot itself wasn't bad it was the pain after a couple of hours.  Seems much better this morning.  Thanks.

I would take gall bladder issues any day over getting another darned cortisone shot in my knee. Had it done in 2000 and almost passed out from it.
That being said for me, my 17 yr old daughter also has stage 4 arthritis in her ankle and had a synovectomy done, it was arthroscopic and is doing well,is there a chance that they could do the same? i know ankles are different than knees. I hope your pain pills work well and you feel better really soon.

A friend yesterday who saw me hobbling said the fliud had kept her going for over a year the first time.  Wasn't working as well now but did great for a while.  We'll see.

Price,
The first injection I got in my hip was horrible, I was in tears. But thankfully I woke up feeling much better the next day!!  The shots are great, but eventually they lose their magic and the benefits they provide become shorter and shorter.

Glad to see that they are suggesting the synvisc for your knee. I meet with my ortho in the morning and I think that is going to be my next move for the hip. The synvisc isn't labeled for the hip--only the knee-- but it is supposed to do wonders on getting some fluid in th joints so our bones aren't rubbing together so easily.

Maybe we can be joint replacement buddies!?!?!?!  sucks....I know

I am much better this morning.  More like just a normal bad day.  We'll see what the overall effect will be. 

Thanks everyone.  I am much better this morning.  More like a normal bad day which I can do and of course have for months.

When DH retired, I went on Cobra.  That I can do for 18months and it run out in Dec.  So DH says to go on and do the replacement while we know what the coverage is.  I have to have insurance afterward and it will be basically the same so I don't know if it makes that much difference.  It would have if I could have done it this year (before July 1) because we have meet all the deducatable, co-pays, etc from the WLS, but didn't happen.

So I will see what happens with the Cortisone and if we do another, will have someone to drive me home and put me to bed.  The joint fluid offers some short term hope.  But in the long run, we are just postponing the replacement.  Darn if I am losing all this weight to be more mobile and be grounded with a knee.