TKA surgery (left knee) scheduled for Tuesday, July 10. Surgeon assures me I'll be skiing next season.
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TKA surgery (left knee) scheduled for Tuesday, July 10. Surgeon assures me I'll be skiing next season.
I know someone who was skiing in 3 months after a bilateral. I think a lot depends on how fit you are preop, how aggressively you rehab, and what you mean by skiing. I also know someone who broke his femur at the end of the prosthesis.
You've probably heard this but what my wife was told for hers--both knees- was working hard on ROM but otherwise staying in bed with an ice water pump on them for about 6 weeks as I recall--might have been longer. They felt that being too active increases swelling which decreases ROM and that getting full ROM early is critical. Strength can wait.
My wife had hers done at Kaiser but preop she went to a class at the hospital in Truckee and the instructions were identical.
I saw an old instructor (70ish) at the grocery store yesterday.
He had his done out patient last Friday. Said he walked out, same day.
Afraid I have to cry bullshit on same day surgery and walking out from a total knee replacement. Scope, definitely.
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Good luck Steve!
Thanks!
My TKA surgery is outpatient. Surgery in the morning, home that evening. Statistically, no hospital stay = lower risk of infection.
I'll be using an ice water pump. Working ROM from the start, otherwise pretty much sedentary for 3 weeks, getting around inside the house on a walker. PT says working on ROM extension is more important early than flexion. Gotta get full extension early or suffer ripple effects (back, hip, other leg).
Good luck Steve
Thanks, much appreciated
My brother had a knee replacement a couple of yrs ago and it was such a good thing.
He snowboarded the next season, which he had avoided the prior couple of yrs bc of the pain and swelling. He could run around with his little kid again too, and he lost lots of weight/ got a lot fitter so other health benefits followed the loss of pain
The recovery was also faster than I expected after the first few wks, where like you, he took it very easy, was on walker/ ice machine. after that period it really got exponentially better
Good luck, Steve! Hopefully you have some good books, mags etc lined up for your downtime. I guess books could be tough bc of the short attn span when on pain meds. will be sending knee power to you on Tuesday
Thanks b-bear. Hoping I don't need opioids after the first few days. I hate the side effects and the mental fog.
MId-summer recovery kinda sucks but that's how it played out. Pain forced me to stop skiing, and then bicycling, in March. I was forced to (forever) stop running April 2017. Hiking was very painful, often to the point of disabling me, last summer, but I got out there with a clunky custom knee brace (to stop full extension and resultant patella subluxation.) Per studies, I had to wait 6 months after my most recent (of 3) steroid shot for surgery.
The good news is that I have the opportunity to watch the entire Tour de France and The Open Championship at Car-Nasty (which I played 15 years ago).
I'm looking forward to a new life without constant knee pain, pain waking me up 4-5 times each night, knee pain weaving into my dreams, skiing 2 runs then sitting out or going home. And it'll be nice to bend my knee more than 90 degress for the first time in 10+ years.
FWIW, I have patellofemoral OA, the legacy of bashing my patella on a rock in 1993 while descending from Luna Col in wet conditions at the end of a traverse of the Northern Pickets. I was lucky to get out on my own power. 2017 MRI showed a matrix of hairline cracks on my patella. My high pain threshold kept me in the game for 23 years before it progressed to the point of crippling me.
My wife is 9 month out and very pleased. Outpatient surgery is pretty standard, going to the store isn't--sounds like a scope. My wife had to stay 2 days for low blood pressure which recurred after she went home. Turned out she was unusually sensitive to opiates. You should be able to get by without pretty quickly with NSAIDS and Tylenol. Don't underestimate the Tylenol--it's easy availability and lack of side effects (as long as you don't OD) makes it easy to think it doesn't work. It's at least as strong as the NSAIDS. There's an "arthritis" version that lasts 8 hours instead of 4. Just don't mix with the opiates which probably have acetominophen in the pill. But any good lawyer knows that.
If you watch the TDF wire to wire you won't need any opiates or any other pain meds. Too bad they aren't racing the America's Cup this summer.
The guy I know that skied at 3 months was skiing groomers.
Good luck, Steve. Say hi to Mrs. Steve.
Scrip is for non-acetominophen opioids. Surgeon agrees with your approach of Tylenol as first line, supplemented with opioids only as needed. I'l likely supplement with CBD in the evening.Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
I've communicated with post-TKA skiers skiing groomers that soon, then working to off piste (although avoiding bumps). Ski season starts 4 or 5 months after surgery, so I got that going for me. A good bud has averaged 100 days/season with bilateral TKAs for 10+ years. He avoids bashing, picks his way down moguls, avoids really heavy set stuff, but gets down everything fine. AFAICT my style is a bit smoother than his (although I'm heavier). I'm teed up for mellower approach to skiing: Per my knee problems I've increased my XC skiing (which I've always loved), mellowed my touring routes and downhill line choices, and learned to pick my way down difficult bumpy lines to avoid bashing. Some of that mellowing was a response to losing my right side vestibular 5 years ago. I've been skiing like a pussy for awhile : )Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
You will be kicking the seeds out of a pickle in no time. Good luck!
good to see Floyd getting along
This is were he went:Quote:
Originally Posted by detrusor
https://www.centura.org/locations/co...nt-replacement
Dr. Miner
Good luck!
I had meniscus repair about 7 months ago and they were saying that the knee and hip replacements have a shorter recovery anymore than the meniscus repairs - so here’s to hoping that’s true for you and you’re back on skis soon!
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Good luck!
Double blinded studies show 1gm Tylenol was equivalent to 10mg morphine for pain relief.
If they offer a nerve block I’d go for it. You go home w a little silastic pump. Great pain control for the first few days.
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good luck.
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Good luck, Steve!
I’ll hit you up for some fire road fishscale adventure when the snow is flying again.
Good luck!
2 mos out of ACL replacement here. I'm not good at sitting around the house, but it was kinda nice laying up with not much to do but watch movies read books for a couple weeks. Have also taken the opportunity to get stuff done around here that I can never get to since I'm always out biking.
Big Steve... good luck, man! One day to go. Got butterflies?
Good luck mate.
my wife had one of those. It's an epidural--in the spine. I'm not sure how much it helped compared to the other stuff. One thing--they didn't want her taken NSAIDs for the first few days--worried up increased bleeding>increased swelling>decreased ROM.Quote:
Originally Posted by detrusor
Thanks of the vibes, wy, Brit, strad and evdog.
A bit. I made the mistake of watching a video of a TKA. Don't do that. I'm engaged in acts of distraction today, tending to tasks including, among other things, changing the oil in the Tundra. [/tie into that other thread]Quote:
Originally Posted by Norseman
Recovery Day 1. Very sore and stiff this morning, in the recliner watching Stage 5 of The Tour. Surgery went "very well" according to the surgeon. I got #7 joint hardware, next to largest size. It took longer than expected because long time to saw off a big bone spur due to proximity of artery and nerve.
Alright! You're out! Congrats. StoneZone engage
I'm thereQuote:
Originally Posted by Norseman
Best of luck, dood! Vibes on the recovery.
Good luck, Steve. I expect you'll be out covering lots of ground soon.
Thanks for the update. You'll be Zwift racing in no time.
I want pics. Got any cool gore? X-rays?
Doc posing with your old knee joint in his hand, pretending to play it like a horn or something?
Ha ha. I should have asked him for the old parts. He did say the old knee had lots of severe arthritis. He also wondered aloud how I put up with the pain resulting from the big bone spur. I recall a few years ago mentioning to you and Mofro that I could bend my knee (flexion) more than 90 degrees -- I now know that was the bone spur digging into soft tissue. Yuck
Knee hurts like a goddam motherfucker today, as expected.
What's that in the jar on your bookshelf, Steve? Oh, just my old knee in some formaldehyde.
Excellent timing with having the Tour and a little world cup to keep you occupied
Glad to hear things went well. sorry to hear the pain level is high
How about not so long ago when there were no pain meds, anesthesia etc? that always trips me out- then reading about how they would just give you a bunch of booze and then people would just hold the patient down. ugh
not that they'd be doing a knee replacement but just how lucky we are to have these options
Rest well
Yeah, I am thankful to be the beneficiary of modern medicine. Of course there were no knee replacement surgeries before anesthesia. Back then, they chopped of your leg, let it heal then fitted a peg leg :DQuote:
Originally Posted by b-bear
PegLegSteve
What a pussy of a doc. A good orthopedist wouldn't let a little thing like an artery or nerve get in his way. Don't ask me how I know this.Quote:
Originally Posted by GeezerSteve
A civil war officer used to go to the museum at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology to visit his leg.Quote:
Originally Posted by Norseman
Quote:
Originally Posted by b-bear
Speed was everything in the pre anesthesia days. The record in the civil war for a leg amputation was reportedly 19 seconds. Unfortunately the specimen included a testicle and the assistant's thumb.
Get well fast
Was that the operation with >100% mortality?Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
Get well soon Steve. And good luck with rehabbing