Total Knee Replacement - A Side Blog

I haven't spoken about the pros or cons with knee replacements or why people get them.


First the reason people get knee replacements is to alleviate pain and/or to balance ourselves. My pain began when I was in my teens--it'd feel like someone was stabbing me in the kneed joint with a knife...and then turning the knife in a circle. This wouldn't happen all of the time, I could handle the pain that was bad with an anti-inflammatory and some glucosomine. As I got older, I was using this more and more.


 I then tried cortisone shots with good results, but I also saw the x-rays of my knees and the left one was bone on bone--no cartilage. It was going to have to be done sooner or later and I thought sooner was better. I already had to give up cycling and walking, both on my favorite lists of things to do, but I had seen what people could do after surgery.


There are 2 approaches to knee surgery; total replacement which includes putting a metal prosthesis in the top part of the knee( the femur) and a plastic prosthesis in the knee cap as well as the bottom part of the knee(the tibia).


People who are suffering from less severe arthritis may receive a Unicompartimental knee replacement. These types of replacements means that only one compartment has to be replaced instead of the whole knee.


Of course, surgery is not the first option. Anti-inflammatory, physical therapy, cortisone shots are all used in alleviating knee pain. But, as in my case, these had been used and it was time to take the step. So what are the pros and cons of knee surgery?


The Pros:
Pain Relief! 
The biggest advantage to knee replacement surgery is no more pain. during the first several weeks of recovery from surgery and then physical therapy, you are able to perform normal activities without the pain you've been feeling for the past several years(in my case). 

Duration

Knee replacement surgery is a long-lasting fix. Depending on your age, physical condition and lifestyle, your knee replacement at least 15 years and up to at least 30 years.

Ending Other Remedies

Before knee replacement surgery, I was going to doctors for injections every couple of months. I was also taking daily doses of Celebrex which can cause kidney damage. I was also spending a lot of time and money at the doctors' and that's not any fun!

So,what's the down side?  

The Cons

Cost

Any surgery is expensive. Knee replacement surgery is no exception, but it is usually covered although you may have to pay a deductible and coinsurance.

Con--Complications

One of the most common complications of knee replacement surgery is the formation of blood clots. Other dangers, although rare, include infections, nerve damage, complications from anesthesia or heart attack or stroke

Also, just because your knee is better, doesn't mean its like new. One of the things that you may not be able to do after surgery is to kneel regularly. Also, because we are dealing with steel/titanium hinge, there may be some noise. I looked at the cons and felt they were well within the realm of risks that I was willing to take.

Total Knee Replacement--Post Op

So....I wake up while I'm being whisked into a room. The nurses tell me that the operation is over and I did well, no problems. I just can't stay awake! Its about 1:30 p.m. when I get to the room. I'm told I can have a full liquid diet and if that stays down, general diet for lunch. I have a drain in my leg and they put on a "polar cast"--which is a fabric/plastic base(looks like a leg brace) that is hooked up to a flat "hoselike" option that lays in a small ice chest. This keeps swelling and bruising down. I also have "SCD's" on my right leg--this looks sort of like shin guards that massage the leg so I have less of a chance to have problems with blood clots. I'm drifting in and out of consciousness and I also know that they are planning to have me sit up, at least today! Really?

I get the soup and that stays down so I'm cleared for a regular diet. We then try the bedpan....nope, nuthin' coming....OK, so lets try the physical therapy...they make me sit up and I'm in agony! Why torture me?!?!?!?!? So, I do sit some...and almost cry so he lets me lay down. But then! He gets a better way to torture me! Why not try sitting on the commode and then I can be in pain and still not pee! So...we do that for about 10 minutes, but it seems a lot longer! I ended up with the catheter relief that night and being told that if  couldn't go pee tomorrow, it was the Foley.....da dadum dum!

Knee Surgery--the Operation

Tuesday, December 14, 2010, I had to be at the hosptial by 7:30 a.m. Why do I wait for the last minute to get things done???? So...although I was pretty much packed, I didn't have the clothes for this day(they were still downstairs) or some of the smaller items I wanted to take with me, which I then forgot to take altogether!

I told my husband just to drop me off---because of other problems with his health, he has no days left to take and to me it seems like a waste of time to just sit and wait for 2-4 hours. The nurses agreed with me...the doctor was a bit perplexed about my reasoning, I think, but then this doctor has been preplexed with me for awhile!

He dropped me off at the front door, I went in and gave them my name, why I was there and one of the women walked me back to the Surgery area. First they sit me in this BIG chair(I told one of the staff, Bob, that I felt like Edith Ann from Lily Tomlin's skits since my feet didn't touch the ground), make sure all of my paperwork is correct, get height and weight and then off we go to the surgery waiting rooms where I meet Norma--a very friendly nurse who calls everyone "my love". Norma checks my ID again, asks which procedure I'm getting and what leg its on and then has me change out of my clothes into a beautiful, silky hospital gown.....um, no, just the regular baggy cotton one that lets your butt hang out if you're not careful. Then we settle down to wait. Now, I was told not to bring anything with me, so I didn't, but I sure could have used a book!

There was another person in the surgery waiting room who wasn't at all happy about being there...a toddler who was `crying and crying, you could hear the fear in his/her voice; just wanted to go in and pick the baby up, saying everything will be all right.

Dr. L comes in and "autographs" my left leg making sure that the correct leg is operated on...good idea. Then the PA comes in a couple of minutes later and does the same thing.

The anethesiologist(every time anyone enters the room, they ask me which leg is being operated on) comes in and tells me beside regular anth, he going to give me femoral block which helps after the surgery. Well, my great circulatory system helps out again and no femoral block! He can't find a large enough vein/artery(can't remember which one he was looking for). But he's the last guy we've been waiting on, so its showtime! I'm wheeled down the corridor to the operating room where I'm transferred to the table, strapped down and mask is put on.....I'm OUT!

19 minutes to live...

I'm being overly dramatic. Its 19 minutes before midnight...and at midnight, I cannot eat or drink any more because I'm having knee replacement surgery in the morning. I have to be at the hospital before 7:30a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. surgery.

Last week, we went to a "total joint replacement" class at the hospital. It spoke about what we should expect(like being made to walk on the same day as the surgery), discussion about the 2 types of meds people would be on(cumodin or Lovenox--both have good and bad things about them, I will be on lovenox which means I may need to learn how to give myself injections) and some excercises that I will be expected to do while in bed.

I am taking my laptop--as I did the last time I was in the hospital, since the hospital does have wi-fi. The biggest issue is after the hospital stay, I will be going into rehab for a week--and the rehab doesn't have wi-fi!!!  I'm not dead or anything!

So, that's my news for this week. I'm hoping that with this procedure, I'll be able to get back to walking and bicycling again and get rid of some of this extra weight I've been carrying around!

OK, now, let me get this straight--the pilgrims were running from socialism or they started it?

Todd Akin, representative from Missouri, stated that the reason Pilgrims left England was because of the socialist government in that country...umm...Mr. Aiken? The socialist government of the Monarchy?????? Do you understand the difference between socialism and a monarchy???? Of course this is the same congressman who, while speaking to tea-baggers, botched the Pledge of Allegiance by forgetting the word "indivisible" cuz he made such a bid deal about the phrase, "under god". He says that the revised pledge drives liberals crazy...I don't know what persuasion my elementary teachers were, both public and catholic school days, but what would have driven them crazy was messing up the Pledge!

And now for another completely crazy idiot, Rush Limpballs---he says that the pilgrims started under a socialist regime!:

Here is the part [of Thanksgiving] that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.

"All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.

Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives.

He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.

"That's right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened?

It didn't work! Surprise, surprise, huh?

Sure. Of course there is no proof of this, there are no letters. There are letters and proof that the pilgrims came over to make money, not live in a commune, but why should facts get in the way of the rants of teabaggers and their ilk? Factual history has never been their forte.

And, obviously, they don't even agree on the way they want to lie about history, no wonder the tea baggers are so confused....