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TKR at 81, living alone, and with balance difficulty: a good idea?
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Apr 6 10:01am | Replies (46)Comment receiving replies
@ray666 my sincere and brilliant advise is to stay FAR AWAY from any invasive knee surgery. Most of the time the results are not as favorable as the statistics provided by the manufacturers lobby and arthroscopic co conspirators. I know I know I sound like a quack but I am a 78 year old athlete still swimming biking and lifting daily and the absolute most insane thing in my life was listening to these salesmen. It’s a $ and numbers game. They need you . You do not need them.
The recovery time is painful and long and at your age you dontwant that.
Grin and bear it and tolerate the pain because when the doc’s and PT are done with you there are no guarantees that it will work. But there is a guarantee— you will suffer….
Replies to "@ray666 my sincere and brilliant advise is to stay FAR AWAY from any invasive knee surgery...."
@mark3248 Sorry you had a bad experience. I had to redo one of my TKRs due to an infection, but even with that unusual complication I would still say my TKRs were well worth doing as they’ve allowed me to stay active and healthy.
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Hi,Mark (@mark3248) You don't sound like a quack at all! You offer sound advice, advice I will enfold as I proeed through the pros and cons. I feel I should underscore my own past experience with a TKR. My experience––and by no means am I suggesting that many have had less than stellar experiences––my own past experience could not have been better, and my 20-year-plus titanium right knee is still performing like a champ. I'd never have called myself an athlete prior to my ancient TKR, but I was a near-daily long-distance runner, and have a lengthy history of arthroscopic scopings (most were successful, a few less so). I was lucky in and around that right knee TKR in that I was enrolled in a Federal study to learn the impact of knee replacements on a person's quad. Why I say I was "lucky" was participation in the study necessitated weeks of heavy-duty workouts at the UC Med Center both before and after the surgery, plus a elective continuance at Boulder Sports Med. I say al this, but I'm no fool. I was a younger man then. And partnered. And not yet dealing with balance issues. I try to be realistic about life's changes. I'm a diferent man today than I was back then. It awareness of these changes that prompted my posting here on Connect. At the moment, I've by no means decided to have the surgery, but nor have I decided not to have it. I figure I've got the whole months of April and May to mull this over. Thank you a millionfold for your most understanding message! I wish you all the best. Cheers! –Ray (@ray666)