Need TKR and had positive allergy testing / Bone Cement and Metals

Still I will take scorpions over mosquitoes. In the Ozarks by Table Rock Lake limestone caverns are abundant and we have a high bat populations of various species, so no mosquitoes.

@gardeningjunkie, I second that! I grew up in Southern California and was always taught as a young boy to turn my shoes upside down and smack them together - making sure there were no scorpions crawled up in the toes. Having found one in my shoe on a camping trip I made it a practice. Now in Minnesota and the state bird can really be obnoxious. I used to tease my poor daughter because the mosquitoes loved her more than me. The only time they would leave me a lone is when I was sitting near her. With all the rain we've had we will have a bumper crop of mosquitoes. 🙁

@gardenjunkie Yes I do about 30 blocks away . I go to shoreline village its on the water ,take the water taxi around the bay .Go to Belmont Shore its beartiful down there . Here in Long Beach the Olympic athletes train in water sports,volleyball even archery over at El Dorado Park. Love it try to see what I can

A CA native like John, I was born in SD and living in Capistrano Beach until age 50 I never saw a scorpion, yet other areas in CA desert or inland areas do have these. I don't think the water scorpions could live at the beach with salt water and also the cooler summer temps, they are active with heat. In AZ at our vacation house we were taught to shake out our hiking boots or shoes if left on the porch as John mentioned. Never had a scorpion fall out though. I am a rock collector and love to build rock walls and landscape creating rock gardens. In the mountains above Lake Mohave I take my box trailer out on the old mining trails and load up with amazing colorful tailings left from all the abandoned mines. I wear gloves, long sleeves and jeans and boots, but am not careful and never practice recommended rock turn over first; have never been stung. Also should mention the glue traps are effective in catching them indoor. I've been doing this sine age 19 and in all the years only 2 people I know have been stung, one friend fishing on the shore got a nasty sting by the smaller lake scorpion which is more poisonous than the dry land Giant Hairy. She did have to go to the ER and was sick for days. My son just a few years ago on a rock hunt with his kids picked up a rock and got stung by the Giant Hairy. He is very melodramatic and figured he would die but by the time they make it back to the house and thinking he would go to the ER nothing much happened, he said it hurt less than a been sting and had minor swelling.
Living in Joplin, a tornado magnet is much more dangerous.

@gardenjunkie My husband and I where rockhounds We made jewelry out of rocks gemstones we had all the equipment. AFriend here paints on rocks she painted our cabin we had

You have a more refined artist approach still we have much in common!

@gardenjunkie Love the outdoors anything associated with it we had our cabin in Northern Pa my husband was a haunter,fisherman loved our Honda trailbikes it was later on we made genstone jewelry here,s a few pirces

After 2 failed TKR's (1 after 53 weeks the 2nd after 60 weeks) I was tested and told I was allergic to bone cement and that was the cause of the failure. Had a 3rd which was a press fit that lasted 3 years. I am on my 2nd (my 4th TKR) press fit which has 3 yrs on it . I would look at polymer injections, etc but it depends on the problem you have with your knee. If I had it to do over again, I would have said "No" to TKR's and waited/hoped for my knee to heel. Good luck with your knee!

Hi @lturn9 - I am so sorry to hear about the issues you've had with your failed TKR's. I've had two TKR's and I understand that it would be devastating to find out after the fact that you had this bone cement allergy? Can I ask if you have the same orthopedic surgeon as the one who did the first ones?

I truly am sorry for what you are going though. I appreciate you sharing your story about failure due to allergies, it's stories like yours that me insist to my ortho surgeon that I wanted testing for knee replacement allergies. This recently build, huge state of the art facility is on the outskirts of Springfield MO and is in Ozark MO and is a Mercy facility. They have dozens of surgeons. The appearance inside and out I compare to a luxury hotel. The architecture, furniture, even the set up of the seating areas, art and gorgeous landscaping is first class. All the equipment is shiny and modern. All they do is orthopedics.
Yet---I had to ask and insist on testing. This experienced ortho with a good record and has worked on others I know personally seemed taken aback baffled by my insistence explaining that getting the test and results would slow down the scheduling process which right now was taking 2 months to get scheduled. They are booked solid.
I wondered, "Am I the only one who ever asked for allergy testing?". They had to order in a kit and they drew the blood for me. Not sure why all that took over a month to get accomplished. I had to pay upfront for this $575.00 test and was told they didn't know if I would be reimbursed. They don't bill for this. I paid directly to the testing lab. I am having to figure this out on my own so decided to call Medicare for help which at age 70 I have never done. Medicare was surprisingly helpful with little wait time, they walked me though the steps of self billing for an expense for repayment with both of us on computers so I would know where to find the info and the form and how to fill it out and add additional information. I am in the process of working with the lab and waiting to see what happens. Of course this lab will be out of my Medicare network, but any reimbursement will help.
I truly don't understand why testing isn't required by Medicare or the doctors. I think of the misery inflicted on those with allergies.
From a purely business standpoint think of all the money Medicare will save if many like me are aware of allergies and hold off on surgery so not to be facing multiple redo's like Itrun9 and others.