Finally, after 2 Knee Surgeries on the same Knee, I have found...

So, did say the knee was working okay and that he was going to get me up and off the rollator. A 4 week round of therapy and then I see him again to see if I need more. Not only that, he got the therapy approved by insurance co. this afternoon and my first session is Wed. I am extatic!

He checked out the other knee and showed me where my legs weren't the same and that was part of the problem. Gave me a cortisone shot to help with that and I can feel the difference in just moving around the house now.

On the refusal of the physical therapy by the first surgeon it is strange. Found out today that my insurance had okayed PT for me thrul August of last year after having the surgery in April of the same year! And the first time I asked for more PT was in late June after I had finished the first session. Strange. The first guy was just trying to push me into the second surgery. That is so wrong.

So happy you have found yourself a good surgeon that is truly concerned about you! I hope that your current PT will help you better deal with your problem knee, sounds very promising!

wow is all I can say about the first doctor. So sorry you went through this. I have been to multitudinous doctors for my knee and hip, both of which are giving me lots of pain and I am virtually immobile. I do walk but usually with a walker and sometimes (most of the time) with a lot of pain. But NONE of them (and I mean none) gave me a decent explanation as to (1) what to expect, (2) what they will do EXCEPT GIVE ME AN OPERATION..., and (3) what is causing the pain and immobility. Except, they say, athritis. I was just about ready to have the last one do whatever on my hip but he couldn't because my pressure is soooo high. Now I have to work on that coming down. And still reluctant to go through an operation. So I want to ask questions, but I read your post and thanks for that, hope you're feeling better.

Little did we know. My husband had his hip operated on,, he can't walk without help now, the surgeon never told him what he did and why it's not healing. I learned that doctors are instructed at the beginning of their training by lawyers coming to their residency for resident instruction to NEVER REVEAL any mistake. I guess it's like let the patient find out.

That is sad isn't it. My current Doc is 100% different from the first one. He cares. His comment was that he wondered why the guy did the things he did. I can tell you....$$$$. I was an operation that he wanted to do regardless of my situation.

AS I told my hubby, I would have had the 2ndknee done with the first surgeon and he wouldn't know who I was after that. He tried to get me to schedule that knee for less than 6 monthss after first knee and every time I saw him that was what he would say.....well, lhave you decided when to have the other knee done.

I feel a burden is off my back and feel I have new look at things because I was getting soooo down.

Hi Cindi - There is always a risk with surgery. Stay away from the partial knee surgery. My 1st doc touted it as how it would be less invasive (smaller incisiion) and I would heal quicker etc. But I was certainly surprised when the FIRST time they got me up after that surgery my leg was out of alignment! Jerk kept telling me to wait, the scar tissue would hold it in place etc. Let's give it another few weeks, he said. Seems Medicare does not pay for failed surgeries within a 60-90 day period. Boy, that SOB got me scheduled for that second TKR right after that time period expired. I didn't know that then.

I am happy that things worked out for you.

Cindiwass

What your doc. is telling you is the same thing my 1st surgeon would say to me. Never a direct answer or at least a satisfactory answer. I asked about how many of these he had done and he went on, and on about how he had 32 years of experience.

What I haven't said about that 1st surgery is concerning. It concerned my Hubby and he wishes he would have stopped the surgery when it happened, but he didn't know (he's 84).

Seems, after I was under one of the nurses allegedly found a hole in the instrument package and all the instruments had to be resterilized. Doc. went out and told Hubby this, and that it would take about an hour for instruments to be resterilized. Hubby asked why they didn't use a different set and he was told that these were special instruments for the partial knee operation that came in for just this operation!!!! What kind of practice doesn't have more than one set of instruments?

I was kept in "twilight sleep" all that time and had a hard time coming out of it after they did get me back to my room. I would get up for a moment start to say something to Hubby and then fall back asleep.

As Hubby now says, guess that 32 years of experience didn't include a lot of these partial knee surgeries or the Doc. knew it could fail and it would be another surgery for him (this was in Covid time when all kinds of surgeries were being delayed). We both believe that is why he waited so long to "correct" it, and charged us for it too! He told us when the knee first went out of alignment and I was having excessive bleeding through the bandage, that he didn't make the stitch (?) tight enough!

For the redo, I requested the 1st slot because I just wanted to get it done and be on my way to healing. Surgery was all scheduled for Monday a.m. and on the Saturday afternoon before I get a call from the nurse asking me what time my surgery was on Monday (da, she has the schedule). When I told her at 7 she told me that she was rescheduling me to noon. When I asked why and protested it was too bad so sad. I was ready to cancel I was so upset so Hubby got on phone and nurse tells him that they have to wait for some rep to show up. At that point Hubby tells her to have the Doctor call him.

Doc calls saying he hears we are giving the nurse problems about scheduling and he supposedly has nothing to do with it. Hubby tells him I had specifically asked for this slot after all I had been through and now I am put back 5 hours to wait for some rep....WTH. Doc tells Hubby he doesn't need a rep there to fix my knee. Aparently the rep was coming in for another patient and wanted to watch my knee surgery so I was being rescheduled until AFTER the other patient's operatin!

Hubby and I both, in hindsight, agree we should have cancelled and run like h*ll but I was in pain and we didn't know a whole lot except what I had read on internet.

As I said earlier, my new surgeon was really concerned about why he did what he did to me (you ought to see my scar - what a mess) As he said, 8-9 of 10 partial surgeries will fail resulting in a total TKR, so why did he do a surgery that had such a high failure rate?

On partial knee operations - some last longer before giving out. Mine failed immediately the first time they got me up to walk!

The 1st surgeon sold me the partial telling me I would have a smaller incision/scar, recovery was faster, the bone loss would be less etc. He knew what the failure rate was, I didn't an had no clue.