Very, very scared to have knee surgery and hip surgery

Posted by cindiwass @cindiwass, Jul 6, 2021

I am in constant pain, usually when I walk or stand, knee and hip. Of course, when I am on my recliner I'm not in much pain so I stay there a lot. I used to swim until about 5 years ago, but I notice the hip pain was even worse after I swam.
When I was much younger (I'm 77) I had a torn cartilage (basketball game where some kind soul [yes, sarcasm] pushed me down), and subsequently the cartilage was removed. That's what I remember the doctor told me. I was young (16) and healthy, I recovered quickly enough, but had swelling and trouble for years until finally it became unbearable. I would get cortisone shots lbut eventually stopped doing that. (They were painful anyway.) But about 5 years ago, pain extended to my right hip, excrutiating, more so than the knee. (Don't know why.) I've seen several doctors and they all tell me to get hip and knee replacement. I am scared. But the problem I'm having now is that the doctors (I've seen quite a few) all tell me that I need to have a replacement, that I have arthritis. One doctor got upset when I asked him for more detailed information. And I didn't know how to ask the surgeon for detailed info, like what would he do and could he please explain what the x-rays showed. (Also, why do I have pain?) But the pain really impedes me from living a normal life, that is, cleaning, organizing, straightening up, etc. I made an appointment with a surgeon near enough who has a reputation of being very kind and compassionate. So I hope he'll bear with my questions.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Joint Replacements Support Group.

@fef

To all,
I’m 89 years old in April and had both my knees replaced, it at the same time. Right now I can walk for miles and if I did not have COPD I venture to say I’d be mountain climbing .
The secret to success is of course, first you need a good surgeon, then make very sure you follow all the instructions from your surgeon, exercise before and after as instructed.
Do all this and you will be fine.
Me last summer!

Jump to this post

Sending again I hope.

REPLY
@artscaping

That is great news. You sure don't look 89 in that beach photo. I totally agree with you about the importance of finding a great surgeon. I also think that new technology that makes robotic and minimally invasive surgery possible is very helpful. Yet, the bottom line is still those pre and post-surgery exercises. I have to think twice when someone asks me about the difference between my earlier TKR ten years ago (left) and the MAKO one I had last year (right). My right knee feels like it has always belonged to me. The left one has some squirrely behavior once in a while.

Did you catch any fish?

May you have happiness and the causes of happiness.
Chris

Jump to this post

That’s a good comparison for Robotic Surgery. Had right knee done Jan 3 so 2 months ago. My Right knee does feel natural after Robotic surgery. I don’t feel like something was implanted in me. Pain and swelling feels like i injured my knee, and it healing.

REPLY
@fef

To all,
I’m 89 years old in April and had both my knees replaced, it at the same time. Right now I can walk for miles and if I did not have COPD I venture to say I’d be mountain climbing .
The secret to success is of course, first you need a good surgeon, then make very sure you follow all the instructions from your surgeon, exercise before and after as instructed.
Do all this and you will be fine.
Me last summer!

Jump to this post

Love your story, I am 15 weeks past TKR, I just need to be patient with my body and therapy…. Just dealing with this tight IT Band is exhausting…
No problem with motion or walking!!
Thanks for encouragement!!

REPLY
@brescher

Love your story, I am 15 weeks past TKR, I just need to be patient with my body and therapy…. Just dealing with this tight IT Band is exhausting…
No problem with motion or walking!!
Thanks for encouragement!!

Jump to this post

--Apple-Mail-6BF01F3E-2D91-48A2-9C9D-114361C3F555
Content-Type: text/html;
charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

You=
are most welcome!On Mar 5, 2023, at 10:34 AM, Ma=
yo Clinic Connect <

REPLY

Hello. I am Jackie. Let me tell u. I had both knees replaced. Recovery was hard but u push to keep going in rehab. after this I wanted to kick myself it was the best thing I ever did. It is miracle I can walk dance go up stairs with no pain at all. Hip replacements in my therapy unit were doing better than me! Just do it changes your quality of life.get new doctors tell them to kiss u know what. No Dr. Should treat a patient like that!good luck

REPLY
@brescher

Love your story, I am 15 weeks past TKR, I just need to be patient with my body and therapy…. Just dealing with this tight IT Band is exhausting…
No problem with motion or walking!!
Thanks for encouragement!!

Jump to this post

That was a great story and 89! Awesome. She is amazing!
Yes, be patient with yourself and if you can get into a pool to do your strength training and stretching, you will see a difference. I had both knees done four months apart five years ago and I absolutely advocate for water therapy. Keep it going and it will improve. Aqua aerobics was the key for me. I can walk all day now with no pain.

REPLY

I guess I am a success story and hope it encourages you to have replacement surgery. First, modern medicine is really amazing and progressive. Hip replacements (which I had) are a long cry from the days of yore when a person with a broken hip had to live with a pin inserted and stay in bed for heaven knows how long. I have had a lot of orthopedic surgery (including a total of 5 spinal and neck fusions). Just a year ago (Feb, 2022) I had a hip replacement and then another one in August. The initial pain for both was well controlled with medication. I used a walker for about two weeks (and not all the time) and then continued with an uneventful recovery. My physical therapy was walking (Mayo Clinic in Phx). I was back to normal activity in about a month for each procedure. I'm still doing well. I crawled under a bed to get my cat this morning and have been going to spring training baseball games. I'll be 75 next month. I hope this helps you make a decision regarding surgery. It's nice not having hip pain any longer!

REPLY

I know this is an old post but anytime a surgeon is angered by questions I would run the other way.

REPLY

I can't speak to knee surgery but I am 77 and just had a total hip replacement using the Superpath technology and Dr. Jimmy Chow as my surgeon. He operated on me in the morning at the outpatient surgical facility and I was home by mid afternoon. Since the surgery I have been essentially pain free without even using pain medication.

My one complaint is that he says that he can't make bones grow so he wants his patients to be couch potatoes for six weeks. I reluctantly obeyed and I feel like I have lost all my body tone (at least the little I had). But seven weeks out and I am now on the golf course again and hitting the ball harder than before.

Find a good surgeon who has done thousands of the THRs using either direct anterior or Superpath. Mine has done more than 4,000 superpath replacements.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.