I went to the orthopedist yesterday, and found out that I am indeed a candidate for a knee replacement.??I am 58 yrs old and he said that typically they like to wait till 60 or older because they do need replacing in 10-15 yrs on average.? With as much as I'd walk on it, I'd probably get a longer life though, as he said what happens is the screws get loose and they need to go in and re-do them.
He also schedules about 2 months out, and it takes most people about 4-6 months of rehab to be back to 100%.? I really didn't want to be recouperating over Christmas, so I opted to try a Cortisone injection to see if it would get me through a bit until I could get at least past the holidays.? I don't know if it'll work or not, but it's worth a try.? I should know soon if the shot is successful or not.?? My nephew gets married the 28th of August,?and I am hoping to go to the wedding without knee pain. I loved him.? I've had 2 DVT's in this leg and have torn muscles also in the past few years.? He told me that this is not going to fix all the problems that I am having with my leg.? It may help them since the knee will be stronger, won't buckle?on me,?and the muscles?won't have to be compensating as much, but I shouldn't go into the replacement and expect it to be the magic pill.? But, I have serious circulation problems that will not be helped, so my feeling is I have to try to help as much as I can to get back to being able to walk more again and become more active, if possible.? I walked more and better up until a few years ago. I was so surprised that he didn't talk at all about my weight.? I could stand to lose a good bit of weight, and am going to be making a valiant effort at that.? I've already started and have lost the few pounds that I have gained back over the past few months.? The yo-yo thing, not good.? It will make it much easier on my knees now and in the future, as well as the rehab when the day comes to try to get back up on the new knee.? Yikes, that's going to take some work!? Hope I'm up to it.? Linda, I'm very sorry, but I forgot to ask about the injection of cartilage.? There was so much going on between my husband asking about healthcare and the knee that we were in his office for almost an hour. Hugs to all, Barbara A
