Knee replacement gang

[Hewhoknowslittle]

 Well today I joined the group and had my right knee replaced with the conformius  brand knee, sitting here in the rehab hospital and they are wonderful, had the nerve block so pain is minimal but I’m sure tomorrow it will come back with a vengeance  

 A shout out to Henry, Dave and I can’t remember who else they just had this done. 

Dave, I’m wondering how your progress is because you’re a week ahead of me so I’m betting my recovery will follow yours.

Roger

[TXiceman]

My wife has had both knees replaces....one 11 years ago and one last year.  Her three words of advice are:

1. Take pain meds on a regular schedule.  Don't let it start hurting and then take the meds.

2. Get a Cyro Cuff and use it a lot.

3, do your PT religiously.

It will take a year until you are near 100%.  But after a month you are walking pretty good and use your cane as needed.

Ken

[Hewhoknowslittle]

20 minutes ago, TXiceman said:

My wife has had both knees replaces....one 11 years ago and one last year.  Her three words of advice are:

1. Take pain meds on a regular schedule.  Don't let it start hurting and then take the meds.

2. Get a Cyro Cuff and use it a lot.

3, do your PT religiously.

It will take a year until you are near 100%.  But after a month you are walking pretty good and use your cane as needed.

Ken

Thank you for the message. I learned from the shoulder surgery to stay on top of the meds. 

Roger

[adept99]

Plug me into the Knee club. Had the Right one replaced about 8 yrs ago. Pain meds worked, PT sucked but worked, and no issues since. 

[Big5er]

Get well soon Roger. 

[HERO Maker]

I'm having my knee conversion put off until next year late summer.

Nobody warned me about staying on those pleasant pain meds for as long as I did (23 days), so use this as your warning!  You want to get weened off of them as soon as you can.  You don't want to suffer what your body will do if you are on them too long.  I don't know what the druggies of the world do when their body starts shutting down and begins to hurt major time?  I guess they just take more pain meds!

 

[mr. cob]

Howdy Roger,

I am doing well, I can honestly say that the second day after the surgery was the worst and it wasn't as bad as I had expected.  Most of the time I am in no to very little pain, the only real pain I feel is when doing the knee flex exercises other then that on a scale of 0-10, I would say 90% of the time is less then 3 and hovers around 1.  I have had some trouble sleeping at night, I normally don't sleep on my back so sleeping on my back so that I can keep the left leg elevated has been a task.  For the last week I have been able to sleep a bit on my side so this has helped.  One thing Learned early on, KEEP THE COMPRESSION SOCKS ON as much as possible, I tried taking them off at night so I could sleep better and ended up with a lot of pain.  I am only using the narcotic pain meds when I really need it which is not that often, last darn thing I want to do is end up with pain meds being a problem.

I have been using some forearm crutches for the last week and am getting along well, walking for short distances without the crutches when I am near something I can grab if I should lose my balance.  The only real concern I now have is the flexibility of my knee, I can do 90 degree bend with no problem anything beyond that and it hurts but that is something I am just going to have to work on.  Hang in there, you'll make it, we all seem too in the end.

Dave

PS.  With that Conformis, knee joint you have a Peterbilt, quality part in your body, that may or may not have an adverse reaction to your truck. 🤣

[Big5er]

2 hours ago, mr. cob said:

PS.  With that Conformis, knee joint you have a Peterbilt, quality part in your body, that may or may not have an adverse reaction to your truck. 🤣

So what you are saying, Dave, is that Rocky is having to settle for 2nd best when he coulda had a Volvo knee?

[mr. cob]

1 hour ago, Big5er said:

So what you are saying, Dave, is that Rocky is having to settle for 2nd best when he coulda had a Volvo knee?

Howdy Phil,

 I am making another attempt at humor, oft times what I think is funny is not received well by those who are more then Semi-Sane.

Dave

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

4 hours ago, mr. cob said:

 

PS.  With that Conformis, knee joint you have a Peterbilt, quality part in your body, that may or may not have an adverse reaction to your truck. 🤣

Dave... I'm pretty sure Roger ordered the Freightshaker knee.... If we see him wobbly we'll know why!  LOL

[HERO Maker]

Mine, like Roger and Dave's, will be a conformis knee, if in fact they will do conversion knees.  I think the implant will "Conform" to the trucks we all have!   Since I'm having to have them do a little more work (tear the leg apart a little farther), I'm trying to plan it so I have plenty of time to rehab and get it done right!

[mr. cob]

52 minutes ago, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

Dave... I'm pretty sure Roger ordered the Freightshaker knee.... If we see him wobbly we'll know why!  LOL

Howdy Jim,

And I thought I was a “Cob”, that’s just mean.  Sorry Roger, it would appear that I am not alone in pulling your leg or to be correct your knee. 

Aren't we just a bunch of old gimpy bastards making fun of each other’s ills.  Just one of the things I’ll  be going to hell for, next time we meet we can compare scars and tell tall tales around the campfire.

Dave

[mr. cob]

19 minutes ago, HERO Maker said:

Mine, like Roger and Dave's, will be a conformis knee, if in fact they will do conversion knees.  I think the implant will "Conform" to the trucks we all have!   Since I'm having to have them do a little more work (tear the leg apart a little farther), I'm trying to plan it so I have plenty of time to rehab and get it done right!

Howdy Rocky,

 It sounds like your going to have a bit more to deal with then the rest of us, I am sure I can speak for all of us when we wish you well with a quick and full recovery.  Find the best surgeon you can to do the job, we’er Pulling for you.

Dave

[Big5er]

1 hour ago, mr. cob said:

Howdy Phil,

 I am making another attempt at humor, oft times what I think is funny is not received well by those who are more then Semi-Sane.

Dave

Oh so now I'm half crazy

[Chad Heiser]

Roger,

I hope your recovery goes well and quickly.  All of you guys will have to come back to the WCR next year to compare scars and see who can run/walk the fastest to the pot luck.

[Hewhoknowslittle]

Today the pain and swelling is rentless. Woke up a little while ago and can’t get any relief. Hoping day 3 will improve the swelling and overall discomfort. 

[mr. cob]

11 hours ago, Chad Heiser said:

Roger,

I hope your recovery goes well and quickly.  All of you guys will have to come back to the WCR next year to compare scars and see who can run/walk the fastest to the pot luck.

Howdy Chad,

Maybe we can get a "Gimps" area of the campground, that way our goings on won't disturb the regular folks. 😀

Dave

[mr. cob]

10 hours ago, Hewhoknowslittle said:

Today the pain and swelling is rentless. Woke up a little while ago and can’t get any relief. Hoping day 3 will improve the swelling and overall discomfort. 

Howdy Roger,

A bit of advice for what its worth, day three was the worst for me in the pain department.  I was and am afraid to use to many of the pain pills as I don't want problems afterwards.   However I now know better, the second time around and I will load up on the pain meds for at least the first 4-5 days, after that its not so bad but the first 2-5 days can be brutal at times and there is no sense hurting anymore then you have to.  So take the darn pills now you won't need them that much in a few days.  We are all in this together and we are all pulling for each other, we will get through this.

Dave

[phoenix2013]

A day after surgery is the worst, but if they give you the dope in timely intervals (every 4 hours in my instance) it's more than manageable. From the third day on it's Hallelujah times. Rocky, you want those conformis knees, stick with the peterbilts. I wrote an article after my episode, conformis people and my surgeon had a belly laugh.

 

Engineers, Doctors and Borgs.

 I’m in a celebratory mood, brought upon by a change in venue. The trio of physicians, who have been ministering to this old carcass I’ve been carrying around for 74 years, came to a conclusion that the condition that postponed the February surgery has been sufficiently beaten down to try again on June 14^th (knee # 1) and June 17^th (knee # 2). Whenever I’m in celebratory mood I feel a need for literary output in the language of William Shakespeare and Ernest Hemmingway which I learned in my late youth. So here it goes.

 I always thought that doctors were like engineers. Obstetricians are like manufacturing engineers making sure the “product” leaves the “factory” on time and meets the essential quality standards. Primary doctors are like product engineers keeping track of the product in use and in the field, informing the clients on the latest tweaks, pointing out things that could cause the product to fail because of misuse or abuse. Emergency room doctors are like service engineers sent out to make the product work again after abuse and failure. Surgeons are like the “super techs” usually involved when everything else fails and without their help the product will have to be junked. The equivalent of the design engineers would be the transplant guys, microsurgery guys, drug designers etc.

When I see 3D, I know that the essential work and repairs on the product at hand will be done well, accurately and with forethought. The product at hand is a pair of diseased knees which reduced their owner to resort to this alternative form of locomotion instead of walking.

As some of you may know the owner of the aforementioned diseased clunkers is big into computer generated 3D design work, therefore, when he saw this

he knew he was in the good hands. Why, because the trial and error, fitting and futzing, etc., would be done virtually and on a computer screen and not on the said diseased pair while their owner was in a la la land and in the hands of “another engineer”, this one capable of “turning off” and then cranking over 74 year old carcass laying dormant for an hour or so.

So why am I so excited? The following is a perfect symbiotic example of medicine and engineering in perfect harmony. First your truly was subjected to an MRI-like x-rays from hips to toes, that info was sent to Massachusetts to create a 3D model of the existing skeletal model from hip to toes. Why hip to toes? The plan is not only to install new knees but to also realign things away from the old bowlegged cowboy look to the more youthful and straighter self. Once those parameters are set the computer goes to work again.

It figures out how much stuff has gone missing and needs to be added to achieve straightness and full J curve motion from straight knee to bent knee (0 to 90 degrees). Current techniques only take into considerations those two extremes and one in five patients is not too happy with what happens in between those angles.

The computer then figures out the shape and size of the actual implant for each side.

The next step is truly revolutionary and pure engineering. The computer is connected to a 3D printer to manufacture plastic templates to be used in surgery to precisely cut, bore and shape the bone to accommodate the new prosthesis.

Once the bones are exposed the templates are placed in succession to drill (through holes) or cut (through slots) to shape the bone for the implant.

Once all that is done the surgeon reaches into the same kit to retrieve a pair of beautiful and new “spare parts”.

Let the making of the new Borg begin.

All kits are patient specific, clearly identified (the 3D printer makes kits for several patients on each run) and come pre-sterilized to the surgeon. A pair of mine has been patiently sitting in his office for a couple of months now.

Although the article was meant to “entertain”, it also meant to inform as I am sure there are many “candidates” for this surgery in our neighborhood. What I found surprising was that this advanced medical procedure is available right here in our Port St. Lucie community. Dr. Edward Rosario from Coastal Orthopedic has been doing this procedure for a number of years and has been training other surgeons in its use. He performs the operations at Port St. Lucie Medical Center and the facility that has the proprietary software to generate the initial 3D images of the knees is located in St. Lucie West at iCARE Radiology.

 Edit (and progress report):

 After hospital stay and rehab at Health South standing and walking on “straight” legs at home on July 2^nd 2016 (15 days after the second knee was done).

Full disclosure here, I was still using walker at this stage, which the PT people "strongly recommended", but for the purpose of the picture (hero complex) walker was placed outside of the picture frame.

The first “look and see” with Dr. Rosario’s office was on July 14^th. X-rays were taken to help with the “look and see”.  Seeing the pictures on the computer screen (and being an engineer) I just had to have them.

And I was no longer bowlegged, which was the condition from my teenage days. Cautionary tale there, I had to see a foot doctor, after about a year the ankles were getting screwed up, turned out I had to "re-train" my ankles how to work with straight legs and walk right. Note that the knee cap is preserved; it is modified on its backside to glide smoothly over the prosthesis. Also note the distinct difference between the left and the right prosthesis, again the “beauty” of the conformis system which designs the new knees not only for each patient but also for each knee.

Comparison of the “originals” to the healed new pair (Sept 7^th). Original were full of fluid, the surgeon said, "no, we are not going to fool around and drain them, they'll drain when I start working on them".

Fully functioning, able to work almost full days on one’s feet in the shop. Atrophied muscles and strength also coming back. 

 

 

 

[mr. cob]

Howdy Henry,

I just want to again thank you for telling us about the Confomis knee.  I am not an engineer nor do I pretend to be one but as a Journeyman Machinist, Certified Welder and all around fabricator, when I watched the video of the Conformis knee operation I could plainly see that it simply had to be better then something taken from a box on the shelf.  The use of the jigs and fixtures to shape the bone and position the implant impressed me and made making the decision to go with the Conformis knee and EASY one.

Dave

 

[phoenix2013]

13 hours ago, Hewhoknowslittle said:

Today the pain and swelling is rentless. Woke up a little while ago and can’t get any relief. Hoping day 3 will improve the swelling and overall discomfort. 

Sounds, like you are on day 2, that one is a bitch. Are you on, every 4 hour pain regimen. I was getting IV shot every 4 hours. You have to keep it up for about 36 hours, day and night. First knee they didn't wake me up every 4 hours to keep the dose going, "I was sleeping like a baby", they said. My response was, " you've got a really pissed off baby, that is hurting like a son-of-bitch". By the third day I was fine.

Are they draining your swelling and do you have a compression legging on?

Edited August 28, 2019 by phoenix2013

[Hewhoknowslittle]

They took out the drain last night, and yes I am wearing the support hose, But living in a camper has it's challenges, and I am adapting well.

Roger

[2gypsies]

We thought living in the motorhome for knee replacements worked well.... no steps.... lots to hold onto..... and physical therapy even came to the RV.  We both were running around the pickleball court and hiking. So glad we had it done!  Keep on pluggin'.  You'll get there.

[mr. cob]

Howdy Roger,

Glad to hear your doing better, I guess I am lucky never had any drainage from my knee.

Dave

[HERO Maker]

Good to hear you are coming along.  Don't get soft, but use the meds.