Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Opinions on Total Knee Replacement

And a month of hotel bills to boot. But I hear you on not going to the first doctor. Though I'm not inclined to fly someplace for a surgery I can fly back from in a short time.

I've had 5 knee surgeries starting at age 13. Just had my ACL done again 3 years ago. They say I'll have to have a replacement at an early age and I'm not looking forward to it.

My last knee surgery took a few hours longer than planned. My friend did my anesthesia and said he kept asking the Dr. what was taking so long. He said the surgeon just kept saying how the hell did he walk into the hospital on this hamburger.

I had re-injured it 2 months earlier and told him I thought something was wrong. He did the old give it a few months and we'll see. I went to work every day on it and spent the evenings remodeling a rental house. When they finally opened me up they found a bone chunk the size of a penny loose in the joint that had been tearing up everything. I had 6 large cartilage tears, a torn acl and needed a notchplasty to remove some bone.

I wish I wouldn't have let them have me wait two months for surgery I could have avoided some pain and done less damage.

Bb

I had a TKR in 2004, I'm now 68 so was in my 50's when done. I was an RN, now retired; worked 12 hour shifts. Felt like a bad toothache in my knee by the end of each shift. This was the result of a sports injury when I was about 16. Before surgery I was about to quit hunting as anything thicker than a golf course type footing was painful. Rehab took around 7 weeks, then I was back to work with no restrictions. I've since got myself a lab and trained it to retrieve; have been pheasant hunting in South Dakota the past 8 years and there was no way that would have been possible prior to the surgery.

If you need to do it to save your lifestyle, do it now and don't even think about longetivity. If you can't do what you love now, what makes you think it will get easier by putting it off.

And, anaesthesia will probably be easier to deal with in your 50's than 70's.

Best of luck on your choice.

I had my knee and half my knee cap replaced in Nov. The knee healed up but my cap still hasnt healed up totally. The doc said it would take up to a year to heal. I still have a clicking in the knee every step i take he says that will go away also. I am glad i did it they had to put me back under and manipulate it after about 3 months as it wasnt bending far enough back due to excess scar tissue build up. If you do have it done absolutly do your therapy as directed.

My dad had one replace last year, he's having the second one done this year. He's 83. A buddy had one replaced at age 46, he's now 54 and having the other one done. Neither had any problems.

My wife had one replaced, she didn't do the PT like she was supposed to and had some problems but eventually got better.

Go for it, just find a good surgeon and do the PT.

Dale

if it is affecting your quality of life have it done....but as the others say be careful who you let do it and do your homework there....and be in as good of shape as you can get yourself in before you go under the knife and do not be afraid of pain meds coming out the other end, being pain free to do all the physical terrorist wants you to do will do wonders in getting you back to as close to 100% as your going to get....trying to tough out pain is only going to prolong the healing and quite possibly not allow you to get full flexibility back

Had both of mine replaced at the same time in 2002 at age 58. Had a bit of a time talking my surgeon into doing both together, but he finally agreed to. Doing the therapy religiously is a big secret to recovery. I had one big advantage in that I had my own private nurse and she didn't let me get by with anything contrary to what the PT folks told her. She also made sure I did my exercises when I was supposed to. I called her a slave driver but it all paid off in the long run. I got back my full range of motion I had before surgery in both knees. I was back to work in 8 weeks with no restrictions.

I have had great results thus far and would encourage anyone to have the surgery. As mentioned above prostheses are much better than they used to be.

I was 54 yrs old, and after 2 knee surgeries on each knee, a couple of rounds of synvisc injections every year for 3 years, and cortisone injections 3-4 times per year for 6 years. The bone on bone "toothache" got so bad (one when I moved and the other when I rested it...I hadn't slept well in a couple of years due to the pain....) I had had enough. The doc said let's test your legs to see which is your better one so it can help during rehab of the other....well neither was good enough to help with rehab, so we did both at the same time.

Like everyone has told you, the rehab is the worst part. My story: I was on an archery only lease. Hunted the opening weekend and went in for surgery on the Monday. Discharged from the hospital on Saturday, which would have been on Thursday, but had a drug reaction when the hospital staff changed my cholesterol meds... A tough 2 more weeks of therapy and I was in a ground blind on the 25th day after surgery. I had some great hunting partners that let me have the closest blind and did my tracking/deer recovery for me when I shot my first Texas archery buck that day. I got my first turkey with my bow the next day. I will admit that I was slow and wobbly walking on the washed out 2 track road...Where there is a will there is a way. :-)

I didn't hunt from any tree stands post surgery that season...the new knees just couldn't power up more than 6 inch steps for the first 3 months and all of our ladder stands and tree stands had 12" or better rungs/steps. And getting out of a sleeping bag and up off the ground to pee in the middle of the night on an overnight hunt was challenging.

After a few months most didn't know I ever had my knees replaced. It is a painful few weeks post surgery and during rehab, but pain free mobility makes it worth it. I still don't do much kneeling without knee pads if I can help it.

Git-her done! The sooner you start the sooner you a through it!

Scott

JG, unfortunalely ive known of a few people who fought post-op staph infections subsequent to surgery a year or so before dying, so thats one of my main concers. Hospital aquired staph is often very serious as it is antibiotic resistant (mrsa). I'd really want to know about the risk of such along with the surgeons skill.

What bothers me is i have some pts who did great with a particular surgeon and others who had pure misery from the same guy.

PM sent.

I had my right knee replaced at age 47 after about 20 years of constant pain from military injuries. The pain was so intense before the surgery that sleeping was impossible. The rehab after the procedure was painful, real painful, for about 10 days. For me, I found that by forcing myself to push through the pain, knowing that it would pass, for that really bad period right after surgery, made all the difference. By the 2 month period post-op, I was pain free and my quality of life was FANTASTIC. One of the best decisions I ever made, but for 2 weeks I had to push myself to the point of almost passing out to see such quick results.

Again, do your homework with respect to the surgeon that you choose. The guy that did mine doesn't use any of the downtown hospitals in Tucson--he does all his surgery out at Oro Valley, which is without a doubt the best run hospital that I have ever been in. The only other surgeon that I would have considered uses a Tucson hospital where I had some neurosurgery performed several years ago, and I would not willingly go back there. This was not the deciding factor, but it was important to me.

I've seen the very best consequences and the very worst with total knee replacements within my family all within the last 5 years. By worst, I mean absolutely the worst. I'm still of the opinion that if I got to the point that I couldn't function without pain, I would undoubtedly do it. There is an aspect to having a good quality of life that can't be had while pain is always in the forefront of ones mind. As said before in other posts: do your research, pick a doctor AND hospital wisely(you may look at dedicated surgery centers), and go above and beyond on PT. If you do all that I'm quite confident that you'll be much better off. Good luck to you.

If synvisc and cortisone are still working, then it's not time for the TKR yet; trust me!

How so?

I don't know about full replacement, but I do know that the Doc choice and the rehab are critical.

I had a knee cut on two years ago and the rehab prescribed was just a fraction of what needed to be done to get my strength back. Be ready to get in the weight room.

Good luck.

I've known several people who've had that as well as hip replacement. All have had positive outcomes. One guy I know took a lot longer to recover than expected for some reason, but did recover. All are glad they did it.

The only negative is that you are younger than they prefer to do it too. It isn't a permanent fix. Get it done now and you'll likely need it again in 20 years or so. They really prefer to do it on folks in their mid 60's or older. But if things are that bad now it may best to just do it.

Did it in 2010 and could not be happier. As everyone says do the rehab. A friend had his done about a year before me and got off the pain meds too quick and could not do the rehab as hard as needed. I stayed on the pain meds and work rehab as hard as I could and had great results.

I am a Physical Therapist in Nebraska. Work in a smaller hospital & outpatient setting. We have done TKA's here several years and one of our docs has been using a local injection during the operation INSTEAD of a nerve block. We have seen an easier recovery, less pain and better ROM (Range of Motion) in the knee immediately post-op. And generally a faster total recovery.
I'm not sure what the drugs are, but a concoction of drugs are injected into the knee before surgery, instead of a nerve block. Really has worked.
I'd suggest at least looking into this when you choose to have you knee done (sooner or later).
Total recovery time really depends on the individual. Might be as short as 2 weeks post-op or up to 8-10 weeks. Depends on amounts of pain, how well motion recovers and strength. Also over-doing things (walking too much, stairs, farming, etc too much too soon) makes healing take longer!!
I'd also recommend sooner than later. The longer you wait, the more changes that take place in your muscles. The muscles themselves can shorten/adapt to a bad knee alignment and makes recovery harder after surgery. You don't want to have your knees bowlegged or flexed (not be able to straighten them) for years - they may never straighten even after surgery.

Excellent MarkD, Thanks for the information, and everyone else for that matter. Doc appt. scheduled for 8/13 for consultation. I'll try to ask him a few questions brought up here.

TKA= total knee arthroplasty= knee replacement 😊

It is potentially one of the more painful recoveries ameliorated by someone who knows how to do good femoral and sciatic nerve blocks or alternately the use of Exparel, a long-acting solution of Marcaine, a local anesthetic, added to the wound as the orthopod closes the wound. With either you will also need a general or spinal or epidural anesthetic.

Physical therapy is crucial and started immediately for best range of motion of the new joint.

Don't wait too long.