Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Knees are nearly bone on bone, now what?

I've not btdt, yet, but my friends who have, knee replacement surgery's a piece of cake now - compared to a decade or two ago. If you have insurance - get it done and be rid of the suffering..

FWIW.

my right knee has been bone on bone for over 40 years. I just live with it

I have no idea how, or why.

LMAO.

There are one or two specialists near where I live that do that stuff. It is way less intrusive then sawing off the bone and inserting a new joint. One guy at work had it done, so far so good.

Trying to make decisions on work in the immediate. I'm up and down off the ground and on my knees alot during the day. I got that excavator last fall to get me off the ground but I haven't got full time work for it yet. If I have nothing to lose I'll work the year out and deal with the pain. One mistake I made last year with a different medical issue is I waited too long to go see a doctor and couldn't get it taken care of in my off season. Sometimes takes weeks and months to get appointments around here. Need to plan ahead and that's where all you guys have helped me understand recovery times.

I have my ortho appointment in another week. Things that pushed me BACK to this point: I can't sleep through the night, going downhill/stairs is a bit scary, can't go for a walk with the wife (100 yards and the pain ramps up),

I've had BOTH knees scoped for torn meniscus, 6 years ago I thought I was in for a rebuild, Xrays showed left leg ALMOST bone on bone, right leg 1/2 bone on bone, 1/2 almost bone on bone. Went through cortisone shots to get me through planned events until I had a period I could recover in. Wore the custom fit unloading brace for about 5 months, was WONDERFUL. I've tried glucosomine, didn't do squat for my knees, but made my ankles pain free! Tried a shot series called Euflexa that helps rebuild the sinovial fluid, did nothing.

Discussed partial or total replacement, or a tibial osteotomy (essentially saw your shin bone almost in half, open it up, screw a plastic wedge in and it re-aligns your knee to shift the weight load to the "good" half. went with that, HORRIBLE recovery, way worse than a replacement (crutches for 12 weeks, no weight on that foot for 8, then rehad really kicks in). But I have my original knees.

My guess is I am looking at 1, if not 2, TKR coming. If I need 1 I will be pushing for 2.

I used to run a lot. While in the Marines I ran 20 miles before dawn almost daily. I also skied a lot. My knees wore out. They were bone on bone and every now and then a nerve got between the bones. INSTANT horrible pain.

I now have two stainless steel knees. The first surgery was a breeze and I was back to work in less than a week. The second one was so good. They missed the nerve to be blocked and I woke up in surgery. It was over a month before I was back to work. Lots of pain, lots of Oxy-codoen and Hydo-codone.

The doctor was the same. The anesthesiologist was different, Walking without pain now. Can no longer ski or run.

They shortened your femur. Didn't you notice???

Firebal2: I injured ONE of my knees in a duty related accident 21 years ago.
This required surgery to repair the meniscus and to re-place (place it where it came from) a piece of bone.
Those injuries eventually led to arthritis (injury induced - which is common in knees), the aforementioned bone on bone (no cartilage), four bone spurs, ruined meniscus and one other condition that were all unrepairable!
I was 49 when I was initially injured and did fairly well for 10 years then I began suffering from those various conditions - I fought them for 7 1/2 more years then began the Cortisone injections!
They gave some relief from pain but did not improve any of the conditions.
Finally March 14 this spring I had a full knee replacement and am still doing thrice weekly 1 1/2 hour long physical therapy sessions.
The operation and physical therapy have been very painful - but I am walking better now and the old pains are gone and the "new" pains are diminishing slowly.
Its my understanding that the replacement artificial knee joints last 11 to 14 years so that is one reason "I" put off the "inevitable" for as long as I could - I only want to endure that operation once in this lifetime!
If you are having knee pain that keeps you awake at night then you are "ready" for the new knee - if you are sleeping okay then I say persevere until sleep becomes difficult!
I say take it easy (as best you can!) on the Cortisone injections and anti-inflammatories (some can harm kidneys I hear?) as well.
One of my friends did indeed harm his kidney function by taking to many over the counter anti-inflammatories.
By the way this friend is now on his second set of artificial knees!
Sorry to hear of your condition and I am hoping for the best for you!
I do know this, I now protect my one good natural knee like my life depends on it!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Did the insert a rod in your femur? That's what they did with mine.

Good times

You boys are all too deep.

It means, he's getting into prime heart attack years. It was a joke, meaning the worse is yet to come so enjoy the knee problems.

Tore my right ACL 42 years ago playing baseball and it's never been fixed. My family doc suggested I get a knee strap, so I got this gizmo made by Mueller called a Jumper's Knee Strap. It's supposed to help support the patellar tendon. It seems to work. I am now bone on bone, but a cortisone shot, plus the strap, has lasted a year and a half. Before the shot and the strap, it had flaired up to the point that I could not walk. Eventually the shot will wear off and the strap will cease to help, but if you need something to help get you to the OR the strap does seem to help. Google Mueller knee strap.

Wow and holy crap! Glad you're pain free. Man thats a long time to be sore. Kinda like my back pain. You just learn to live with it I guess.

He's telling you to do it before you're too damn old to enjoy them.

I have known of two people locally that have died from blood clots associated with their knee replacement surgery. One was my wife's grandfather. Healthy for an 80 yr old man, was getting it done for upcoming vacation to Australia. So much for that.


Pick a good hospital. I feel like these two were post-op nursing failures.

Mine have been bone on bone for over 25 years in my right knee. I didn't want to do a replacement until I had to, hoping to only do one in my lifetime. Now I'm 64 and doing pretty well with that knee. Several years ago I found a supplement that really works great for me. It's called Instaflex. They have two versions out, I use the older one as it seems to work the best for me and is cheaper than the new one. I was having really bad pain in the knee and calf of my right leg and had been off and on for years. I started with one capsule the Instaflex for about 6-8 days, then just forgot about it for a couple of weeks because the pain was gone. I decided to wait until the pain came back before I took any more and it took months before I took my next one. That's about the way it's stayed, pain comes, I take the product, pains goes away, I quit taking it for a while. It's been working well for me for about 5 years now and I'm not planning on surgery until it stops working. Best wishes for ya!

Got the cortizone shot yesterday and came down the stairs this morning with a skip in my step for the first time, in a LONG time. Breezed right on down. Wow, I'd forgotten. Just bent over to get a fry pan out of the cupboard and didn't have to favor my left leg, wiggle around and get all hinky and wince in pain.

I think this thing has kind of snuck up on me. Just thought it was getting old and there was nothing could be done about it. We'll see how the next few days go but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.

I'm going to start taking the joint meds to see if they help my ankles. Can't hurt.

I had one of those 3 years ago and it markedly improved my arthritic right knee.

They are available at Mayo Clinic.