How many knee replacements can a person have?

Posted , 4 users are following.

I had full bilateral knee replacements back in December of 2007. It went well. After about 3 home visits from the home nurse I was told I would be going in for more therapy. They would call me. No call for a week so I call them. They said they are not set up yet. I said.. time is wasting I need to keep this therapy going. The 4th time I called them asking for my appointments they said that I said to cancel them. WHAT?!  Needless to say, someone on their side messed up. I didn't get any of those therapy appointments. 2 full knee replacements on the same day and no therapy after the 1st 3. (the knee replacements were from a fall onto a cement slab onto both of my knees. 7 years later they are doing these replacements).

10 years later ~ Sept. 2016, I just had left thumb arthoplasty. My hand and forearm was in a soft cast. I'm out in the yard and I fall. Into the fall I'm thinking how I want to land. I don't want my arm to hit the ground and mess up the surgery. I don't want to fall on my knees. My left knee hit the ground first then my surgery arm hit. My left femur broke completely across the bone. Ambulance is called. I'm told after xrays that I cannot move the leg at all because it's like a shattered glass and if I move it the shattering will keep going up the leg. 

2 months after that femur surgery of which they inserted a rod into it. (I was able to walk on it the next day), I'm in therapy for my leg and again the pain in my knee on the inside of leg where the collateral ligament is had so much pain. After I had 5 doctors look at my leg (no one was able to see the problem because of all the metal in my legs), I'm left with the 5th doctor physically examining my knee and knocking it back and forth and said... "your knee is lose". The knee was already 10 years old so I'm saying replace it. I said I know the ligament is torn or not attached because my knee kept twisting i place for about 11 months during all of these frustrating appointments. It would twist and then lock up. The pain was unbelievable. Finally a very good sports doctor did my surgery. He said there was a lot of wear on the prosthetic of the two ends twisting in place. Also he said that the ligament was NOT doing me any good. So.... all this time and I finally find out that I was right and the doctors don't listen to us and made me go through a lot of suffering because they could not figure this out. 

The biggest issue I have about this is, in the first place, the surgeon at the beginning who put the rod in my femur, he knew I had a fake knee. He was the one that told me taking xrays or MRI's or ultrasounds aren't going to show a problem when there is already metal in the way. My comment is.... Ok, with that knowledge then when  you were putting the rod in my femur why didn't you take the extra time to inspect the surrounding area, since this was an accident injury, and MAKE SURE that I didn't injure the ligaments that hold it in place. I kept telling the emergency room doctors that my knee hit the ground first. So there was an impact spot close to the break. The break for my femur was only 2 inches above the knee. It's at the bottom of my femur, not the middle or not the top of the leg. 

In October 2017, I finally get a second full knee replacement. This one is a "CONFINED KNEE REPLACEMENT" meaning the shanks are longer and the knee has a tendon/ligament like connector that runs up the center holding the knee in place better. All is well and I was in therapy for 2 months then my insurance changed. I had to cancel all future appointments because now I'm paying more then I can for my coverage and the coverage does not like physical therapy. Since then I have fallen a few more times. The last time was pretty hard and I KNOW I have now loosened the right knee because it's tried to twist on me while walking.

I'm afraid to move these days. I'm almost 63 years old. I am retired because of all these physical issues. I am walking worse then my father and he's almost 93! I am not using a walker but I'm close to it. I am a serious vegetable garden grower. I'm trying to get back into it for this season but I can hardly walk. I have had 17 hand surgeries (both hands totaled up) and have wrist issues too. So using my hands and wrists are very difficult but of course I'm having to use them. So getting on the floor is very very difficult and getting up almost impossible. I've had feet issues and nerve pain. Including issues with A-Fib and Fibermyalgia. The nerve pain throughout is challenging also. I also have osteopenia. So when does the osteoperosis kick in? 

My question is how many knee replacements can a person have? I tend to fall alot from being unbalanced in my walking. I have not had my knee looked at to see if it now needs to be replaced. My insurance changes to Medicare on June 1st because of my disability benefit that allows me to go on it before I'm 65. That's when I can get to a doctor. If I need that knee replacement and then I fall again... what's next? I don't think they can give me a larger knee. 

Whew! That was a lot of typing. 

 

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • Posted

    Wow, I thought I was going through it at 9 weeks.

    You MUST go to your local doctor and explain this to him, he will refer you to consultant. I was seen on the nhs within 6 weeks and operated on within 4 months.

    I attend physio every 2 weeks , although I know someone who has physio at her house as she’s your age.

    Do you ice your knee after exercise?

    Do you have crutches which you could use, nhs,  gave me crutches and Zimmer frame along with aircast knee wrap which I use to take down swelling after exercise.

    You must rest your knee when not moving around.

    When I’m ice packing my knee I find that moving my foot up and down helps move my knee also.

    I do hope this helps.

    • Posted

      Thank you for your reply. Here's another twist. I can't ice ANYTHING! With the Fibromyalgia that I have, I can't apply ice. It makes me break out in welts and hives and burns like ..... like I've been burnt. Ugh. 

    • Posted

      Cover your knee with cotton tea towel or if allergic try silk material over your  knee gently. Then place your ice pack over.

      I had to use a clean tea cloth over my knee at one stage.

      Hope this helps.

      Sue

    • Posted

      Thanks Susan for the suggestion. It's not the ice touching me. It's the cold getting to me. I realized that when I was riding my motorcycle when it was 49 deg out. My arms were feeling like they were on fire. I had my regular leather coat on but not heated gear. We finally pulled off and I took my coat off and the inside of my arms were covered in hives and rash and they were on fire from that. So it's the coldness that my body now has issues with. This only started  after my femur broke. I had had about 4 surgeries in about a 5 month period. I wonder it that shook up my body and threw me into this FMS issue.

  • Posted

    I thought I had it bad !!. I have had 17 surgeries all on my L knee. My problems started in 2004 I use to be an electrician and was overweight climbing ladders kneeling on concrete did my knee in. My 1st surgery was a torn meniscus which has since snowballed into a nightmare. The last 4 surgeries started on July 27 2015 I had my 4th TKR the 3rd was failing so it had to come out. Surgery went well 2 weeks later I came down with a bad fever Aug 18 2015 back in the hospital for another surgery to clean it out. Due to the infection I had a PIC line put in ( like an at home IV line ) for antibiotics 2 x a day 2 hours each time  ( I hated it putting it mildly ) October the PIC line came out thought all was fine but in Dec. found out I still had signs of an infection so Dec. 30 15 had a spacer put in. Also had a PIC line put in again. In Feb. of 2016 developed a clot my right arm looked like a cartoon character. Had to go back in hospital to get that fixed. Finally May 9th 2016 had my 5th TKR. OH BOY !!! I am done no such luck. The surgeon who had done all the work retired and he referred me to another surgeon the pain after the last TKR did get better but then after a year it started getting worse I kept sending e-mails to the new Dr. and he refused to exam my knee all he ever said your x-rays look great and your labs are fine. Finally got pretty fed up decided to look for another surgeon ( when you have had as many surgeries as I have had not many want to help ) Finally found one he looked at it and said it looked like an infection so he wanted labs and a bone scan done. Labs were perfect ( thank God ) but the bone scan was pretty bad. When I saw the image my left knee was glowing found out thru the internet what I called glowing was called Hot Spots and its a sure sign something is wrong. Went back to new Dr. He confirmed what I thought but he had to make sure so I had more labs done once again they were good. The last time I saw him he explained the implant is loosening and based on the x-rays the implant was not aligned properly in fact its off by a good amount the other problem since I have had so many TKR's ( 5 so far ) there is nothing left to attach the new implant to. I was not sure what he meant so he explained on the tibia where it comes up to the knee it spreads out like a Y the Y part is where the bottom of the implant sits and a rod is inserted into the tibia as well to secure it. In my case there is not enough bone left so He referred me to a Specialist who treats Bone and Cancer patients who need reconstruction due to the bone loss from cancer tumors etc. What scares me I was told it is going to be complicated I am going to be in the OR for awhile and as he put it its going to hurt. I see the Specialist on May 15th so as one would expect getting nervous there is a lot I do not know and it bugs me. I understand what you are going thru it stinks, how else do you put it? I am 57 I should be working doing normal things etc. because of my knee I have been on disability for 5 years I hate it. I truly hope no one has to go thru what I have been thru. I do wish yours gets better.

    Norman 

    • Posted

      OH MY GOSH!!! I guess I should keep quiet about my issues! I think you're a winner in the "How much can I handle" part of the show! Wow!!! I really want to find out how this next time has worked for you. And... what do they mean it's really going to hurt? Ugh!! 

    • Posted

      Well Kathy if you want you could go ahead and have this surgery instead of me then you can tell me how it went !!! Just kidding I remember the first time I went to therapy and as you go you meet others and I met someone who had 6 or 7 knee surgeries and I thought I hope I never have to go thru that and now here I am YUCK. This has got me nervous a replacement is no big deal ( well it is but I know what to expect )  whats coming I am clueless. Keep wondering how they are going to fix the bone loss once they get the implant out. There is nothing left to attach the implant to on the bone its gone. Then I keep thinking thanks to my neighbor will it require 2 surgeries only because how can they fix the bone loss then attach the implant ? to me it seems like whatever they do to the bone it has to heal first?? Then what type of implant not that I care just want to make sure it all works. The other issue what about hospital stay and or the recovery. A typical TKR in the hospital 2 days if problems 4 or 5. You get sent home after a week you will see 2 nurses one to check your blood  since your on blood thinners and the second for therapy after a month you start outpatient therapy. I have no idea what to expect this time so yes I am nervous as the days get closer to the 15th when I see the specialist probably even more so. Knowing me once I talk to this Dr. and he explains everything I should be fine hopefully but my guess my summer is not going to be much fun.
    • Posted

      Ya... nice try! lol. All of this started for me just from tripping in the yard over some stupid stepping stones. My back foot didn't pick up enough as I was taking my step and it brought the cement step up and made me trip and I went down on my knees on a larger cement patch. My sons brought me to the hospital and they did xrays. They said... it all looks good. Ooooohhhh nooooo it doesn't. So 7 years later I'm having bilateral knee replacements. Ugh. They said .... this kind of injury is from an accident cause this sort of injury doesn't happen on it's own. I said.... yes, so lets pull those xrays out from 7 years ago and you guys told me everything was fine. lol. Ya... not funny. I have issues of NOT knowing what's going to happen too. So there I am searching out on Youtube of how they do a knee replacement. OH!! Don't watch those things before a knee replacement. It freaked me out. Then when I broke my femur I watched out they get the rod back out and the video about had me standing on the other side of the room to watch it and flinching with each hard hard hard hammer hit on the leg rod trying to get it to come out. When I had my knee replacements I was out on day 3. Even when I had the two done on same day. I am a fast healer. The doctors are in shock at how fast I heal and that I apparently can take on a lot of pain. So I'm telling them..... so when I tell you I'm in pain, then you KNOW I'm in a LOT of pain. 

  • Posted

    Your medical history has been very difficult for you.

    I understand from personal experiences that at this stage, its better to be safe than to risk falling again. There are rolling walkers with big wheels and a storage seat that will allow me to carry some garden tools and more importantly be safe while allowing me to get outside. Electric scooters are another wonderful option. 

    • Posted

      You're probably right about the rolling walker with the seat. I should probably get one of those. I can open a store with all my STUFF from these knee/leg issues and my hand issues too. 17 surgeries in my hands from osteo issues. arthritis tendonitis... now starting to get Dupuytrens conjucture in both hands. 

    • Posted

      ergobaum half crutches were designed by an orthopedic doctor and reduce stress on wrists and knees. 

      I too have enough equipment to open a store! I am fortunate that some of it I got from a thrift store because other rolling walkers etc. I bought retail. I was amazed at all of the accessories available for walkers, and am now more prepared for the second knee replacement which I hope will go better.

      Be safe, and best wishes!

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