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Why bother to go through the trouble of getting her knees fixed, if she's going to gain the weight back - putting additional pressure on her knees again, and resulting in needing them done - again (if she'd even be eligible for a re-do by that point)?
Lifestyle change. Getting surgery to fix bones when those bones are carrying more weight than they should carry, won't prevent them from needing surgery again. It'll make recovery that much more difficult, and she'll end up worse off than when she started.
Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Living in pain keeps a person from being able to move. Replacement knees do not have parts that deteriorate, regardless of the weight on them. Replacement knees have no parts that are painful after the initial healing.
Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Living in pain keeps a person from being able to move. Replacement knees do not have parts that deteriorate, regardless of the weight on them. Replacement knees have no parts that are painful after the initial healing.
Yeah I know what I'm talking about. See - replacements are attached to your actual real life genuine bone. Your bone supports everything above it, with muscles and sinew and cartilege and blood vessels and veins and fat and all kinds of other nifty things.
The bones those replacement knees get attached to, are designed (some say by God, some say by science) to withstand only so much weight bearing on it in normal regular intervals. Such as - walking around the block. Running across the street to get your dog who ran out the door. Grocery shopping. Walking around your house, stepping up and down your front stoop a few times a day, walking to the end of the driveway to pick up your mail, and so on and so forth. Just normal daily routine activities.
The more weight you put on your body, the harder it is for those existing bones to support you. Eventually, things break down. Now, it's your knees. But hey fake knees, awesome. But next time it'll be the fibula and tibia instead. Or fallen arches. Or a neuroma between your toes. Or a fracture in your foot. Or worse - arthritis in your hips, or spine, or both.
Thinner people aren't immune to these ailments. But obese people are MORE prone to them than their less weighty fellow humans.
You might not need a second set of knee replacements - but the tissues and muscles, bones and everything attached to those replacements, will suffer if you go into it morbidly obese and remain morbidly obese after surgery.
In addition, morbidly obese people have a MUCH longer recovery time for total knee replacement, and some never fully recover because there's just way too much weight for those bones to hold up. That's one of the main reasons why those knees need to be replaced in the first place.
Not the only reason - but for the morbidly obese, it is a very common reason to need it.
My brother in law was morbidly obese - around 300 pounds, and is only 5'9". His knees were suffering horribly, he had to use a walker. He also had diabetes II. He was unable to climb stairs, and became a recluse. The doctor said they wouldn't do surgery til he got under 225 pounds.
Then he decided to get smart, and did upper body exercises, change his diet, then started in on zero-impact cardiac exercises, then added core exercises, changed his diet a little more, lost 100 pounds in 3 years. His diabetes is gone, and he no longer needs surgery at all. His walking is a little more slow than the average person and he still gets days when he's sore. But he is otherwise healthy and fit, no longer uses a walker, and feels terrific.
My friend who is skinnier than her high school weight and 72 just had a hip replacement and it did not go all that well. She's having a worse recovery than my siblings that had them who were normal to slightly overweight. There's something going on with the muscle. I really think she minimizes food and maximizes the number of steps and also has a history of decades of horseback riding and she's got issues with the muscles.
There's no guarantees on these sorts of things; but, obviously, the better shape you are in and the healthier you are you would think that would lead to better outcomes.
However, I would not run into the arms of a surgeon, a drug, or a magic pill. There's underlying stuff going on. That same friend had a back surgery two years ago, then the hip replacement and now still big problems. Maybe if the underlying muscle issue was resolved all the surgeries would not have been required and now she still has to work on that muscle issue. Just being skinny (at all costs) is not the answer.
Yeah I know what I'm talking about. See - replacements are attached to your actual real life genuine bone. Your bone supports everything above it, with muscles and sinew and cartilege and blood vessels and veins and fat and all kinds of other nifty things.
The bones those replacement knees get attached to, are designed (some say by God, some say by science) to withstand only so much weight bearing on it in normal regular intervals. Such as - walking around the block. Running across the street to get your dog who ran out the door. Grocery shopping. Walking around your house, stepping up and down your front stoop a few times a day, walking to the end of the driveway to pick up your mail, and so on and so forth. Just normal daily routine activities.
The more weight you put on your body, the harder it is for those existing bones to support you. Eventually, things break down. Now, it's your knees. But hey fake knees, awesome. But next time it'll be the fibula and tibia instead. Or fallen arches. Or a neuroma between your toes. Or a fracture in your foot. Or worse - arthritis in your hips, or spine, or both.
Thinner people aren't immune to these ailments. But obese people are MORE prone to them than their less weighty fellow humans.
You might not need a second set of knee replacements - but the tissues and muscles, bones and everything attached to those replacements, will suffer if you go into it morbidly obese and remain morbidly obese after surgery.
In addition, morbidly obese people have a MUCH longer recovery time for total knee replacement, and some never fully recover because there's just way too much weight for those bones to hold up. That's one of the main reasons why those knees need to be replaced in the first place.
Not the only reason - but for the morbidly obese, it is a very common reason to need it.
My brother in law was morbidly obese - around 300 pounds, and is only 5'9". His knees were suffering horribly, he had to use a walker. He also had diabetes II. He was unable to climb stairs, and became a recluse. The doctor said they wouldn't do surgery til he got under 225 pounds.
Then he decided to get smart, and did upper body exercises, change his diet, then started in on zero-impact cardiac exercises, then added core exercises, changed his diet a little more, lost 100 pounds in 3 years. His diabetes is gone, and he no longer needs surgery at all. His walking is a little more slow than the average person and he still gets days when he's sore. But he is otherwise healthy and fit, no longer uses a walker, and feels terrific.
Nobody said OP is obese. Knee replacements are just as successful on 250# men as on 100# women. Of course, a surgeon will not want to operate on an obese person, because of the dangers of surgery, but not because of the actual knee.
Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Living in pain keeps a person from being able to move. Replacement knees do not have parts that deteriorate, regardless of the weight on them. Replacement knees have no parts that are painful after the initial healing.
Tell my neighbor that. He had both knees replaced and is in constant knee pain. IDK why.
Swimming would probably be the best exercise, and water aerobics.
Also, exercise the parts you can, do core exercises, hand weights or bands for the upper body.
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She said she has to crawl up the stairs. So, maybe she's crawling around the house and has not got back to her laptop. I think she might just be slow to get back to us or really has no new news and has not decided if anyone has helpful advice yet.
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