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In my case a total knee replacement was the only thing that stopped the pain. Tried shots,
tried having the area cleaned out, still pain came back in days. Surgery was done in 2012
and haven't had any pain since and can straighten my leg again. I am 70.
In my case I do the opposite of rest. Movement, lots of it, throughout the day. Lots of stretching, trying to maintain maximum range of motion ... trying to build compensatory strength to make up for the decline of the joints. Focus on core strength. Maintain / lose body fat, gain muscle. Essentially I am trying to get the most out of connective tissues, bursa, etc. Trying to delay, or put off forever, joint replacements.
Have you had X-rays of the knees to see how much cartilage is left? Or if cartilage is still present mostly in full?
I think if you had bone rubbing against bone (like I do, with zero cartilage), I'm not sure you could do a ton of daily movement - but maybe you could - others can maybe write in this thread if they do a lot of movement even with bone rubbing on bone.
I'm not sure if you mean you do mostly just floor exercises and stretching, or if you mean you do really active things like sports and extensive yard work, etc. It's always good to build up the muscles with stationary exercising.
But my pain is super-intense with bone rubbing against bone, and greatly inhibits.
Last edited by matisse12; 05-31-2017 at 04:26 PM..
In my case a total knee replacement was the only thing that stopped the pain. Tried shots,
tried having the area cleaned out, still pain came back in days. Surgery was done in 2012
and haven't had any pain since and can straighten my leg again. I am 70.
I can straighten my leg as I've been thru extensive PT since Dec thru April and do PT at home too. Learned every exercise they put out. I can bend my knee BUT I do take ibuprofen daily and other joint supps...I don't live in major pain, but STIFFNESS.
While in hospital after MRI to get started on 2 months of abx drugs (staph infection) the docs also did a cleaning out of knee and flushing with abx drugs.
So much of me is so fearful of surgery and what follows it all. Will I be greatly improved re: stiffness and will I be worse and still have problems.
I had so many xrays which show bones rubbing. I do no sports etc...but can do some pretty good stretching work on my bed...I'm 79 soon...so no sports anyway.
A year ago when I was 68 my knee went out suddenly when I was leaning over and I fell, had a hard time getting up.Went to ER with bad pain behind my knee, they thought it was a blood clot at first. Had Osgood Schlatters as a child and knee would bother me as an adult from time to time, mainly would get tender and I would limp for a couple days then it would spontaneously resolve. ER did MRI and found my knee was a wreck with OA, softening of the bones, fluid in the joint, almost bone on bone, torn meniscus, and a few other things. I could only walk with difficulty at first very gingerly with a cane and a knee brace and was in a LOT of pain. Ortho doctor recommended cortisone shots short term to get some relief so I had them. Now the part that is not commonly known, I had an unusual reaction to the cortisone and about a week after the shots in my knee (which didn't help) developed sudden female bleeding! I am of course post menopause and had never experienced anything like this, it was like a period. Read online and found that it is a known but not common side effect, can last for weeks or even months and can affect any age woman. Told my primary care doctor what I had found, she did not believe me as she had never heard of it. She told me she was arranging for an immediate ultrasound,presumably for uterine tumor, which without telling me was not going to be an US at all but was to be an endometrial biopsy! I refused the biopsy, told the referral gynecologist about the cortisone shots likely causing the bleeding, she had not heard of it either but agreed we could wait and see. Told the ortho guy, he had never heard of it either and was skeptical. Bleeding lasted daily for 11 days then stopped as suddenly as it had started and that was that, never happened again and now has been a year and half. This is something that the medical profession and patients need to know can occur after any cortisone shot, apparently it is most common after epidural injection but can be knee, shoulder etc.
Ended up using some Advil sparingly as well as Tramadol when the knee pain was bad. Heat did not help, ice was the most effective pain relief. Went to PT for about 2 months, that helped some and I still do modified exercises at home. Can now walk without a cane, can walk around home without a brace tho do wear one when I go out in town. Knee is always tender to some degree and I limp, some days more than others but overall noticeably better than when it first happened. I have been told I will need a knee replacement at some point but will delay as long as possible. I take the Schiff, another joint supplement from Costco and still ice my knee as needed. I elevate it several hours a day and that helps a great deal.
For those of you who are overweight, losing it will help both your knees and your back. Just an extra 10 pounds can make a difference. If you are 20 or more lbs. overweight, that is very hard on knees and back and hips. If you are just starting to experience pain, and have excess pounds, lose it now and you may delay further damage.
For those of you who are overweight, losing it will help both your knees and your back. Just an extra 10 pounds can make a difference. If you are 20 or more lbs. overweight, that is very hard on knees and back and hips. If you are just starting to experience pain, and have excess pounds, lose it now and you may delay further damage.
This is true, I let myself get sloppy and gain weight in retirement...didn't think it was too bad but it was...when in the last mess with my knee -- lost about 30 lbs due to drugs for pain and loss of appetite...so I'm working extra hard to keep that lost weight OFF.
Read the above post and interesting story too. I feel 3 times and the last one put me in ER. I would just fall back, no walking, no tripping...it was the staph infection in my knee blooming it's way to "get me"...it took 2.5 months for doctors to "figure it out" and finally did an MRI. My knee is pretty messed up, but I'll know if and when it's time to the knife.... My hip replacement left me with too many complications and I'm knife shy.
I had a hip replacement (an injury from a few years back) in 2014. I was back at work, and in the gym, in 16 days. On the stationary bike for an hour that night. Back running in 3 months. Easiest damn recovery I could ever imagine.
2 years later I started having knee pain (opposite leg) and MRI showed torn meniscus. Had a scope, and recovery was much different since this was my own tissue that was recovering. I had to go to PT for about 3 weeks, and though I poo pooed that at first, it really did help. It's been about 10 months, and I really feel like it is still at about 95%, but have been back working out since a couple of weeks after the surgery. I am running now, but short and slow.
It sucks to have surgery, but being in pain every day sucks far worse. There is no way I want to have to limit myself moving every day, and get weaker because of it.
I had a partial torn Meniscus on my right knee last spring. I didn't know it was the meniscus until the pain did not go away, and ended up with laparoscopic surgery in August. Got through PT OK but have had arthritis pain ever since, with bone on bone. The Dr that did the surgery keeps telling me that over time it would get better, but it hasn't. I had the MRI done before the surgery, and it showed I had arthritis on the bones, plus when he was in there he found it on the kneecap as well.
Just went to a second surgeon for another opinion and he said I could get at total knee replacement when I wanted to. Unfortunately, the pain has caused me to take retirement next week, and I will start Medicare partB July 1. Also starting medical, which I found out makes me wait for three months to get anything done that was diagnosed within the three months previous to starting. That puts it out to October 1. Then I will have to wait until mid November, because the kids/grandkids have planned a trip to Disney World in early November.
At least I won't have to go to work in pain, for the next 6 months! Now I can sit around home in pain while I pay for someone to mow the grass and other yard work.
Anybody who has a Dr tell them to get anything but a TKR, in a similar situation, should get a second opinion. I can only guess the first surgeon anticipated getting paid for two surgeries.
I saw several studies which showed that letting torn meniscus' heal on their own is just as effective as having surgery for the meniscus tears. And that the vast majority of surgeries for torn meniscus' are unnecessary. (the surgeries are a money-maker for surgeons who need to do surgeries to make money)
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