Report on my Knee implant problems.
Posted: Aug 29th, '14, 01:04
Faithful,
Good and bad news. I spent the last week going to specialists at Mass General, Portsmouth Regional and Valley Medical Center in New Hampshire, The doctor at Mass General still thinks it is loose and wants to replace it with another implant of a different brand, Six to 8 months recovery if he doesn't break the bone trying to remove the lower part with the long stem and a lot of cement, 8 to 12 months if it breaks, two major plates, screws and pins have to be installed, do nothing for 5 months then start PT no work or even going out on the water for 6 months if it goes good, if it goes bad it's a year minuim. The other ortho doc in New Hampshire doesn't seem to think that it is all that loose and most of my pain is coming from two severely damaged nerves. One nerve( saphoness nerve, spelling?) on the inside of the knee is crushed from the original impact from getting hit by the slide pole in the fire station in 1978 and from all the surgeries that I have had, doctors cutting through the same area a dozen times, it never gets a chance to heal properly over the years. The other nerve on the outside( perinatal nerve) is getting trapped in the area where the nerve enters the tibia bone via a hole in the bone. Every time I step down I compress the nerve in the hole and it feels like someone is stabbing me with an ice pick. The ortho doc referred me to a nerve guy on the New Hampshire/ Vermont border, the nerve guy in Valley Regional doesn't do the surgery on the nerves. just testing/diagnosis and referred me to a nerve specialist surgeon MD/PHD in MacClean, Va, he just opened up his own practice after being at Georgetown University Medical School for 15 years. I hope to get an appointment in a few weeks with him, he's supposed to be the guy that other doctors go to if they need nerve surgery. So I am going to get the nerves taken care of first and if needed after that, I will deal with the implant replacement problem later. The nerve surgery recovery is only 4 to 6 weeks compared to 6 to12 months for the implant revision. So that's what is going on with my ongoing saga of the knee.
I talked to Tommy Oaks last week he is recovering from major right leg injury, that was broken in 6 places in the lower leg after a dive off a 31 side deck onto the pavement in his boat yard. He said he caught his foot on the spring cleat mid ship on a 31 Bertram that he was working on, landed on his feet and broke his right leg, that occurred in late June and he was just getting the full fiberglass cast off and a walking cast put on last week. He said that he was going crazy not being able to do anything around the boatyard because he's been on crutches for 3 months. I told him I knew how he felt, I've been on crutches since September of 2013 almost a year. Anyway I thought I would give the guys an up date on what is happening with my and Tommy's situation in New Jersey. Give him a call he likes to talk to the guy's from the sandbox. Pete Fallon
Good and bad news. I spent the last week going to specialists at Mass General, Portsmouth Regional and Valley Medical Center in New Hampshire, The doctor at Mass General still thinks it is loose and wants to replace it with another implant of a different brand, Six to 8 months recovery if he doesn't break the bone trying to remove the lower part with the long stem and a lot of cement, 8 to 12 months if it breaks, two major plates, screws and pins have to be installed, do nothing for 5 months then start PT no work or even going out on the water for 6 months if it goes good, if it goes bad it's a year minuim. The other ortho doc in New Hampshire doesn't seem to think that it is all that loose and most of my pain is coming from two severely damaged nerves. One nerve( saphoness nerve, spelling?) on the inside of the knee is crushed from the original impact from getting hit by the slide pole in the fire station in 1978 and from all the surgeries that I have had, doctors cutting through the same area a dozen times, it never gets a chance to heal properly over the years. The other nerve on the outside( perinatal nerve) is getting trapped in the area where the nerve enters the tibia bone via a hole in the bone. Every time I step down I compress the nerve in the hole and it feels like someone is stabbing me with an ice pick. The ortho doc referred me to a nerve guy on the New Hampshire/ Vermont border, the nerve guy in Valley Regional doesn't do the surgery on the nerves. just testing/diagnosis and referred me to a nerve specialist surgeon MD/PHD in MacClean, Va, he just opened up his own practice after being at Georgetown University Medical School for 15 years. I hope to get an appointment in a few weeks with him, he's supposed to be the guy that other doctors go to if they need nerve surgery. So I am going to get the nerves taken care of first and if needed after that, I will deal with the implant replacement problem later. The nerve surgery recovery is only 4 to 6 weeks compared to 6 to12 months for the implant revision. So that's what is going on with my ongoing saga of the knee.
I talked to Tommy Oaks last week he is recovering from major right leg injury, that was broken in 6 places in the lower leg after a dive off a 31 side deck onto the pavement in his boat yard. He said he caught his foot on the spring cleat mid ship on a 31 Bertram that he was working on, landed on his feet and broke his right leg, that occurred in late June and he was just getting the full fiberglass cast off and a walking cast put on last week. He said that he was going crazy not being able to do anything around the boatyard because he's been on crutches for 3 months. I told him I knew how he felt, I've been on crutches since September of 2013 almost a year. Anyway I thought I would give the guys an up date on what is happening with my and Tommy's situation in New Jersey. Give him a call he likes to talk to the guy's from the sandbox. Pete Fallon