Hope I am not following in Pate Fallon's footsteps

[IRGuy]

Tues the 14th I am having my right knee replaced.. as much as I admire you, Pete, I hope I am not following in your footsteps.

[Dug]

Good Luck!

My mom did both and while they are not perfect, they are better than what she was living with. That being said, my buddy Mike had his done and is going in again in December for his 2nd. It loosened up. Hospital of Special Surgery, in NYC. So even the best have their days.

But I wish you luck and success like my mom!

Her advice would be make sure you do ALL the rehab!!!!

Dug

[IRGuy]

Thanks Dug..

The replacement is due to an old rugby injury from about 45 years ago.. old age has finally caught up with me.

[MarkS]

Hang in there Frank!

[IRGuy]

Thanks Mark...

Tomorrow is the big day. I will get online as soon as I can and let everybody know how things went.

[Dug]

Good luck buddy! I hope it goes great!

Seems this is a big day for many! My girlfriends brother and sister in law are having a baby today. Good vibes!

D

[Mikey]

Frank,
Hope all went well. Had one done as a result of an accident in '94. Works great, occasional pain but beats the alternative. Remember that recovery is not a straight line. Some days up and some down, but the trend is up.
Kick ass, with the other leg.

[Pete Fallon]

Frank,
I hope that everything went okay with the replacement surgery today. My case although unusual is not all that uncommon. I was told back in 1978 that I needed a total replacement due to the amount of damage that was done from the accident in the fire station. I was told to wait as long as possible to replace the knee joint because of loosening issues, especially when I was only 35 at that time. I waited 18 years with a number of upgrades to the bracing system that I had.

Finally I couldn't walk up and down the stairs in my house I had the first one done in May of 1999 with good results until it actually broke in June of 2005, the next one went in on August 28, 2005 and never felt good, it was okay for 2 years until it loosened up in 2007, they screwed around trying everything to fix it but finally in January 2010 it just about fell out of the tibia bone(lower leg bone). I went in for an arthroscopic surgery to clean out scar tissue and debris that had built up inside the joint. My doctor hit the bottom part of the joint with a hammer to see how badly it was loosened up and it actually popped out of the lower anchor point, so they did another total replacement on the spot. I woke up and he told me that they had to replace the old joint and I would be in the hospital for four to five days. Needless to say I got a replacement knee for my 64th birthday, which never ever felt good from the start. After 3 years of excuses they finally admitted that it was loose at the femoral attachment point (confirmed by a MRI and triple phase bone scan in Sept of 2013) Now after 6 months of trying to find a doctor that would actually operate on the 3rd replacement joint I am going to have some nerves removed on October 28 in Va., hopefully this will eliminate some of the pain that I have all the time. If it don't work I am facing my 4th revision sometime before Christmas at Mass General in Boston.

All I can say is keep your fingers crossed and do your physical therapy everyday until they tell you to stop. I did 3 months of PT everyday for 2 hours from Sept to Nov after the 2nd one, and 3 months of every other day for 2 hours a day after the 3rd one, plus about 6 weeks of PT after each arthroscopic surgery, I have had 12 of them over the years so you can see that I have spent a lot of time recovering and doing PT. Good luck with your surgery, I will be thinking of you.
Pete Fallon

[IRGuy]

Thought I posted this last evening but apparently I was wrong.. I had written this for the B33 guys but the same comments belong here as well...
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You guys are the best! All of you! Thanks for the encouragement, info and best wishes.

I have never swallowed so many pills or had so many holes poked in me before. The reason I didn't post anything here even though I said I would have my notebook was that I was so doped out I could hardly think straight.

Quick summary.. went in Tues 6:30AM.. operation started at about 10:00AM. Had a spinal which numbs you from the waist down, then something else that does the same from the waste up. I don't remember anything after the Anesthestiologist said "here we go". Total blackout. Next thing 3 hours later I was in the recovery room, then was wheeled into a patient room. Really no pain because they were popping oxycodone into me 2 every two hours. Wednesday was the same.. drugged out so I couldn't manage a serious conversation. The same oxycodone dosage. Thursday started off great, same drug dosage then about mid day Thurs all hell broke loose. Had come back from a short PT session and BAM.. Industrial strength pain hit. More oxycodone, more pain. All I could do was hold on to the bed rails and moan. Worst pain I have ever felt. When oxy had no effect nurse said "I'll take care of this!"..Darvon! The wonder drug! .. not sure how many because after the first hit I was surfing in the clouds, babbling about everything. But after half an hour NO PAIN! About 4-5 hours later was back on Oxy and pain was minimal. Dr figured the operation drugs had finally worn off when pain hit, then oxy took over.

Then therapy started in earnest with walker and cane.. stairs, just walking to the head, down the hall.. feeling like an invalid.. baby steps, MUST put the surgery foot forward, then follow with good foot, over and over. Upper body strength was absolutely necessary. Walk 50 feet balancing on the surgery leg.. must keep it absolutely straight. Bend it fwd or back and it goes out from under you, with enough pain to make you scream.. fall down at this point and probably they will not let you out and will do another operation. Balance on it and keep it straight and it is pain free. Left hosp around noon today. Home now. PT guy (fortunately a friend)will start home PT tomorrow, then after a month or so back to the hosp facility for PT in a formal care facility.

Random thoughts..

About 8 weeks ago I bought a good mountain bike.. and have done about 120 miles on it.. I believe that exercise helped me a lot.

Absolutely can't imagine how it must feel to do two knees at once. Simply can't imagine how it feels to have two wobbly knees under me.

Also.. I can't imagine how a fat 300+ pounder could go through therapy. Balancing all that weight on one wobbly knee seems impossible.

Final comment.. Drugs are your friend!

[Bruce]

I have never swallowed so many pills or had so many holes poked in me before.

Just like serving a 10 year stretch in the big house.


If you want better living through pharmacology, have them take you off those piss in the wind pain killers and tell them you want Dilaudid HP injections.

[IRGuy]

I certainly have no medical training, so the first paragraph below is simply my understanding of why a post operative patient suffers constipation. If anyone wants to correct my medical analysis, please feel free to comment. All the rest of this missive is my personal experience, of which I am the world’s expert!
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One of the problems with major surgery is that patients become constipated. As far as I can determine, the anesthesia effects the nervous system so pain is minimized, but the peristaltic action (I think that is what it is called, and how it is spelled) which squeezes our innerds in sort of a pulsating manner so whatever we eat is moved along it’s way from mouth to butt is controlled by the nervous system as well. When you mess with the nervous system food simply doesn’t move along normally.. ie: you are constipated.

Before I was discharged they asked if I had a bowel movement after my surgery. I had a very small one a day earlier, but I actually felt as if I was plugged up. I sort of stretched the truth and said “yes, a small one”. By the time I got home I had been stopped up for almost 3 days. I also hadn’t much of an appetite so I only had soup and a couple of crackers for my last few days in the hospital. The Drs gave me several prescriptions, for pain, anti nausea, blood thinning, and “stool softening” (such a delicate term considering it simply makes your poop softer).

I got home and for the first day I only had small amounts of soup and crackers for a day and a half. Finally my wife announced she was going to cook some real food for me.. a nice piece of salmon, peas, and mashed potatoes. This actually tasted great.

About an hour after I finished I felt something strange going on inside.. something akin to half the MGM lion’s roar and half the thunder of standing next to a 5,000 diesel engine. Rumbling like a personal earthquake inside me. I was actually vibrating inside. Pressures began to build up.. cramps like I was being squeezed in a vise. I felt I was going to explode.

Being a perceptive person I thought it would be a good idea to hit the head. I no sooner sat down than Gabriel’s trumpets began to blow.. first a few toots, then a full on crescendo.. and whammo.. with a clap of thunder, the vibration of a D8 Cat bulldozer, and the release of about 150 psi inside me the heavens opened.

The noise was followed by the odor of a gurry barrel on a hot July day. Parrump! Wave after wave.. the most peaceful feeling ever in the midst of a tumultous maelstrom. It was as if the bowel devil had set up camp inside me a week ago, and he was finally moving out. Good riddance you stinking bastard.. Begone! Forever.. never to darken my bowels ever again.

As MLK said.. “Peace at last, peace at last, great God almighty, peace at last”

[Pete Fallon]

Frank,
Now you know what I have been going thru times 3 on the same knee, plus 13 arthroscopic surgeries. Drugs pug you up, when it finally releases it's like trying to pass a bowling ball. The first replacement done in Ft. Lauderdale was very painful, they sent me home with a prescription for 5 mg Percocet which didn't even touch the pain, luckily one of my neighbors was a retired doctor from Germany she fixed me up with heavy duty Oxycotin 50mg, no more pain. That knee lasted six years before it collapsed into the lower leg. The second one was done at mass General in Boston, after 4 days I made a deal with the doctor, If I could go up and down stairs on the crutches he would let me go home or I would have to stay in the hospital over the Labor Day weekend. Needless to say I walked up and down the stairs without any problem. The fun came when I tried to get into the car to go home, I couldn't bend my knee to get into the front seat or the back seat, had to get an ambulance to take me back to Salem, then I had to climb 30 stairs to the apartment because they couldn't make the swing at the top because of the railing. Three weeks later back at MGH because the knee locked up, they had to knock me out and reset the joint. The Delauid didn't work at all needed 60 Mg Oxycontin to deal with pain. The PT was bad at the start but got better after a week, when I finished I was doing leg lifts of 75 pounds with no pain. All I can say is do the PT and take the drugs, make sure they are strong enough, no sense of being in pain if it isn't the right dose. It will get better after about 3 weeks. Good luck.
Pete Fallon

[IRGuy]

Pete... You are a better (if not unluckier) man than me!

Good luck with yours. I am surprised that you have anything left to attach implants to.

[MarkS]

Frank a fine tale indeed! Glad your plumbing is back to normal. You know it's only with a bunch of jackasses like us that you can share a heart warming shit story.........

[Mikey]

Frank,
I laughed so hard I damned near fell off my titanium knee. A barruba heard in the next county followed by an avalanche to make Mt Everest blush.
Whew! Glad that's over.