Found out last week I have osteoarthritis in both hips. I enjoy both competitive and recreational running, so I am weighing my options. I didn't figure on facing these issues as a young 60 year old.
you should possibly think about getting a second opinion. Plenty of people are considering knee replacements at that age, especially if the damage is as bad as you describe
I was embellishing a bit (the quote from the dr. is accurate, though). If I had more pain, I would. Right now, it's completely manageable and I'm still able to play soccer (and not be completely miserable the day or days after) like I was. I haven't had a cortisone shot in nearly 4 years. Just the grinding right now and weakness due to my achillies injury 2 years ago. Otherwise, I can run and (sort of jump) and cut. I know my time is coming, though...probably faster the longer I keep playing soccer. But I don't like to work out and this is how I get my intensive exercise a couple days a week. So, I'm not giving that up until I absolutely have to.
well the hammer dropped on the second knee this month. I injured the knee twice in August, once while sitting down on the toilet (sadly, true story!) and the second time two weeks later stepping off the deck of my lawn mower. Heard and felt it pop on the outside of the kneecap both times, the second time was much worse and put me out of commission for several days. Saw a PA at that point to make sure it wasn't something like a meniscus tear, and did PT until I could see the surgeon in October (my previous surgeon retired so I needed to wait a bit to see the new one). Took her all of about 30 seconds looking at the x-rays to say "yep, it's time." So . . . a couple of weeks to get my head wrapped around that. Looking at schedules, both mine (joke, I'm retired now) and my wife's (important, she's working and gonna have to do everything for a month or so when it happens), I think we're shooting for late April/early May. Her racing schedule is done at that point, winter shoveling and plowing will be done, and lawn mowing season won't be in full swing until mid-to-late May. oh well. I also found out about this exactly one day after getting a new hunting dog puppy. lol. So putting off the surgery until April helps me get a good six or seven months of training in the woods at the most important time of the dog's development. With any luck I'll be able to hunt her by October, but judging from last time that may be pushing it. who knows. pictures for the curious: I guess the medial edge of the kneecap qualifies as "bone on bone" . . . so I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
I agree--but the problem is also how it has affected my gait and corresponding muscle loss in the leg to compensate for the bad geometry. Plus my left foot now splays out to the side to compensate. Like the surgeon who did the first knee, I think her logic is to do the replacement now while I'm still relatively healthy and still have some muscle mass to help with recovery. that's funny, you sound like my wife. She drove to Sloan-Kettering from Ithaca for the entire course of her cancer treatment, plus ten years of followup. She also got both hips resurfaced by this guy in Syracuse and has tried to get me to go see him for my knee. But I'm not trying to be a competitive racer like she is, all I want to do is be able to walk in the woods behind a dog and maybe shoot a bird once in a while (well, shoot AT a bird once in a while, hitting them is a different story ). This surgeon here locally has an excellent reputation and her patients that I've met at PT are 100% across the board happy with her. I just can't see traveling any farther than I need to for something like a knee replacement.
Are you having patellar instability? Because this is fairly mild osteoarthrosis all things considered but sunrise looks like you could probably dislocate your patella (knee cap). 4DCT of your knee may be worth doing before proceeding with a total knee replacement. But this isn’t medical advice and I am not sure what any of the above words mean.
She didn't do the test of sliding the patella side to side the way I remember the first surgeon did with my right knee. But I suspect instability has a lot to do with the two incidents of it feeling like it popped out of place. I know a more conservative approach would be to hold off or even just do a patellar replacement, but then somewhere five or ten years down the road I'd just have to do a revision and get the whole thing done anyway. And I believe the thinking these days is that it is sometimes preferable to do a surgery earlier than they used to do them in order to correct biomechanical problems before they get out of hand. I could wait ten years until the knee is destroyed and the pain is unbearable, but then the surgery would be more difficult and complicated. Personally I'm happier with a more aggressive approach--when I tore my achilles a while back the first doctor went conservative and that actually set me back quite a while, whereas the ankle specialist who later saw me dealt with it right away. The other argument for doing it now is I can schedule a surgery at a time of my own choosing. If I wait until I injure it more severely or the arthritis gets worse, I might not have that luxury. I know there's no good answer but in this case I think/hope I can trust this particular doctor's judgment.
