On April 9 th I will have a total knee replacement of my right knee. This installment is written on the night before my full-leg MRI. I am getting this MRI, so that my measurements can be sent out to create custom cutting guides for my right knee. These guides mean no measurements will need to be taken once my leg is opened up.
I would like to acquaint you with how I reached this point. I am a 48 year old male who has had multiple knee surgeries over the last 30 years. When I was 17 and chasing a friend, I stepped in a hole in the yard. My left leg stopped and my knee popped out and came back, a subluxation. Weeks later I was playing tennis in gym and the knee subluxed again. The pop was so loud my gym teacher could hear it a couple courts away. That fall I went to see my first orthopedic surgeon. He told me that my kneecap was riding high on the outside of the knee joint. He said that my muscles were pulling it like a bone string, patellar tracking syndrome. He gave me exercises to do, straight leg lifts. He then scheduled me for arthroscopic surgery on my left knee in about a months time. He went into the knee took out several pieces of floating cartilage and tried to clean up the joint.
By the next fall I was back to see him again. My knee had subluxed another four times. The exercises failed. The plan was to disconnect the bottom of my patellar tendon move it over on the tibia and screw it back in, the Hauser procedure. This worked. After months of rehab and almost a year of recovery my knee was better than new.
My rights knee also had patellar tracking syndrome, and subluxed several times. I went to see the surgeon and this time we cut right to the Hauser Procedure. Another success. The knee felt very strong.
For the next 20 years I played hours and hours of basketball,volleyball lifted weights, ran and enjoyed life. About seven years ago my knees started aching and swelling. Getting up after sitting was extremely painful. A new surgeon scoped both knees twice, removing much damaged cartilage, bone spurs and about 3/4s of an inch of height. He then moved me Euflexxa injections into the joint. No relief. 18 months ago I took my first cortisone injections. After 4 series they stopped providing relief, so here I am.
2 comments:
Very interested if there are are any complications in replacement as a result of previous Hauser procedures. Had both knees done at 18 and at 64 have exhausted injections etc. have put off replacement until pain and instability forces my hand. Given atrophied quads, this has to complicate recovery and successful replacement. Please post you experience after your surgery.
Best wishes and good results.
Sorry it took so long to get back with you. One complication was from the hardware fuzzing the MRI that was used to pre make my cutting jigs. The tibial jig could not be constructed.
As you mentioned, the atrophied quads are an issue. Exercise does not strengthen the parts that stabilize the knee as fast as the rest of the muscle. However, now that I have full extension in my right knee that is changing.
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