Posted 7/11/2014 2:31 AM (GMT 0)
In 1974 while playing college football I suffered a full tear of the cartilage on the outside of my right knee and a partial tear of the cartilage on the inside of my right knee. When the team doctor cut me open 10 weeks later he found I had torn my acl and it had retracted completely. He cut it out and told me to consider a restructuring. However, my knee healed and I was able to play my senior year with an elaborate knee brace. I never had sufficient trouble doing what I liked so I never had the ACL restructured
I had two more clean outs on the right knee over the last 40 years, and arthoscopic surgery on the left. The knees have always swelled and caused minor pain, and the last few years I've gotten Synvisc-One in both knees every 6 months.
about 2 years ago I was informed that what I thought was a pulled groin muscle was sever arthritis in my hips. I was also told I had sufficient arthritis in both knees to exclude me from any further remedial work on the knees - I was told the only cutting of my knees in the future would be for a replacement.
The doc said that the hips were far worse than the knees, and that if I got my hips replaced it might help me get another 5 to 8 years out of the knees before they had to be replaced.
He said I shouldn't wait on the hips because I was healthy and in decent shape, and that advances in hip replacements had slowed so it was unlikely there were be any big improvements for hip replacements in the next two years. When I asked if it would be prudent to have my knees done now as well, he said that advances in knee replacements as accelerating rapidly, and that 5 years from now today's knee replacements will be considered the 21st century's equivalent of medieval alchemy.
Thus, he believed it was well worth waiting as long as possible to have the knees replaced, but going ahead with the hip replacements now. I had the left done in June. The right will be done in September
Thus, if you can find a way to manage the pain, it might be best to wait as long as possible. But if the pain cannot be managed, then stop suffering and get the knees done now. When I woke from the hip surgery the first thing that struck me was the disappearance of all pain in my left hip and even the referral pain that was in my left knee. I could not be happier. I'll bet you'll feel the same after a knee replacement if you can't eliminate the pain without surgery.