Knee replacement surgery

[crystalsmom]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

I'm sure sorry the TKR didn't go well. I know she must be so disappointed. Joint replacement doesn't always work out successfully and many still have just about an equal amount of pain as before surgery, though those who are able to rehab like fiends from the beginning tend to have far less post-op, long-term, chronic pain. I'm one of those whose TJ didn't work out well - lost half my blood during surgery and refused a blood transfusion out of fear of disease and was just too weak for months to rehab properly. It finally took intensive infusion therapy to bring my hemocrit back to normal but by the time I had enough red blood cells to have any energy for real rehab, the soft tissue and muscle around the hip prosthesis was in a sorry state.

I'd take her to the largest hospital with the largest, best orthopedic department you can find as there tends to be lots more successes, less morbidity and far more oversight and far better total joint program administration and long-term follow-up with orthopedic procedures done in large, big-city hospitals who perform zillions of them. Preferably, get her into see the chief of orthopedics or get a referral from him if he doesn't do TKR's himself, and, of course, only take her to a board certified orthopedic surgeon.

Give your daughter my love and a big hug. ♥

I meant to ask you how you are now, you certainly had a very difficult time of it. So you never had the real rehab but you did it later on your own.?? Thank you again for all your advise, you are so knowledgeable on most every subject, I appreciate your answers.

Do take care,

Joan

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by crystalsmom

Thank you, we are the kind of people that check everything, cross all the T's and dot all the I's and yet. One thing I will always remember that she said while in the midst of it 'what would people's outcome be if they didn't work as hard in therapy as I have.' She worked so hard, she had me in tears.

How did you wind up in that satellite hospital after all your checking and dotting i's and crossing t's and all the researching? Probably the same way I did in the new, mostly empty hospital I wound up in - after all my years of working for Baylor Hospital orthopedic surgeons and knowing Baylor had the 19th or 20th rated orthopedic program in the whole country. Yet, my friend talked me into going to this other surgeon who supposedly had such a good reputation for successful total joints, had actually hired me to mange his in-house billing - a job I never could take due to my hip - and he talked me into going into a new, smaller, ultra-fancy, supposedly concierge type hospital in North Dallas for my THR - saying we could schedule the surgery there much faster than he could get me on his Baylor schedule, the food was wonderful, the service top notch.

Big mistake! That new hospital, beautiful though it was and as fine as the service and food were, seemed to have no TJ protocols, no clue about post-op TJ patient care, no program for administration and follow-up of total joints and my surgeon went ahead with the surgery despite the fact that I'd forgotten to leave off my baby aspirin the week of surgery - which made me bleed far, far, far too much and left me severely anemic and weak for months. I was sure sorry I hadn't let my own former boss do the surgery - his patients never had any of the problems I had.

I'm so sorry after all your daughter's work rehabbing so hard she has such a poor result. But that's the way TJ's are at times - even with the implant is stable and a complete rehabilitation program produces full extension, rotation, flexion and strength - some just always hurt because the soft tissue around the implant tends to stay inflamed, which may be related to weight or may not, others because 10 - 35% of THR patients have chronic pain over the greater trochanter(where mine is), often neuropathic in nature, others because some patients just have a vulnerability to pain as some people tend to have a vulnerability to chronic IBS, others are vulnerable to chronic allergies, chronic headaches, chronic insomnia, etc., while others have some amount of depression and a lot of other body pain.

I sure hope and pray your daughter's second TKR is a greater success, bless her heart.