Total Knee Replacement??

[broncovet]

I would like to hear from people who have had a TKR (Total knee replacement).  Im currently considering this surgery.  

This is mostly about the HEALTH part of it, but if you want to share your stories about the disability percentages this is good, too.  

Even tho I suffered a leg fracture in service, my knees arthritis is not service connected.  I applied for it about 8 years ago, never got a decision, just found it from reading my cfile (in rating "notes" which is not sent to the Vet), that its NSC.  

Right now, it is "probably moot" for me to persue service connection for my bad knees, since Im at 100 percent, but Im not ruling out re applying to go for SMC S.   However, I have an appeal for SMC S, and Im fairly confident they will award that anyway.  

The "bad" part of trying to get SC for my knees is that my rhuematoligist told me that my type of joint pain is not due to trauma, but is more of a degenerative (age) disease, so this means I would need an IMO/IME for service connection for the knees, and that is rather expensive, especially since I dont think it will be necessary.  

Anyway, I would like to know the result if you got a knee replacement at VA (or from an outside doc, too), and how long were you "down", and was the TKR successful in releiving the knee pain.  

A problem for me is that Im overweight  (about 250 pounds), and they dont even really like to do TKR's if you are that heavy.    Its catch 22, as its difficult to lose weight when your mobility is limited.  If I walk too much in a day, especially on concrete, my knees and feet start hurting.  

[Buck52]

broncovet I never had the TKR but a good neighbor friend had his done and said it was one of the best decisions he ever made  after about 5 weeks of down time in between exercising the knees special exercise for that) he felt 100% better.  I THINK THE RECOVER TIME IS LONGER  THIS IS JUST WHAT HE DID.

I think it depends on each individual and the Surgeons that do that as for as how the recovery goes...Now on the other hand something to think about too is if you have any type of heart disease/or cardio problems?  you may want to think about this, I knew a older lady that had TKR at age 70 with high BP she was on blood thinner meds &  sorry to say after 2 days of her TKR she had a blood clot  and that got her.

now  who is to say that might happen to you? She was giving meds to prevent this type thing but there's no guarantees .

Hadit radio show Host Jerrel Cook Had total hip replacement and was only in the hospital little less than 2 weeks and was home...after a few days I believe he was up an around and back at the hadit shows...Now Not sure how he was feeling but he never said anything about it other than maybe being sore from the surgery.

If I was you I believe I'd start trying portion control or count calories  once you get down to a decent weight (the pain in the knees will ease up) that may give you the incentive to keep trying to eat right and keep the weight off (EASIER SAID THAN DONE)  but I know it's hard to lose I am at that point too...I tried the M.O.V.E. program the VA has  but it's all about what we eat how much we eat and of course that's our choice.

I try to keep my knee pain under control with  10 MG HYDROCODONE AND 800 MG  IBUPROFEN Mix.

[bobz]

I haven't had mine yet still nursing the shots... My father in law had both done was down about 2 months, they did them a month apart. At 80+ now he  is still going strong, he can out work people less than half his age. Still does everything he used to do which is awesome considering he was a general contractor.

[broncovet]

Thanks for that info.  I have been taking some Natural Joint compound, and its better now, so Im hoping not to have to have the TKR.  Another problem is that, well, Im too fat, and they dont seem to be excited about the surgery.  Skinny people wonder why we just cannot seem to lose weight by eating less like them.