Infidel
08-14-2004, 11:13 AM
Ugh, I am feeling so frustrated and depressed right now. For the past 9 months I have been having pretty terrible pain in both knees: I get intense pain in the left knee when I try to walk more then .5 miles, I get intense pain in the right knee if I try to bike for more then 20 minutes.
Early on, I assumed this was just caused by the two surgeries I had(hip replacements on both legs) and would go away eventually; but it has been almost a year since the first hip surgery now with no real improvement.
Originally they thought I had a torn meniscus in my left knee, but upon performing surgery it turned out I didnt and I ended up on crutches and in pain for several weeks for no good reason. Now whenver I go to see my orthopedic doctor, she blows me off or claims that I should be more patient(it has only been about a year after all :rolleyes: ).
They have done MRI's and X-rays of both my knees and can find nothing wrong, and all my doctors agree that the hips dont cause knee pain. Several reccomended I see a physical therapist, which I have been doing for 5 weeks now with no improvement whatsoever; I also have been taking Oxycontin and Celebrex for months, neither of which make any difference. My PT also noticed I have flat feet, I got special shoes to compensate for that, but that also hasnt helped my pain in the slightest.
It is terribly frustrating, it increasingly seems like I will be stuck with this pain for the rest of my life! My only hope left now is to find something to help with the pain, are there any alternatives for pain management that might help me?
Anyway, thanks for listening to my long rant. :yawn:
Early on, I assumed this was just caused by the two surgeries I had(hip replacements on both legs) and would go away eventually; but it has been almost a year since the first hip surgery now with no real improvement.
Originally they thought I had a torn meniscus in my left knee, but upon performing surgery it turned out I didnt and I ended up on crutches and in pain for several weeks for no good reason. Now whenver I go to see my orthopedic doctor, she blows me off or claims that I should be more patient(it has only been about a year after all :rolleyes: ).
They have done MRI's and X-rays of both my knees and can find nothing wrong, and all my doctors agree that the hips dont cause knee pain. Several reccomended I see a physical therapist, which I have been doing for 5 weeks now with no improvement whatsoever; I also have been taking Oxycontin and Celebrex for months, neither of which make any difference. My PT also noticed I have flat feet, I got special shoes to compensate for that, but that also hasnt helped my pain in the slightest.
It is terribly frustrating, it increasingly seems like I will be stuck with this pain for the rest of my life! My only hope left now is to find something to help with the pain, are there any alternatives for pain management that might help me?
Anyway, thanks for listening to my long rant. :yawn:
Sponsor
Kissa
08-14-2004, 12:43 PM
I can totally relate to you. I've had hip replacements as well but only on one side several times. I can tell you this, though my case is most likely differnt, it took me approximately 2 years to totally heal and 1 year of physical therapy.
I've had knee problems all my life since having the growth cartiledge removed as a child to even out my legs (as born with hip displaysia).
At any rate, after my last replacement back in 93 I too was having terrible knee problems, particularly on the right, the opposite side of the replaced hip. I got xrays and MRI's as well but nothing showed. I had a scoping done and it turned out that my ACL had completely lost it's elasticity and had to be reconstructed. The doctors would have never guessed it by looking at the films because all looked just fine.
I still have continual pain but do have arthritis in my knee and my doctor as well blows me off. THey check it yearly and my hip. Apparently my knee isn't arthritic enough to replace at this point. After what I went through with all the hip replacements I'm in no rush to have it fixed anyhow, the surgery scares me to no end.
I can tell you the pain is increased by my gait, one leg is still shorter than another. This is very common with hip replacements and does cause undue pain. Have they checked for leg discrepancy at all? If you do have length differences not only will this cause you knee pain this will also cause problems with your lumbar spine later down the road in life. Wearing shoes with lifts in them if there is a discrepancy will do you a world of good.
I also agree that seeing a therapist can help. I did knee therapy for a few months prior to the ACL operation to strengthen quads and overall leg, it did help some.
One other thing I might suggest, the arthritis assocation did a study showing that 1200mg of Vitamin C daily reduces the time needed for a knee replacement to be done by 50%. While I realize maybe you aren't arthritic at this point it certainly can't hurt to try. It will also help with the healing of the hips.
I certainly feel for you and wish I could offer better advice but that's about the best I can do. Give the hips some time, it does get better. I still have hip pain but it is primarly due to herniated lumbar spine and not the hip itself. It's still going strong 11 years later which I am very happy to report. I am only 38 and the doctors felt the hip would only last 10 - 15 years tops before a new replacement is needed. I baby the hip to try to prevent this from happening any sooner than it needs to.
Good luck to you
Barbie
I've had knee problems all my life since having the growth cartiledge removed as a child to even out my legs (as born with hip displaysia).
At any rate, after my last replacement back in 93 I too was having terrible knee problems, particularly on the right, the opposite side of the replaced hip. I got xrays and MRI's as well but nothing showed. I had a scoping done and it turned out that my ACL had completely lost it's elasticity and had to be reconstructed. The doctors would have never guessed it by looking at the films because all looked just fine.
I still have continual pain but do have arthritis in my knee and my doctor as well blows me off. THey check it yearly and my hip. Apparently my knee isn't arthritic enough to replace at this point. After what I went through with all the hip replacements I'm in no rush to have it fixed anyhow, the surgery scares me to no end.
I can tell you the pain is increased by my gait, one leg is still shorter than another. This is very common with hip replacements and does cause undue pain. Have they checked for leg discrepancy at all? If you do have length differences not only will this cause you knee pain this will also cause problems with your lumbar spine later down the road in life. Wearing shoes with lifts in them if there is a discrepancy will do you a world of good.
I also agree that seeing a therapist can help. I did knee therapy for a few months prior to the ACL operation to strengthen quads and overall leg, it did help some.
One other thing I might suggest, the arthritis assocation did a study showing that 1200mg of Vitamin C daily reduces the time needed for a knee replacement to be done by 50%. While I realize maybe you aren't arthritic at this point it certainly can't hurt to try. It will also help with the healing of the hips.
I certainly feel for you and wish I could offer better advice but that's about the best I can do. Give the hips some time, it does get better. I still have hip pain but it is primarly due to herniated lumbar spine and not the hip itself. It's still going strong 11 years later which I am very happy to report. I am only 38 and the doctors felt the hip would only last 10 - 15 years tops before a new replacement is needed. I baby the hip to try to prevent this from happening any sooner than it needs to.
Good luck to you
Barbie
Infidel
08-14-2004, 05:21 PM
Barbie,
Thanks for replying, I have a couple of questions though if you dont mind:
At any rate, after my last replacement back in 93 I too was having terrible knee problems, particularly on the right, the opposite side of the replaced hip. I got xrays and MRI's as well but nothing showed. I had a scoping done and it turned out that my ACL had completely lost it's elasticity and had to be reconstructed. The doctors would have never guessed it by looking at the films because all looked just fine.
Is scoping terribly invasive/expensive? I am tempted to ask my doc about this, the pain is so intense I feel there must be something wrong with my knee.
I can tell you the pain is increased by my gait, one leg is still shorter than another. This is very common with hip replacements and does cause undue pain. Have they checked for leg discrepancy at all? If you do have length differences not only will this cause you knee pain this will also cause problems with your lumbar spine later down the road in life. Wearing shoes with lifts in them if there is a discrepancy will do you a world of good.
That is very intresting, my surgeon never mentioned this to me. Is it still possible for this to occur if I have had both legs done? I would figure they would both be the same length but maybe not.
I certainly feel for you and wish I could offer better advice but that's about the best I can do. Give the hips some time, it does get better. I still have hip pain but it is primarly due to herniated lumbar spine and not the hip itself. It's still going strong 11 years later which I am very happy to report. I am only 38 and the doctors felt the hip would only last 10 - 15 years tops before a new replacement is needed. I baby the hip to try to prevent this from happening any sooner than it needs to.
Im glad to hear your hip replacement has lasted so long. You mention that you baby the hip to prolong it's life, what exactly do you mean by this? The only thing my doctor told me was to avoid high impact activities like running, which I do, but I am curious if there are other things that can be done to prevent wearing out the replacement.
Thanks :)
Thanks for replying, I have a couple of questions though if you dont mind:
At any rate, after my last replacement back in 93 I too was having terrible knee problems, particularly on the right, the opposite side of the replaced hip. I got xrays and MRI's as well but nothing showed. I had a scoping done and it turned out that my ACL had completely lost it's elasticity and had to be reconstructed. The doctors would have never guessed it by looking at the films because all looked just fine.
Is scoping terribly invasive/expensive? I am tempted to ask my doc about this, the pain is so intense I feel there must be something wrong with my knee.
I can tell you the pain is increased by my gait, one leg is still shorter than another. This is very common with hip replacements and does cause undue pain. Have they checked for leg discrepancy at all? If you do have length differences not only will this cause you knee pain this will also cause problems with your lumbar spine later down the road in life. Wearing shoes with lifts in them if there is a discrepancy will do you a world of good.
That is very intresting, my surgeon never mentioned this to me. Is it still possible for this to occur if I have had both legs done? I would figure they would both be the same length but maybe not.
I certainly feel for you and wish I could offer better advice but that's about the best I can do. Give the hips some time, it does get better. I still have hip pain but it is primarly due to herniated lumbar spine and not the hip itself. It's still going strong 11 years later which I am very happy to report. I am only 38 and the doctors felt the hip would only last 10 - 15 years tops before a new replacement is needed. I baby the hip to try to prevent this from happening any sooner than it needs to.
Im glad to hear your hip replacement has lasted so long. You mention that you baby the hip to prolong it's life, what exactly do you mean by this? The only thing my doctor told me was to avoid high impact activities like running, which I do, but I am curious if there are other things that can be done to prevent wearing out the replacement.
Thanks :)
Kissa
08-14-2004, 09:29 PM
The scoping is something that is generally covered by most insurance's, I honestly don't recall what my total bill was on that one since it was so many years ago. Basically it's probably the same as what you had done before. In fact they probably checked both the ACL and PCL while working on your knee. They can tell if there's a problem if the knee is week however and it will pop backwards.
Yes it is totally possible that you could have one leg shorter than the other, and I honestly and betting that's the problem here if they aren't finding anything else. I am very sure that each prothesis is impacting on it's own within the shaft of the bone, which in turn is what causes the leg discrepancies. Even if they are both done at the exact same time, each one may heal or again impact at a different pace or rate.
After having my last hip replacement I had maybe a 1/4 inch discrepancy, I now have over 1/2 an inch, if not more.
This is the 4th time the hip has been worked on, with the last one being the major replacement. By babying it I mean not gaining weight, that is very bad. I'm not extremely overweight but could stand to loose a few more pounds. The more you weigh the more weight is on the prothesis(es) so it's something you want to keep an eye on. I also don't do high impact things like you mentioned, running, jumping, etc, not because of the hip but primarily because I haven't been able to do them my entire life so it's nothing new for me.
By far the best exercise for you is going to be water exercises. They are non impact and therefor won't put any stress on the hips. If you have a local Y or even a hotel/motel with a pool near you and you want to do some form of exercise I suggest you do that more than anything else. Just be sure the water is fairly warm, cold water will make you hurt.
Be sure to stretch it often, it's important. you don't want muscle atrophy ever setting in. I've had atrophy for years and after my hip replacement it was nearly gone and I had some 70% use of my leg again, I am now down to about 30% unfortunately for various reasons, part of which is because I wasn't stretching my leg like I should of been. They are only gentle stretches you usually learn in therapy.
One thing I want to add that isn't related but did your surgeon ever mention to you that anytime you have dental work you should be premedicated, particularly because your hips are so new? The reason is the bacteria that is released in the mouth from even a dental cleaning goes into the bloodstream, causes an infection which goes right to your hip and then your heart, you can die from this. I almost died as a child I became so infected and my parents didnt know.
Furthermore any proceedures you have where cutting is involved be sure to ask the doctor if you should need antibiotics during and after such proceedures. My doctors always give them to me regardless of proceedure because I am a high risk canditate for infections (my immune system is gone), and of course the first place one is gonna go is right to the hip or my knee which too is full of metal.
Always tell your dentist you have artificial hips!
Just passing that along in case you were not advised.
And on a last note some interesting things that have changed since I've been loaded up with titanimum:
I cant sit on cement when it's cold for more than a few minutes causes bad hip pain and my buttocks will feel like ice!
I have a very high level of static electricty in my body and I literally spark blue flames when touching metal things in stores, I think it's sometimes the stores carpeting and static combo. I also can spark them using vending machines.
And the ultimate weird thing is, I make the electronic scan registers stop functioning and set off alarms in stores such as music stores or Walmart!!
Enjoy the new hips. If you are good to them they will be good to you. Definately have your leg length checked out! And if there's anything else I can do for you please feel free to ask!
Barbie
Yes it is totally possible that you could have one leg shorter than the other, and I honestly and betting that's the problem here if they aren't finding anything else. I am very sure that each prothesis is impacting on it's own within the shaft of the bone, which in turn is what causes the leg discrepancies. Even if they are both done at the exact same time, each one may heal or again impact at a different pace or rate.
After having my last hip replacement I had maybe a 1/4 inch discrepancy, I now have over 1/2 an inch, if not more.
This is the 4th time the hip has been worked on, with the last one being the major replacement. By babying it I mean not gaining weight, that is very bad. I'm not extremely overweight but could stand to loose a few more pounds. The more you weigh the more weight is on the prothesis(es) so it's something you want to keep an eye on. I also don't do high impact things like you mentioned, running, jumping, etc, not because of the hip but primarily because I haven't been able to do them my entire life so it's nothing new for me.
By far the best exercise for you is going to be water exercises. They are non impact and therefor won't put any stress on the hips. If you have a local Y or even a hotel/motel with a pool near you and you want to do some form of exercise I suggest you do that more than anything else. Just be sure the water is fairly warm, cold water will make you hurt.
Be sure to stretch it often, it's important. you don't want muscle atrophy ever setting in. I've had atrophy for years and after my hip replacement it was nearly gone and I had some 70% use of my leg again, I am now down to about 30% unfortunately for various reasons, part of which is because I wasn't stretching my leg like I should of been. They are only gentle stretches you usually learn in therapy.
One thing I want to add that isn't related but did your surgeon ever mention to you that anytime you have dental work you should be premedicated, particularly because your hips are so new? The reason is the bacteria that is released in the mouth from even a dental cleaning goes into the bloodstream, causes an infection which goes right to your hip and then your heart, you can die from this. I almost died as a child I became so infected and my parents didnt know.
Furthermore any proceedures you have where cutting is involved be sure to ask the doctor if you should need antibiotics during and after such proceedures. My doctors always give them to me regardless of proceedure because I am a high risk canditate for infections (my immune system is gone), and of course the first place one is gonna go is right to the hip or my knee which too is full of metal.
Always tell your dentist you have artificial hips!
Just passing that along in case you were not advised.
And on a last note some interesting things that have changed since I've been loaded up with titanimum:
I cant sit on cement when it's cold for more than a few minutes causes bad hip pain and my buttocks will feel like ice!
I have a very high level of static electricty in my body and I literally spark blue flames when touching metal things in stores, I think it's sometimes the stores carpeting and static combo. I also can spark them using vending machines.
And the ultimate weird thing is, I make the electronic scan registers stop functioning and set off alarms in stores such as music stores or Walmart!!
Enjoy the new hips. If you are good to them they will be good to you. Definately have your leg length checked out! And if there's anything else I can do for you please feel free to ask!
Barbie