I just wanted to let you all know that I've finally seen a different Ortho Doc who ordered a Bone Scan to see what was going on inside of my knee. It shows several "hot spots" that he said were infected areas and/or loosening of the prosthesis. He also said that the next thing to do was to do a needle aspiration of the joint using a non chemically treated saline. He said that he would inject the saline under my knee cap & then draw it back out. Then he'd send the liquid in to see what kind of infection I had. He gave me this report over the phone & added, "I just wanted to call you to let you know that it hasn't all been in your head." He told me to come by anytime & he'd show me the scan. When I made repeated calls to his office to come in to look at it, he never returned my calls. When my husband & I went to his office to talk to him about the scan, I felt that he acted totally different than he had over the phone the night he called to give me the report of the scan. The doctor suggested that I go to the Mayo Clinic for a second opinion. I asked him what happened to him saying he'd do the needle biopsy & he said that he felt like it couldn't be an infection because my knee wasn't swollen. I told him that to be safe, I wanted that test. I went in on Wednesday & had it done & I'm expecting results today or tomorrow. I'm starting to wonder if I should go to the Mayo Clinic instead of seeing this doctor now. We live in a pretty small city of 80,000 so all the Ortho docs know each other. He was the only Ortho Surgeon not in practice with my original surgeon so I thought he could be honest with me about my pain. I've also read that there are problems with my particular prosthesis so I'm wondering if that's where it all started.
I will post more as I find out more. This is all SO frustrating!
Millpark, hope your Mom is feeling better!
I am brand new to the board and see I am not the only one who is having trouble after having a TKR. I had my left knee done on 9-17 and still cant walk or bend my knee past 65-70%. I was sent to another doctor by the one who did the surgery and this doctor ran blood tests and fluid checks and then ordered a sympathetic nerve block in my back.
The bottom line is, it might be a biological problem and time will only tell. I too have a hot spot on the left side of my knee and its been there since surgery. I wonder how many people that have had this surgery that has the problems I am reading, would have it done again if they knew.
If I missspelled any words, sorry as this site doesnt seem to have spell checker for us guys who cant spell KAT.
Shipper
Last edited by shipper50; 01-22-2008 at 06:56 PM.
Reason: spelling
I just heard back from my doctor & I tested negative for Padget's Disease & for infection in the knee joint.
He wants to see me back in a month but in the meantime, I've asked him to find out the brand & "serial?" number on the prosthesis used in my surgery. Several brands of prosthetics have had problems with faulty cleaning or weak parts & I want to find out for sure what is in my body. You might check to see what yours is too! The information for the problems is all over the Internet.
BTW, I have g88gle tool bar & it has spell check on it! You don't seem to need it too much.
Good luck with your knee & thanks for the post.
