The Story Of A Knee Replacement

Picture me painting the spare bedroom, nothing too strenuous. The back of my right knee to be precise. I couldn’t bend it. It was swollen, stiff, inflamed and excruciatingly sore. The pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep and had to take a day off work.

So, I took some painkillers and used an ice pack under recommendation from a physiotherapist friend of mine. A week or so later the pain had shifted to my low back, just above my hip on the right. So, I went to the doctor to get an x-ray referral.

I had both hips and knees x-rayed, and back came a diagnosis:

Osteoarthritis of my right knee and slight wear and tear of my right hip.

I couldn’t believe it – as a 46 year old! Playing sports up to 6 or 7 years ago, I had one knee sprain in all my years playing contact sports but nothing serious i thought. It had improved itself after 3 weeks. Surely this didn’t cause it ?

Following the x-rays, my next referral was to see a physiotherapist, a specialist in knee problems especially arthritic knees. Then I started a course of dry needling(acupuncture), deep massage, laser therapy and home rehabilitation exercises. I had treatment every week for 12 weeks with nearly a complete reduction in my pain. Honestly, I thought I had cracked it until a day standing at a wedding two months later brought back my symptoms to square one. Needless to say I was very upset and demoralised after all my hard work. The physio referred me back to the GP and I started on a course of anti-inflammatories.

Now anyone who has had experience with anti inflammatories will tell you they aren’t nice. Although at least they helped my pain, I had terrible stomach upset and constipation. So I stopped and the knee pain was back. Next step was the MRI. I survived that (with my claustrophobia) and then went to consult with a knee orthopaedic specialist.

At this point, it’s 6 months following my initial injury and I’m sitting across from a knee surgeon telling me I need a knee replacement.

He believed my knee injury years previously had damaged the joint, and had affected the stability of the joint leading to early osteoarthritis. The surgeon was reluctant because of my age to carry out the replacement. He felt I was too young and suggested an arthroscopy to “clean out” my knee joint from the cartilage debris that had formed from the arthritis. In the end, I agreed and had the arthroscopy and commenced back with physio for more stretching and strengthening of the knee joint.

I would like to say that all went well and I’m living a pain free life and back to normal but unlucky for me the arthroscopy only worked for a couple of months. I had to take the difficult decision to get a knee replacement.

When I say a difficult decision it wasn’t really. The pain was too much and affected me both physically and mentally. It was affecting my relationship, and my ability to work – so I was left with little choice. 

Today, I’m probably 90% fine. I strictly follow my rehab program four times a week. I’m somewhat limited in my ability to stretch my knee but I am no longer in pain. The surgeon explained that I was one of the “unlucky ones”. Sometimes small injuries can lead to much greater problems down the line. It was one of those things I guess!