Howdy Kids!
Long time, eh?!!
I had both of my knees replaced, at the same time, summer of 2019 (age 54). My knees have been junk for a long time; years of injury and abuse plus a genetic propensity of osteo-arthritus.
Back in 2018, I decided I was going to start racing dirt bikes (off road, not mx) again. I started hitting the gym hard, but that finally put my knees (my left in particular) over the edge. By late 2018 I couldn't even ride a bicycle. It took very little on the down stroke to make me wince - and any amount of real power was not tolerable. I tried braces, taping, etc. to offload, but nope. Hyroluronic acid injections did jack. PT did jack. Corticosteriod injections helped, but you can only get those every 3-4 months ... and they only helped for 2-3 weeks.
I hadn't realized it, but I had become quite knock-kneed based on how my knees wore out. It explains chasing cleat/general setup and such over the last 10-11 years or so.
Anyway, I finally had to pull the trigger. I was going to do the left (the worst) then the right, but decided that if I did the left and it was a shit show, I'd never do the right and it was degrading pretty quick too. So, 'met with the surgeon and went all in.
Let me tell ya' folks, post-op is ROUGH. I couldn't tolerate pain meds, so after the 3rd day it was all Tylenol and ibuprofen. Yes, three days after they sawed my knees out I was taking just Tylenol and ibuprofen. A ton of it, mind you...my kidneys and liver are probably still pissed off at me. Some of the most miserable days of my life...that only got worse when the PT showed up for the thrice weekly torture sessions (my own multiple times a day PT sessions were no fun either).
A couple of things that made my replacements a little out of the ordinary:
- My knees had become so knock-kneed they had to relieve my IT band (cut a bunch of tiny Z's in it) in order to get the knew knee in properly.
- Turns out I had a congenital alignment problem with my left knee I never realized. Surgeon says that even if I'd been kind to my body over the years, my left knee would've been junk by now anyway.
- Both ACLs were "non-functional"
My recovery was a long one -- much longer than you read about. It was 14 months before I was riding a bicycle again and it took another year on top of that before my quad-activation problems got resolved. Turns out I'm super-tight/inflexible. My PT called me his "steel cable guy" and said that it took me 6 times the work for half the benefit. I spent a lot of time pre-op doing PT and such, but it wasn't enough. It seems like folks who are flexible have a much easier time recovering. I busted my ass with therapy...but I guess one could only do so much.
I'm coming up on the 3 year anniversary. I can ride bicycles and dirt bikes again. There are a couple issues though that I haven't quite got past:
- I can't seem to ride bicycles two days in a row. My knees are pretty stiff the day after a solid ride. I haven't had my fit professionally checked, but I think I've got the setup okay -- probably should go do that. Another contributor is that I have a lot of climbing to get back to my place -- quite a few miles of 7-10% grades.
- I do fine walking around all day. But if I stand in one place, like working on a bike, for a few hours they get pretty stiff still.
- I have a bit of scar tissue build up that is making them crunch like trashed meniscus. I guess this isn't to unusual -- need to get it checked out though.
So, am I glad I did it?
I can ride bicycles again, so thats good. I can ride dirt bikes and don't seem to have any trouble doing that other than my ROM sometimes hinders me a little (never could get past 125 degrees warm -- probably because tendons and such got stretched so tight once my legs were straight again).
But let me tell you, for me post-op and recovery SUCKED. If there is something you love to do, that you simply can't do anymore, or you can't function day-to-day then yeah, consider it. Certainly try everything reasonable at your disposal first (off loading, shots, PT, etc.).
But if you can do everything you love to do, albeit not at 100%, I'd give it a second (third, fourth, fifth) thought. Unless you're one of those lucky folks that breeze though this procedure, you're in for a rough time. Jdog might be in the "easier" group since he does all that yoga stuff
I am glad I did both at the same time. My right knee was deteriorating fast and would've put me off the bike eventually too. However, if I'd done just the left and experienced what I experienced, I'm very doubtful I would have done the right. And except for the PT sessions taking twice as long, and having to go into a rehab facility for a week until I could get up and down stairs, I don't think the misery was all that much worse than if I'd done just one.
Sure wish the stem cell stuff or 3d printing was further along...
Be well gang.
Tim