COTH Trashed Knee + Ankle Brigade

[canadianbacon]

Deuces, I also strongly recommend the cryo cuff, I have the breg polar care. I had knee surgery just a bit under 3 weeks ago and lived in it for the first week. My husband was making daily trips to the store for 20 pounds of ice but it was worth it, it made a huge difference in my pain levels! Also make sure you stay ahead of the pain, it is much easier than trying to play catch up. For the first 2-3 days I would set my alarm for the middle of the night dose to make sure I kept on top of it. If the meds aren’t working or don’t agree with your body don’t be afraid to ask for a different med. I do not do well on most narcotics and we had to switch mine up because I was having reactions to the first one and I also asked for anti-nausea meds which helped a lot. Pain meds are not kind to your digestive system, be sure to eat lots of fruits and veggies or add in a fibre supplement and try to take the pain meds with food, even in the middle of the night. I had a little box of granola bars by my bed for the middle of the night pain med dose so I didn’t have to bother my husband. If you are allowed to be up and about on crutches try to move a little bit each day, I was told bed rest for the first two days but it took me about four before I wanted to go any farther than the bathroom and back to bed. After four or five days I made it out to the kitchen and found that even non-weight bearing the movement helped clear out the swelling and icky feeling from being in bed for so long. Showering may be challenging, we only have the tub type shower so getting in and out was tricky. We thought afterwards that a shower chair would have been helpful so you may want to look into getting one, especially if you will be non-weight bearing for more than a few weeks. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions or just want to whine! It sucks being laid up especially the first week or so, I wished I hadn’t of had the surgery most of the first week because at least before I was mostly functional and I felt so useless being laid up… I don’t do stall rest well to say the least

HUGS and hope you are feeling better soon!

CB

[DeucesWild11]

What’s a cryo cuff? I have a cooler (with lots of ice in it) attatched to my brace so that filters ice water underneath my whole brace. I am really trying to keep up with the pain but my dosage is never enough… I wonder if I can up it…

[KBC]

Here is the cuff I have http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aircast-Large-Knee-Cryo-Cuff-Cooler-with-Pump-Tested-/360480747975?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ee53b1c7 just in case any one is feeling literal, NO that isn’t actually mine, but it looks just like it:lol:

It pumps cold water from the cooler unit into the cuff, providing both cooling and compression.

Canadian, I freeze a bunch of 500ml bottles of water, then pop one or two in rather than using ice cubes, just keep rotating them through the freezer.

[canadianbacon]

Ooohhh, that’s a way better idea KBC! I’ll keep that in mind for physio, I have a feeling I’ll be using it almost constantly again after that starts up…

Deuces, it sounds like you have a cryo system already which is good, I’m sorry you’re still having pain though. Did your doc give you a number to call if you have problems before your follow-up appointment? I would give them a call and ask about changing meds or dosage tomorrow, or even tonight if they have a 24 hour service. Hang in there!

[BackInTheSaddle74]

NATRC ride completed!

[QUOTE=BackInTheSaddle74;6499041]
Good luck with the surgery, Jingo-ace. You’ll be back in the saddle before you know it. I am taking my two replaced knees and two replaced hips and competing in a NATRC trail ride this coming weekend. I’ll be riding for all of us in the “Trashed Knee and Ankle Brigade”.[/QUOTE]

I did it! I finished a NATRC competitive trail ride, one-day Novice division. While I rode “distance only” - not taking a score, since I need assistance mounting and dismounting - my 17 yr old Missouri Fox Trotter won first place in the Novice division. The ride was 21 miles in 7-1/2 hours. This is the longest, and furthest, I’ve ridden in more than 30 years.

I’m now working on an article for the NATRC Region 1 newsletter entitled “The Differently-abled Rider”.

Good luck to all of us as we meet our challenges.

[Equine_Adhesive]

Hello everyone,

I think I am doing better. July sucked. August was the best since January. I got off crutches about 2 weeks ago and I have reason to believe I am off them without any major re-injury events occurring. I’ve devised my own PT plan, a creative use of crutches and a bike (not together, lol) and a lot of riding without stirrups. I’ve changed my diet to 90% whole foods, and lost weight (although I started at a normal weight and am now very lean), and made a lot of small changes. It all seems to be helping and feeling is returning in my knee without pain. Inflamm. is present but not absurdly pillow-y. ROM is improved. I got the best new sneakers which really do help. I got rid of my unsupportive, cynical boyfriend. And I started dating upbeat, fun, funny people.
One day, I will run again. I am not a quitter.

How are all the other knee people doing?

[KBC]

Glad to hear you’re doing well EA.

I’m having a sucky time, 2 weeks out from my arthroscopy, and I was in ER at the weekend because one of the wounds is infected:mad:

On antibiotics and taking pain meds again, hoping that it goes down by tomorrow or they will have to drain it.

[red_mares]

Glad to hear it.

Can you send one of those upbeat, fun, funny people my way? I could use a date.

[Coreene]

Yesterday I took my horse out for the first time since November 25! It was a very slow handwalk with cane over it the turnout, but it was glorious. Tears of joy.

The drop foot is slowly beginning to move more, too. 1mm healing each day, but that’s an inch every 25 days, and now that it has begun slightly moving my foot again, I am just thrilled.

Hang in there!

[vineyridge]

Mounting and dismounting were extremely difficult today. My current “bad” knee is the near side one for mounting, and it popped out while I was getting on bareback from a mounting block. Also landed first on the other and repaired knee while dismounting, and now it seems to think that it was abused. I iced the heck out of both of them!

How is it possible to get on from the ground?

[BackInTheSaddle74]

Mounting and dismounting

[QUOTE=vineyridge;6557677]
Mounting and dismounting were extremely difficult today. My current “bad” knee is the near side one for mounting, and it popped out while I was getting on bareback from a mounting block. Also landed first on the other and repaired knee while dismounting, and now it seems to think that it was abused. I iced the heck out of both of them!

How is it possible to get on from the ground?[/QUOTE]

There is no “law” that says we must mount from the left side of the horse. I am much more comfortable mounting from the right - the “off side” - and my horse has learned to walk up to the mounting block on that side and stand while I struggle aboard.

There is also no law that says we have to mount from the ground. In fact, current thinking is that it stresses the horse’s withers when we use it as a pivot-point for a ground mount. All trail riders I know look for a log, a bank or a ditch to mount and NATRC judges don’t mark them down for that.

I dismount by dropping my left stirrup, lean forward over my horse’s neck, swing my left leg over, pivot the right leg until I am belly-down over the saddle. Then I slide to the ground. Ain’t pretty, but it works.

I did a competitive trail ride last month and no one even remarked on my adaptive mounting and dismounting. I used a two-step ladder to get onto a stump as tall as my stirrup. And I spent the lunch break with ice on both replaced knees.

You may need to rethink how to do some of your horse activities, but they are doable. Good luck.

[lucky_dog_farm]

SIGH… I’m back. Here goes. I am facing a knee replacement for my bad knee but am trying to hold off as long as I can since I am only 52. It will have to be sooner rather than later. I thought I was doing AOK with my" good" knee but I did hurt it a bit about 8 weeks ago. I had this huge hard lump on the back of my knee which I knew was a Baker’s cyst but went to the doctor just to make sure. Well, he freaks out and wants me to go immediately to get an ultrasound to make sure it’s not a blood clot. I guess that’s smart. So off I go to the ER in rush hour traffic and wait there for 6 hours! Turns out it was a ,yes, you guessed it,a Bakers cyst.
Ok, so I had told my PCP that I thought I had torn my meniscus as well but guess he wasn’t interested in hearing that. FINALLY, I get the referral to go get an MRI, 8 weeks after our first visit. Just got the results of that. Shredded meniscus, slightly torn MCL, patella not tracking right, chronic IT band syndrome, huge Bakers cyst and of course arthritis. Yipee!!
The knee doctor is telling me I should just have a cortisone shot and not repair the meniscus and to wait and see if the MCL will be ok. They did give me a super strong anti inflammatory. Does this all sound right to you?

[vineyridge]

[QUOTE=KBC;6507325]
Here is the cuff I have http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aircast-Large-Knee-Cryo-Cuff-Cooler-with-Pump-Tested-/360480747975?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ee53b1c7 just in case any one is feeling literal, NO that isn’t actually mine, but it looks just like it:lol:

It pumps cold water from the cooler unit into the cuff, providing both cooling and compression.

Canadian, I freeze a bunch of 500ml bottles of water, then pop one or two in rather than using ice cubes, just keep rotating them through the freezer.[/QUOTE]

How does the aircast cryo cuff work? Does it have an electric pump? I still have an Iceman from ten years ago, and it still works. But the pads are kind of a PITA.

[canadianbacon]

[QUOTE=vineyridge;6560032]
How does the aircast cryo cuff work? Does it have an electric pump? I still have an Iceman from ten years ago, and it still works. But the pads are kind of a PITA.[/QUOTE]

I’m not sure about the Aircast, but I have a Breg Polar Care which uses air pressure to circulate the water through the pad. It sounds like a fish tank pump and all the electrics are in the giant plug and that connects to the Polar Care with just an air tube. It also has a hand pump which came in really handy when our power went out during a storm.

Feel better soon!

[vineyridge]

Do you have an intact ACL in that knee? I’ve been told that an injured meniscus that isn’t arthroscopically cleaned out is a guarantee of knee replacement later. How stable is your knee? My orthopod says the meniscus is what keeps the bones in line, and if you don’t have an ACL, and do have a torn MCL and shredded meniscus, does your knee pop out regularly? I had no ACL and what is called a bucket handle tear of the meniscus with cartilage that ended up between the bones. That knee was very unstable and got an ACL replacement and the meniscus cleaned up. I was your age then, and the surgery, as far as I am concerned, was completely successful. That is, until this new ACL rupture on the other knee, which seems to be stressing the repaired one.

There are some really interesting new things out there for cartilage replacement, which might not necessitate knee replacement as soon. We don’t have access to any of them here.

Sorry to hear what you are going through. We can all empathize.

[QUOTE=lucky dog farm;6559976]
SIGH… I’m back. Here goes. I am facing a knee replacement for my bad knee but am trying to hold off as long as I can since I am only 52. It will have to be sooner rather than later. I thought I was doing AOK with my" good" knee but I did hurt it a bit about 8 weeks ago. I had this huge hard lump on the back of my knee which I knew was a Baker’s cyst but went to the doctor just to make sure. Well, he freaks out and wants me to go immediately to get an ultrasound to make sure it’s not a blood clot. I guess that’s smart. So off I go to the ER in rush hour traffic and wait there for 6 hours! Turns out it was a ,yes, you guessed it,a Bakers cyst.
Ok, so I had told my PCP that I thought I had torn my meniscus as well but guess he wasn’t interested in hearing that. FINALLY, I get the referral to go get an MRI, 8 weeks after our first visit. Just got the results of that. Shredded meniscus, slightly torn MCL, patella not tracking right, chronic IT band syndrome, huge Bakers cyst and of course arthritis. Yipee!!
The knee doctor is telling me I should just have a cortisone shot and not repair the meniscus and to wait and see if the MCL will be ok. They did give me a super strong anti inflammatory. Does this all sound right to you?[/QUOTE]

[Donkaloosa]

I’m off to see my surgeon on Tuesday, following up on knee replacement #3 and finding out if knee replacement #4 will be in December.

BackInTheSaddle, I agree with you completely! Although I no longer ride, for the last years I did ride, I NEVER got on from the ground — a fence, the back bumper of a truck, a bench, put the horse in a hole, whatever. I’d get off the same way, stepping down onto something tall, from the right or the left. It is easier on you, the horse, and the saddle. Yes, I do remember the days when I could about put my knee in my ear to get on a tall horse!

The only downside to the ice pumps is having to have someone who can swap out the ice for you every day. I live alone, and come home to my own house after surgery, so it’s sometimes just easier to rely on my family of ice packs in the freezer.

[lucky_dog_farm]

Hi VineyRidge,
Yes I do have an intact ACL in that knee, thankfully. My knee does not seem to be popping out of place but it does have a tendency to grind a bit. In other words I can feel the bones within the joint sort of moving. Very strange. The thinking behind not having surgery is, I have had surgery on this meniscus twice before, so they seem to think if I have more surgery to clean up the meniscus, then they will have to take more of it out, leaving me with very little left. So it looks like I’m damned if I do fix it or damned if I don’t. Either way I am looking at having one knee replaced and at this point probably two. :(. So now I’m just getting cranky

[Jingo-ace]

o.k. all - I had my total knee replacement on sept 11th. It is now 17 days later. I can walk with a walker, and basically function in my own house alone. I am using the Continuous motion machine 6-8 hours a day. Am using my equine ice packs & polo wraps - amazing how many horsey things work on people…lol. My inner warrior woman is pretty beat up right now, and hoping to see my horses this weekend - with help of course. When I told the P.T. that I wanted to ride my horses by Halloween (6 weeks after surgery), she laughed at me & told me I’d be lucky to be off the walker by then. Sigh. Very depressing. But, I DO wanna be able to ride again, so I’m doing all the exercises and all the CMM stuff and trying to be brave. I don’t EVER want to do this again, if possible. That’s my update for now. Hope everyone else is doing WAY better! J

[vineyridge]

My current bad knee didn’t seem to be getting any better with tincture of time alone. So today I went back into the knee immobilizer, and the difference is remarkable. I’m going to stay in for all waking hours for the next week, taking ibuprofen to help with swelling and aches. If when I come out of the immobilizer, the knee doesn’t show marked improvement, I’ll go back to the orthopod. I had called and tincture of time was suggested.

Anyone know if less than two months between MRIs is viewed complacently by Medicare?

Does ultrasound work on human knees?

[vineyridge]

Well, the knee immobilizer turned out to be not so great after all. The knee felt good all day, but when I took the immobilizer off at night, the knee wouldn’t bend at all without a lot of pain and several tries. I probably should have iced it immediately after, but I didn’t.