PsA and Knee Replacement Surgery

[Waine]

Apologies if this has been covered before but I wasn't able to find anything recent.

Following recent knee pain my Rheumy refereed me to an Orthopedic Surgeon. X-rays etc later it shows my left knee joint is totally messed up. I had a previous surgery on it in 2007 but now the PsA has done a number on the ACL tendon where it joins the bone, which is almost completely pulled loose and is ripping my meniscus. So I have a total knee replacement scheduled for a couple of weeks from now.

Does anyone have a real world experience that they can share? Especially on how the recovery period went.

[Fred]

No need to apologise, even if it has been said it's your thread and your question.

Not something I can help with, but there is this thread Knee pain and psoriatic arthritis

Hopefully another member may be able to help, good luck with the surgery and please do report back.

[Waine]

Interesting.

The Cartilage on one side of the joint is completely worn away and it's bone on bone there, which causes a horrible crackling affect and instability when I walk. And pain. OP said it won't be long, or any sudden movement, and the ACL will tear off the bone. 

His enthusiasm for it "not seen anything like that, it will be a fun operation" is a little disturbing.

[Fred]

Not the same but Mrs Fred recently had a hip replacement and it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, so keep positive.

[Waine]

Great to hear. Luckily I get angry not negative. Another Dr who has said if I'd moved moved faster to a better treatment rather than just being pushed MTX then it wouldn't have gotten to this point so quickly. This is my 4th joint surgery in 18 months. My left hip also needs doing, but not urgently.

[Caroline]

Great to hear. Luckily I get angry not negative. Another Dr who has said if I'd moved moved faster to a better treatment rather than just being pushed MTX then it wouldn't have gotten to this point so quickly. This is my 4th joint surgery in 18 months. My left hip also needs doing, but not urgently.

I am not surprised by the negative effect of the MTX. Prescribing MTX for Psoriatic Arthritis is senseless. Recent investigation over here in the Netherlands shows that it only works for 19% of the population of people with PsA.
If it was a gun, you would not even start shooting with it as you mostly miss it.

[Fred]

Great to hear. Luckily I get angry not negative. Another Dr who has said if I'd moved moved faster to a better treatment rather than just being pushed MTX then it wouldn't have gotten to this point so quickly. This is my 4th joint surgery in 18 months. My left hip also needs doing, but not urgently.

I am not surprised by the negative effect of the MTX. Prescribing MTX for Psoriatic Arthritis is senseless. Recent investigation over here in the Netherlands shows that it only works for 19% of the population of people with PsA.
If it was a gun, you would not even start shooting with it as you mostly miss it.

Yep Methotrexate no better than Placebo for Psoriatic Arhtritis

[Waine]

So I'm now 2.5 weeks post op. All went pretty well. My Ortho showed me some photos he took during the surgery and the cartilage on the left hand side of my tibia was completely gone and there was angry looking scrape marks on the bone. He also said the ACL was almost completely torn off and the knee was hyper extending, causing my stumbling problems. Luckily he said the other structures were all very good. I'm now able to move around the house without a walking aid, but use a walker when going out, mostly for self preservation against people who don't care and would otherwise walk right into me. 

I'm happy so far, even though the pain was really bad post op. Because I can't have NSAIDs I was initially on morphine and then Oxynote to deal with breakthrough pain. It's manageable with Paracetamol and one opioid at night currently. Now it's just a case of managing recovery and not trying to run before I can walk. My range of motion is pretty good, although I need to work on heel lift with locked knee due to weakened quads.

Boredom is an enemy, although at least the Formula 1 started this week. Gives my some distraction.

[Fred]

Good luck with the recovery Waine

[Caroline]

Good luck with the recovery Waine !!

Bored?  You are just to less over here at psoriasisclub, you never can be bored over here with so much silly/sensible information.    And lovely people to talk to.