Titanium ball joint
 

Well, I have been procrastinating on getting my knee replaced for, I don't know about ten years now ��
So I woke up in assisted living after my spectacular crash and burn and said to myself "I gotta get out if here!
But... A few years back I was approved for a knee replacement so I started getting all proactive and $hit and bugging my Dr and to his credit we moved forward.

Now twenty years ago if we were talking titanium ball joints it would be about my 944 or miata.

As much as I dislike assisted living it seemed like a good idea to stay here until I healed.

Had the surgery on the third and I'm wobbly but walking.

My experience:
Oww! Owww! Ow!
(Thank gaud for drugs!!!!)
Very weird sensation knowing you body is sending pain signals to your brain but the drugs are blocking them.
Also weird thinking there is a big chunk of metal where my knee used to be. I have just now started examining my knee. (Insert obligatory perv comment about exploring your body) ��
More weirdness surgeon said they glued it in place.
At first it was puffy and numb (as was I from the meds)
But now I'm "coming down" I'm starting to look at it and trying to determine where I end and the metal begins.

Anyway during my stay here I have learned much and starting over... At 66..! Oh what the neck lets do thus!

First move is to get outta this place {$$$$} and into " retirement or senior housing" {$$} and back to my hometown where all my friends and family are and many things are easy walking distance.

Currently residing in north Long Beach (and Snoop Dog has yet to visit me!!! ): about ten miles from San Pedro where I want be.



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From what I know about my wife and mom getting big knee jobs: Do the PT.

Some knees respond very nicely, some not so much.

Good luck. It will be months until you are doing the Watusi.

I am traditionally stubborn as a mule, got it from dad, it can make me a PITA however it can be useful. As in when this stated I vowed that "I'm going to do every dam thing they tell me to do."

Starting with the surgeon, his word was carved in stone. Whatever he said I did (no I didn't wax his car).

I say that because I went through four days post surgery in the hospital, almost a month rehab in a nursing home ( big step for me, I had vowed to NEVER set foot in a nursing home!) good thing though because I was getting PT twice a day. To now back at assisted living and getting ready to move from here to an apartment before he end of the year..

All that to say I had a bunch of Dr and nurses working on me so I had to filter everyone's comments. For instance well meaning nurses would want to put a pillow under my knee. Makes sense right? Wrong, surgeon stopped by right after the procedure and said "keep it straight"...
right after asking me to move it.:rolleyes:

I hear that the knees are the worst

I got 2 new Ti hips this past winter, PT really helps, the surgeon also had me doing home exercises before and after thru a phone app, ZB mymobility that has also been a huge help

2 shoulders here, both on the same side (one failure). Yes, they hollow out the femur and stuff a shaft in there with antibiotic glue. Amazing stuff. One side is titanium an and the socket is a teflon type of product.

IDK how a knee is done, but I have heard it's painful. I'm sure more painful than a shoulder.

Just try and be healthy and not get exposed to infection. It will find the knee.

My mom has had both knees replaced. The first was pre-covid and Medicare paid for her to be in the hospital for something like 2 weeks so she got tons of forced PT. The second was during covid so they sent her home with occasional in-house PT. Guess how the second went. It's still better than her original knee but it was quite obvious how important PT is.

MIL had both knees done in her 80s. She learned a lot during the healing process for the first one. The second one went so much better. Treadmill helped.

Best
Les

It's my understanding that best to worst it's hips, knees, shoulders.

Good luck with the rehab and get off those drugs and over to tylenol as soon as you're able, but don't try to be Rambo about it. Take it before you need it and wean yourself slowly off the dose. You want to "ride the pain down the slope" not "wait till it's unbearable, before I take another dose" with the opoids.

Never used anything but a baby aspirin in the AM and another in the PM

was walking w/o a cane on the day of the surgery.

PT therapist told me not to come back after 2 weeks, both times "You don't need this anymore"

my recovery was painless and remarkable, I attribute it to aa life of extreme physical activity.

58 days from 2nd surgery I'm averaging 3.5mi of walking and 150mi of biking a week.

no pain no stiffness i feel 30yrs younger.

Glad you're back and feeling better. We missed you. Welcome home!

I don't think a knee is literally a ball joint. Not that it matters.

Just be glad that it wasn't titanium glued to a hollow carbon fiber tube with all of the fibers wrapped the same (wrong) way!

Do what the PT folks say religiously!

Yeah, he is thinking of a hip

Mostly they do not use cement any more

There was a guy in our old neighborhood. He had a knee replacement. He wasn't fat, but was fairly stout (like an old linebacker). I used to see him working in his yard all of the time, almost daily. THen he get a second knee done, and I almost never saw him outside after that, or if I did, he carried a little stool to sit on. The second knee kicked his rear. I'm not sure when he had them done, but I think 7-8 years apart. I'm not sure if that was mid/late 50s - mid 60s or what. His wife didn't say but implied that he didn't work as hard the second time, getting in shape ahead of time, working hard to recover after, etc....

I think preparing physically (lose weight, exercise, stop smoking, etc..) and then doing your PT afterwards are both huge.

Mom went through all three. My understanding:
-With the hip they send you home with drugs the same day or next. No problem. Easy peasy. Wild.
-Knees takes a bit longer but there are still big bones to attach into. They can lengthen/shorten so that balance actually improves afterwards.
-Shoulders take many weeks+ to recover and big tendons may be cut and have to heal back together. Bone density can be a problem there. She got a reverse ball-cup socket.

https://clickamericana.com/wp-conten...0s-770x513.jpg

Good for you Scott. You've got this. :cool:

Endearing!

They do use cement to make a crushed vertebrae square again.
(disks don't tend to pop out sideways anymore)
1-day recovery time.

It's a good time to be alive if you can access quality and afford it.
99.999% humans who ever lived on this planet in history became invalid and spent the remaining last quarter of their time in pure compounding agony.

Okay so I didn't read the brochure, I don't know exactly what kind of joint they put in there.

And the surgeon is in that sweet spot for surgeons. Old enough to do this in his sleep and young enough to have a steady hand. He only does hands, backs, and knees. That to say he is old enough to have used glue or cement in the past.

Shoulders are tricky. Reverse is done when there is not much of a socket left. Me:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Monoblock.jpg

Yeah, there are tendons that wrap all the way to the sternum. 30 days before active PT but the last time I was doing inactive PT(move arm by other means rather than that arm's muscles) within 48 hours. 2 weeks of regular PT and at a follow up appt with the surgeon he tested my strength.

He said, "You don't need anymore PT." 20 lb. lifetime limit — go home and live normal. (But be careful tugging and pushing at your very back as that is the most likely way to dislocate. I don't tuck my shirts in anyway.) 2 months and I didn't even know it happened. Surgeon did his fellowship at Mayo. Don't settle for less.