My wife has an artificial mitral valve and a pacemaker. She's over weight. Both her knees are bone on bone. She's 76 years old. Her orthopedic surgeon said due to her physical issues and age he doesn't recommend knee replacement. She had the cortisone shots in both knees but it only helped for a few hours. What can she possibly do?
The choice she has is simple (not necessarily easy), but direct. If the pain is overwhelming, your wife will need to associate her solution with her behavior- eat poor quality foods often= pain, eat high quality foods FOR EVERY SINGLE MEAL = reduced pain.
This is what she can POSSIBLY do. I would NEVER SAY THIS if I hadn’t been morbidly obese MY WHOLE ADULT LIFE.
Any other “solution” will ultimately fail unless she is willing to commit to loving herself enough to take charge and do this.
Grace + Peace,
Bob
My mother used water walking to relieve pain, and to build muscle and cardio fitness prior to hip and knee replacements as well as to rehab afterwards. She required minimal rehab efforts because she had good muscle strength post surgery. Many people spend a lot of rehab time rebuilding muscle strength they loss when exercise became too painful.
I only have bone on bone on one spot of one knee while about 2/3 of the bad knee has some cartilage remaining, but I do have osteoarthritis and swelling issues in both knees.
Additionally using a gel pack wrap around each knee helps a lot too (Reusable Knee Cold Pack Wrap with Flexible Gel Ice Pack for Joint Pain). I wrap my bad knee just barely tight enough to keep the ice pack in place at bed time and leave the wrap on most of the night. Like the water pressure from the pool, the gentle pressure from the gel pack molding to the shape of the knee takes the swelling down.
Most medications for inflammation are hard on the stomach or (like NSAIDS) have undesirable side effects. For me, buffered aspirin taken with food helps the most. I can even take the buffered aspirin before bed with a small bowl of cereal. I also take capsules of the spice turmeric, use it in my cooking, and eat spinach and tomatoes.
Hope some combination of this helps your wife.
Your wife is facing immobility and wheelchair at this point, because at this point it is either that or a total knee surgery. And the latter is not on offer.
Again, on the weight. Have you asked the surgeon "If there is less weight can she have surgery, or is surgery still out due to medical issues?" That may take the weight off the table as an issue. Or may give incentive that if there IS weight loss there may be surgery and less pain.
So very sorry. There are few things more depressing than constant pain. Docs are afraid of opioids and giving them now to the extent they will often not prescribe when they SHOULD. The pendulum swings one way, then the other, and seldom stays in the middle common-sense area.
So sorry.
Sorry to hear of your wife's situation. What does her doctor recommend for chronic pain? If she were to lose weight, would he consider knee replacement surgery, or he hesitant because of her heart issues? I mean, life with chronic pain of THIS magnitude isn't much of a 'life'. See what it would take for him to reconsider, or get a second opinion. Then you can weigh the risks and make an informed decision.
Best of luck!
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