Osteoarthritis Community

hi i can't really give you any advice just want you to know i am 51 and i too have overdone the exercise phobia and wish i had of been less fanatical in my younger days. i have in past 5 years paid dearly with a spinal fusion then realignment on my right knee which eventually will need replacement. the recovery of my knee operation has been long and hard. now i have a tear in my shoulder and arthritis in both hands which will need operation in near future. i dearly want to do some form of exercise but am frightened i'll make things worse, it is very difficult when i love my work and like you on my feet all day, somedays i am nearly in tears by the time night falls and once i hit that bed pain seems to be far worse. there must be some help surely.

Maybe some of us are more genetically predisposed to osteoarthritis than others. I am 49 years old female with osteoarthritis in five finger joints and have some knee pain and toe joint pain now and again.

I wonder if moving less and a sedentary lifestyle causes joints to hurt more. I used to move a lot more when I was younger, as the last ten years have rolled by I became less and less active. Instead I sit more, read more, stay indoors more.

I spend a lot of time being home for my school age kids, and decided I need to do a better job of taking care of myself.

Here is what I am doing that I think is a little more pro active and I hope it will help me in the long run...

1) I started walking daily and have recently reached a minimum of 30 minutes, or 1.5 miles, a day and added riding my bike a few times a month. I do arthritis stretches for my fingers every day. I think this strengthens my muscles so they can support my joints better.

2) I added more whole grain, nuts, low fat dairy, fish and lean meat, beans, fresh vegetables and fruits to my diet and have reduced saturated fats, white sugar, white flour, salt, nitrites and red meat. I think this will help to reduce inflammation in my joints and will help reduce my joint pain.

3) I've lost about 10-15 lbs since July, and plan to lose another 67 over the next few years to get to my goal weight and healthy BMI. I think weight loss will help my joint pain.

I still have room for improvement in my exercise and diet.

GET YOUR KNEES FIXED. IT IS TOUGH, BUT WORTH IT.

University of AZ in Tucson has the best knee surgeon. The name I don't remember but you can find it easily enough. One of my closest friends injured her knee in a auto accident and had it replaced there.(U of A). When I saw her a few months later she was walking without a limp, sitting cross legged in a chair and was pain free. She is a Great Grandmother and active. Check it out.

How do you know he's the best? There are great knee surgeons all over this country. Knee replacement is a pretty successful surgery all around. I'm also walking without a limp just a few months after a knee replacement and I didn't have to go to Tucson.

I have had luck with Ortho vysc injections on my knee with no cartilage. I had a knee replaced when I was 58. My experience is not typical but I have had 4 surgeries on my knee with no luck. My knee cap started to dislocate after the first surgery and the 2nd did not fix it. Nor the 3rd and 4th. It is really painful and you can't walk if your kneecap is not in place. Now I have another knee that is bone on bone and probably can't have the replacement on that knee because the other knee with the replacement will not support me. I am permanently disabled right now and waiting on some breakthrough because I can't emotionally entertain the thought of yet another surgery on my replacement knee. Everybody I talk with has had good experience with a knee replacement. So, mine is the exception and not the rule. I agree with the physical therapist. Try that and you will probably notice an improvement. Swimming is good too.

There are great knee surgeons all over the country. Ask your doc how many s/he has done and how many were successful (no cane or walker after a year). Ask if s/he had any problem surgeries and then make your choice.

I haven't been on this site for awhile and I see that there are a lot of new patients. I had what I thought was Supartz injections in my knee in July. I since found out that I was given "Synvisc" injections. It is pretty much the same thing I guess, just a different brand. Anyhow, when I found this out, I went on the Synvisc web-site and sent for the Free information kit. This has helped me so much and I think it will help you. You will get exercises for your knee along with other info. The shots did help me a quite a bit, but doing these exercises is making it even better. It also seems to me that a lot of people on this site have had more than one knee operation, so I am not ready to go that route yet. Just noticed on this site here, there is advertisement for the kit. Check it out. I also bought a portable ultra-sound machine and that also helps get the swelling down in the knee. That is what was giving me so much discomfort. Good luck to you.

Hi, I ordered my free kit of knee exercises. Here is the link for anyone else who is interested:
http://www.synviscone.com/knee-packet/form1.aspx

I have occasional knee joint pain, and want to avoid it getting worse.

I did get better tennis shoes and insoles from the New Balance specialty shoe store in my neighborhood and have found them very helpful and they have noticeably improved my level of knee, feet and other joint pain.

Hi _swank, I am glad that you are doing well after your last surgery a few months ago. I am curious as to how many knee surgery's you have had. Reading comments going back a few years ago you said you had knee surgery and were swimming and biking, then another around 7 months ago. I am just wondering if these are not working for you or is this a normal thing to have to keep having it done over and over. You mentioned that you had a partial about 2 yrs ago and I am wondering what a partial is.

I've had a total of 8 surgeries on my left knee. The first one happened way back in the 70's before they had arthroscopic surgery or knew how to fix an ACL. My ACL was removed at that time which left me with an unstable knee. It didn't take long to tear a meniscus. That was removed a piece at a time as I kept tearing it after having torn pieces removed. It's not hard to do as it turns out. Eventually, I had my ACL replaced but I already had a lot of arthritis in the lateral side of my knee. One surgery was to remove one of the screws from the ACL recon.

A partial knee replacement means they only replace one compartment of your knee. In my case it was the lateral side. That surgery actually worked great and left me pain free over 95% of the time. Unfortunately, 3.5 years after that surgery I fell on my stairs and tore up the medial side of my knee. That never healed and we decided to do the total replacement. For that my doctor had to remove the partial replacement. He said it was in great shape and likely would have lasted many more years. Kind of a bummer but turd happens.

I would not say it is normal to have repeated surgeries. I did not have the benefit of technology and the procedures that they have now. Things may well have been different if I had been able to have my ACL rebuilt way back then. My husband had a menisectomy about 40 years ago and is only now developing arthritis in his knees. All that being said, it's also not all that unusual for people to have more than one surgery.

Thanks for responding to my questions. I think after reading how many surgeries that you have had to endure and you must now be around my age I do not think I will want to put myself through them. They did have arthroscopic surgery in the 70's but the technology is much better now and from what I understand, it does not always work for O/A of the knee and there were a lot of scam Dr's out there. I am glad the Synvisc shots have helped me and with the exercise and ultrasound I am hoping to keep my knee from getting worse. Again, good luck to you.

I have the same problem, have tried absolutley everything, spent a fortune. Then a month ago read on the internet's Healing Kitchen a comment of using strontium instead of using calcium. Stops bone loss, increases bone denstity. Have to take 2 pills on empty stomach. Not much in the way of reviews other than several stating bones stopped hurting after a week or so. I could tell a difference in a week. Now on my fourth week, my bones are not hurting me and I actually have the internal feeling it is causing my bones to strengthen. I was to the point I could barely walk, and I am getting alittle better each day. Look up Advanced Bionutritionals. It is called Ultimate Bone Support. Good Luck.