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    My TKR: One Patient's Experience With Total Knee Replacement
    My TKR: One Patient's Experience With Total Knee Replacement
    My TKR: One Patient's Experience With Total Knee Replacement
    Ebook60 pages55 minutes

    My TKR: One Patient's Experience With Total Knee Replacement

    By Philip Benz

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    About this ebook

    Though the internet and clinicians can deliver ample clinical information about knee replacement surgery, there’s not much available about what it’s like being the patient who’s getting a knee cut, and that’s what’s included in this short booklet. MY TKR doesn’t recommend whether or when to have a Total Knee Replacement and it doesn’t describe clinical details of the surgical procedure. It relates, in first-person narrative, one patient’s experience with his surgery—in particular, during post-operative rehabilitation.
    Those who are considering or have already scheduled their knee replacement procedure will find the MY TKR booklet helpful in understanding, from the patient’s point of view, what happens in the months before and after surgery. By sharing his personal experience with his knee replacement, the author provides a unique patient perspective on the “what happened”, “how I felt”, and “how long did it take to get better” aspects of the procedure. He provides further insights on decisions and activities that he’d do all over again and, more importantly, on those he would do differently.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Benz
    Release dateSep 22, 2019
    ISBN9780985813260
    My TKR: One Patient's Experience With Total Knee Replacement
    Author

    Philip Benz

    Philip Benz has written three novels. Edge Of God, an action-thriller, was written under the pen name, Beowulf Pels, and is available in Kindle and trade paperback formats from Amazon. Medicines & Poisons, a medical drama, is available in Kindle and trade paperback formats from Amazon. Philip's most recent novel, The GreenSeed Conspiracy, is a contemporary action-thriller, and is available in epub, Kindle and trade paperback formats from Amazon, and most online booksellers.

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      Book preview

      My TKR - Philip Benz

      My TKR:

      One Patient’s Experience With Total Knee Replacement

      Philip Benz

      VoxLuces

      2019

      www.VoxLuces.com

      Copyright © 2019 Philip Benz

      All rights reserved.

      Smashwords Edition

      This work does not provide medical advice nor does it attempt to engage in the practice of medicine. No part of this work, except for brief quotations, may be used or reproduced by any means or in any information storage retrieval system without the express written consent of the author. This Smashwords Edition is licensed only for your personal use and remains the copyrighted property of the author. It may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes, except as may be specifically noted on this page.

      Cover art by guniita / 123RF

      Smashwords TKR Bklt2’2S1.doc 09222019 15448

      ISBN-13 978-0-9858132-6-0

      ISBN-10 0-9858132-6-1

      For my wife, Rogene, who does a vast number of things exceedingly well.

      My TKR: One Patient’s Experience with Total Knee Replacement

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      When Is It Time?

      The Clincher

      Expectations

      Selecting Providers

      Rehab & Recovery

      Preparation

      The Day of Surgery

      The First Two Days After Surgery

      The Next Few Days

      The Next Few Weeks

      The Next Few Months

      After a Year and a Half

      Resources

      About the Author

      — Introduction

      I’ve been told that giving Auntie Hortense a pedicure seems like way more fun than reading about knee replacements.

      Everybody would probably agree.

      Except if it’s your knee that’s getting replaced.

      Since you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking about getting a knee opened up and based on my experience, more information is better than less. I’m not recommending whether or when to have the procedure, and I’m not describing fine clinical details of the surgical procedure, in which nobody except a surgeon has much interest. The internet and clinicians can deliver ample clinical information about knee replacement, but not so much about what it’s like being the patient, so that’s what follows in this short booklet.

      A knee replacement surgery involves getting: i) the top of the lower leg bone (tibia) and bottom of the top leg bone (femur) sawn off, and ii) metal and plastic parts pounded into the cut ends of each bone, thereby replacing crappy old parts with nice, shiny new parts. Everybody watching videos of the surgical procedure will quickly recognize a startling resemblance to the techniques and tools of woodworking, except there’s no sawdust.

      The first knee replacement surgery was performed in 1968 and the tools, materials and techniques have vastly improved since then. The Department of Health and Human Services said there were over 680,000 knee replacements in the US in 2014, and that number grows every year. In 2018, I was one of those knees.

      I did the reading, talked to doctors, and had a prior experience, 35 years earlier, with a total knee reconstruction (not the same as a replacement), so when my surgical date arrived, I thought I knew what to expect.

      And quickly figured out I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. After returning home from the hospital, I realized there was a lot I didn’t know, and some of what I thought I knew was, in retrospect, not entirely accurate. For those who are considering, or have already scheduled their Total Knee Replacement (TKR, which is also known as Total Knee Arthroplasty, or TKA), the rest of this booklet relates what happened in the months before and after surgery. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? What should I have done differently?

      The history of my knee replacement began on a rugby pitch in San Diego (rugby is an excellent sport that helps keep orthopedic surgeons fully employed) in 1981. The reconstruction that quickly followed this right knee injury: i) removed the remains of the cartilage on the outside (lateral) part of the knee and one of the ligaments ‘inside’ the knee (anterior cruciate ligament); ii) repaired the ligaments on each side of the knee (medial and lateral collateral ligaments); and, iii) moved a tendon (the Pes Anserinus, which helps attach thigh muscles to the knee) to help stabilize the joint. Three staples in the tibia held everything in place.

      Then, a week in the hospital, six weeks in a cast, another two months in a walking brace. About six months of physical rehabilitation later, I was mobile without leg braces, crutches, or canes. After a year, I was as close to ‘normal’ as possible, which meant I had occasional discomfort with sports, some right leg weakness and numbness, and an increasing inability to straighten my right knee.

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