h.harb wrote:Ott. My knee is a 35 year old project. First injury, not too serious, but it started the whole thing; was while playing soccer league in Vermont, circa 1975. The resulting minor, but still damaging injuries resulted in a totally stretched out ACL and a surgery for removal of all meniscus. They didn’t have ACL technology then, so I went without.
The long and the short of it is; I have been without an ACL for 35 years and basically no meniscus. I have had four surgeries on that knee. Dr. Steadman did the last two. He knows my knee since 1979. This time he used a relatively new procedure that creates more space between the surfaces. (it’s rather secretive, so I don’t know all the details, but they did some major rotor-routing in there.) I have already reached -6 degrees of extension, two weeks out of surgery. Before I was +plus 9 for the last ten years. My good knee has -12.
Dr. Steadman thinks I can get another 5 or so years out of this knee. He knows how I ski , so saying 5 years is amazing, I went in thinking he was going to tell me I needed a knee replacement, it was that bad.
I tried everything your wife tried and after awhile none of those techniques worked for me. What brand of liquid glucosamine with chondroitin is she using, I’d like to try it.
If she is having real problems I suggest looking into replacements. My father had two in three years after he was eighty. He still skis everyday in Austria and he is now 87. He says don’t wait, it’s so much better without the pain.
I’m willing to go as long as I can, but at some point I’ll probably have a replacement, say at about 70. The knees and surgery are already so much better than 5 years ago when my father had his, and he is doing fine.
h.harb wrote:Thanks all. Yes, PMTS has the most efficiency and requires the least amount of strength of any system, to ski well.
However, what you have to consider, I did a crash 5 month training program before I went into surgery, thousands of squats, lunges, Plyos, and uphill running. My legs were stronger then I had them in years. I used up what was left of the arthritic knee, because I knew it was going away. It was painful, but absolutely necessary.
I was also very lean when I went into surgery, 145 pounds, and I stayed that way and even got lighter during rehab, carrying extra weight makes recovery and the knee more difficult to recover. After surgery, I began immediately with rehab and I pushed to the limits. This has both ups and downs, not to mention many painful nights. While I was waiting for my knee to recover from surgery, staples etc (the first few weeks not much strength work can be introduced to the leg). I was conditioning my hips, back, and abs as well as my upper body. I spends hours of boredom on a stationary bike, in whirlpools and swimming. And I pushed with pain, regardless of how I felt in the morning.
Yes, you can do many things after you recover from knee replacements, but few have skied at three months. Just want to make the expectations realistic. And remember it isn't a race. Most people take their time, they take a year or more. They don't want to push that hard and be in pain everyday. It's all in your motivation, but in the end, if you do the work, you will be rewarded. My friend Hermann Gollner, had his knee done 5 years before me. He told me, it's not for the weak of heart. He is a tough guy, when you hear that from a guy like him, its revealing. Of course, he pushed hard as well, and was very impatient, but that's the nature of the beast.
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