Bilateral knee osteoarthritis

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\nJuly 5th....I go for my pre-op assessment. I've already been told I can have both knees done (Consultant: \"The X-Rays look horrible, and your knees look even worse; there's not much point in doing just one\"); however, I'm expecting it to be in late August or September, as I've only been on the waiting list a couple of months. A few tests etc, then the young registrar asks: \"When would you like them done?\" When I reply, \"ASAP\", he tells me they have a gap on Sunday, ie in three days!!!! Otherwise it'll be August. I panic - theatre trips arranged, promised articles not finished (I'm a writer), cats' pills to sort out. David (my partner) says he'll take care of everything and my health is more important; of course I can make it. We agree...

\nJuly 8th...David drives me to the hospital for 7 am, still being given instructions on cats, phone calls, appointments etc. We control freaks don't let go easily. He stays with me till they wheel me in to theatre late morning. I'm having a spinal anaesthetic but refuse a sedative; I want to know what's going on - mad or what? The surgeon, who is quite a character, asks if I want a running commentary on what he's doing, and gives me one, along with his own brand of jokes (\"Ok, we've cut through, and guess what, there's nothing wrong with your knee\".) All goes well till late during the second knee, after about three hours, when I start to feel very cold and a bit strange. It turns out my blood pressure and temperature are dropping. For this reason they take me back to \"Step Down\" which is halfway between Intensive Care and the general ward. They tell me it's just a precaution, and I get mad when I find there's no TV in Step Down, as I want to watch the Wimbledon final.

\nNext day bp etc are back to normal and I get moved to the ward - to a private room as that's all they have. Private room and my own bathroom, on the NHS; I'm not complaining, though its almost too quiet. My legs are already moving quite well. This is probably due to the fact that as soon as the anaesthetic wore off it hurt to keep them still, so I just had to move them. I was also obsessed with doing the exercises as soon as I could, which worried the non-orthopaedic nurses in Step Down, whoc thought I should be resting. But I'm in a lot of pain, and demanding morphine every hour or so.

\nMore in a moment; don't want to make this post too long.","bodyRaw":"Here's a report of my experiences, as promised. I hope it'll help anyone else having both knees done, as we seem to be quite rare....\n\nJuly 5th....I go for my pre-op assessment. I've already been told I can have both knees done (Consultant: \"The X-Rays look horrible, and your knees look even worse; there's not much point in doing just one\"); however, I'm expecting it to be in late August or September, as I've only been on the waiting list a couple of months. A few tests etc, then the young registrar asks: \"When would you like them done?\" When I reply, \"ASAP\", he tells me they have a gap on Sunday, ie in three days!!!! Otherwise it'll be August. I panic - theatre trips arranged, promised articles not finished (I'm a writer), cats' pills to sort out. David (my partner) says he'll take care of everything and my health is more important; of course I can make it. We agree...\n\nJuly 8th...David drives me to the hospital for 7 am, still being given instructions on cats, phone calls, appointments etc. We control freaks don't let go easily. He stays with me till they wheel me in to theatre late morning. I'm having a spinal anaesthetic but refuse a sedative; I want to know what's going on - mad or what? The surgeon, who is quite a character, asks if I want a running commentary on what he's doing, and gives me one, along with his own brand of jokes (\"Ok, we've cut through, and guess what, there's nothing wrong with your knee\".) All goes well till late during the second knee, after about three hours, when I start to feel very cold and a bit strange. It turns out my blood pressure and temperature are dropping. For this reason they take me back to \"Step Down\" which is halfway between Intensive Care and the general ward. They tell me it's just a precaution, and I get mad when I find there's no TV in Step Down, as I want to watch the Wimbledon final.\n\nNext day bp etc are back to normal and I get moved to the ward - to a private room as that's all they have. Private room and my own bathroom, on the NHS; I'm not complaining, though its almost too quiet. My legs are already moving quite well. This is probably due to the fact that as soon as the anaesthetic wore off it hurt to keep them still, so I just had to move them. I was also obsessed with doing the exercises as soon as I could, which worried the non-orthopaedic nurses in Step Down, whoc thought I should be resting. But I'm in a lot of pain, and demanding morphine every hour or so.\n\nMore in a moment; don't want to make this post too long.","format":"bbcode","dateInserted":"2012-07-24T07:19:40+00:00","insertUser":{"userID":54337,"name":"Helenbothknees","url":"https:\/\/community.versusarthritis.org\/profile\/Helenbothknees","photoUrl":"https:\/\/wf.vanillicon.com\/v2\/fdd37d5f84c61e651895e22aef2c1bae.svg","dateLastActive":"2018-09-02T16:17:42+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false},"displayOptions":{"showUserLabel":false,"showCompactUserInfo":true,"showDiscussionLink":true,"showPostLink":true,"showCategoryLink":false,"renderFullContent":false,"expandByDefault":false},"url":"https:\/\/community.versusarthritis.org\/discussion\/33699\/helens-bilateral-tkr","embedType":"quote","name":"Helen's Bilateral TKR"}"> https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/33699/helens-bilateral-tkr