Hi, everyone,

I was on this ng briefly, near the time of Larry's passing, but
gave up ngs after getting burned out by asc-p.  But now
arthritis HAS me (DJD, OA, DDD with stenosis in cervical and
lumbar
spine, crud on my facet joints, a few bulging disks here and
there,
but most attention-getting right now - my left knee), and Rosie
Shiver said to introduce myself over here...  and stay!

By way of "introducing" myself, I'm 59, female, tall and about
60 lbs overweight, with chronic daily migraines/tension
headaches,
Fibro, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Osteoporosis...  what other
fun stuff did I forget?  Oh, well,  catch up later.

I'm having a current problem with my orthopod.  My left medial
meniscus tore badly when I was about 42, and during the
arthroscopy,
he found the DJD and all of the cartilage on the weight-bearing
end of my thighbone had all turned to hard little chunks of
'concrete'.
Same thing on the back of my patella, which now moves around
from time to time, anywhere but where it belongs.

Back then, he told me I had to get this knee replaced, but I
was "too
young" at the time.  When I was about 50, I asked him to
replace it,
and now he said I had to get down to 220 pounds.

 Weight's always been hard for me to lose, but I lost some
over the
next few years, and when I'd hit 240, I asked him again.
This was
two years ago....  this time he said I'm too young.

My knee at this point aches all the time, I'm Disabled by
it, it's losing
range of motion, both in not going straight like the other
one, and
not able to bend as tight as the other one.  It buckles
under me,
and when that happened the other day, my head struck a concrete
curb.

His explanation of "too young" was that as big-boned and
tall and
slightly bow-legged I am, I would wear out an artificial
joint in 8-10
years, sooner than regular folk, and that I would lose more bone
every time they had to replace the metal ends of the joint.
 He said
eventually I would run out of bone, and be wheelchair-bound.

Here's where I get confused:  another orthopod I had to see
for a
workman's comp claim some years ago showed me a joint made of
metal, with a 'plastic'?  Delrin?  Silicone? hockey-puck
inside the
metal knee that took all the wear, and when it needed
replacing,
they just replaced the puck, and left the metal parts where
they were.

Isn't there an artificial knee out there that's designed to
handle
more load, and not require repositioning the metal parts
every 8-10 years? Nor causing more loss of bone?

Can you all tell me what might help, and PLEASE, if you have
LINKS to artificial joint sites or other sites that explain the
different available types of knee joints?   I scheduled a
face-to-
face with him this next Monday, and will be researching all
weekend to educate myself.

My existing knee is shot, painful in several ways, and limits
what I do, and even screws up my gait.  I walk very oddly to
favor my touchy left knee and my next-on-the-list-for-
replacement right hip.

Well, sorry for such a long intro, but I'm glad to be here.

Ginnie    >^..^<

You can catch more flies with funny than vinegar.
__________________________________