In early June 2014 my wife had a full knee replacement surgery, only she went to the best guy at doing this on the west coast that we could find. Because the average infection rate is about 20%. This guys infection rate is 1% which is astounding. With a full knee replacement the usually cut away some of the bone below the knee and place a titanium piece that has two points going down into the lower bone that has been sawed off to fit this piece. ON the lower piece is titanium topped with plastic of some kind for the top metal piece to rub up against for 20 or more years while it is effective. It can wear away before 20 years of you don't keep your weight low enough also. The doctor said that if people don't keep a lower weight sometimes the knee replacement only lasts 10 years at most. The main reason people have knee replacements is so they aren't in so much pain that they cannot function at all in their lives.
However, even one year later my wife is still nervous going down stairs and riding down escalators. So, this is sort of sad for her. But, going up stairs and walking on the level she is fine with at age 60. So, pain wise this has been a complete success because presently it is about 10% or less of the pain she was experiencing before the operation, even though the first 6 months are pretty difficult for everyone to get through. But, if you consider that you just added 20 years potentially of pain relatively pain free walking to your life it seems like a bargain for most people that do it.
Today, she has been worried for a week thinking she would need a cortisone shot into her knee. But, the problem was something else entirely that we hadn't considered before. So, he sent her to the physical therapist with a specific muscle group to strengthen through lifting weights from the sitting position by pushing with her legs. So, she was happy not to get a cortisone shot and just had to get x-rays of both her knees instead today.
I used my GPS in my phone because traffic into the SF BAY area is difficult during the day and especially after about 3:30pm or 4pm depending upon where you are going. We arrived in time for her late appointment around 4pm by the GPS which routes you away from traffic. So, if you want to get wherever you are going through heavy traffic often your GPS on your smartphone can help you with that. You just put in the address you want to go to from your present location and it will usually take you there the fastest way anyone could actually get there without taking a helicopter.
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