Knee surgery?

I have been battling a bad knee since 1994, 13 years old. I had hurt it from making sharp turns while rollerskating. But bad knees are also genetic in my family as well. My point I am trying to make is I was at the doctors office yesterday and she told me I have two options, stop doing things that I love or have knee surgery which will require therapy for it. The thing is, is that I have given up everything I already loved doing, working out, playing sports, dancing ect. Would it really make any difference if I had surgery on it? Or do I have any other better options to avoid surgery? I ask this on here because my doctor couldnt give me any other advise. I really want to do everything I was doing before.
Answer:
There are always things you can do to strengthen your knees. Having knee surgery isn't going to help if you still keep straining your knee, plus not all knee surgeries go well...Is your cartilage gone, or is something else the problem?Additional vitamin C could help; it builds the collagen, the glue, that helps hold joints together. Check at your local health food store for the best form and amount for you.Think about working with a physical therapist and acupressurist to strengthen your knee. If you are over weight, you need to lose weight to take pressure off your knee joints. You may also not be walking correctly. Once someone injures a body part, they often change posture to protect that part and that can lead to bad walking posture which can further injure the knee. Look in your yellow pages for someone skilled in the Alexander Technique. Also, a craniosacral massage therapist may help you. Also check into Hellerwork and Jin Shin Do Bodymind acupressure.Good luck!

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Hi. My name is Shae, and I have a healing practice in Canada. I am not a doctor. However, I have had wonderful results with knee issues. First, have you tried foot reflexology? THis can be extremely benefiacial for realigning your entire body. Make sure that you see a highly trained reflexologist as there are some out there who just do piddly massage and not true reflexology, ask around or check out Touch Point Reflexology out of Vancouver B.C. this is a teaching program and they can probably put you onto a good practitioner in your area. Also try acupuncture. Deep tissue massage to the thighs and calves can really make a difference for realigning the whole leg. And finally, read up on Louise Hays' book "You can heal your life". She has some wonderful ideas about why certain body parts become dis-eased. Hope this helps, Shae.

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i am always truly amazed at some of the "answers" that people provide here.in any case, it really depends on what is wrong with your knee. unfortunately, most of the structures in the knee, ligaments (ACL, PCL, LCL), meniscus (fibrocartilage sitting between the femur %26 tibia), cartilage, do not heal at all. so for the most part would require surgery; and most can be done arthroscopically (through a couple of small holes).ligaments usually would require reconstruction (ie taking tendon/ligament from somewhere else on your knee or cadaveric graft). meniscus only has a limited area with blood supply and healing capacity so most often the torn portion gets debrided/cut out, some can be repaired (for your age it is best to be repaired if possible). cartilage is really problematic. there are some surgical options, however, most are not great.the worrisome part of this is that if the injury is really from over 13 years ago, then damage probably have been incurring over all this time as well. if whatever is broken/not working isn't taken care of, there are long term implications like pain, instability of the knee, stiffness/less motion, arthritis, etc.your surgeon obviously hasn't explained things well enough as to why you should have surgery. i'd call your orthopedic surgeon and have him/her clarify things a bit.good luck

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I had surgery on both my knees in 2003. Honestly, it was 100% worth it. My knees were junk and needed some work to correct years of wear and tear. I had them done at the same time. I'd have to say that 4 weeks out of surgery, I was back to 80% strength in each knee. I was religious about my physical therapy and even did extra work to get my knees back to 100%. Today, it's like I never had any problems at all with them. I walk 4 miles a day and swim 3 miles a day with no problems. I'm a restaurant manager and am on my feet most of the night. They do not swell or retain fluid. I'd seek a respected orthopedic doctor and get his opinion. After having surgery on my knees, I realized what I was missing before. I can do everything better now that I'm 35 than what I could do when I was 28. Hope that helps you out, but the only regret I have is that I didn't get it done sooner!

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