14ers and Total Knee Replacement

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Hungry Jack
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by Hungry Jack »

Amazing stories here.

Carl - Hang in there! I have felt despair at being injured and incapacitated, but my experience has taught me that you can get better. Patience is your best strategy when time is your ally. I hope you find a solution.

Kelller - my God, you have been put through the ringer. I will remember your story the next time I am tempted to feel sorry for myself for all the damage I have wrought on my body over 50 years. It’s peanuts in light of your experiences.
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two lunches
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by two lunches »

bergsteigen wrote:
ecarl65 wrote:
Sigh...I wish. Well, I am taking action. I saw a psychiatrist today (because this has put me in a seriously awful state of mind) and I'm seeing the pain doctor tomorrow. I've been going to PT, but not since I got this as an official diagnosis (although they've been doing TENS, which makes me wonder what they might have suspected).

Problem is my state of mind. I'm naturally very prone to anxiety and depression (hiking used to help a lot with that, LOL), and try as I might, I'm struggling to just tell myself to suck it up and keep a stiff upper lip. I'm falling to pieces. This feels like a fate worse than death. But, who knows, maybe I'll be one of the lucky ones in whom it goes into remission, or at least doesn't advance to the point of constant, chronic, excruciating pain. Well ... any more than it is now, which is definitely making life difficult but not unbearable. Hiking is going to have to be a distant memory.
You are not alone in your feelings of depression. Many of us active types who have either had multiple accidents (I’ve broken my leg 3 times in 4 years) or those who have lengthy injury zones (multi years) have felt as you have. It is tough when ones main form of stress relief (being active outdoors) is cut off from us. Those who haven’t experienced this, have a hard time understanding the pain we go through. So it is good that you are reaching out for professional help.

I’ve often thought that we need a support group, as it seems every year another friend of mine gets added to the broken leg club! A few of mine helped me when I first went through the recovery, and gave me great advice about my new titanium rod in my tibia. Then add in the various ligament repair types and joint redos...
i had to go see a shrink last summer after i got in a car accident and couldn’t hike... it wrecked my world. carl i hope you can find something else that helps, maybe yoga?
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ecarl65
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by ecarl65 »

Hungry Jack wrote: Carl - Hang in there! I have felt despair at being injured and incapacitated, but my experience has taught me that you can get better. Patience is your best strategy when time is your ally. I hope you find a solution.
Thank you so much! If it really is CRPS it seems to often be a life-long condition. But there are times it goes away or into remission, so I'll hope for that to happen to me and do whatever I can to get there.
Hungry Jack wrote: Kelller - my God, you have been put through the ringer. I will remember your story the next time I am tempted to feel sorry for myself for all the damage I have wrought on my body over 50 years. It’s peanuts in light of your experiences.
I'll second that and say MY WORD you've been through a lot. I wish you all the best in your knee replacement and recovery and getting back to what you love.
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by ecarl65 »

stephakett wrote: i had to go see a shrink last summer after i got in a car accident and couldn’t hike... it wrecked my world. carl i hope you can find something else that helps, maybe yoga?
The knee is pretty awful, just standing for 30-60 minutes is pretty rough. Even so, if I can get to ice afterwards it might be okay. I've thought about yoga, maybe it's time to give it a shot. I don't know what to do physically. I tried weights, but I also have a SLAP tear in my shoulder that makes that difficult. I'm picking up piano playing, it's slow going but I'm enjoying my 12 year old daughter giving me lessons. :-D
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by USAKeller »

ecarl65 wrote:
Hungry Jack wrote:
Keller - my God, you have been put through the ringer. I will remember your story the next time I am tempted to feel sorry for myself for all the damage I have wrought on my body over 50 years. It’s peanuts in light of your experiences.
I'll second that and say MY WORD you've been through a lot. I wish you all the best in your knee replacement and recovery and getting back to what you love.
Well I certainly don’t want sympathy nor comparison - we all fight battles and it’s a matter of how relative each is to what we each have gone through! A great friend and co-worker once told me words that I’ve never forget: “We all overcome.” And it’s just about how bad you want it. Thank you to you both for the encouragement!
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by peter303 »

I know someone who climbs 14ers with hip replacements.
The issue is more of getting high intensity aerobic training for those multi-hour climbs.
You arent supposed to jog with them if you want them to last for the rest of your life.
Some gym machines like elliptical and stairs are low impact, but boring.
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by osprey »

Would ecarl65 be willing to give a follow up of how they are doing?
Ecarl - was your final diagnosis CRPS or did you have a TKR?
Last edited by osprey on Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by ecarl65 »

osprey wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:40 am Would ecarl65 and USA Keller be willing to give a follow up of how they are doing?
Ecarl - was your final diagnosis CRPS or did you have a TKR?
Thanks. It's a bit of a mixed bag. I don't fully know what's going on. I'm pretty sure there's some aspect of CRPS in my knee. But oddly not a full-blown case. I tried a bunch of treatments, I'm not sure what worked, or if it was just time, but about March of 2020 it basically went into remission. I was able to hike and do 14ers and it was great. Then this year I had a foot capsulitis issue that kept me sidelined. But when I went and did a hike that was bigger/harder than I anticipated I got a nasty case of what seemed like patellofemoral pain syndrome. Except, it was so bad it started to have some of the CRPS components again. It would daily swell, get red and hot, veins bulging, painful, shooting nerve pain, etc. It's been a few months now and it's starting to calm down, finally. But it's not as good as it was. I got another CRPS treatment that might have been what worked last time, a pamidronate infusion, about two weeks ago. Here's to hoping it'll go into remission again.
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by USAKeller »

osprey wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:40 am Would ecarl65 and USA Keller be willing to give a follow up of how they are doing?
Absolutely - it's been 3.5 years since I had my TKR and I'm back to everything and more than I ever thought I'd be doing - climbing 13ers, running 2-3x a week, regular pickle ball player, skiing 40+ days a season, just to name a few things. I'm right on the brink of deciding to train for the half Ironman Iceland - that's how good and strong I feel post-TKR. I could not be happier after having this done!
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by osprey »

^
You are probably one of your surgeon’s star patients - one he can use as an example to others of what outcome can be accomplished if the patient has the determination to resume being an athlete.
"Rocks, mountains, snow and ice: what more do we desire?" - Reinhard Karl

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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by Hungry Jack »

Somehow I stumbled upon this after a LONG hiatus.

Some good news in my end: I have had very good luck with PRP. I have significant OA in my right knee, and after a bad flare up post skiing in January 2021 I got PRP. It was a godsend. I had another round 11 months later. In 2022 I cycled more over than summer than I had in years. I have resumed strength training and generally feel great.
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ecarl65
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Re: 14ers and Total Knee Replacement

Post by ecarl65 »

That's great! Happy to hear it, @Hungry Jack!

I've tried PRP a few times and it hasn't seemed to do the job. But I'm getting an MRI this week, actually, and asking about a partial knee replacement (my pain is just behind the kneecap) or a cadaver cartilage replacement.
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