Re: Knitting again

LOL - I have resisted. But, I follow the directions I learned for doing a center pull ball by hand, and it works about 50% of the time. ;^)

I NEED a job. Once that happens, then .... A ball winder. I do really love the swift, and DH feels it serves as a toy as well!

Ellice

Shall I put the kettle on?

Elizabeth

I just made a coffee lol Have changed the bed, washed linen and am having coffee prior to making a large pot of spaghetti sauce and cottage pies for the freezer - thinking ahead to knee replacement and not being able to stand for long comfortably in the kitchen. How anal is that ??

You're making me tired. Not anal. Good idea. For each of my leg surgeries, I was pretty much in a non-weight bearing cast for a few months - which meant wheeling around a lot in the house. Crutches - good for most things, but.... So, I did a lot of bulk cooking. And then DH had to figure out how to be my sous chef - after a while. He's famous for enormous serving portions - once made a yummy "sloppy joe" but by the time my plate came out - I think I could feed 4 hockey players with the portion - it was riotous. His way of saying "if you criticize then I won't cook".

I do a lot of the big cooking batches when I know something is coming up like that, and then freeze small single meal size containers.

Well, I made coffee, but do have to do the linens when we come home - on the way out in about 5 minutes.

Don't overstress!

Ellice

One menber of our Weavers' Guild brought her new swift to a meeting recently. It stands upright - looks rather like a hall tree in fact. However, it is fabulous to use, and if I were a keen handspinner I would invest in one too. This last sweater I finished recently, the wool came in hanks not skeins, so I gave in and borrowed a ballwinder from a friend, and vowed that in future I will buy wool in skeins only. The price the makers charge, there is no excuse for not winding it into skeins or balls, ready for use. Our local LYS/LNS does, however, have a ballwinder available for customers to use. Just wish they had had it when I bought this yarn.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

I'm coming too!

Cheryl

Sounds like something I'd do.

My left knee aches all the time. With the new year, I can safely make an appointment to see my GP and consider what my options are.

This cold isn't helping me any either.

Cheryl

You are far too young to even consider replacement. My ortho surgeon has done ops over the years to keep me going until now. Remember, knees last about twenty years, not long in the scheme of things, so best not done too soon. Sometimes I felt irked with him, but now I appreciate all he did, he was spot on.

It's definitely replacement time now because the joint is 'collapsing', the upper bone sort slips off the lower and there is only one way to fix that.

I've had damage since I was in my early 20's and have had pain at least some of the time since then.

Cheryl

Tell me about it, I did both my knees when I was 16. The surgeon at the time said "This will come back to bother you in the future, most likely by the time you reach your forties" - to which I thought to myself - forty ??? forty ??? I hope I don't live to be old like that!!! Forty two and I had to go to the ortho surgeon so the previous one was spot on. Still and all, he still wanted to delay at all costs and now from the other end, I feel his judgment was good. Delay as long as you can.

I think it will depend on the type of replacement I'll need. My uncle had his patella replaced at about 50 and got the Teflon pad under it and he was good for 20+ years. We share the same odd knee construction that makes injury and damage more likely than not.

Cheryl

If you're looking at the patella, that could be another story, I was talking about the ends of the upper and lower.

My swift sits on a little table out of the way. Actually, the top part - with the arms - separates off the base - but it leaves a sharp pin exposed (from the connection). Anyhow, I just keep it out, and dust it - though I do have a place to put it away - put tossed the box.

IME, a lot of the hand-dyed, boutique yarns seem to come in the hanks, and since that's what I'm drawn to, well...the swift has been a good acquisition. I did a bunch of ribbon scarces, etc - and those came in balls, as did most of the baby yarns I've bought (though not all), and a lot of sock yarn. Guess it just depends. I have a lot of Manos yarns, and Colinette - the colors, textures are gorgeous -but they're definitely in hanks. The Colinette stuff is the worst, frequently the hanks are very tangled - and as I've said - those are the ones which pushed me into buying the swift.

I'm happy when a LYS lets you at least go in the back and do some winding. OTOH, now I'll just wind a few balls at a time. My regular LYS, if you have too much yarn, you can return it for a store credit - if it's still in the original packaging. And, I've learned to err on the buy an extra skein, rather than be short.

Ellice - who actually worked on the back of the baby sweater she's doing

Knee injuries, like everything else, run the gamut. As do the schools of thought by doctors. Depending on the injury - to ligaments, versus cartilage, vcersus bone. The last 10-12 years they've made huge strides in repairs and replacements of ligaments, as well as labrums (the cartilage lining of ball & socket joints). Generally, intrusive treatment just because it's there isn't such a good thing. The hard part with finding good orthos, sugery is fun, finding someone that explores your options, and therapy, is important. It's not good if your joint is dacaying because of an injury which causes it to worsen - to delay any repair. But, total knee replacement isn't always the early fix - for most it would depend on the situation - what deterioration there is, what is contributing, etc.

You're unusual to have had a knee joint replacement done so young. But your situation may be very different from others.

Personally, I count my blessings that my knees are essentially okay - and the repairs and therapy I did have held up. OTOH, I have serious ortho issues with my bad ankle, foot and have been lucky enough to put off the total restructuring and joint fusion (think big piece like a pie wedge in

3-D being removed, graft of bone from other side hip, plates, pins, and screw up from the heel back into the foot - not to mention the minimal 4-5 months of no weight bearing). But have had my Achilles lengthened as a kid, a few different castings, etc - and was told at 16 that I'd have to have my joint fused around 35, as it would be reverting to the "bad" position frommy late teens on. So, I count my blessings that the 2 major tendon reconstructions (they last about 7 years, it was an 8 hour surgery), with some walking casts in between (stress fracture) have held up. On the knee subject - as a former athlete, I of course popped one knee, and the most recent time - about 10 years ago - a piece of torn cartilage floated to the top. So I have some weird sharp bump on the top surface of my knee - and you can feel it, move it around. Noticed when I fell, and it really hurt, and seemed to bruise up. The ortho said - yup- a piece of broken cartilage must've escaped, and now it's there - so while annoying, it's not worth a surgery - one day your knee will just fail (ocassionally wants to) and then when we go fix it -we'll take out this.

A basic engineering principle - minimizing moving parts. But, it's good if all they have to do is replace the "fake meniscus" - which in an artificial joint is just the lining between pieces.

Recovery is faster the better health you are in, and for most people that means younger. But it's trade off of doing a surgery sooner rather than later WRT if it's really warranted, and the intrusion into your body.

Ellice

On 1/2/09 9:39 AM, "Jangchub" wrote:

That's the key there - following up on the rehabiliation therapy which goes along with any surgery.

Ummm, generally speaking to be allowed to practice in a specialty your doctor should be board certified by that governing board. That's pretty minimal qualificatons. The next step up is becoming a Diplomate of that specialty area's college, then a Fellow of the college. Often you'll see that on a doctor's listing - something like Jane Smith, FACS (Fellow of American College of Surgeons). I'm assuming you mean that your personal ortho is one who keeps current with new developments - as opposed to that he/she is the latest model.

And the circumstances calling for surgery to be done now or later are very individual. While there are studies showing better success with younger people - that doesn't mean it's an absolute.

Well, you did what you're told, and your anatomy.

There is a school of thought to wait for major surgical interventions until they are necessary in terms of the pain of the patient becoming more frequent, constant, the decrement in the function of the part - knee, ankle, ahoulder, etc, and the rate of worsening.

Major surgery is not something to be done lightly. OTOH, there are many surgical repairs that can now be done with much less intrusion and hospital time than 20 years ago. Even 11 years ago, my ex-not-DH who blew his ACL skiing in Taos had awesome surgical repair. The surgeon - who does a lot of the US ski team, had him wait after the injury for the swelling and trauma to reduce, then when it was time - surgery to replace the ACL by using a new piece taken from his quad, and pinned into the knee with something around which the new ligament would seat and grow. He was told that he could have the pin removed after about 2 years - small incission and slide it out. He was up and moving before we left the hospital in the afternoon - back home - and put into the bed with a machine that would flex and relax the leg - like a cradle. Of course, his crazy mother was carrying on as if this had been "major" life threatening surgery . It ws painful - but he did all his rehab, made good progress, and didn't miss his mountain biking season start or skiing. 4 years later, when my DH had his shoulder surgery done - his labrum had torn out (amongst other things) they were able to do the repair and hold it in place with a biodegradable set of pins. Amazing (both surgeries, I got to watch, very cool). DH did his therapy - grudgingly - and with lots of grimaces to get started - but again - he had surgery in July, and was on the ice in October. He'd put off minor shoulder work for some years, and enough had happened to compound this by then to be necessary.

It's great that your knee replacement worked for you - and in generally, all the people I know that have them have been happy - with one exception who had it done about 20+ years ago. But, the thing is for people to get plenty of information, and information relevant to their situation. Just because someone can read the words on WebMD doesn't mean they're understood - or we'd all be able to self-prescribe.

Ellice

I've been luckier than you - my original knee injuries involved them in the old op of taking the knee apart to remove the cartilages, so it's been basically bone on bone since I was a teen. Odd that it has always been the right that troubled me, rather than the left however the left had the inner meniscus taken and the right the outer.

I am grateful to my ortho for scoping etc and delaying, as you say, some are way too quick to take to the knife but even he agrees now the knee is useless, the collapsing it does is a real bother.

Apart from that and migraines I am in excellent health and don't foresee any problems, if I was somewhat younger I guess the cut would heal a little faster, but other than that, the delay was great.

I noticed when I signed for my last health card that under 'All' in the organ donations they included ligaments etc. and skin too. I still think they should approach it the other way, that you should have to sign NOT to be a donor, people are lazy lol I've signed All because I figure when I am gone I will have no further use for anything that might be useful to others lol