My Decision to Cut, Replace and Cement My Knee

May - June 2018

My left knee replacement 10 years ago came after 6 years of steadily increasing pain. During the previous two years I limped badly.  Magically when I turned 60 the hospital doors opened wide. As a senior citizen the government wanted to shower me with privileges.

This year the run up to my right knee replacement was 7 months. I initially aggravated the arthritis in my right knee in January watching Tom Brady and the Patriots beat the Jaguars while stationary biking for 90 minutes. That was too long. I was in pain for about a month. Rest and ice and painkillers cured me I thought.

But no they didn't.

I hurt the knee again playing golf in May at Don Valley, walking that hilly course .

At first the pain was mild and then suddenly it crossed a line. I become a limper again and for week or so I couldn't  straighten my leg to put on long pants.

Because I was a veteran of the system I had quick access to orthopedic surgeons and new x-rays clearly showed a problem so within a few weeks I had a July 30^th date for my next knee replacement. It was lucky I got a quick date. I was in so much pain that I was considering expensive surgery in the USA. Not my style.

Then a new wrinkle arose. I agreed to try a Cannabis pain killing cream which my friend Barb Bernstein was very bullish on. With one call and a $100 exchange I added this cream to my diet of rest, Tylenol, compression and ice.

And guess what, within a week the pain that had been so severe was mostly gone. Maybe the rest had kicked in. It wasn't the Tylenol because I stopped taking it when my stomach got upset. I doubted the ice or compression suddenly did the trick

It had to be the cannabis. I even stopped using it for a few days to test my hypothesis. And the pain came back. When I started using it again bye bye pain. It was about four weeks before my scheduled surgery. Hmmmm

I started thinking about cancelling. The pain was gone. Did I really need the surgery?

On the one hand I knew surgery was risky. Sadly, recently someone I knew had died from a blood clot two weeks after a standard hip replacement. Plus I knew the recovery period would be at least 5 painful weeks. I also knew that surgery spots were hard to get and if I didn't really need one maybe I should give it back for some less privileged person who really needed it and didn't have the contacts to get to the front of the line.

A friend, 88 year old John Torok, told me that when he was 80 he was scheduled for surgery but walked away when the pain subsided. Now eight years later with no operation he was still playing tennis. Hmmmm

Margie, my wife, was very convinced that I should have the surgery. I would likely need it eventually, remember the definitive x-ray. And maybe next time the circumstances would be less favourable, like a four month painful wait and our prepaid vacation in Florida having to be cancelled. I called my surgeon’s secretary for her view. She told me I should go ahead. Spots are hard to get. No one ever cancelled.

The downside of going ahead was risk, aggravation, two months without golf and months of pain. The downside of cancelling was the risk of an inconvenient situation in the future. The upside of going ahead was a timely solution to my arthritic knee. The upside of cancelling was maybe I'd never need the replacement at all.

What a wimp I am. At times I was near tears.  This decision was tearing me apart.

Finally I went ahead. Potential future inconvenience outweighed the possibility that I'd never need the surgery.

And now I'm done with process. I'll be back on the golf course again in a few weeks perfecting my mediocre swing. That too will be painful.