OA/Fibromyalgia/High Tibial Osteotomy

JMac

I have just registered and I am looking for information on OA when you also have Fibromyalgia. I am also interested in hearing from others about their experience of having a High Tibial Osteotomy - I am on a waiting list for both legs to be done, possibly in June.

I have not yet informed my employer but I am struggling to even get into work as I can no longer walk any distance and the chronic fatigue makes it difficult to stay awake past 3pm most days.

Despite all that I am fairly okay with it all, I swim everyday in a cold water lido before work and I still cycle round and think that it could be worse, but would welcome any advice and information.

Brynmor

Hi @JMac and welcome to the Versus Arthritis Community.

We have an excellent set of pages of information on our website that are well worth taking a look at. Here is our section on Fibromyalgia which may well account for some of your chronic fatigue:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/fibromyalgia/

Regular exercise is brilliant and this can really help with any planned future surgery. I look forward to reading replies from others with personal experience.

Best wishes.

Carolyn21

Hi JMac

I had a High Tibal Osteotomy in Feb 2019. This was the chosen procedure because my consultant felt that i was too young and active for a partial knee replacement and also had no cartliedge. Clearly good research will help you understand the procedure itself. I can tell you it's a long haul for recovery at least 18 months. I'm 13 months in and can have discomfort with the brace in my tibia bone and not sure why but experience some discomfort behind the knee. I seem to hobble after rest as its get a little stiff but on the whole i'm not in the pain i was in prior to the procedure. Also i am told that further improvements come once the metal work is out.

All i can tell you is to fully prepare before the surgery making sure you are set up to have things at easy reach, you have family support and that you hire an ice compression machine from Physio-lab to support the healing process and to minimise your pain (best machine). I iced every two hours with the help of my kids bringing ice. The first two weeks are the most important in terms of help as getting about on crutches can be painful. Another important prep, if you can - build up your muscles prior because you lose so much strength. I'm still not back to full strength, despite physio, yoga and lots of dog walking.

I was also not aware of this and yet to have this discussion with my consultant , when it comes time to have a TKR it is apparently not as straight forward because of the different angles of the bone? It would be a good idea to ask your consultant about any complications in the future.

Should you have any further questions let me know happy to help. Good luck and take care. Carolyn21

JMac

Thank you for relying to my post and my apologies for not getting back sooner though looking at the dates I can see that covid hit us and everything changed.

I had a HTO in November 2020. Covid has meant that I have not seen the surgeon since and have only had a couple of video calls with a physio in the last couple of months, though I have appointments with both at the end of April.

Its is helpful to read that it is a very long recovery and I am only 4.5 months in. I am walking but slowly, with pain and a very distinct limp in fact the easiest way for me to get around is to cycle as I can't walk any useful distance. Does this sound familiar to your experience?

I am 51 and was very active and I struggle to come to terms with such reduced mobility, I had hoped this operation would give me back some of my former life but so far all it has done is cause me more pain and made walking even more difficult. I am hoping that from reading your post that I am just being impatient and that it will get better.

Any information or experience that you could share with me would be really welcome.