Osteoarthritis Hips Knees Wrists & just broke me leg!

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viewmaster
viewmaster Member Posts: 31
edited 29. Jul 2013, 04:23 in Benefits and Working Matters archive
I am 50 year old male with bad osteoarthritis, I had my left hip resurfaced 10 years ago & my right hip resurfaced 9 years ago, operation had complcations & gave me dropped foot with no skin sensation to the outside of my leg below my knee.
My knees needed doing at the same time but am considered to young, pain now in my left knee is extremely bad & 2 months ago I had othroscopic surgerey to delay knee replacement.
Since then I can hardly walk on it & was sent for a steroid injection Friday, Saturday morning I started to slowly wash the bonnet of ny car when I felt & heard a crack from my left knee, could not move or put any weight on it.
Off to hospital who confirmed I had split my tibia & a bit more had broken off, so my left leg has been but in a half plaster cast due to the knee sweeling up, have an appointment with my surgeon to review my knee before it is fully plastered.
Now I feel that if my knee had been replaced this could not have happened, I have had to go from being an active mechanical fitter to working in an office due to my mobility since my hips were done & getting dropped foot.
I am hopeful that being almost unable to move around at all now as I am on crutches & will not be able to weight bear on my left leg until after my leg is out of plaster & having dropped foot on my right side, that my surgeon will consider me to be a more urgent case & arrange to have my left knee replaced
I will never be able to walk any distance or without a stick & will be applying for a blue badge, surely it cannot be right to keep me having to suffer living like this as with my leftknee replaced I will at least still be able to continue to work.
I cannot sit for more than half an hour without needing to adgust

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  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,710
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hello and welcome to the forum.

    Life has not treated you kindly, viewmaster, and it is to your credit that you are determined to carry on working. I certainly think you should apply for a Blue Badge. They do make life easier.

    As for new joints – who knows? If you read, and post, on the Living With Arthritis section, you'll find there are a lot of people on these forums waiting and hoping usually, like you, because they are 'too young'. I am in the fortunate position of having two 'new' hip and two 'new' knee joints but my osteoarthritis was a result of many years of rheumatoid.

    I don't think anyone can say what might or might not have happened if you'd been given a TKR. Certainly there'd have been problems if your tibia had split during the op. It all seems very unfortunate. When do you next see your orthopaedic surgeon? I think some clarification from him on what is happening in there and future implications would be a good idea.

    By the way, I've always understood that one should rest for 48 hours after a steroid jab to enable the injection to do its work where needed rather than disperse through the body. I doubt cleaning the car would have caused your problems but maybe worth bearing in mind for next time.
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
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