Knee replacement

[skimore1]

Any body rockin a knee replacement? I know a few folks that had them and still ski quite well. Any medical folk out there have an opinion? Or any one who has had one? Thoughts?

 

[Brian Finch]

I’ve rehabbed more than a few 100 day skiers- they’re getting so good. What are your concerns?

 

[Tricia]

There are several members who have had knee replacement. @Bob Peters had a double knee replacement a few years ago.
Hopefully they will chime in.

 

[Steve Johnson]

One of the big issues is that with age (after 28 years old) your body produces less systemic enzymes that "eat" the scar tissue and inflammation. The Germans in the 40s pioneered the technology to create super athletes and soldiers. Then Dr. Wong worked for a company and broke off and created his own that survive your stomach acid called Zymessence.

There's also a patented substance called biocell collagen that is licensed to a bunch of products, I get the one on Amazon, it really helps with the joints.

Originally this product Joi was created for joints but is sold as an herbal mood enhancer, but it actually works. Found on Google, these Sunrider products. It's a pain to buy from the company they make you jump through a bunch of hoops. https://herbalwholefoods.com/product/joi-100-capsules-bottle/

 

[skimore1]

I’ve rehabbed more than a few 100 day skiers- they’re getting so good. What are your concerns?

Just had it done yesterday 8/8/2019 best way to rehab for a skier?

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Your surgeon should prescribe rehab for you. You should try to find a therapist familiar with skiing. There should be somebody in Grand Rapids.

 

[Jenny]

Mine was ankle, not knee, and I do my therapy at the Spartan Y, which at the time had Mary Free Bed therapists there. I was very happy with the two therapists I saw, although neither of them was a skier. One ran marathons and such, the other was also an athletic trainer. They were the location for the Griffins, and someone else, too - Whitecaps, maybe?

Right at the end of last year they changed some things there, but I think the guys I saw are still at that location. I would also check the Mary Free Bed Y, as I think they have PT there, too.

There’s a thread on here that I started about choosing a PT that got helpful responses.

Also, my friends that had knee replacements two years ago went to the Hulst Jensen location in Rockford (they live up on the north side) and were very happy. One of the therapists up there had all the letters after their name that @Brian Finch mentioned in answering my PT questions, but it’s kind of a drive from here in Caledonia.

 

[Fishbowl]

I’ve seen countless patients both pre and post op for a variety of ortho procedures. In my personal experience, TKR patients have by far the most positive outcomes. In fact, most wonder why they waited so long to get it done. Completely unscientific opinion based off personal experience

 

[pud]

I had both knees replaced two years ago. This season I skied 32 days. They get a little sore after skiing, but during skiing I have no pain and continue to experience improved mobility and strength.

 

[Zoni Skier]

I am 66 yrs. old & I recently had a total left knee replacement in June 2019. I am fit & and in good health. My healing has progressed nicely but it took a lot of PT and rehab exercises to get my range of motion to 122 degrees. Based on my progress so far, I am hoping that I will be able to strap on my boards again in January, Not sure yet if I am being overly optimistic.

Although I was an advanced intermediate skier, my strategy now is to start out slowly staring with the Green slopes, and once I feel confident enough with the knee I will advance to the Blue intermediate slopes.

My best case is just to cruise groomed intermediate slopes straight down the fall line. Prudence would mandate that I avoid moguls & black diamond slopes. I am 6'5" 255lbs, so if I crash and burn, I could do some real damage.

The key is to ski under control at all times and to eliminate obstacles that might circumvent that.

My question is what do I need to do equipment-wise to help facilitate control.

I used to ski with 205 length skis (Pre-parabolic). When I went to Parabolics, I think that I was able to drop down to 195's. Should I
drop down to an even smaller Parabolic ski like185 to gain better control?

Binding settings are also a big question, where is the happy medium between to tight and too loose when you have a titanium knee?
If set incorrectly at either end of the spectrum, a fall could occur that might cause further knee damage.

Advice from those of you that have been down this road before would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Zoni Skier

 

[KingGrump]

My question is what do I need to do equipment-wise to help facilitate control.

IMO, improved technique and tactic are more productive than equipment changes when seeking control.

 

[Pequenita]

I used to ski with 205 length skis (Pre-parabolic). When I went to Parabolics, I think that I was able to drop down to 195's. Should I drop down to an even smaller Parabolic ski like185 to gain better control?

The more relevant questions are what length were you skiing the last season you skied and how long ago was that. Even shaped skis have changed a lot in the last 20 years.

 

[pud]

Sounds like you're progressing nicely with your recovery. Keep working on the range of motion, You will need to demo some new skis to find out what you will be the most comfortable on. With your size I think an all-mountain ski around 188 cm long and +/- 90 mm wide will be a good place to start.

 

[Big J]

I had both knees replaced two years ago. This season I skied 32 days. They get a little sore after skiing, but during skiing I have no pain and continue to experience improved mobility and strength.

32 days is impressive for a season after TKR.
I am bone on bone on my right knee and not so good on my left. Had meniscus surgery on both. My right was done last week. Ortho says I will need a knee replacement but cannot give a time frame other than a guess. I am 62 and an expert level skier that skis perhaps 15 times a year and would like to ski more. I am now mainly a cruiser and fall a couple of times a year with no major crashes. I would like to know what your range of motion was before and after replacement. What were/are the negatives after replacement that you experienced? How long did it take until you could ski again? Did you have both done at the same time? I see no other good therapy for this problem at this time except for a total knee replacement. Thanks for the answers. Jerry

 

[pud]

Range of motion improved after TKR. I'm 130-132 now and was around 120-125 before. Only real negative is the recovery period can be tough, but you just plow through it and will enjoy the progress and improvement. I had mine done 6 weeks apart and wish I had waited atleast 12 weeks to allow the first one to heal more. It took about a year before I could ski and play tennis full speed. You'll know when it's time to replace the first knee when you can't ski anymore and the bone on bone pain messes with your quality of life. Good luck.

 

[Big J]

Range of motion improved after TKR. I'm 130-132 now and was around 120-125 before. Only real negative is the recovery period can be tough, but you just plow through it and will enjoy the progress and improvement. I had mine done 6 weeks apart and wish I had waited atleast 12 weeks to allow the first one to heal more. It took about a year before I could ski and play tennis full speed. You'll know when it's time to replace the first knee when you can't ski anymore and the bone on bone pain messes with your quality of life. Good luck.

Thanks for all of the information. Best of luck to you also.

 

[martyg]

I am 66 yrs. old & I recently had a total left knee replacement in June 2019. I am fit & and in good health. My healing has progressed nicely but it took a lot of PT and rehab exercises to get my range of motion to 122 degrees. Based on my progress so far, I am hoping that I will be able to strap on my boards again in January, Not sure yet if I am being overly optimistic.

Although I was an advanced intermediate skier, my strategy now is to start out slowly staring with the Green slopes, and once I feel confident enough with the knee I will advance to the Blue intermediate slopes.

My best case is just to cruise groomed intermediate slopes straight down the fall line. Prudence would mandate that I avoid moguls & black diamond slopes. I am 6'5" 255lbs, so if I crash and burn, I could do some real damage.

The key is to ski under control at all times and to eliminate obstacles that might circumvent that.

My question is what do I need to do equipment-wise to help facilitate control.

I used to ski with 205 length skis (Pre-parabolic). When I went to Parabolics, I think that I was able to drop down to 195's. Should I
drop down to an even smaller Parabolic ski like185 to gain better control?

Binding settings are also a big question, where is the happy medium between to tight and too loose when you have a titanium knee?
If set incorrectly at either end of the spectrum, a fall could occur that might cause further knee damage.

Advice from those of you that have been down this road before would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Zoni Skier

Zoni -

Check out this article on FMS eval and skiing. FMS has profound impacts on all aspect of sports, and if I were king (or I believe the phrase this week is "The Chosen One") FMS would start with high school athletes.

https://point6.com/blogs/news/dryla...lace-where-you-don-t-know-what-you-don-t-know

In the article, Anne Healzer is referenced. She is a PhD level PT, and a PSIA L3. That combination is super potent, and she can work remotely. I've sent a few from this board to her, and all have been super pleased. With Anne, she will essentially help you learn to move efficiently on your skis, before snow hits. My core issue took three years to work through and I am skiing 100+ days per year, and working at it on the off season. Best of all, those drills that Anne will prescribe will make you more durable, your back will hurt less, that pain in your shoulder might go away, etc. She will eliminate imbalances / limiters that you don't even know that you have.

For perspective, this is a comment that I received from another PSIA instructor who read the article. Note her comment about not even realizing that you are compensating:

"So exciting! I was introduced to Gray Cook's Functional Movement at a ProJam several years ago. I have the books, study like mad, and for 2 years (leading up to my partial knee replacement last summer) I worked with a physical therapist who is an advanced certified FM therapist. The result of that work was that for the first time in about 30 years I was able to stand equally balanced on both feet. You cannot tell what is really going on in your body because your body compensates for everything. I have had incredible boot work in the past, compensating for the compensation that my body made to things that had happened when I had a tumor within my spinal column! Through FM I am finally training my body to work correctly. Too late to get my Level III, but there is some comfort in knowing it truly was not my fault that I could not do certain tasks. Even better, last year I wore a pair of boots 'out of the box.' Got new footbeds to keep me from sliding forward and accommodate my fused toe, but nothing else! Finding a therapist or personal trainer who really uses FM (the words are all the rage in gyms and pt clinics but not followed by the majority) is not easy but well worth the effort."

Notes on skis: Shorter skis will provide better edge engagement. I wouldn't go much beyond 80 underfoot. Check out the body of work by John Seifert at University of Montana. He gave an excellent prezo at PSIA National Academy last year on his work and findings. That was recorded, and lives out there somewhere - maybe YouTube.

Also, being in AZ, hit me up if you come up to Purg. I teach elsewhere during Holiday periods, but live in Durango. My deal is all about efficiencies - helping skiers ski more efficiently - using far less energy to do the same thing than before. In my book, an efficient skier is a good skier. I'd be happy to work with you for a morning.

Enjoy.

 

[François Pugh]

One of the big issues is that with age (after 28 years old) your body produces less systemic enzymes that "eat" the scar tissue and inflammation. The Germans in the 40s pioneered the technology to create super athletes and soldiers. Then Dr. Wong worked for a company and broke off and created his own that survive your stomach acid called Zymessence.

There's also a patented substance called biocell collagen that is licensed to a bunch of products, I get the one on Amazon, it really helps with the joints.

Originally this product Joi was created for joints but is sold as an herbal mood enhancer, but it actually works. Found on Google, these Sunrider products. It's a pain to buy from the company they make you jump through a bunch of hoops. https://herbalwholefoods.com/product/joi-100-capsules-bottle/

Regarding JOI, I just got a bottle (from a supplier I know) to help me deal with a hip injury that was healing fine, but started going bad a couple of months ago. (also made arrangements to get a family doctor). I first encountered it a couple of decades ago when my parents insisted on buying me a whole bunch of Sunrider products while I was recovering from a minor motorcycle crash.

Could be the placebo effect, but it seems to work. I usually need to take some for my knees after 4 days on a canoe trip with heavy portaging. The minor immediate pain relief (not as strong an effect as say 500 mg ASA) is likely due to the white willow bark (from which ASA can be derived), but imho, it's more of a food supplement, supplying what the body needs including about half a dozen other medicinal herbs(e.g Wu Jia, mint, Chuan Xiong Angelica Root, Quianhu and Shan Zha. Sunrider used to promote a system, with JOI being for the musculo-skeleton system, something else for the respiratory system, circulatory system, etc. Now it's a mood drug? I guess they will do whatever it takes to allow it to be sold. IIRC they had one product that was a stimulant if taken orally, but officially it was make-up.

 

[Lunch]

My wife has had both knees and both hips replaced in the last 17 years. She still skis 40 to 50 days a year, half in the UP of Michigan, the balance at Breckinridge. It took at lot of work with the PT people that understood she wanted to ski. She sticks to groomed slopes now, but green, blue, black, it doesn’t matter. You can make it back.

Ps- she turned 75 this year, she’s one tough woman.

 

[jbski]

Had TKR on right knee February 7, 2018. I was 59 at the time. First two weeks post-op were rough, but then improved quickly after that. Surfed at 6 1/2 weeks (which sounds early, but was at a nice mellow point and you're not connected to your board, so...), began water skiing in the slalom course at 12 weeks, and got back on snow around Thanksgiving that year. New knee was fantastic right away and still is. I ski hard on a tough hill (Squaw Valley) with skiers that push me. Feels like I'm back in my 30s again.