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I've played soccer my whole life. About 5 months ago, I screwed up my knee. It turned out to be a loosened bi-partite patella. But when doc did the surgery, he said he saw damaged cartiledge[sp?] under the kneecap. He said there's some kind of rating scale that goes 1 - 4. He said that mine was pretty advanced for my age, and that it was in the 2 and 3 range. I don't know what any of this means. Apparently, once you get to 4, it's a case of bone-on-bone. Does this merit a total knee replacement? My understanding is that people never have total knee replacements before they are 60. I'm very worried about this. I do not want to stop playing soccer. But I don't want to mess my legs up for the rest of my life. He said it would help to strengthen my VMO, and he also performed a lateral retinacular release. I've got a good mixture of extra weight, divided between both muscle and fat , that I could lose also. If I stopped weight-liftiing for strength, and just did cardio activities, I could probably knock down to about 180 lbs. (When I hurt myself I was 200 lb. Now, 5 months later, I'm 220 b/c I decided to start lifting weights and see how big I could get before surgery.) So now I'm a week out of the bipartite patella surgery and it looks like it is healing well. But I'm very puzzled about what I should do concerning my pending arthritic life. It will be very hard for me to quit playing soccer. Should I just take as many other preventative measures as possible, and continue to play? Has anyone else dealt with this type of cartilege damage at this age? He said the rest of my joint looked good, but that underneath the kneecap, I had quite abit of damage....
HiyaI'm 43 had some cartilage removed in July as my knee kept swelling up/ becoming painful during badminton and after long walks ( original injury , slipped in the gym in 1997 and tore meniscus cartilage never got it sorted out) was told grade 4 bone on bone OS ( the worst) in the knee cap groove and one compartment by the consultant OS when he removed the torn cartilage and cleaned the knee out . I was told I would need a knee replacement, due to his report I was placed on temp restricted duties by our Occ Health at work.I'm a police officer, was scared stiff as to the prospect of drastic surgery and thought of being office based for my last years , after the operation knee felt better than before , no pain/swelling and only symptom some stiffness when going up stairs an infrequent mild ache and unable to fully straighten the leg when lying flat, go regular to the gym and have been jogging without any problems.I was referred to my forces chief medical officer ( a senior doctor) in November , and expected him to place me permanent restricted duties , he examined me for about an hour and studied my X-rays and scope pictures, he explained in plain English my consultants post operation report and whilst I have grade 4 it is only in patches where the cartilage missing , the exposed parts are not onto each other and not likely to meet for years to come, he put me back to full duties as normal activity will not make it any worse. Many do need a knee replacement before aged 60 but their symptoms quite severe and if you look at their surgery/injury history you see many have sustained serious knee injuries rather than just OA discovered after cartilage removal or other minor repair surgeryI suggest if you can, you obtain your X-rays/scans and would appear even if diagnosed as grade 4 doesn't mean you will be in need of a knee replacement or be incapacitated in the short term and what with advances in replacement cartilage likely that you might not need one at all. It is worth getting someone to sit down with you and explain what it all means in real terms Also remember that by reading some of the posts from the good people on here you try to fit their symptoms and outcome to yours which in my case ended up making me more apprehensive and the worry / not knowing was causing me more problems than the knee, everyone is different and someones grade 1 with their associated problems might be more debilitating than my grade 4, the CMO told me that loads he has examined have had grade 4 some for many years with only mild-moderate symptoms of OAI was advised to lose a couple of stone and to avoid impact sports but was told that exercise/sport the best thing I could do to build up my quads. Regarding your weight you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise that if you are obese or seriously overweight you are putting more load on your knees and your symptoms as well as your general health likely to be bad, those who say otherwise just fooling only themselves Will I need a knee replacement in the future? , who knows but now not worrying about it , looking forward to playing badminton next year
