Advice please on forthcoming operation

[Carolyne]

My husband is 46 and we live in UK.  He is having a knee re-alignment operation on 16th Dec (with the other knee due to be done early in the Spring). He is having a full plaster cast after the operation.
Any advice/help gratefully received from anyone who has had similar. Would especially like contact with any others who are in UK and have had both knees done.
Carolyne

[KJ]

?Is he having a tibial osteotomy? This is something done if you have relatively bow legs, medial arthritis and you are too young to have a knee replacement

I'm 44 also in the UK and an osteotomy has been proposed for my problem of articular cartilage damage and instability (depending on my alignment.)
I was just about to post asking for peoples experience of HTO.
I know it is quite a major procedure and needs a long time of only partial weight bearing in order to let the bone heal. I gather that it can take up to a year before the knee pain settles (unlike a knee replacement where pain relief occurs more quickly after the op)

What's the situation with your husband and what exactly is he having done? (BTW - where do you live?)
KJ

[Carolyne]

to KJ
Yes I think it is a tibial O. He has got bow legs.  I'm afraid we haven't asked an awful lot of questions - all we know is he could be up to 6 weeks in plaster.  The surgeon is saying plastercast rather than a knee brace to make sure my husband does not do too much too soon (he is a dairy farmer and will be desparate to get back working - he is going to be a terrible patient!). We live in Wiltshire.  Have you found any written information about this particular operation that explains it all, especially what you can and cannot do afterwards? An added complication is that our health insurance only covered one knee (long story!) so he is having the 'better' knee done first privately and the 'worse' knee done second on the NHS.  However this will mean all the weight being put on the bad knee following the first operation.
This is the firrst time I have used a message board!
Carolyne

[KJ]

Carolyne
I'm slightly surprised that your husband is going into plaster because most rehabilitation protocols seem to use a brace so that you can begin to flex and extend the leg for exercises from the very early days.
Being in plaster for 6 weeks can lead to quite a stiff leg and a lot of muscle wasting.
but then my main experience is with ligament operations (I'm in a neighbouring county) and I don't even know what my surgeon would do.
However it might be worth asking to check the pros and cons of brace v plaster
Are you having your op with one of the Swindon surgeons?

I have done a link below to what seems like a typical rehab protocol. Have a look and see how it compares.

http://www.cartilagedoc.org/downloads/rehabprotocols/hto.pdf

I hadn't used a message board until my injury 20 months ago but I have been an addict over this time (particularly when I was off work for months) You can get some very useful information but remember that your husband is not exactly like anyone else, so don't be too alarmed by other posts but it does put you in a better position to have an informed discussion with your surgeon (or OS as the Americans call them!)

Good luck
KJ

PS if you want to send a more private message you can send  a posting that won't show on the board.

[KJ]

Carolyne
to the left of the messages are 3 icons, the third is the "instant message" icon. click on this and you can write and send a message that will only be seen by the author of the posting

I have sent you one and you can get it by clicking on the "Hey carolyne you have 1 message" line at the top right