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Posted by Kris Krieger on March 3, 2008, 6:50 pm
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>> [snip]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Shoot, I wouldn't mind a new knee myself.
>>>>>
>>>>> There's at least 1 new knee joint in my future and possibly 2 hip
>>>>> joints.
>>>>
>>>> Ugh, my sympathies - that must make getting around really
>>>> difficult; one of my friends has arthritic hips, and it's a
>>>> struggle.
>>>
>>> Currently none of it is a major issue as long as I'm careful.
>>
>> THat's good at least.
>>
>>> I've been carrying the hip pain for more than 30 years and the knee
>>> thing is somewhat recent, about maybe 3 years now.
>>
>> THat kind of sucks. I know the thing about "soldiering through it",
>> but all in all, pain, well, sucks.
>>
>>> Its the right knee and if I bend all the way down, like into a
>>> squat, then stand up I can't put much pressure on that knee cause if
>>> I do, bang, out of joint it goes and its weird man.
>>> Call it morbid, but I ride the edge and its scary.
>>> When it pops out I have to immediately get it back in cause the pain
>>> is exponential, going from unbearable to downright murderous in
>>> about 15 seconds.
>>
>> Holy crap! I just have some arthritis. What you have sounds
>> dangerous, if it goes out when you're 40' up a ladder or something.
>>
>>> Last time it happened I was in an unusual place and could not
>>> quickly get it straightened back out cause I collapsed and landed on
>>> it with my full weight, while it was out of joint, folded under me.
>>> Jeeziss, I had to lift myself off the ground with one hand and use
>>> the other to pull the leg out straight, very difficult to do, and
>>> the whole time the pain was going through the moon.
>>> I was drenched in sweat and shaking uncontrollably and was
>>> emotionally drained, all in about 30 seconds.
>>> Like I said, scary.
>>> I've studied pictures of knee anatomu online and I think I see what
>>> the problem is but I have no idea how they would fix it.
>>> A ligament is apparently stretched and its not keeping the joint
>>> tight together.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure there are methods of dealing with that, but I
>> unfortunately don't know any of the specifics.
>>
>>>
>>>>> Not looking forward to it, even though the several people I
>>>>> know that have had it done said they wish they hadn't waited so
>>>>> long. My error was in watching the hip procedure on the Learning
>>>>> channel on a show called The Operation, a few years ago.
>>>>> It was terrifying to see that.
>>>>
>>>> Surgery is never something one should choose lightly, because there
>>>> are risks in both the surgery, and the anaesthesia - the main thing
>>>> is to go to the best surgeon possible.
>>>>
>>>> Operations can be rough to watch, because most people aren't
>>>> trained to see past the bleeding in surgery, and to realize that
>>>> there is far less in surgery than there is on injury or butchery -
>>>> surgical techniques seek to minimize blood loss.
>>>>
>>>> Once you get past that aspect, tho', the mechanics are fascinating.
>>>
>>> It was the mechanics of the thing that blew me away, the blood and
>>> guts thing doesn't bother me.
>>> Those Dr's were using tools like would be found on a workbench on
>>> that poor guy.
>>> Hammers, chisels, etc., and they were laying some serious ass itno
>>> getting the work done.
>>> Carving that old wore out socket out of the pelvis was the worst
>>> part, they literally chiseld it out like you would chisel out a
>>> lockset on a door. Man, I'm cringing just remembering it.
>>> Then when the leg was completely disassociated from the pelvis it
>>> just flopped around like an old dead thing. <shiver>
>>
>> I guess it is pretty bothersome to most people. I guess that with
>> most people, the body *is* teh self, at least to a alrge degree, but
>> to me, it's more like an often-annoying biological machine that my
>> brain rides around in.
>>
>> The reconstructive part doesn't get me too badly becasue I know that
>> it's being done to fix the problem, but the worst thing I ever saw
>> during OR rotation (yes, as bizarre as it seems, I actually tried 2
>> years of nursing school...) was an amputation, because that wasn't a
>> repair, but a removal, and this guy could neve rafford a
>> well-functioning prosthetic, meaning he'd be in a wheelschair - so
>> the situation was not good.
>
> Thats got to be one of the toughest things to deal with, amputation,
> the removal of a part of your body.
> The larger the removal, say a leg or an arm, the worse the
> psychological trauma.
I think that's why it was so hard to watch - I couldn't even begin to
know what the guy would be going through. Even when people adapt really
well to a prosthesis, there is still a definite period of loss/mourning.
Some people do adapt successfully and admirably, but that doesn't mean
it's easy for them, or something to be taken lightly.
> I've heard of phantom feelings associated with that stuff, where the
> *gone* limb continues to *feed* info to the brain.
Yes. I've forgottn the exact mechanism, but you're right about the
phenomenon. THere is what's called Phantom Pain, where poepl eexperience
bad and even excrutiating pain in the part that's gone, and it' salso
common for people to forget, esp. upon waking, that a limb is gone, so
falling is a common source of injury, because the brain still feels the
limb is intact.
> I hope I never have to deal with that.
Same here.
OTOH, there is also a psychological condition, a type of body dysphoria,
where people suffer depressiona nd so on until an offending limb or body
part is removed, after which they feel happy and fulfilled. It's easy to
dismiss it as "loonie", but the theory is that there is some sort of
functional/structural thing going on in the brain that causes it.
I also saw something about a man (I can't read as much as I used to but I
still watch too many medical shows...) who experienced excrutiating pain
in his feet to the extent that he could barely even rest his feet on the
foot-supports of a wheelchair. None of th edoctors he saw could figure
out a cause and dismissed him as "making it all up". Eventually, he got
them amputated and got prosthetics, and could walk an dget around
normally and was then completely happy.
One person's hell is another person's heaven, I guess.
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