Making decisions about knee replacement as an older person with multiple conditions
Trying to keep well and stay active with other health conditions
After deciding to have a knee replacement operation when offered by a surgeon and while waiting for a date, the people we talked to tried to keep well and stay active. People felt it was important to look after their general health while waiting for their operation by eating well and exercising.
Just walking on the level is a good thing. Staying fit generally is I think that’s ultra-important with anything - if you possibly can. And we eat excellent food, and all that sort of thing, so you know, we eat well. Look after your general health so that’s an absolute must isn’t it? And exercise if you can. And by exercise, I mean walking ideally. Yes swimming - swimming apparently is good for you. Because the water takes your weight, you know? I’ve been told to walk and you know get as fit as I possibly can, so that, you know- And because the knee isn’t very good you can sit in a chair and sort of say, “Oh I’m not doing anything cos my knee hurts.” You know that’s an extreme sort of case, but in actual fact the thing is - you should keep going. And get it toned up so that it’s, it’s as ready as it - well at 86 it’s about as good as it could be at 86 - for the op. So yes, you can’t afford to lose fitness as you get older. So not as fit as I would like to be, but very reasonably fit, and I’ve spent a couple of hours today - no three hours - pottering around on what I sometimes call my vegetable plot and sometimes call my allotment. I, in theory it’s my allotment but as it’s only about 300 yards away, it’s almost like an extension of my garden. So, it’s not, it doesn’t take much walking to that. Yes, but I’ve been able to spend two or three hours on that today, just pottering around, doing things, you know making sure that - pulling up a few weeds, getting it ready for the new season. Cos it’s a lovely thing to be doing at this time of the year when it’s spring and I feel life is be going to very soon open up again for me. So, I’m feeling very optimistic.Toby says it’s very important to look after his general health and tone up his knee through exercise while waiting for knee surgery.
Toby says it’s very important to look after his general health and tone up his knee through exercise while waiting for knee surgery.
Mary says “you can’t afford to lose fitness as you get older.” She spends a couple of hours pottering around her vegetable plot when she can.
Mary says “you can’t afford to lose fitness as you get older.” She spends a couple of hours pottering around her vegetable plot when she can.
Mahinder, Liz, Eleanor, Hermione and others explained that they exercised to strengthen the muscles around their knee. They expected that having stronger muscles would help their recovery from the operation. However, this could be challenging precisely because of the ongoing knee problems as well as other health conditions. Mary said, “I’m keeping myself as fit as I can, but keeping fit at 80 is not like keeping fit when you’re 50 or 30.”
Some people, like Eleanor, Lynda and Tina were given exercises by their healthcare team to prepare before their operation. Emily and Eleanor could do the leg exercises – which involved lifting and flexing their knee – while lying on their bed. Jan attended a physiotherapy course and walked her dog each day to keep her leg and knee muscles strong and to keep physically fit (see - Physiotherapy for knee problems).
Karen tried to get as physically fit as possible through yoga and swimming before her knee replacement surgery to benefit its chance of success and recovery. She says “you need to help yourself. It’s not a magic formula, that they can’t do everything with medicine.”
But I know I shall have to do some exercises with my knee once I’ve had the operation. There’s, with physiotherapy you know you need to work at it to get it mobile again, so I’ve begun to do some of those exercises in advance, and I’ve been practicing walking with a crutch and things like that. And I started doing a little bit of ah, oh dear I won’t say yoga, but a little bit of stretching and moving in the morning, perhaps just for ten minutes, just to make sure everything’s - yeah - to keep things flexible. Because I know I’m going to be out of action for at least a couple of weeks, aren’t I? And then I’ve got to learn to walk to gradually get off the crutches.Mary is preparing for the operation by doing some stretching exercises to keep her knee flexible and practicing walking with a crutch.
Mary is preparing for the operation by doing some stretching exercises to keep her knee flexible and practicing walking with a crutch.
For some people, being able to do exercise involved making changes to their painkillers (see - Pain relief for knees in the context of other health conditions). Ged has lower back pain and saw his GP about changing his pain relief medication so that he could keep active until he has the surgery.
Eating well and keeping a good weight was also a priority. At the surgeon’s recommendation, Linda lost a stone in weight while waiting for a date for the operation. Marjorie was aware of the extra risks associated with anaesthetic. This motived her to try to lose some weight by eating healthily, drinking more water and doing light exercise while waiting for her surgery date.
Well, we’ve - there’s only two of us so we’re actually eating lighter meals because of sitting around. I was very worried if I was sitting around all the time, I’m not using any energy at all so a bit worried. So anyway we just, we were eating, we are eating lighter meals and smaller meals. And yeah, that seems to have worked I’ve lost a stone and a half so far. So, it’s a question of, as long as it’s slow it will, you know, I don’t wanna take it off with one of these diet sheets because if you take it off, your diet is very often about as much as I eat anyway. I’ve been saying that for months before when I used to go for the diabetic review, and I said, "Well I’m not eating any different than someone on a diet." Because I’m not, so there you go. But the problem is it’s no exercise because I’m not going anywhere.Jill has managed to lose weight while waiting for surgery by eating lighter and smaller meals.
Jill has managed to lose weight while waiting for surgery by eating lighter and smaller meals.
You can read more about experiences of preparing for knee replacement surgery here.
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