Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 09, 2019

Aha! I knew it! Try a stationary bike, Janis. And maybe have the Doc give you some cortisone shots. When all that fails, then get new knees (I did).

New knees are no fun. Get the bike.

Sounds like a bad trade, gotta be a better way.

Keep it up Janis and you will also need dental implants.

A preview of coming attractions?

Get a trainer you will lose weight and not your knees!

I have a knee replacement scheduled for next month and am not looking forward to it. At least I have private cover for this one. I didn’t when I had my left knee replaced in Phoenix in 2005. I woke up screaming. They kept me on morphine for 3 freaking days, didn’t bother with the leg thing (that thing that straightens and bends your knee). Oh yeah, it was between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Staff does so treat you different if you’re on welfare!

I’ve had a hip and a shoulder replaced in Australia, both times I was treated a lot better. My surgeon will be replacing the left knee someday. It turns out the butchers in Phoenix put it in 5 degrees or so off, and lied to me that nothing was wrong, for 5. Freaking. Years. My surgeon here looked at one plain x-ray and saw the problem. This is why I trust him!

Hey! Janis! Ever consider eating less and avoiding alcohol to lose weight? I realized that’s not the modern American way, but you might become a trendsetter.

Best thing is changing your diet. Eat half. Exercise is healthy, but it doesn’t actually do THAT much for weight loss. In fact, it can make you hungrier! (And please, don’t “run”. Very hard on aging knees….I used to run half marathons as “cross training” for my skating – huge mistake!. I now have two knee replacements)

Uh Oh! Janis is getting a knee replacement.

Rest days, Janis! Better yet, start lifting weights—strength training burns more fat than steady-state cardio!

Get a elliptical machine great for cardio w/o bashing the knees every step of the way.

Had both knees replaced. I just wish the @%%^%&& HMO had let me do it 5 years sooner. High school football and competitive water skiing ruin knees.

You pay when you are 60 or so for what you did to your body when you were 20.

“If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

glucosamine

Fifteen years ago I started to have problems with my knees after working in the yard. I did some online research and saw that some people were recommending fish oil. So I said what the heck and tried it. It worked for me and I felt it was better than taking lots of OTC pain killers. I was still a bit skeptical so I stopped taking the fish oil and within three days my knee pain was back. I take fish oil every day because it works for me.

I have also learned that fish oil is a blood thinner. I was told to stop taking it before a colonoscopy and when I asked why this was what I was told.

Been a runner since the mid 70s. Mostly I walk now because of calcification in.around my knees and the bone/joint doc says if I keep running I WILL have to get them replaced. Mostly walk now.

Maybe some CBD ointment will help. Also, ellyptical machines are much easier on knees.

Swim

I am scheduled to have a knee replacement Friday, and the hospital I will be going to is ultra-picky about avoiding infections. Anyone visiting a patient has to wash their hands first, and I am required to use Hibiclens during several showers before I go in. So predictably, this hospital (New England Baptist) has an extremely low infection rate. My surgeon does about 600 of these a year.

Swimming pool, Janis. You work all the muscles in your body, you work just as much but it is easier on the heart AND on the joints. There’s a moment when you have to ease up on the body (alas) as my doctor kept telling me until I sullenly surrendered and stopped going full throttle. The idea of having to replace my joints did help.

look into pharmaceuticals, better living thru chemistry

It is hard to understand why anyone would want to live to a very old age, 90 or 100, when the body is falling apart and aching at age 60. It is not going to get any better, only worse.

I guess my knees aren’t as bad as I thought. Glucosamine Chondroiton helped quite a bit but only one brand I tried worked.

my knee was hurting for years, and would lock up, especially when walking down hill. Turns out I had a torn ACL. I had to get an MRI to get it to show.

Janus, you must now accept an uncomfortable truth: Pain is the universe telling you that you are not dead, yet.

I’m on disability because I have arthritis in my back and hips (the stiff ache kind that made it hard for me to bend over, walk, etc), then a few years ago my ankles started giving me so much pain that they kept me awake at night no matter how much accetaminiphin I took. My doctor decided to x-ray my ankles to see what was wrong with them and after looking over the x-rays he “jokingly” told me that I needed new ankles because my arthritis had moved down to them.

Osteoarthritis is not a joking matter. Lower back is so messed up the surgeon said not fixable. Lidocaine patches work, somewhat.

Walking in a pool helps.

I tried swimming and it really helped with the weight but then doctor told me I had to do something weight-bearing instead, for bone health. So I quit the swimming and started walking, and the weight came back.

Around 20 years ago my mom started talking about “getting shots for her knees”. I swear that she told later on that she had to get her knees replaced as the shots were no longer working. Now- at 90 – mom is saying that she has to get the shots for her knees and apparently has never had them – if it was not that my sister agrees with her that mom never had the shots, I would think she has forgotten having them.

She was not walking for a short period for various reasons, but with help from PT she is walking with a walker – she gets tired and has to stop, but she is walking and is still sure that when she gets the shots in her knees and they no longer hurt she will be able to walk much more.