Come on raise the bar a bit, qualify without the heart and knee, that would be f%#^ impressive.

Sign up to addiction rehab and change your hobby, or you gonna prematurely die, if that's your wish and that's how you wanna go, don't ask do it.

You'd be able to judge for yourself had he shared the science with you. Ask him for the references and share them here. I no longer work in orthopaedics but will always be interested in the field.

Yea good point. Unfortunately the doctor giving the seminar was not my personal orthopedic doctor so it might tough to getting that data. You would think it would be published in one of the medical journals though.

Few things grind my gears more than doctors and scientists (et al) making claims and not automatically/consequentially quoting their source. It's expected from woo-peddlers and pseudo-scientists, but doctors (et al) should be held to a higher standard even in informal settings.

Thanks for all the replies. I am a bit encouraged. I am leaning toward just an occasional running, "fix." Perhaps the best plan is to remember the difference between pain and discomfort. Suffering is for winning races. If it hurts to run, don't. (Unless it is to win that last race).

If I encouraged you to run on a TKR, I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention. I sure as hell wouldn't run and risk a rev.

Rothman didn't get where he is (was, RIP) by having one and done patients. Of course they'll tell you to run on it and then point you in the direction of the revisions entrance, where they will have your quote waiting for you.


Of course you can run on it but there will more than likely be consequences.

Whilst I accede to your superior knowledge and experience with patients, my comments were not aimed directly at TKR but at knee problems generally. In my case I had my first knee arthroscopy at age 48, although I had injured it initially at age 21, and was advised by the orthopaedic surgeon not to continue running as it would only lead to an acceleration of the deterioration. I had been running all of my life since teenage years and was not prepared to sacrifice my lifestyle if I could avoid it.

As a 'rebel' I continued my triathlon career with a gradually deteriorating knee condition and finally had to give running away 20 years after the first surgery at age 68. Looking back at those 20 years I would not have missed those experiences for anything and have no regrets. I ticked every box I ever wanted and achieved results I could not have imagined back when I was age 48. I continue to swim and cycle pain free and enjoy the benefits of excellent fitness that are a legacy of the lifestyle I was not prepared to compromise when advised to do so.

If you have to ask, well, I’m sure you know the rest. It’s life.

Curious how your running has progressed? I had bilateral Total knee replacement at the same time 2/2018 at age 59. I've returned to triathlon and done a half dozen sprints, one Oly, and 3 Half IM's (including 70.3 Worlds a couple of weeks ago in Nice). I really want to do one more IM. Like you I've been fortunate to be to Kona multiple times. There are many things I want to do past triathlon, so I am very worried about pushing too much. I've been an athlete all my life, and a triathlete since the mid 1980's. It is so hard to think that I have to give it up. My running is much slower, swimming and biking are getting close to pre TKR. I run much less volume than I did. I am still trying to build more quad strength......it's a long process.

I would like to here more about your recovery and return to participating. I'm scheduled for bilateral TKA November at age 62. I'll never qualify for anything, but did get to Kona on a Legacy spot. I've also been involved in some type of sports activity since childhood. My last three IM have resulted in 2 DNFs on the run, and a DNS when I reinjured my knee 3 days prior, and could no longer spin a bike. When it became clear knee replacement was inevitable, I chose a surgeon who made returning to swim, bike, and walk/run one of our surgical goals.

I was wondering how soon after you (or others) were back swimming, then biking, walking, and finally trying to run? There is precious little information out there.

Out of curiosity, do any of the TKR experts here have a feel for where we might be in say ten years with the technology? Are big improvements on the horizon, or are the current products/procedures likely to be the same? With ACL repairs, it seems that no major breakthroughs have occurred in the past few years, other than to say, the practitioners are more experienced at the procedure.

It was a hard sell to my surgeon to return to running, but he gradually came around to supporting some running. His caution was to run with good form, mid-foot, cushioned shoes and to stay at a light body weight.

You've probably heard that you will be up walking the day of the surgery and that was true for me with a walker. It is a painful ordeal. I thought I had a high tolerance for pain, but this was really hard. I've had others who did both knees at the same time say they had little pain, but that wasn't the case for me. Rehab went pretty well at first. I was riding a bike at PT within 3 weeks and an indoor spin bike at home shortly after. I think it was about a month before I was in the water as they want to make sure the incision is fully healed. I would use a pull buoy or buoyancy shorts for a couple of months and slowly start kicking and pushing off the wall. It was btw 4 and 5 months when I started to try to run. The surgeon had said "You won't like running on the new knees". I didn't understand as how could they be worse than the pain of running on my knees. It is that they aren't your knees and it feels very foreign. Even now after running for more than a year, when I first start, it takes a couple hundred steps to figure out how to make everything work. Days that I run, my knees feel their best. I still occasionally see the PT and I am still gaining range of motion. My surgeon, after the surgery, told me that by putting off the surgery, I had limited myself in how much range I might regain. I had lost a lot of both flexion and extension prior to surgery. Good luck. I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Keep running guys...because of people like you I will remain gainfully employed. I had couple of Ironman athletes with this nothing can stop me attitude and damn the surgeon and physio advice. Both came back for revision. Your call.

While I can't speak directly for all the prosthetic manufacturers out there, I will say that a significant step change over a decade in the hardware will be biased towards durability and revision.

With that said, the non-surgical interventions to maximize preparation, recovery and return to sport pre/post TKR or Knee OA will be greatly improved over the next decade.

Cheers!

Just thought I'd update that I did Ironman Louisville a little less than two weeks ago. Unfortunately my strongest sport, the swim, was cancelled due to high levels of algae in the Ohio River. Wow, that is a hilly course. 5500 ft of climbing. My bike was about 10-15 min slower than I would have liked and the run was a run/walk. My knees weren't my limiter but the loss of leg strength from having the surgery. I've backed off of running for a bit. Working on getting both legs balanced in strength, especially quad and hamstring. My knees feel great!

I’m glad to hear of your success, and hope you continue to enjoy your new knees for years to come. Headed to the OR in 10 days. One last (slow) 15k this weekend.
Congrats again on returning to something you love.

Thank you very much! Enjoy your last 15k. Are you scheduled for TKR? Wishing you all the best. Hope it's not too cold in OR!

Left knee TKR 11/5. Right knee TKR 12/10. Approaching with apprehension. I put them off so long I have considerable loss of range of motion. Hoping to get some of that back with aggressive rehab PT, and looking forward to return to the pool, and especially biking as soon as medically cleared. We keep it cool and dry in the OR to keep the bugs down. Don't want any infections.

Sounds very familiar. I was really disappointed with my range of motion. But I am continuing to get more back, even post 1.5 years. Best of luck. If you’d like to share rehab tips, you reach me at jenn@aasa-atx.com

To OP - congratulations! That's great achievement.

To exnavydoc - you better be up and running! I need you as my Crew Chief for Ultraman Arizona in March. :)

Gonna be up but probably not running. Fortunately most of my work that weekend can be done sitting down. Can’t wait to join up with our UltraMan Ohana in Arizona.

Hey, I know a Stryker marketing manager here in Aus so I have messaged him your original question - awaiting a reply :) I’ll get back to you on this forum once I have a response

Nope, scratch that. He left that company a while ago and can’t tell me squat.
But hey, if your surgeon is happy...

I'm 17 months out from my TKR and have been 'running' since month 5. My doc is not big on me running, but he says he's seen no reports that indicate proof of increased wear caused by running. Returning to former running level is a SLOW process! My biking is back to around 90%, running 60%, running 2-3 times a week distances 4-8 miles to support my duathlon events. I also strength train 2-3 times a week which I feel is very important to work a plane other than sagittal. No set backs and looking forward to a strong 2020 season.