Anyone Here Have Knee Problems? Need Some Advice

[DFW]

17. I went through this at age 33. Do NOT do the Cortizone injections!

I was neither overweight nor diabetic, but one of my knees started swelling up and got painful to move.

I went to an orthopedic hospital here in Germany. The "specialist" told me I'd nee a series of cortizone injections. They were painful and did absolutely NOTHING.

I then went home and saw a Dallas specialist who was the consulting knee physician for the Dallas Cowboys and a pioneer of a procedure called arthroscopy. It's now pretty much standard, but was then considered exotic. When I first saw him, his first question was if I had already seen someone about my condition. I said, yes, in Germany. He said, "Germany? Oh, no! Let me guess, they gave a series of totally useless cortizone injections, right?" Apparently this is what knee "specialists" recommend when they have no idea how to treat someone. Don't let yourself get talked into that. I had arthropscopy on both knees, one in 1985, one in 1999. Completely mobile since then.

There is no alternative to her losing weight. This will HAVE to happen. At her age, I think knee replacement is the best option. Arthroscopy is usually a temporary treatment of a degenerative knee cartilage condition, and often (though not always) has to be repeated after a while. Knee replacement, too, but usually after decades, and your mom probably won't have to worry about that.