What would you do !

[Stevie Boy]

Here we have it, ref: knee surgery, most of my knee was grade 3 with large areas of grade 4, the surgeon has carried out maximum surgery possible with out knee replacement, debridlement plus microfracture after polishing out the piting in the tibia, menicus clean up for the third time, and shaving of the tibia to give clearance so that it won,t catch, the surgery could last a year or seven years before knee replacement, which is inevitable as I have degenerative disease in the knee.

The knee has responded well after surgery and is not reactive, I asked the specialist will I ski again and he replied "yes" followed by

"should you ski on that knee, NO !" further comment " If I was you would I ski on that knee, dam right I would, I didn't spend 1 1/2 hours on your knee for you not to ski" once it gives up then we have to revisit it, and go from there, go enjoy yourself.

What would you guys do, is it foolish to carry on, I,m going to have an artificial knee at some point.

Whats your thoughts ?

[Chef23]

Ski.

[jimbrake]

Damn right ski. Don't know how old you are, but I'm probably a few decades ahead of you in the knee injury department. Completely tore my right knee apart jumping (crashing actually) in '80 at 23, then did another ligament injury to it (um, jumping) in '82, then a snow ski fall cartilage tear in '84, then another in the early '90s. Three surgeries on that knee and I never stopped water or snow skiing except for surgery and rehab. I will get a new knee in about 5 to 10 years. They won't do one on me, yet. I've asked a couple of times.

 

Do whatever you have to to manage your knee. Strengthen the quads and hams, brace, ice, anti-inflam, rest, etc. Just go.

[Razorskier1]

I would ski. At some point we will all have to give up activities due to physical limitations. My goal is to put that point off as long as I can. I say ski. I know several people still skiing with knee replacements. Someday when they tip me over in my grave, I don't want anyone thinking that I wasn't completely used up!

[Not_The_Pug]

You should ski! Do what you enjoy. I have a rule about injuries, if it hurts (bad, not just normal aches/pains) stop doing that, otherwise go for it. Just make sure you take care of it with other activities. I broke my shoulder last spring and wasn't able to ski for 5 weeks. When I went to the doctor to have the break checked, he said it looked good, but let it rest for another 6 weeks. I told him not going to happen. I went skiing the next weekend. I took it easy at first until I was able to build up strength.

 

Kevin

[The_MS]

Go back and read the WSM article where they interviewed Cory Piercy. He was in Iraq at the time and all he could think about was skiing. He said that you should ski at any time you have the opertunity as long as you have air in your lungs. It could all end tomorrow. Ski til you drop.

[ForrestGump]

Very few doctors, for liability issues, would tell you to ski after a knee surgery. We're fortunate in Houston to have one of the best knee surgeons in the country, who is also a skier. He will tell you how it is. Skiers are the typically the type of people who will do something active. So even if you don't ski, chances are you'll be doing something with a greater chance of knee injury as skiing because you won't want to just sit and veg out all the time. In your case, slalom is far less impactful on the knee joint than let's say jumping. So I say get the knee healthy and strong again, and go turn some buoys. My knee is very similar to yours, only less severe. I had grade 2 lesions with one grade 3 area. I found that due to the discomfort I'd had for the last year or two, the muscles around that knee had weakened drastically. My upper quad still had power, but the muscles around the knee that provide stability were flimsy. I'm guessing you're the same way. Do everything they tell you at rehab to build those muscles back up and you'll be fine. And if you get five years of skiing out of it before needing further work, then so be it. At least it'll be five years of skiing and not five years of sitting on the couch with your thumb up your butt.

[MrJones]

I saw this quote a couple of years ago. Wish I could remember it exactly, but this is pretty close.

 

"The object of life is not to die in as healthy a state as possible. I plan to skid sideways into the grave with an empty tank of gas, smoking engine, and four bald tires..."

 

I agree. Several family members and acquaintances suggested that I should stop after having back surgery. No way.

[teammalibu]

What Jones said

[skibug]

Ski!!!...quoting words from the late Walter Payton..."Tomorrow is promised to no one"

[Stevie Boy]

Thanks for your comments Guy,s, I,m just getting stick from family and relatives, that do not understand the hook, that goes with waterskiing, it,s not that I am a great skier but it,s what I do, my social life revolves around it as well, apart from computing in the winter months, I did look at microlights but I don't really see the challenge, it's got to hurt a lot more than waterskiing if you get it wrong LOL !

[Taelan28]

Your knee is degenerative, ski anyways, but try to maximize your time on it.

 

What prevents you from skiing on a new knee? Dont new joints work wonderfully?

[Razorskier1]

My brother is a physician with many elderly patients. His comment to me was that shit wears out when you get old whether you used it hard or not. So if you're going to be old with arthritic, painful joints anyway, why not have fun along the way?

[Chef23]

After my back surgery (which was pretty trivial for back surgery) my neurosurgeon said I would never tell you you can't do something. Do the PT listen to your body and ski.

[Marco]

I'd defiinately keep skiing. If I had listened to my doctors, I would have had to give up skiing the same year we built our lake.

[Dusty]

Ski- I wont tell you the replacement will be fun- it's not. But you can ski after that too. My surgeon said it best- "your recovery, rehab and capabilities will be limited by several things- one of them is your pain threshhold". I wager you've been experiencing a significant level of pain and its managment for a while. You know what you can stand and still manage to keep doing what you like. I think you should manage the risks as well as you can but go for it!