Originally Posted by
The Historian
I'm making mental notes from this thread for the day I get both knees replaced. As Peter C can attest to, objectively speaking they are junk, and have been for a long time. But as long as they function OK I'll avoid the knife.
I do have to agree, The Historian is a poster-boy for double TKRs~!
Waiting vs doing it now is sorta a double-edged sword...
The bad downside of waiting is *usually* as you get older, you do not heal as well, or as fast. That said, there are many, many possible reasons for waiting....
When overweight, waiting til you lose more weight would be good.
Technology - it's much better than 20yrs ago, that said, my own Ortho has pointed out no real advances in the last ten years.
Deciding *when* to have major joint surgery is tough, and there are many factors that come into play - health insurance - do you have it, are you about to lose it? Getting multiple things done in one years so your costs top out (thereby making anything else done that year free)
Many, many reasons - doing one knee at a time vs doing both at once - doing both at once does *NOT* double the healing months - most save roughly 4-6 months between healing, PT, and pain reduction - but, (like me) my overall health weighed against doing both at once.
I had been putting off my TKR for 20+ years - the magic 55 or older, 200lbs or lighter - failed in my case based on heart health going downhill.
In short, each person must *try* to make a 'best choice' decision, based on many variables...