philo wrote:
On 01/03/2014 10:56 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:


From the time I first had minor knee problems until the time I
needed to get them replaced was more than 20 years. I hope it's
only now that your problems are beginning.

The 10-15 years that I jogged is probably what did me in.

I've done very little jogging and that was 40 years ago. I've had
arthritis for at least five years and getting wore, but I think a
long way off to replacement. My doc suggested seeing the Ortho guy
for possible gel shots.

Prior to getting my knees replaced I tried all other alternatives.

The Synvisc shots helped a bit and I probably could have gotten by if
I was not still working. I was a service engineer and the equipment I
had to work on required me to kneel or to climb most of the time.

They were very expensive and though I had insurance, for me they were
not worth it. If your insurance covers it ...it could help.

In my situation I had one knee with about 60% cartilage loss and the
other with about 75% loss.


I also got Cortisone shots and they worked even better, but that was
only a temporary solution as there is a limit to how many one can
have.

For the most part, I was OK with just taking aspirin or Tylenol ...but
obviously I did not want to be on that for the rest of my life.


One other thing I did was to take a vegetable extract supplement
called Greek Island. I assumed it to be a scam but I was willing to
try anything...and it actually helped a lot and bought me one full
year.

Those glucosamine & chondroitin
capsules did absolutely nothing.

Did you try stem cell therapy? A friend of mine had very good results on her
seriously trashed knee meniscus. She's back to playing (senior)volleyball with
no pain.
http://www.regenexx.com/2010/09/dr-c...e-orthopedics/

Unfortunately, insurance doesn't usually cover this.
Peiople that haven't yet had replacement surgery might want to research this
possibility.