Holed up in the Bus.

[ozfueler]

Since retiring we have been fortunate to have travelled for the last 2 years and have had a ball, meeting some wonderful people and making new friends all over the country , but now after 15,000 +K's. we are parked at our Daughters house in Melbourne and are currently holed up in the bus

Why you ask? Bloody good question, I'm convinced that old age is a bastard! Whilst we were away I started to fall flat on my face, back, arms etc. all over Queensland, N.S.W, and Victoria. Both of my knees decided that they would randomly go on strike and would collapse whenever they felt like it. So now it's back home to find out exactly what is going on

Well, after a lot of MRI's, X-rays and full body scans my Orthopaedic surgeon has advised that my left knee is knackered and needs to be urgently replaced, he than advised that the right knee is not a lot better and if all goes well with the first surgery he will look at replacing it in a few months time, he finished by saying after that we may have to have a good look at how my left hip is going-or not going it seems

As you can imagine this has come as a bit of a shock, somewhere along the road we must have run over a lot of Dot's chinamen, thankfully we have rented our house out so we do have a home to return to, but it is hard to imagine what it would be like to go through this without a 'home base' somewhere

It looks like the Denning will have a bit of a rest for the next few months or so, but we are convinced we will be back on the road as soon as we can be, after all there is so much to see and do in our beautiful country and not enough time to see it all, but we're gunna give it a bloody good try

Lorraine and Steve...

[Dot]

You will be better off getting rid of those craggy old knees as soon as you can, You will be dam sad and sorry for yourself for a few mths but that will pass and there will be no stopping you two once again, by that time those chinamen will not be a problem any more because the mob here are giving them a good running over. Just think of your forced lay up as a blessing for some service stations etc. We will be going to that Shell service station tomorrow arvo, I shall pass on your best wishes and let them know they have no need to worry for a while.

[Swisslulu]

That's bad luck, you two. Hope all goes well and you are back doing what you love at the earliest opportunity.

[BruceS]

What a bummer Steve (& Lorraine).........
Let's hope it all goes well.
Steve I'm presuming you are on private health & your man is a really good one ............ if not there's a damn good one in Adelaide that does the majority of footballers & basketballers etc that wreck their knees, hips, elbows and other bits.
He did my mother's hip when she was about 86 & had her up walking in a few days....
I agree about the old age bit & have decided I'd not go down that path any more ............... till some irresponsible people went & dished out another birthday further down on this forum!!! How can I stop having them?... bugger isn't it?
All the best & keep in contact! (remember your password!!!!

[T1 Terry]

Find a good physio and do all the exercises to strengthen the knee muscles before they do the replacement, that will make it a much faster recovery. They won't do my left knee yet because I'm not old enough apparently, they like the replacement to last the rest of your life so having a few extra km on the clock isn't all bad. when I started the second lot of physio after my knee op, there was a fella in his early 60's who had put off having his knee done, then went on a world trip thinking this was the end of being able to do anything much. Within a week he had movement back in a knee that hadn't functioned for more than 3 yrs, by the second week he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been putting off getting it done, he would have enjoyed his travels much more the way his knee was after the replacement. By the 3rd week his old boss had asked him to come back on the ships to resume his job as a maintenance engineer, he had that much stability now with the replacement knee and could climb up and down the 6 flights of narrow stair between the top and bottom levels of the ships engine. When he finished physio after the third week he had to keep waiting for me as we walked up the hill to the coffee shop, I couldn't keep up with him and I'd only had an arthroscope, not a full replacement.

[Peter]

My wife has had both knees done this year one in May the other in September. It is really 12 months out of your life from the time of first seeing the specialist and recovering from the second operation. One down side to consider that you will have ongoing difficulty in kneeling. So might be a good idea to practice changing a wheel before the operation without kneeling figure out between both of you who does what so there is a plan into the future. Those Denning wheels are large considered to some of the smaller motorhomes.

Recovery is an ongoing process keeping active is the secret.

All the very best and you do have something to look forward to . A lot less pain .

[Dot]

Steve kneeling he has done that only but once and Lorraine said NO

[GregnDee]

Dot! Just think of your forced lay up as a blessing for some service stations etc. We will be going to that Shell service station tomorrow arvo, I shall pass on your best wishes and let them know they have no need to worry for a while. Quote from Dots message!

Greg says...you are as subtle as a sledgehammer!

[ozfueler]

Thanks everyone for your positive responses, even those from 'the sledgehammer', which is a very apt description Greg, thankfully I have a good surgeon Bruce, he does most of the footballers etc over here and has 'worked' on me before. Have already started some physio Terry and it really hurts now, 'can't wait' to see what it's going to be like after the operation, I made the mistake of 'googling' it and now wish I hadn't.

You're right about the age thing Terry, I'm early 60's and have had previous arthroscope procedures where I was told the same thing, they like them to last for the rest of your life and reckon you should get around 12- 15 years out of a replacement joint, so it looks like they think I'm going to 'kark it' in my late 70's, something to look forward too!

The personal experiences about the positive outcomes was also great to hear, especially after the google incident, can't say I'm looking forward to the next 12 months or so, but an increase in mobility and a decrease in the constant pain will be worth it all (I hope).

Steve...

[Dot]

just remember who I threatened you with?