Mother

My Mother has gone through some recent tough times with severe arthritis in her right knee. The specialist initially thought it was just tendonitis (extremely painful but should heal by itself) but they did a CT scan and this showed she also had the arthritis. Turns out she’s somewhat bow-legged and this has caused the arthritis to be much more severe than usual. The orthopod said that she’d need to have knee replacements (probably in both knees) in a year or so, but that she should try and hold off as long as possible. She’s struggled with a great deal of pain in that knee, however, and recently asked her doctor why she had to wait so long for a replacement if they already know that it’ll have to be done. Her doctor explained that knee replacement joints usually only last ten years so they try to put off doing it for as long as possible to avoid having to do it more than once.

I think it’s harder for Mother to except this because she’s already had one joint replacement when she fractured her elbow more than fifteen years ago. She’s had almost no problems with that elbow since so it makes it harder to accept that she’d have problems with the knee. I think, in some ways, that it would be better for her to have the surgery now when she’s relatively healthy, but it’s not my choice to make, obviously. Please pray for her.