MP,
You bring up a point that many people overlook and that is the side effects of taking medicine.

Everything you take, especially artificial medicines have a side effect. Some minor and some not so much.

There is a reason they print those "possible" side effects in lettering you need a magnifying class to read and most people don't bother too.

  Often the "cure" has worse long-term effects than the initial problem.

  One of the great things about GOOGLE is you can by-pass the doctors who may or may not be driven by what's best for you and get info about ANYTHING on-line.

I've been lucky and with some effort on my part, I don't take ANY prescription medicine and have zero physical/joint ailments.

Most people I know are not so lucky. I have friends and family that are on the prescription medicine/surgery lotto wheel and it seems like they get one problem medicated/surgery and another one pops up to take its place.

I advise everyone before they start a prescription drug ( long term especially or have elective surgery) to GOOGLE the NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS and long-term outcomes compared to NOT taking prescription meds/surgery compared to alternative ones.

Often, more than people know the difference is very small. If you factor in the quality of life, sometimes depending on the individual it's not worth it.

Not knocking prescription medicine/surgery, just saying KNOW the NEGATIVE side of them so you can ask your Doctor the RIGHT questions before you start down that road.

I guess I'm becoming more of an expert on the subject than I ever wanted to but...

Just finished my first trip in 3 years a couple days ago and did so with one new knee (replaced in February) and one knee that's scheduled for replacement 1 month from today. Might as well send the original equipment out in a blaze of glory, amirite?

Once you hit bone on bone, all the non-traditional treatments are going to fail to provide long-term relief. I know; I tried.  Over the past 3 years my weight has ballooned by 30 lbs. Most of it is due to exercise simply being too painful to do on a regular basis. 1 session of moderate exercise (on an elliptical, no less) followed by 3+ days of pain. I won't lay *all* the blame on my knee...life got pretty busy too, but weight gain plus arthritic knees is a pretty crappy combo platter.

I've taken off a few pounds now that one knee works well. I'm eager for the 2nd surgery and the rehab is not overly difficult to accomplish. I feel I can start getting back down to a much better weight as soon as I get a couple months past the 2nd knee replacement. At least I'll know that if I don't, it's my fault and not my knees fault.

My replaced knee passed the canoe trip test with flying colors.  It really felt good the entire time, no matter the load or the stress.  The other knee is still attached to my body which is about the nicest thing I can say about it.

I'll echo what others have said:  I found myself wasting 3 years of my life by trying to avoid what needed to be done and I was in nearly constant pain and it severely limited my activity level. I'm much happier since I got on a plan to fix the problem and my appetite for physical activity is returning. I'm eager to be able to go full-bore once again in just a couple months and I regret having stalled on getting the problem fixed.

this is a good thread. i've have had reoccurring issues with L5-L6/hip pain down thru the years and esp lately. without regular stretching i'm toast and an inversion table also has helped.
by all appearances my new-ish granite gear pack is nearly identical to my old superior one packs but the gg isn't nearly as comfortable. cinching the load lifters on the superior one seems to help a lot.

My Dad had a total knee about 2 years ago. He checked with all his buddies that had the surgery as he knew a few did not do that well...although all said they were better. The one's that didn't have as good of an outcome stressed doing the PT and to take it seriously unlike what they did, a few months of work results in the rest of a lifetime of a better knee. So he hit the rehab running, he was walking normal at 2 weeks and could hike 4 miles at a fast pace within a year.

I just went fishing with him and he was squatting and kneeling in the boat with no pain. He moves like he is 15 years younger. His only regret is he thinks he waited 3 years too many---should have done it sooner.

He worked extremely hard and I think he had some luck as he didn't really have much swelling so not everyone will have that fast of a result. He does need to do light exercise daily like walking or squats or else the knee stiffens up but before surgery he couldn't even do those things so that is a positive in his book.

Before my Dad did the surgery I looked at the statistics and they continue to improve. 95% of patients in the US are satisfied with their result, of course that means nothing to you if you are in the 5% but I'd take those odds especially if nothing else is working.