Knee Operation - Page 2

Hi Jim , I wondered if I could speak with you if you are on Skype ?  as I have a complicated ( and a bit desperate ) situation and need a bit of advice      PS.  I'm not a scammer ,  I will not ask for money , I have enough  . Your knee problems sound like they could have been what I have now - not just normal knee arthritis , so bad now , in a different league .

Robert

Thanks Nicola , I'll keep my fingers crossed for both of us

Just another comment and I emphasise that I am not in anyway trying to "sell" Poland but it is worth mentioning that last time I looked a knee op cost around €20,000 in Spain (€25000 in England) and about €5000 in Poland. The return fare with Ryan from Alicante (direct) is about €200 for two plus bags if you pay the extra. The accommodation B & B will be around €30- €35 per night (two people). You can bargain for better on arrival for a longer stay. None of us speak Polish - I tried and FAILED! but doctors all speak English. Medical tourism is now very well established - and you can get dental work much cheaper (and cataracts but not much cheaper). Private Polish medical care is world class!

Hi Robert. Sorry, but I'm a miserable old git - don't do Skype, WhatsApp or anything like that.

In case we've any similarities, my knee problem went back to a cycling accident in my teens. Permanent inflammation with fluid on the knee and 'fronds and tendrils' growing in it. If one of these trapped in the joint whilst walking, the pain was so intense I just fell over. Some years ago the foreign bits were removed with keyhole surgery, and the inflammation was cured by a radio-active injection. But by then, there wasn't any cartilage left, the joint was deformed, and the arthritic spurs on it grated together and caused severe pain. Even with a stick, or preferably two, the best I could manage on a good day was a few hundred metres, and some days less than that.

It got to the point where I'd had enough and saw the doctor. She referred me for an X-ray, and when she saw the result shortly after, she referred me for a 'preferente' appointment with the specialist. I can't remember the timescale, but things seemed to happen quite quickly after that. More X-rays, saw the surgeon, had an MRI scan - presumably so the surgeon had a good image of the joint to decide which joint to fit, saw the anaesthetist, then not long after that got a phone call to go into hospital the next day.

A friend who's in his late eighties has had two new knees in Hospital Vega Baja and, like me, didn't have to wait too long for them to be done.

Two other friends went in for new joints probably four years ago. At the time Vega Baja had a hefty waiting list, but Valencia paid for those friends to have their joints done privately - at Quiron and at Elche. These are the people who didn't get the same level of treatment and after-care as they would have received on the state system.

Thanks , I am alone , so don't know if I would be able to manage in Poland

You could use taxis for journeys to/from hospital - the hospital or hotel will order them for you. They are about 25% of Spanish prices. If you'd like to know more, send me a private message. If you would like to discuss I am on Skype. Another possibility is to invite a friend to go with you.

Thanks for that Jim , the similarity is that I also have no cartilage for many years now ( I was a runner and played lots of golf ) but although painful for many years now , I could put up with it , but then suddenly , not long before I came to Spain the pain got dramatically worse and spread also down my shin and into my ankle and behind my knee into tendons . Also I have been reading up and came across DVT , one of the symptoms it mentions is heat in the legs , which does sometimes happen to me, at night my legs can get very hot . Can you tell me which area you live in as I may be able to move there to get treatment sooner ( I live at my sisters holiday home at the moment - they never hardly use it )

Where I live is one of the outlying areas of Orihuela, but before you start thinking of moving to this more civilised area (!), you'd have to somehow find out what the waiting times are in the different health areas.

I don't know if it might help or not, but my wife has problems with 'venous insufficiency' causing pain in her legs, and was prescribed Daflon to help ease this. It's one of the meds you have to pay for, so these days she buys the generic version which is much cheaper - Diosmina.

thanks again Jim , I'll speak to Doctor in Blighty , I have no commitment here yet .