TKR Much too young to feel this dang old

Tk. Just a point about fatigue. I remember at about week 5 trying to wash car, and how exhausted I was after. The healing process takes everything you have energy wise and directs it to the body. It is a long recovery period before you get that energy level back. I am betting since you are allot younger than me, that your recovery will be much faster than mine was, but don’t let it discourage you , cause it does recover. I am guessing 6 months from now you will be quite pleased you had the knee done.
 
Everything gets to be relative and, frankly, miserable is looking to me like good times :yay: hoping for no back sliding. Rotten sucks, bin there. Just too funny. Thanks @Denny39
 
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Interesting that you would pick up on the relative aspect. That is really pretty much what I had in mind when I wrote that. Yeah, this is brutal, scary, and difficult. But even though slowly, it does get better, and it’s significant that in the early stages “miserable” seems like a desirable improvement. It’s funny, but looking back on doesn’t really bring back horrible memories. BUT, even so, I still am NOT looking forward to doing it again. I read somewhere that how long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door your are on. I guess how long 8 weeks is depends on which side of TKR surgery you are on. Keep up the good progress. It’ll soon be just a memory.
 
I am grateful for the reassurance. I went to the doctor for 2 week follow up. He told me I had to really stretch things more. I was at 77 degree flex and +2 extension. He said I needed much more. He said at 3 weeks post op, the rom you have will be all you will get. So I’ve been pushing hard. Up to 88 degree flex and +1 extension. I start outpatient PT on Monday.
 
He said at 3 weeks post op, the rom you have will be all you will get.
I cannot imagine why your doctor told you this. Very few of us stayed at our 3 week ROM.

Even if he said 3 months, that is not always the case either.

My ROM continued to improve past my one year check up. In fact, I am now 2 years post op and my ROM is even better than it was at one year.

Pushing hard for ROM at this stage will irritate your knee that is trying so hard to heal and could very well increase your swelling which will reduce the ROM you are trying for.

ROM will increase naturally as you heal.

It’s not exercising that gets our range of motion back, it’s Time:

Time to recover.
Time for pain and swelling to settle.
Time to heal.

Our range of motion is right there all
along just waiting for that to happen so it can show itself.

In the general run of things, it doesn't need to be fought for, worked hard for or worried about. It will happen. Exercise as in strength training is counter-productive and in the early weeks does more harm than good. Normal activity is the key to success.
 
He said at 3 weeks post op, the rom you have will be all you will get.
Hogwash! At three weeks your leg is still swollen and angry. The ROM you have at three weeks is nothing close to what you'll get over time as the knee calms down from the assault that is a TKR, and begins to recover. The swelling will go down gradually; some of it is obvious as you can see it, some of the swelling is on the inside and not visible, but it's still there. Everyone heals at different rates, so to tell a patient that their ROM at three weeks is all they're going to get is not only ridiculous, it's a downright falsehood!

Think about what happens when you break an arm for instance. They put you in a cast for six weeks or so, to give the bone time to mend before allowing you to move it. During a TKR, they cut your bone off, and put a replacement where the bone was, along with slicing into all the tissues, muscles, etc, to get to the bone. They saw, hammer, screw, slice and dice your knee to repair the problem, which is much worse than a simple broken arm. And a doctor has the unmitigated gall to basically tell you that at three weeks your leg should be perfectly recovered and back to normal? Shame on him!

Your new implant is ready and waiting to give you a good ROM; the problem is your body needs to recover before you can take advantage of the new implant's mobility and motion. Even if your leg looks normal at an early point in recovery, you could still have swelling going on inside your knee that you can't see and is inhibiting your ability to bend and straighten fully. No matter what your doctor, or anyone else for that matter, says about where you "should" be at any given point in your recovery, your knee is the only one who can actually decide where it should be and no one can make it heal faster than it decides. You can, however, slow the healing down some by overdoing and over stressing an already stressed out body part.

My suggestion to you is to ignore that doctor's ridiculous comment about three weeks and just allow your knee to heal as it will. Continue to ice and elevate daily, and continue your daily activities as stated in this article, https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/activity-progression-for-tkrs.14334/ This was my favorite piece of information as I recovered; I read it daily to remind me not to do too much, or too little, at any given point in my recovery.

As for outpatient PT, I chose not to do any formal PT at all after my revision as, in my past experience, PT after a TKR, as it's practiced today in most cases, does more harm than good. My original plan was to only do a little formal PT down the road to help with my gait as it was off after limping for years, but I found I didn't need that either, so I did no PT whatsoever. My recovery after my revision was a miracle compared to my previous recoveries, and part of that I attribute to not pushing my knee to do more than it was ready to do, and not allowing anyone to guilt me into doing exercises or movements it wasn't ready to do. PT is entirely your decision to do, or not to do, and no one has the right to force or guilt you into doing it, only you can decide what's right for you and your recovery. If you want to do PT, do it, if not, skip it. It's your knee and your choice as to how you want to recover. We here at BoneSmart will support you whichever way you decide to recover, and only wish the best for you as you travel the path to taking your life back. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
I'm glad to know some other 'whippersnappers' around here. I'm 50 and looking forward to starting this horrible experience in 18 days.

I'm sorry you're getting such horrible advice from your surgeon. Be kind to yourself and don't let them scare you.
 
Yeah, but I think all of us on this forum get it. Here's to miserable :martini:
 
If it’s any consolation, I’m living proof that your doctor is wrong. Now five months in and after having stressed so much over ROM, because my knee was not bending anywhere near even 70, I’m doing well. Reducing swelling was a major issue for me, despite constant ice/elevation. But just patience, rest and time have got me way past 90 now. I don’t have a clue what the figures are, all I do know is I see the light at the end of the tunnel as function slowly comes back.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
@tkrat58 My surgeon talked to me before surgery this morning, and asked me how the first one was doing. After I told him, he said, “that’s good, but it’ll get better, it’ll be good in a year, but you’ll like it even better at two years”. I have no idea why your surgeon would say something like that, although I have heard something similar before. Definitely not true. It doesn’t even make sense. You’re doing fine, keep up the good work, don’t expect too much too soon and DON”T GET IMPATIENT! I put that in caps because it just happens to be one of my tendencies, for which I paid a price a couple of times early in my first recovery. But I won’t do that again this time . . . I won’t . . . Maybe . . . I hope.
 

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