PKR And Now for the Left One

[JennyLynne]

The Ice Man can fix the AC? That is definitely on-brand!

 

[Rick951]

@Jockette @sistersinhim Thanks for your input! As the day goes on, I do feel slightly stiffer and a slight bit more swollen. My next PT is not till Friday, so I have some time to see if there is any effect. Here is the big reveal. Log way to go for beach knees.

 

[sistersinhim]

Ouch! I can see where your skin was pulled off. Baby that knee. It needs tender treatment and those raw places need healing.

 

[Rick951]

@sistersinhim This one looks fantastic compared to the first one... That is why I was so well behaved this time. My Wife keep commenting on how much better my knee looks this time.

 

[barrj46]

Hi Rick,

thanks for taking the time to document your PKR story. You are a week ahead of mine, which I had done on 9 July.

I've improvised with a 1kg bag of frozen peas as an ice pack. Seems to work well and I haven't had any of the bruising that you have/had. I've still got a waterproof dressing on mine, but will remove that on Sunday and will be interesting to see what it looks like at that time.

 

[Rick951]

@barrj46 I thought my issues with the surgical dressing was being overly aggressive with recovery. After having issues with my second knee with the same dressing. I think now, I am having a reaction to the adhesive used with this dressing. I hope you don't have the same reaction. your dressing looks slightly different than mine. I still think the concept is great! I could shower when I got home, it was sealed from the environment.
At the moment my skin feels like either a bad sun burn, or a chemical burn. That pain is worse than the joint recovery pain.
As for the rest of my recovery, Ice, Elevation, and rest. For the first week I did VERY little except refill the Ice compartment in my ice machine. I thing that helped a good bit letting the soft tissues a head start healing.
Good luck with your recovery!
Rick

 

[TKAA]

@barrj46 I thought my issues with the surgical dressing was being overly aggressive with recovery. After having issues with my second knee with the same dressing. I think now, I am having a reaction to the adhesive used with this dressing. I hope you don't have the same reaction. your dressing looks slightly different than mine. I still think the concept is great! I could shower when I got home, it was sealed from the environment.
At the moment my skin feels like either a bad sun burn, or a chemical burn. That pain is worse than the joint recovery pain.
As for the rest of my recovery, Ice, Elevation, and rest. For the first week I did VERY little except refill the Ice compartment in my ice machine. I thing that helped a good bit letting the soft tissues a head start healing.
Good luck with your recovery!
Rick

@barrj46 - good luck with your recovery. I had bilateral partial knee replacements on June 11th. As @Rick951 knows I had the same issue with both my bandages and it really resulted in a two-front battle against pain. Particularly because the oxycodone that was effective on the surgical pain did nothing for the chemical burns. I also hope you will avoid that fate.

 

[Rick951]

@TKAA How is your 2 fronted battle going? You are a week ahead of me, what am I in for? does anything help with the pain? Mine is a burning sensation, like a very bad sunburn.
I sent a message to my OS, so far he said leave it uncovered. I sent another message asking if there was anything I could put on it. I also threatened to start using my Oxy (have only been using Tramadol and Tylenol so far) just to let him know I was serious. Have not heard back yet.
I have found Ice works the best. I put the game ready on 30 min sessions with medium compression. It stops after 30 min, I give it 10 min. and reset it and go for another 30.
Other than that I am doing well. I have been able to take steps foot over foot for several days. Since I am not taking narcotics, I have been able to drive for a while. But, I don't do much with my Left foot. I am tempted to take my fun car that has a clutch out for a spin and see if I can..... Never bee accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

 

[Jockette]

What a shame that your knee is doing well but it’s the dressing that is causing the most pain. Talk about adding insult to injury, literally and figuratively! I hope it settles down soon for you!

 

[barrj46]

Removed my dressing today & very happy with how it is looking (day 8 post surgery). None of the bandage related reaction that you have experienced.

 

[sistersinhim]

That's looking really good.

 

[Rick951]

@barrj46 That looks great! also the incision loos like it is cheated over to the side, also good! That might make kneeling a bit easier to tolerate.
Still struggling with the skin issues from the bandage. I would be doing more flexing and stretching if it was not for the burning sensation every time I move.
Had PT this morning, I am at +4 and 110 for ROM. So a steady improvement there. Not that I am fixated on the numbers, but good measure of progress.
Connected to my GR Ice machine as I type this...
All for now.
Rick

 

[SpaceGirl]

Oh boo about the adhesive issue! I hope it has started to heal some? Life sure likes to throw those curveballs at us, because recovering from a major surgery is not enough, right? Lol
Your recovery itself seems to be going well, that is great! Extension and rom sounds good as well, and I am slightly jealous I haven’t started formal pt yet, next week, so I will have some numbers then. I feel my extension is pretty good and can tell rom is getting better but not at 90 yet.
Keep up the good work, ice, elevate and rest!

 

[TKAA]

@TKAA How is your 2 fronted battle going? You are a week ahead of me, what am I in for? does anything help with the pain? Mine is a burning sensation, like a very bad sunburn.
I sent a message to my OS, so far he said leave it uncovered. I sent another message asking if there was anything I could put on it. I also threatened to start using my Oxy (have only been using Tramadol and Tylenol so far) just to let him know I was serious. Have not heard back yet.
I have found Ice works the best. I put the game ready on 30 min sessions with medium compression. It stops after 30 min, I give it 10 min. and reset it and go for another 30.
Other than that I am doing well. I have been able to take steps foot over foot for several days. Since I am not taking narcotics, I have been able to drive for a while. But, I don't do much with my Left foot. I am tempted to take my fun car that has a clutch out for a spin and see if I can..... Never bee accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Not much advice to offer Rick. I suspect your OS knows that your oxy threat is a veiled one as unfortunately at least in my case it didn't touch the burning pain. It took probably 10 days before the burning faded for me. Hope you'll heal more quickly. After a while I started using topical anesthetics (like benzocaine I think) and they helped a bit.

 

[Rick951]

@TKAA I asked my OS if there was something I could put on the effected area. No response. I can't complain to much. I had an issue last time, I figured it was self inflicted, to much movement. Considering I was scheduled over 100 days ahead of the surgery date. There was enough of time to test for sensitivity. Live and learn....

 

[TKAA]

@TKAA I asked my OS if there was something I could put on the effected area. No response. I can't complain to much. I had an issue last time, I figured it was self inflicted, to much movement. Considering I was scheduled over 100 days ahead of the surgery date. There was enough of time to test for sensitivity. Live and learn....

Sorry your OS has been unresponsive. Maybe you should poke again? If you might get any relief I imagine it would be worth it. And maybe you'll discover a superior topical anesthetic. I confess I just used some sunburn spray I had in the cupboard, as I had gotten pretty desperate by then.

Good luck

 

[SpaceGirl]

Hey Rick! How is it going? Has your leg gotten any better from the adhesive? Just wanted to drop in and see how it was going.

 

[Rick951]

It has been 30 days since my left PKR. This one was far easier than my right. One of the biggest factors was, I did NOT try to rush things. As Per BoneSmart advice, I Iced, elevated and rested. I had the same surgeon (VERY GOOD!) at the same hospital. I had the same device implanted, same procedure.

I was in much better shape before this PKR. I was riding my recumbent bike several miles several time a week. I was still able to walk over 5 miles a day. I tried to do some stretching a few time a week. I did NOT wait till the knee was nonfunctional to get it replaced. I was not yet limping constantly like I was for the first one. So I did not have to learn to walk normally as part of my recovery.

The other different thing I did, was set up the 3rd bedroom as my "recovery cave". I purchased one of those hospital like tables that could move over the bed. I kept a laptop computer, my phone and the TV controller, and a note pad on it. I could easily move it out of the way when I wanted to sleep. I was able to do some "work from Home" while icing and elevating. Last time I had to sit at a desk in my home office if I wanted to do some work. Big improvement.
I also had a spot for my Ice machine. I also purchased a small aquarium pump. To pump the melted ice, IE water, out of the ice machine. This was very handy, I did not have to lug the thing around the house to empty it. I also did not bother my wife when I was up at 2:30am emptying water and refilling ice.

I ended up ditching my walker about 4 days after surgery. Might have been to soon, but it felt more in my way than something to help me. Never used a cane this time. I guess I felt so confident with my new knee, I was not worried about it giving out on me. I think part of it is a mental thing. Other than the first few steps after surgery, did my knee feel untrustworthy.

I was also able to manage my pain with Ice, Tylenol and Tramadol. I did not take any Oxy for pain management. I had it available, but did not use it once I left the hospital. As a matter of fact, while in the Hospital I only requested Oxy for 2 times as an experiment to see the effect on pain management. I found it only slightly better than the Tramadol. So I knew the effect for later.

I have my followup appointment this coming Monday. I expect I will be released to go back to work, with restrictions. I will have them word it "As Tolerated". That way when I don't feel like "tolerating" one of my coworkers, I have a legitimate reason to leave.....

At my last PT I was measured at +3 or so extension and 128 ROM. I am about 10 degrees behind my 1.5 year old Right PKR. So doing well there. I have my last PT appointment tomorrow. I will NOT let them push me to hard!!
Also on the good news front. I was able to get into and drive my 80s manual transmission sports car yesterday. Really was not a big deal getting in our out of it.

On the not great front. I am still tired at times, but I have been using that time to veg out Ice and elevate. I know that will improve with time.
The only other issue was the dressing used to cover the incision. I had a BAD reaction to it. There were areas where I was left with raw meat where a layer of skin came off with the dressing. That part was painful. The rest of the area around my incision is like a BAD sunburn or a chemical burn. That part is slowly getting better, nothing seemed to help that pain... It is almost healed, so that is good!!

All in all not a bad experience. It is not 100% yet, I don't expect it to be for a while. I also know I will NOT have to experience the ever increasing pain from OA in the replaced part of my knee. How long will my PKRs last? I don't have a clue. Time will tell. My Surgeon said the rest of my knee looked very good. We discussed the option of TKR, if my knee did not look good enough for just a PKR. He said he would have the hardware available if necessary.

All for now. Wishing all the other Bonesmarties a speedy recovery!!! Hi @SpaceGirl THANKS for asking! Hope you are continuing to improve!!
Rick

 

[Wolvesfan]

What a great report!

 

[SpaceGirl]

Wow! You are a rockstar!! I am so glad this recovery has been so much better for you! Great job on listening to your body and not pushing to soon. I hope your recovery continues to improve each day.