TKR Winner winner, chicken dinner! Bionic Liz's new RTKA

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I don't believe they'd give you antibiotics unless it looked infected. Just continue to keep I clean and use Neospirin or something similar. I think it would be very rare to become infected from a scratch.

It sounds like you have a stellar therapist! Did you breath a sigh of relief after he explained his plan? I love it!
 
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Thanks, @KarriB! I hope minor scratches are not a big deal, because I swear this two boys of mine have a conspiracy going to see who can 'accidentally' scratch me the most! :kitty: Here's a picture of the two bad boys yesterday morning - they are brothers, and act JUST like it! By night, they were full on fighting :umm:

And Yes! I was thrilled with Roger! He was my PT for my shoulder SLAP repair as well as my knee scope - and he has never had me do anything I really didn't need or anything truly painful. So I had a feeling he would be reasonable. Having lived in a big metropolitan area my whole life (and working in the medical field out there), I sometimes feel incredibly lucky to have found some really good doctors and therapy people out here in the sticks. Just shows there are good people everywhere - you just have to look. I was completely prepared to stand outside the surgery doors to stop a random RN and ask who they would have operate on their knee! Never underestimate a nurse's knowledge.... And always pay attention to the "do not" list :wink: 0111170712d.jpg
 
@mbrown, they are both Savannah cats - "bruthas from different mothas". Both of their 'grandfathers' are African servals. Here's a link to the light one's grandfather
A picture of the dark one's grandfather is below. They are a lot like dogs. We actually *wanted* to get a dog, but where we live, the houses don't have fences and our job doesn't allow us the time to take a dog on a walk multiple times a day...... So a Savannah cat it was.... we found the light one - no one would take him b/c he had an atrial septal defect (small hole in his heart).... The second we got because the first was almost *too* interactive and demanded out attention nonstop. Still not sure if getting the second one was a good idea :what:

Kita a.jpg
 
He specifically said the word GENTLY. He GENTLY pressed down a bit....then leaned ALL his weight onto my leg. Sweet Mary, Mother of God! He's lucky I didn't come up swinging! I let him know in no uncertain terms that it was NOT OK to do that.

I know I shouldn`t laugh but I couldn`t help it when I read this - it`s the way you write it! And I shouldn`t laugh because the same thing happened to me years ago after I`d broken my leg and was only just liberated after 3/12 in a long leg POP. I`m certain the language I used at that point was even Queen`s English!

It truly is a very fine line between doing too much and not doing enough and the line seems to change every day. I, like you, want to know the ins and outs of everything in order to understand because then I think I have some control over what`s happening. Plus I need the reassurance that the implant isn`t about to drop out or my leg about to fall off. Somewhere there`s a middle line!

I think you`re pretty good at journaling; I`ve certainly enjoyed reading your story and look forward to the next instalment!
 
@Josephine

OK, I'm actually a bit scared right now. I was inspecting my scar trying to figure out when all my marker would wear off. And as I was touching the scar, I noticed that there seems to be a 'soft spot' at the very bottom. It feels like there is fluid underneath the skin. If you push on one side, you can see it move to the other. The rest of my scar is flat and pretty tight with no fluid.

There is no redness and it does not hurt in that particular area. The incision itself is completely closed. I have no idea how long it's been there b/c I have not really been touching my scar until tonight. I'm posting a picture with the area circled. I'm hoping (REALLY hoping) that maybe this is residual fluid from earlier swelling that just has not been absorbed yet. But that may be optimistic on my part....

Any thoughts? (as in should I make an immediate appt with the surgeon tomorrow?)

Capture+_2017-01-12-17-28-11-720x1196.png
 
Thanks, @Cratchit! I'm sorry you went through the same PT thing with your leg. Sometimes I want to wear a sign that says "don't pet me, I'm working"! Hands off, buddy :holysheep:

It truly is a very fine line between doing too much and not doing enough and the line seems to change every day. I, like you, want to know the ins and outs of everything in order to understand because then I think I have some control over what`s happening. Plus I need the reassurance that the implant isn`t about to drop out or my leg about to fall off. Somewhere there`s a middle line!
In all seriousness, thank you for saying this... I am eccentric and neurotic, and I know this (makes me really fun at a party, but not always so great for the poor hubby that has to live with me). I often have trouble putting things down in words, and you described me perfectly. It's nice (and incredibly comforting) to know that I'm not the only person who feels that way... So thank you so very much. :roseshwr:

I was actually reading your thread in the middle of the night before last...girl,I ain't got no journaling skills on you! Seriously, you should write a novel - you are colorful, funny, and at the same time poignant! It's wonderful!
 
This whole recovery thing is like learning to dance.... Three steps forward, two steps back. Remember, Liz, repeat after me.... recovery is not linear! I need a chalkboard so I can write that 50 times a la Bart Simpson!

So if I'm completely honest, for about the past 5 days, I've been feeling a bit of 'malaise'. Usually I get this in the fall/winter when I am about to come down with sinus stuff, cold, or flu. It's nothing more than maybe a hair of fever coupled with a dry throat and nose (gracias a the desert). I haven't thought much of it except that it's annoying.

But now that I noticed the soft spot under my incision ("I shall call him squishy"), I got a little more concerned. As they say about us medical people, a little knowledge, and we're off to the races!

So last night, I woke up, par for course, at midnight - but holy canoli, batman, that knee HURT! It was swollen back to where I was a little over a week ago, and it was quite warm. I also had that skin sensitivity I usually associate with the flu, and a mild headache...but no chills, cough, etc.

I iced and iced - and for some reason, for the first 20 minutes the deep ache was almost unbearable. So I finally took some extra pain meds to see if that would relieve the pain a bit (and maybe knock me back to sleep). Success!

Woke up this morning still feeling like I'm coming down with something, but my squishy seems a wee bit smaller than yesterday. The swelling is still worse than usual (and I did *nothing* even remotely strenuous yesterday - in fact, just iced and elevated, mostly), and my ROM is notably decreased, as would be expected with the swelling.

So since my OS is in the operating room today, I figure I will call and see if I can talk to a nurse or PA just to get some reassurance. Differential #1 is a sinus 'thing' (commonly known as the CRUD in Texas).... Differential #2 would be a reaction to the internal sutures. I had forgotten, but when I had my breast reduction, I had a hyper-inflammatory reaction to the internal sutures and ended up with an inch of itchy, fiery redness on each side of my incisions that required steroids to fix. I've been icing my knee so much, that I could be having a moderated reaction similar to my last one. This, too would create inflammation and some fluid.

Ugh. So back to taking full pain meds again... And a few prayers and pleas to the ortho gods that this just resolves itself. My imagination is just too much for me to handle. As my husband says, I should have been a detective - either that, or have my own soap opera "Days of our Liz" :bawl:

Once again, thanks for listening to me rant. We will now return you to your regularly scheduled program :)
 
It looks like a stitch infection which is only very superficial. I've enlarged it here though the definition's not great, but you can see that it's a superficial thing.

LIT.jpg


You ought to report this to the surgeon just to see if he wants you on a short course of antibiotics.
There is more about stitch abscesses in here Closing surgical wounds: how is it done?
 
Thanks, @Josephine! They are going to put me on azithromycin. He also didn't like the low grade fever since it was new.
 
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Wise precautions from your surgeon! I'm glad you let him know.
 
@Celle, it was actually his PA, but I really think they both are excellent. Very conservative and cautious on all matters. And I like his choice of antibiotic since it is so broad. I won't have to worry about the cat scratch either :yay:

Thank you all for the support. This stuff is scary!
 
Rant away Liz! I think you and I could star in our own little mini melodrama! Your right knee could be the star and my left knee could be the diva!

My knee, having been a literal pain for days, has now added in a not insubstantial amount of heat to accompany the swelling. Looked very convincing when I took my fit note in to work!

Glad you`ve got the antibugs to wallop whatever`s lurking in that wound. Hope you feel better very soon!

Thanks for your kind words re my words - very kind, thank you! :happydance:
 
Glad you contacted your surgeon and they are taking care of you! Better days are ahead. Take care and feel better!
 
Liz, glad you called the OS and can not worry over the weekend! :)
 
@Cratchit, you said
Rant away Liz! I think you and I could star in our own little mini melodrama! Your right knee could be the star and my left knee could be the diva!
I'm liking this already - but only if we can get it on BBC. Two dramatic women who's TKR knees help them solve mysterious events in an eccentric English village? Sorry - my husband and I found Midsommer Murders to be both hilarious and quite addicting at the same time!

Sorry your knee is being difficult.... I don't blame it for trying to stop you from going back to work, though :good-bad:


@KarriB and @Mireille, Thank you so much. Day 2 of the antibiotics, and I'm still tired but no longer feel feverish. My swelling has gone down some but not to where it was about 3 days ago. No matter, as I'm sure I will eventually get there. It was almost a tease, with me being able to sit down without having to use my hand as support! Gives me something to look forward to since I now know it's possible!

Here's a picture of the old log today. My squishy is now solid, so who knows what it was - abscessed stitch, hematoma, seroma? But it looks better. Still have the soft tissue swelling, but I imagine I'll be battling that for a while. I can't believe how well that PA put my skin back together. Here I was, one of those people that thought the scar was a great badge of honor.... Now other members of the TKR club are going to think I had a partial! Pshaw! :oyvey::heehee:

0114171232a_HDR-1755x3120.jpg 0114171233-1755x3120.jpg
 
Your scar is looking good , Liz. You can see where some of the deeper stitches are still pulling the layers together. That will all flatten out as time passes.

I still look on my scars as badges of honour. I didn't have 3 knee replacements for nothing!
 
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