PKR Kiwigal Recovery Thread

[Kiwigal]

Nearly at week six. Having good and bad days, but the bad ae so discouraging. Doing the exercises like a ninja. But super sore after yesterdays longish walk. Always worried something has gone wrong and not recovering as quickly as it should be.
And wondering if I will ever be able to sleep comfortably on my side ever again

 

[Roy Gardiner]

to BoneSmart. Please let us know which knee and the date of surgery so we can create a signature for you.

Doing the exercises like a ninja. But super sore after yesterdays longish walk.

Don't overdo it, you can set yourself back by doing too much.


Knee Recovery: The Guidelines

1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary

2. Control discomfort:

rest​

elevate​

ice​

take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)​

don't overwork.​

3. Do what you want to do BUT

a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you​

b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.​

4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these

the BoneSmart view on exercise​

BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy​

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

Activity progression for TKRs​

6. Access these pages on the website

Oral And Intravenous Pain Medications​

Wound Care In Hospital​

The Recovery articles:

The importance of managing pain after a TKR and the pain chart​

Swollen and stiff knee: what causes it?​

Energy drain for TKRs​

Elevation is the key​

Ice to control pain and swelling​

Heel slides and how to do them properly​

Chart representation of TKR recovery​

Healing: how long does it take?​

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it​

Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?​

There are also some cautionary articles here

Myth busting: no pain, no gain​

Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR​

Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds​

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in a majority of BoneSmart's forums, we ask that each member have only one recovery thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review history before providing advice.

 

[Zara]

Had PKR on 9/17. And yes you will be able to sleep on your side again. I started to be able to sleep on my side last week. I put a soft pillow between my legs which helps a lot. One suggestion for you is to slow down on PT. I followed the guidelines on this forum for PT and am ahead of where I am suppose to be according to my OS. It is a long recovery and you need to give your knee time to heal. Good luck and remember ice, elevate, take pain meds as directed and patience, patience.

 

[Jaycey]

Doing the exercises like a ninja.

Doing this and a long walk - too much, too soon. Take the slow and steady approach. It works every time!

 

[Celle]

Hi @Kiwigal and from another Kiwi.

Even though you had a PkR and not a TKR, you've still had major surgery and it is going to take a long time to recovery fully. I hope you weren't told that a PKR would give you a faster or an easier recovery, because that sets up unrealistic expectations.

Try to give your knee time to heal and regain full function naturally. Just a little exercise is all it needs, not the amount you've been doing. Spending plenty of time resting, icing and elevating your knee is just as important as exercising - even more so, in fact..

 

[Kiwigal]

So 6 weeks post from op I walked to local shops 30mins and spent an hour browsing the shops - now have inner knee cap pain when walking. Usually walk 30 minutes a day with no problem but maybe the standing and walking after that too much?
Should I be worried? Didn't have a walk yesterday but is a little swollen still and still sore.
Assuming my knee is telling me so slow the down and give it a breather?

 

[sistersinhim]

You'll notice that I have merged your two threads together as we prefer that members in recovery only have one thread.

This is for three reasons:
1. if you keep starting new threads, you miss the posts others have left you in the old threads
2. it often ends up that information is unnecessarily repeated
3. it's best if we can keep all your recovery story in one place so it's easily accessed if we need to advise you.

Please keep all your questions and updates on this thread. Bookmark it if you can, so you don't lose it.
Don't worry that we won't see your questions as, between us, the staff read all new posts every day.

If you prefer a different thread title, just post what you want and we'll get it changed for you.
If you need an urgent response to a question, just tag a member of staff.
Tagging other members and answering tags

Here are the instructions on finding your thread, How can I find my threads and posts? Many members bookmark their thread, so they can find it when they log on.

 

[sistersinhim]

You are doing too much for a 6 weeks old knee. Please read this again.
Activity Progression of Daily Living
I followed this to the best of my ability and my recovery was better than normal. Your knee will have some swelling off and on for probably at least 6 months. You will find that doing more will cause your knee to swell and have increased pain. Moderation is the key will gentle movements. Slow increases in your activity level will give you better results with less swelling and pain.

 

[leejaa]

Please slow down and listen to your knee. It is trying to tell you that it has a schedule for healing and will not follow your wishes. Doing too much can actually slow down your progress in the long term. Our knees have to heal first. Have a peaceful day.

 

[Peaches0000]

Wow Kiwigal, I love your energy, but you better slow your roll a bit. It is so hard to have to slow down during this long recovery, but every time I overdid it, it put me way back again. I seem to be a slow learner, even after 2 Tkrs, of not overdoing it.
if I could turn back the clock, I would tell my idiot brain to not go to PT 3 X a week, plus walk 10k steps a day at work, to do a few stretching exercises, like stretch on the couch with ice,elevation,Netflix,Hulu,Apple TV,Amazon prime,& my newDisney plus To watch Hamilton.

 

[DSJ]

Every knee is different. It will tell you if you've over worked it.

Its tricky to find the right balance of exercise and rest.
Ive begun to think of it as of having a certain amount of knee to use each day, and then rest elevation after that.

 

[Kiwigal]

Thx for the feedback everyone. Definitely relieved a bit of anxiety.
Had a physio session today and he said to take it easy and if it hurts stop. Some new exercises - yay! And have great knee bend 130 - double yay.
Have learnt that it's not going to be back to normal at 6 weeks and will certainly take longer so just relax and go with it

 

[Kiwigal]

7.5 weeks since op. 2 weeks since I overdid it and paid the price. Back to having swelling and pain around the kneecap. Plus back to needing a crutch to walk around the house. Surgeon says to stationery bike only, no walking (not than I can..) and lots of icing. No change really.
Feeling very frustrated, teary and wondering if this is as good as it's going to get?
Anyone else had this setback?

 

[Jockette]

This is definitely not as good as it gets. You are still in very early in days, in this year long recovery.

I had quite a set back when I was 4 months post op and it took me a full month to begin to improve again, but it did get better.

 

[Kiwigal]

Thanks @Jockette. Encouraging to know there will be improvement. Not always easy to get information from surgeons post op apart from the 8 week check up. Finding this site has been such a relief. Patience sure is key isn't it

 

[Celle]

7.5 weeks since op. 2 weeks since I overdid it and paid the price. Back to having swelling and pain around the kneecap. Plus back to needing a crutch to walk around the house. Surgeon says to stationery bike only, no walking (not than I can..) and lots of icing. No change really.
Feeling very frustrated, teary and wondering if this is as good as it's going to get?

No, this isn't as good as it's going to get. This recovery is full of ups and downs. Right now, you're in a 'down" but it won't last for ever. The good thing is that, since this is a year-long recovery, you have plenty of time for everything to improve.

Spend as much time as you can resting, icing and elevating your leg, to try and reduce the pain and swelling.
I'm sure this is going to work out all right in the end - it's just that the end can seem so far away sometimes.

We'll help you through this.

 

[Kiwigal]

Please change my subject/title to Kiwigal Recovery Thread - thx

 

[Kiwigal]

8.5 weeks since surgery and I definitely under-estimated the physical and emotional roller coaster this would be. There are days I wish I had never had this surgery and just continued to take panadols for the aching because at least I could walk. I know this is just a phase and that the knee will recover in time but wow what a struggle it's been so far. Overdoing it has cost me weeks in recovery and it's still not great. No walking or exercise apart from cycling. Lots of elevation and icing.
But the positive is I am sleeping so that is this highlight for this week.
Anyone else overdone it and had a setback? Curious to hear others stories.

 

[sistersinhim]

I changed your title for you.

Being able to sleep is a wonderful thing for your recovery. Knowing your knee's reaction is also a wonderful thing that helps this recovery.

 

[Zara]

@Kiwigal , I had PKR on 9/17. I agree with comments above about slowing down. I had to learn patience in my recovery. On days I was feeling better I would overdue and then pay the price with increase in pain and swelling. I backed off and now doing much better. Recovery is not a linear progression you will have good and bad days. Eventually the good days will outnumber the bad. At my follow appointment with my OS he showed me my x-rays of my new knee and talked about the work he did on my knee. No wonder this recovery takes so long!! There was a lot of carpentry work done. Slow and steady and you will see progress.