MUA a year after and having pain often

im still not going anywhere with my bend, still back down to 78, im at abut my 6th week now, i do my stretches at home and i walk around a lot without a walker you can just tell im walking with a severe limp. Ive started doing the treadmill on my off days of PT, i do a high incline and very slow walking pace to try and strengthen my knee. It still seems to shake a lot when doing certain things. Still trying to feel hopeful. I go back to my surgeon in 2 weeks and i just know hes going to mention an MUA
 
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i walk around a lot without a walker you can just tell im walking with a severe limp.
6 weeks is still very early days in this year long recovery. You have a severe limp becuase you are not using your walker, and your knee is telling you that you need the support of it.
Ive started doing the treadmill on my off days of PT, i do a high incline

It is way too early to be doing a high incline. It was months before I could comfortably do any incline, let alone a high one.
It still seems to shake a lot when doing certain things.
This is telling you that you are doing way too much for your stage of healing.

Back off most of this PT and use your walker, or at the very least, a cane.

Give your knee a chance to heal. Go back to basics and rest, ice, and elevate, and this is what will improve your ROM. It is way too early to think about an MUA.

Regaining our ROM is more about Time than repetitions of a list of exercises.

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. Normal activity is the key to success.
 
I am afraid that you simply are over working your baby knee and its rebelling by swelling. With the swelling you will not get the bend. You are still very early into your recovery - something I know you don't want to hear, none of us ever wants to hear that.

A treadmill, with an incline? Were you told to do that? Frankly that makes my leg tremble. It is far too soon to be doing so much.
 
Ive started doing the treadmill on my off days of PT, i do a high incline and very slow walking pace to try and strengthen my knee.
You do not need to be strengthening your knee, you need to be healing your knee. You don't have a sports injury. You've had a very traumatic surgery and need to heal from that. Would you exercise a broken leg? Well, you have two sawed-off bones and a shaft pounded into them. Don't forget about all the damaged soft tissues you have.

What you are doing is keeping your knee inflamed. You can tell that by the increased swelling and lower bend. Stop every exercise you are doing and just let your daily activities be your PT and that swelling will go down and the bend will increase. What you are doing now is not working at all. Why not try this for a month? You will see a big improvement if you do it the Bonesmart way.
 
I had a knee replacement on 4/13 but at this point i reached a plateau with only bending up to 90 degree.I am trying everything- exercising 3 times a day, going to pool and swimming twice weekly, walking for 30Plus minutes every day but no result for 30 days at least- stil 90 or less.Very disappointed
 
@levster, how about starting a thread of your own and tell us all about yourself. Having your own thread gives you the opportunity to journey your recovery and ask questions about your knee.
Starting your own thread
 
I have to agree with the others. It's way too early to be walking on a treadmill with an incline. Even a treadmill is too intense right now. That level of activity is making your knee :tantrum:

I would recommend focusing on icing, elevating and doing a few heel slides a couple of times a day. When I was trying to get to 90 (and had plateaued around 80 for a couple of weeks) I still had quite a bit of swelling, my PT had me focus quite a bit on icing and elevating. I would do heel slides--10 repetitions at a time and do them about 3 times a day. Until the swelling (visible and internal) is under control, the knee isn't going to bend.

When the swelling started to go down quite a bit around week 7-8, I had gotten up to around 95 and continued to gain.

If you don't need the walker anymore, you might use a cane for a while just to help take some of the pressure off the knee and to give you some more stability. Just because you are able to walk without one, doesn't mean you should.
 
I'm going to try and take it easy for a few weeks, i will tell my surgeon that i need to hold off on the MUA for a bit so i can gain more strength on my own. Sounds like i am going to stop doing the treadmill all together for awhile, i appreciate everyone's responses and i will def try and take it easier and see if the pain goes down and the bend gets better
 
Don’t look at resting, or slowing the pace, as doing nothing, look at it as giving your knee the best circumstance in which to heal. You have been surgically injured and you need to heal. You will get back to more activity, in time.
 
headed to pt this morning at 9am, on wed my bend was still at 78-80, i ice several times a day and have been doing squats and things outside of PT but i just can't seem to get any better results. My PT is wanting me to have an MUA when i go see my surgeon on the 28th of this month. Well i still get depressed thinking ill never walk normal again but today is my birthday so ill stay positive for that at least
 
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have been doing squats and things outside of PT but i just can't seem to get any better results.
Your bend isn't improving because of these things you are doing. Squats are very bad for a new knee. It's not even 1/6 of the way healed and needs lots of rest, ice, and elevating. Going PT is more than enough exercise for your knee. Just doing all your normal daily activities is PT. Adding exercises is just keeping it inflamed and swollen. A swollen knee will not bend as well as a knee that's not swollen.
 
Happy Birthday!

My PT is wanting me to have an MUA when i go see my surgeon on the 28th of this month.
It's awfully early in your recovery (remember, this is a year-long recovery!) for your physical therapist to be talking about an MUA.

Your flexion is probably being limited by internal swelling -- caused by doing too much. Our knees need times to recover from the trauma of the surgery, and doing too much exercise adds insult to injury. As @sistersinhim noted, squats are one of the worst things you can do to your new knee.

Take a week or two off from everything except ADLs (activities of daily living). Keep icing. Give all that swelling a chance to resolve and I bet you'll see significant improvement in your bend.
 
thank you everyone im going to try and take a week really easy and ice a lot, im having a great birthday in Nashville tennessee. thanks again ill keep everyone posted on my progress after a week of taking it easy<3
 
one more thing when I'm sleeping i have to be in a recliner, if i try and lay on a bed on either leg theres a constant pain in the side of my knee
 
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if i try and lay on a bed on either leg theres a constant pain in the side of my knee
That's not at all uncommon; many of our members report that they need to sleep in a recliner to avoid discomfort.

Don't be concerned. Remember that everyone's recovery is different and you are still early days in this year-long journey. This is a recovery that takes lots of patience!
 
Update: Surgery was the 18th of May so I'm about 2 1/2 months out of TRKR, a lot of my stiff issues have gone away however my bend is still only at a 90 so my surgeon scheduled me for a MUA on the 17th of August. He wants to do it asap before the tissue and things settle in and then he risks harming my leg by breaking something with the MUA. wish me luck everyone
 
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I've done 17 pt appts and will do a few more after the MUA. right now he says to hold off on pt until after the procedure
 
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It will be interesting to see if no formal PT the next 2 weeks gives you some ROM improvement. If so, maybe you won’t need the MUA. You are still early in recovery, and sometimes too much PT can be a hindrance for some of us.

Regaining our ROM is more about Time than repetitions of a list of exercises.

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. Normal activity is the key to success.
 

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