TKR 09-11 Cheerbubble Thread

[halesgirl]

Not that I'm happy anyone has had a vision change - but I sure am glad to know it wasn't my imagination!!! Mine got worse as well. @Shanari - welcome aboard and I'm delighted to hear how well your recovery is going. I think no pain and a good quality of life is SO much more important than ROM numbers. Don't let the numbers discourage you.

 

[Jockette]

@halesgirl Did your reading vision get worse?

 

[sistersinhim]

Both got worse, but my reading was the worse of the two. Maybe it was time to get new glasses anyway. I don't see how this surgery could have affected the eyes at all.

 

[Jockette]

I don't see how this surgery could have affected the eyes at all.

I really think some aspect of the experience did affect mine, the change was drastic for me from the day before surgery to the day after.

 

[halesgirl]

@Jockette - yes, my reading vision got worse. Just moved up to the next number readers.

 

[sistersinhim]

We have enough to worry about without worrying whether or not our eyes will be affected.

 

[Shanari]

I'm looking for some indicator of if my recovery in on track - I'm using all combinations of search terms and not really coming up with anything useful. Is there anything like a ballpark guideline saying where we should be at week 2, week 3, etc. moving forward?

 

[sistersinhim]

Every recovery is different, so we don't compare them. No knee is the same going into this surgery. That means the work done on each knee is different. One person might not have much done, and another person's has a lot. That's why each recovery is different and there is no time frame it.

 

[Shanari]

As of Day 14 for me, I feel like I turned a big corner. I'm able to reduce my pain meds (except I don't before PT!) I'm sleeping much longer at night, just using my cane not the walker, and can feel that the surgical leg is so much stronger than the non-surgical leg already! ROM just jumped past 90 degrees so now I feel like I'm more on track. have weird hip pain in the left side but I wonder if that's just the leg length difference? Dr. said there was 1 1/2 to 2" difference because I had been bone on bone and they were kind of rubbed down...now with the appliance and spacer in there, there's quite a difference. That would cause hip pain, wouldn't it? My hubby is going to take me out to see if I can reasonably get in the car and drive (left leg TKR) and if so I'm going back to work part time next week! Well, even if I can't drive, I'm headed back. I don't need naps in the day unless I kill it at PT. I feel like 'me' and have a sitting-on-your-bootay kind of job, so a few days a week, a few hours each shot, we'll see how it goes. I'm excited by the improvements and by life, already, at this stage!

 

[sistersinhim]

I'm able to reduce my pain meds (except I don't before PT!)

You are doing fantastic! What an amazing recovery you are having. Please be careful with taking your pain meds before PT. You want to be able to feel that pain so you'll know when to stop. It's really easy to overdo and then slow down your recovery.

 

[Shanari]

Ooh, thank you, Sistersinhim, I had not thought of that. I'm feeling very happy overall about how things are going and I do tend to have a 110% attitude toward things. I don't want to hurt myself inadvertently by going too hard at PT. Fortunately, they seem to be a bit scared of my surgeon, and his orders are pretty rigorous about what does & does 'not' go in Dr. Wright's PT patients.
Related to that - I have two questions on PT for anyone who happens to see this?
1) a PT today asked me if I want to do "strengthening" after the first 4 weeks of pt are done. I have no idea. My Dr. doesn't order it, he leaves it to everyone. It seems like a good idea, but I don't know if that's customarily done or not? What are everyone's opinions on that?
2) I was also asked if I wanted to be released to aquatherapy at the end of 4 weeks? that sounds fun! I love the water - I know it's PT but has anyone else used it and found it really helpful? I'm interested in hearing your stories!!

 

[Jockette]

Strengthening is better left until later, more like 3 months, so you can heal more before stressing your new knee.

I was put in the pool at 4 weeks and they totally overworked me for 50 minutes. It took 3 days to recover. I did not go back.

My pool experience was the final straw that sent me to the internet to search for stopping “therapy” and I found Bonesmart! The rest, as they say, is history!

But there are many members who did like pool therapy.

I’m curious, what does your surgeon want you to do at PT?

 

[Shanari]

 

[Shanari]

Those are the exact instructions, so it's stretching, some CPM but we increase it only by 2% each set, a bunch of a-home stretches - he wants us to spend at least 5" each hour stretching all day. There are machine stretches and some the PT does manually, but they are so gentle, nothing is pushing past pain and they're really careful about differentiating between pain and the feeling of a good stretch. There is some icing and a zappy muscle machine at the end, electrodes put on my quad muscle for 15", each session starts off with 10" of NuStep just to warm up. I hate hate hate the heel slides, we do those carefully, for only 5" but that is the only part of PT that's yucko so far.

 

[Jockette]

Thank you for sharing that! So do you do all of that at PT every time or does it vary using some of those one time and some others a different day?

I will not go to PT next time. I will do what I need to on my own at home.

 

[Shanari]

The shortest PT session was 70 minutes, and today was 95 - we're doing all of it and ending with the electrostimulation part for the last 15 mins in an easy chair with an icebag on top of my knee while I kick back and watch tv. I am *ready for it* by that time! It doesn't seem hard, like I said the heel slides seem hateful but none of it is painful, it's very careful, notch by notch, tiny increases.

 

[Shanari]

I actually like the CPM machine, it's one that you sit up in and that one goes for 15 minutes. 5 minutes as a 'warm up' percentage, then they test and see how close I can get to the last measurement I had the previous PT session, and then we slowly increase it 1-2% the last 7 minutes or so. So today the warm up was at 80%. The middle part was 90. The new stretch only got to 92% but that felt exactly where the line between pain and stretch was. I'm saying percent but it's degrees, I think. On the machine.

 

[Shanari]

May I ask, when you said they overworked you in the pool, could you tell at the time or did it become apparent *afterward*? I can see how, if the water is cool, it might actually be easy to go too far in the water - you're not supporting your bodyweight and it's cooler, you could do more than you really meant to!

 

[Jockette]

All that at PT is really a lot for a less than 3 week old knee. Listen carefully to your knee. If it starts hurting more, and somewhat suddenly, especially at night, cut back on that. You really only need gentle movements as early as you are in recovery.

My pool therapy session was 50 minutes long, like I said, and they had me do countless knee bending exercises, and walking frontwards, sidewards, and backwards My balance was still not good and I was so scared.

I was very tired and I thought they’d never let me out. The water was warm. It was at the YMCA and the pool was very crowded. I was expecting a small group.

They also told me to go up the steps to get out foot over foot. It was the first time I did that. Definitely an overrated experience at that point. I was pretty mad by then! And even madder still when it took 3 days to recover, when I’d been feeling somewhat ok, before I got in the pool.

 

[Shanari]

Oh that's terrible! I'm so sorry you went through that. Thank you for the advice about PT. I appreciate everyone's caution and concern, this is a lovely community.