TKR 1 week post TKR I'm hurting!! *

[mla925]

I hope you can get a CPM quickly. I believe it helped me attain my ROM which is very good at this point in my journey. I'll be 2 weeks post LTKR tomorrow, and have been using one at home, but not for nearly as many hours a day as when I was in the hospital or during the first days of home recovery.

Please make sure you heed the advice to ice for substantial period of time. I have a circulating ice water machine, but I also made some ice packs from a "recipe" in the library here that are great - just rubbing alcohol and water. They stay super cold for a long time. Icing and elevation will really help reduce the swelling. And when that comes down, you will see a big improvement in motion.

Also ... Don't you think you should be in touch with your doctor at this point? I know I would want to share these concerns with the one person who for sure could help me change things for the better.

 

[shotzie63]

So I had my 2nd pt session. So the guy raises my leg and attempts to bend my knee and I took the pain as much as possible and he is seeing that I am hurting pretty bad.
He puts my leg down and tries again, and that is when I let out a lil scream and tears start rolling.

He said. Wow. You are having a lot of pain and the knee is pretty stiff and we need to do something about this. He asks. .did u take y I ur pain meds? I said ahh yeah!!!

He calls my surgeons office and left a vcmsg for my dr's backup, since he is on vacation. And requests they order me a CPM machine.

I have to wait to see if the ina approves it

He is gone now and I am in soo much pain and am in tears because I feel like a huge failure!!! I feel like I should be able to bend my knee way more and without all this pain.
Feeling very depressed and lost and feel that Iwon't be normal again

 

[Poz222]

Deep breath... This is all NORMAL and your body is reacting normally. Please read up on the "do less" motto here and don't let PT put doubts in your head. Your knee has been traumatized and it is revolting, don't let PT people hurt you. Right now you need to ICE, ICE, ICE keep it chilled and elevated and just rest, relax and let your body heal! When it is less traumatized it WILL BEND. I too am a "late bloomer " for flexibility but slowly but surely it is coming... Others will be around shortly with articles and info how people here view knee recovery! Good luck on your journey!

 

[shotzie63]

Josephine
1. Pain 8-9
2. Hydrocodone 10-325 mg and Oxy-IR 5mg
Same dosage for both: 1 tab as needed every 4 hours
I take Hydro (norco) daytime, Oxy at night to sleep
3. Ice every hour 20-30 mins
4. Elevate using 3 pillows every other hour 40 mins
5. Pt didnt give me ROM #s
6. I walk around our apt throughout the day using a
walker. Washing dishes, light cooking, I try to
straighten up the bdrm. Pain is constant and I cannot
stand for very long
7. Exercises at home
Ankle pumps - 1 set of 20 every hour
Hip abduction sliding foot to side 1 Set of 1 every hour
Heel slides - bend knee/hold 45 sec. 4 sets every hour
Quad sets slowly tighten/flex quadricep/hold 20 secs
4 sets every hour

Thats it

 

[Pumpkin]

shotzie63,
You are not a failure, you are normal, everyone recovers at a different pace, your knee is injured after just being sawed, hammered, glued, soft tissue cut apart, and bones amputated at the ends, your knee needs time to heal.
Your knee won't bend because it is swollen, when the swelling goes down your ROM will improve. We have members whose ROM increased over a year from surgery.
CPM's have mixed reviews, some people love them and find them soothing, others dislike them. Research shows no difference in outcome. If insurance denies you, it should not be a problem.
What you need is Rest, Ice, Elevation, and Medication on schedule as prescribed.
PT should not hurt! Allow the PT to only take you to discomfort, the PT works for you and if you say NO they have to stop.

Please add your surgery date to your signature, hover over your username top right, click on signature and add your information there, Thanks!

 

[mla925]

I think your only work now is to heal. So no more cooking. Time for someone to bring dinner from your favorite restaurant.

 

[Poz222]

I got a bit confused as you have two threads going... Maybe we can merge and keep everything in one?

But your exercise list, 4 sets if heel slides EVERYHOUR!! I would pass out. I maybe do 1-2 sets a day! And NO HOUSEHOLD CHORES! Let others cook or clean, you are overdoing it!

 

[shotzie63]

The heel slides are teeny slides. Which I why I more.

Maybe I will delete on thread. Which one?

 

[Pumpkin]

Referee merged your threads, you do not need to do anything!

 

[referee54]

I am very sorry to read of what happened with your PT---it is very important to remember that this recovery can take a long, long time and is slow and will test one's patience.

Please also remember that the PT works for you---not the other way around. Do not let anybody hurt you or push you into a situation where you are hurting yourself.

Please do this:

Please draw the line in the sand and let the Pt person know what you will do and what is unacceptable---lay it out to him right out in front.

You are not a failure---recovery is a slow, patience-testing endeavor, but you will get to the destination of being fully recovered.

You probably noticed that I merged your two recovery threads as per forum protocol---only one recovery thread is allowed per member. It is so much easier to keep track of your recovery, your questions, concerns, and your issues if we can follow it in one thread, rather than bouncing from one thread to another.

 

[referee54]

You are just a little more than one week removed from a surgery that inflicted serious trauma to your knee, and both your knee and your body are still reeling from it. Your PT has to practice compassion and patience---if he is unable or unwilling to accept a gentle approach to your recovery, it is time to fire him and find another who will work with you and for you.

Do not panic and do not try to outwork or over work your surgical knee---it will only make your knee more angry at this point in time.

Take it easy; take it gently, and take it patiently---understand that these recoveries take a long, long time, and you are running an ultra-marathon---it is not a sprint.

With that idea of an ultra-marathon in mind, just take it easy and take it very slowly---and have confidence that you will reach the point of being fully recovered.

 

[KarriB]

Two reasons you're having trouble bending, pain and swelling. Be sure to get ahead of the pain and stay there. You are very early in this recovery and shouldn't be experiencing all that pain. As my friends said, no cooking or cleaning (unless you have no pain), less is more in everything. The swelling is keeping you from bending also and the swelling is occurring from you being up and around on the knee. I basically did nothing but ice and elevate for a month. Showering, dressing going to PT took all the energy I had. So elevate, rest, ice stay ahead of the pain and short walks around the house until your swelling goes down. It's just that simple.
As far as straight leg raises...I cried because I couldn't do them! So I practiced with my leg raiser and every day I did less with the leg raiser than my leg, until eventually I didn't need the leg raiser at all.

 

[referee54]

As my friends said, no cooking or cleaning

Your job right now is to simply recover and let the knee calm down. While the cooking or cleaning may seem to be innocuous, it is, at this point in time, very taxing and very rough on a surgical knee that is less than two weeks out.

You are doing too much---take it easy and ice, rest, and elevate---let that surgical knee lose some of its inflammation.

The cooking can be done by somebody else, and the house work can certainly wait.

Prioritize---prioritize---prioritize---and the #1 priority right now is to take care of your knee and yourself---not the cooking and cleaning.

 

[Pansy727]

At a week or I was doing none of that.. Granted I had bilateral tkr but I'm 5 weeks out today and I still can't do all the dishes in one setting.. And I do get worn out quickly... You need to give your body a test... It's been through a lot more than you realize... It has to heal.. Some days I do no exercises.. When my knee is screaming.. I don't do it bc it week scream even more.. (one of my knees is worse than the other).. From the things I've read here I have found sometimes rest is the best exercise!

Sent from my SCH-R950 using Tapatalk

 

[Roy Gardiner]

To add to what everyone else has said...

I feel like a huge Failure. I feel like I should be bending my knee without ao much pain.

No no nooooooooo. Do NOT blame yourself or beat yourself up, you are injured and there's no concept of guilt or fault on your part.

He said. Wow. You are having a lot of pain and the knee is pretty stiff and we need to do something about this. He asks. .did u take y I ur pain meds? I said ahh yeah!!!

And the something he needs to do is, in fact, nothing; or almost nothing. A knee that is in pain and stiff should NOT be bent, and any stretches you do should stop at the point of pain.

And no painkillers to make PT bearable -- all it means is that more damage can be done. And the PT is a fool if he thinks that you have to endure pain.

Yes, damage. Messing about with a traumatised knee will worsen its condition. Gentle stretches to help (a bit) with mobility are all you need at this stage, healing will happen all by itself. It's why you're so tired, the body is taking over, commanding all available energy to heal.

Relax, take it easy, elevate, ice, watch telly.

 

[Roy Gardiner]

I have the support of my wonderful husband and family.

Right. Your husband can reason with this PT person (this sort of thing "...seeing as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and could blow your head clean off...")

 

[SarahJane]

You are *NOT* a failure. Please erase that judgment from your mind.

I'm worried, though, that you wrote

"I walk around our apt throughout the day using a
walker. Washing dishes, light cooking, I try to
straighten up the bdrm. Pain is constant and I cannot
stand for very long."

I didn't do any housework for the first several weeks. None. Nada. Zilch. Zip. No dishes. No cooking other than putting something in the microwave or pouring milk for my cereal. I'd put my dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, but that's it for keeping the bedroom clean.

If your pain is constant and you can't stand for very long than why are you walking throughout the day using a walker and doing light cooking and housework? It will only cause the knee to become irritated, swollen, and inflamed. When your knee is swollen, you *won't* be able to bend it. Bending it, walking on it, all that will be much more painful.

And the frequency with which you're exercising? TOO DARN MUCH, IMHO.

You wrote:
'Ankle pumps - 1 set of 20 every hour
Hip abduction sliding foot to side 1 Set of 1 every hour
Heel slides - bend knee/hold 45 sec. 4 sets every hour
Quad sets slowly tighten/flex quadricep/hold 20 secs
4 sets every hour'

Your knee needs to heal, not practice for the Olympics!

Have you seen photographs of what happens during knee replacement surgery? Some people can handle looking at them, others can't. If you are up to taking a look at some, I bet you'll be a lot easier on yourself.

There were times during the first two weeks of recovery when I began to wonder if what I was going through was comparable to natural childbirth or having my leg amputated without anesthesia on a Civil War battlefield. It sure felt like that. And that was while I was taking my Percocet faithfully every 4 hours. Ice and elevation, about twice as much as you're currently doing, was essential to my pain management. It got better in week 3, and even better in week 4.

Please don't be so hard on yourself. Please. Rome was not built in a day. Your knee is not going to heal in a day, either.

 

[Roy Gardiner]

You are *NOT* a failure. Please erase that judgment from your mind.

I'm worried, though, that you wrote

"I walk around our apt throughout the day using a
walker. Washing dishes, light cooking, I try to
straighten up the bdrm. Pain is constant and I cannot
stand for very long."

I didn't do any housework for the first several weeks. None. Nada. Zilch. Zip. No dishes. No cooking other than putting something in the microwave or pouring milk for my cereal. I'd put my dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, but that's it for keeping the bedroom clean.

If your pain is constant and you can't stand for very long than why are you walking throughout the day using a walker and doing light cooking and housework? It will only cause the knee to become irritated, swollen, and inflamed. When your knee is swollen, you *won't* be able to bend it. Bending it, walking on it, all that will be much more painful.

And the frequency with which you're exercising? TOO DARN MUCH, IMHO.

You wrote:
'Ankle pumps - 1 set of 20 every hour
Hip abduction sliding foot to side 1 Set of 1 every hour
Heel slides - bend knee/hold 45 sec. 4 sets every hour
Quad sets slowly tighten/flex quadricep/hold 20 secs
4 sets every hour'

Your knee needs to heal, not practice for the Olympics!

Have you seen photographs of what happens during knee replacement surgery? Some people can handle looking at them, others can't. If you are up to taking a look at some, I bet you'll be a lot easier on yourself.

There were times during the first two weeks of recovery when I began to wonder if what I was going through was comparable to natural childbirth or having my leg amputated without anesthesia on a Civil War battlefield. It sure felt like that. And that was while I was taking my Percocet faithfully every 4 hours. Ice and elevation, about twice as much as you're currently doing, was essential to my pain management. It got better in week 3, and even better in week 4.

Please don't be so hard on yourself. Please. Rome was not built in a day. Your knee is not going to heal in a day, either.

:iagree:

 

[Legin]

Agreed. There is no set path for recovery. So many factors come into what effects our bodies and how long it takes to heal. Re pain a finger held in fire equals pain and possible damage, a finger kept close to fire no pain.and no damage. I'm sure you would be the second so why do things that produce scream level pain. More pain equals longer recovery.

Legin THR Sep 14

 

[skigirl]

I also worried about recovery and was determined to do everything right---it led to increased swelling and discomfort.

With my second knee I was a little smarter---I spent the first two weeks in bed 80% of the time with my knee elevated and iced. I took my pain meds by the clock and did no exercises at all. I did no PT.

Elevating your leg to control swelling and pain
Using ice

When those two weeks were over, I began PT---but I never had any pain in PT. If the PT bends a swollen leg---he makes the swelling worse!! You cannot bend a garden hose full of water---you have to wait until the water leaves the hose. That is where you are. You will have to rest, elevate and ice that poor knee of yours. i would cancel the PT for a week or so while you deal with your swelling.

Once the swelling settles down, you will see the rom come fairly quickly. Do not get worried about rom this early in this process---it really will be six months or so before you knee even looks normal---you cannot rush recovery and doing too much now just delays the length of your recovery. Rest now and allow your tissues to heal and forget that overly aggressive, untrained PT.