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1cruiselvr recovery diary

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Jamie.....thx for the advise. I actually had a great PT session today. I was assigned a different therapist and he listened to my concerns and issues I've been dealing with. Then we did some gentle stretching exercises and iced me down afterwards. I will have this therapist for the rest of my sessions. I walked out feeling much better both mentally and physically before walking in. Then hubby took me out to lunch. It was nice to get out of the house. Thanks to everyone that took time to give me advice from their own personal experience. I'm not use to spending time on myself. This is a new experience. I have a better outlook today. I can see it does get better with time. My day has pooped me out. Talk to ya'all tomorrow.
 
Remember, please, that this recovery thing can be very similar to a roller coaster. You will have some bad days and some good days---recovery is not a straight line or an easy upward curve---it looks more like reading the stock market trends.

Pay attention to yourself; it is your knee, and you can listen to it. Do not try to please anybody except yourself and your knee. Ice/elevate/rest as often as needed, and do not worry about what you feel that you "need to do."

Do not worry about anybody's expectations---not even your own; when you expect too much, you open yourself up to frustrations and concerns---just take things as they come; you will reach your destination of being totally recovered, but it is up to your knee to let you know when you arrive there.
 
Thx Tim. I will try to remember this. But you might have to remind me from time to time. I am so very grateful for this community of friends.
 
Good for you, hon!!! You've got it goin' now!!!
 
17 days post op and feeling quite blue today. Knee is very stiff and my spirit is tired. I know it's common to go thru this but I just thought expressing it to my bonesmart friends would help me a bit. I am also starting to worry about when I will be able to go back to work. I am the sole supporter of our household and with the tough economy I need to keep my job. I told them when I left it would be 4-6 weeks out but I can see now that I was being too optomistic when I said that. Now I worry it will be more like 8-12 weeks and they won't be able to wait that long. This has added to my depression today. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. I think I'm going to read some more stories on this website for encouragement. Thanks for listening, whoever is out there.
 
Yes, it seems forever but it's not, it soon passes.

What kind of job do you do?
 
I'm an analyst for a large corporation (desk job). Sitting all day. Some walking - to/from parking garage, walking around the work floor to speak to coworkers, restroom trips, lunch room, etc. I'm hoping I will see some improvement in the next week. It would be good for my spirit. Right now I'm leaning on what everyone says here and hope.
 
You may have some sort of chance then, I'd guess. Can you negotiate a part-time return? Better still, work from home? Get someone to drive you to/from the office? Make your co-workers come to you?

But you'll still be (if you're like me) mentally below par, so part-time at-home is your holy grail.
 
I'm on state disability. I have to be released by my dr for work return. I could probably get a part time release, maybe a work from home situation for awhile, but it's totally up to the dr as to when he releases me back to work. Right now, it's 18 days post surgery and I still use a walker, can't walk without it, and use pain meds regularly, have trouble sleeping and with energy. I suppose that's normal. Knee is very stiff. Are there any exercises that would specifically help with the stiffness? I have to admit I go to PT 3x a week but don't spend much at home time exercising or stretching. I think I will try that extension stretch with heel on a stool and me sitting in a chair. My PT says extension is hardest to achieve and easiest lost. ??? Maybe I'm not doing enough at home to supplement what is being done in PT but I feel they work me hard there so my knee deserves some time off.
 
Lynne, you are barely 2 weeks out from surgery. Ofcourse your knee is stiff and probably continues to have swelling which makes it stiff. There is a lot of healing going on----most of it is going on inside---so even if your incision looks great--there's soft tissue, bone, muscles, ligaments, and nerves that have been assaulted and will take TIME to heal.

And you cannot rush the rate at which your body decides to do that healing. PT is necessary to help facilitate your range of motion, build muscles back up, and for some to reeducate gait. But too much PT or overly agressive PT will make all that soft tissue angrier than it already is and more swelling and less healing will take place.

Yes, you should take the days inbetween your PT sessions off. Just whatever walking needs to be done and very gentle bending and stretching. Also do not allow PT to hurt you---a little discomfort is okay, but pain is a big NO-NO.

Some of us have trouble with extension and others with flexion and some (the lucky dogs) have no trouble with either. For the most part if you continue on a regular basis to do GENTLE stretching and bending, the full gamut of ROM will return.

Your body is using all your energy to heal. So there's very little left over for the things you want if for. It will take TIME for it to return.

As you can see, TIME and PATIENCE, along with a little reasonable PT are what it takes to get through this recovery. Most of us don't have a lot of patience and don't think we have the time, but we really don't have much choice.

I am fortunate--I got old and I could retire--so I got more time than most anything else and have acquired patience. But if I had had to go back to the job I had, I would not have considered it before 16 weeks. I am now starting my 24th week since surgery and still have stiffness after sitting for long periods, knees still tender to the touch over the incision, have some swelling if I overdo, and still cannot go down steps foot over foot. I still have to ice and elevate occasionally. I am sleeping pretty well and have a good energy level. I almost feel "normal" again--not that I was normal before the surgery---but you know what I mean.

Take care of yourself & keep us posted. We care. Judy
 
Judy...thx for your words of encouragement and wisdom. It's true, it's hard to be patient when I've been running full speed ahead for most of my life. I think maybe I'm not elevating enough which could help with the inflammation I'm guessing. It's hard to get the toes above noes.
 
Lynne, You are exactly where I was in the first weeks after TKR. Now, eleven weeks out, I have good days and hard days. Today I walked in a nearby arboretum with my husband, sister and brother-in-law. Have to remind myself to bend my knee with every step, but the walk was beautiful, and I came home, elevated my leg and iced my knee. Yesterday, I was at the gym biking and had to wait too long for the handicapped shower. Someone bounced out after using it for ten minutes. I was aching and got into the shower, sat down on the bench and just sobbed. Discouraged about the pain, this woman's thoughtlessness, and the fact that I'm not "farther along." Being gentle with yourself, and balancing rest and exercise will take far longer than a few weeks. I am still figuring it out.

I had what is described as "minimally invasive knee replacement." The scar is small (big whoop) and my quad wasn't cut, but it is still invasive and I've had lots of pain. When my surgeon was scolding me for still using a cane at six weeks, I asked him if he'd had a knee replacement. "I've had knee surgery," he said. "Knee replacement?" I asked again and he admitted he hadn't.

"Well the, let me bite your knee and you 'Relax and march in place like you've been instructing me.'" I love this forum because the advice is coming from professionals who've experienced knee or hip replacements.

Jane
 
Awesome come back!
I'm gonna put that into my arsenal for any smirky comments about the rate of my recovery.
As for the gym, I hobbled out of the shower and found a woman had spread ALL her belongings and clothes all over the ONE bench near our group of lockers. When I asked her for some space, she ignored me. She just kept re-arranging her stuff on the bench!
Now I'm hurting, wet and cold. I sat my rump (on my wet towel) right on top of her junk.
That got her attention. I didn't move and she had to pull stuff out from under me.
Don't mess with me when I'm in pain, wet and cold.:hissyfit:
 
 
Thx everyone for contributing your experiences. Josephine, i know it's only been 18 days, but it seems like 18 months to me. And of course, our imagination always tells us we are the only ones that aren't progressing as we should. My mind says I should be out of the walker and using a cane by now with minimal discomfort. It's a trick I think our mind plays on us. I think if I could improve the stiffness just a bit, I'd feel better mentally. The knee feels like it's stiff as a board. I guess that's the inflammation making it feel that way.
It's so nice to come here and express our fears to a warm, compassionate audience.
 
Yes, venting is certainly very good therapy. BoneSmart has been a good source of therapy for lots and lots of people over the years, including me! :wink1: But the principle and most beneficial therapy of all is trying to get your brain to go into a slow down mode!

As for the stiffness, perhaps it will help for you to understand what is going on there. So are you sitting comfortably? Here's a little chat about swelling and stiffness:

Swelling in the knee is like filling up a tube with water. There comes a point when the tube (your leg) is filled up to capacity and if you put yet more water in, it gets pressurised because water cannot be compressed. The knee has no spare room to accommodate the pressure so the end result is a leg that is stiff and unbendable, just like it was in a plaster cast and we all know that a leg in a plaster past cannot bend! And remember, all that pressure will cause pain in addition to the pain of the surgery!

The first order of priority therefore is dealing with the pain and swelling which means applying the BoneSmart Mantra of rest, elevate, ice and take your pain meds by the clock!

There is a temptation to try and force your knee to bend by applying intense or aggressive PT but that's not going to get you anything except more swelling. Therefore do not - repeat NOT - do anything, or let the PTs do anything, that causes you pain. By all means go to the point of discomfort but never more than that. Aggressive anything will simply cause more swelling and you already had my potted lecture on the evils of swelling! And if anyone tries it on with the old "no pain, no gain' rubbish, you please tell them that the proper application is 'no pain MORE gain'!

Perhaps this explanation will help you to understand all this and accept that you need to take it more slowly as getting swelling to go down is not something that can be achieved quickly! :wink1:
 
Josephine....thx for taking the time to explain swelling. i have been taking it easy, barely doing anything but the most simplest needs, I do ice, love it and try to elevate. That's tricky to get the right elevation achieved.
I think what has me depressed the most is that my knee feels like a block of cement and each day I get up in the morning hoping that it feels a little different (better, less like concrete) and it hasn't so far. It seems as stiff and solid as the first day I came home from surgery. I hate now my new knee feels right now. And sometimes worry that it will never get better.
 
Dear Lynne-----TIME & PATIENCE----TIME & PATIENCE ---- TIIME & PATIENCE!!!!!

This is what is going to take---and you have to take the TIME to elevate (toes above nose which means you may have to lay flat), ice,, take those pain meds and rest. And you have to find the PATIENCE to do this religiously. If you do this, IT WILL GET BETTER!! But your knee is very angry right now and will have to be pampered to the max to calm down and stop swelling.

And you need to practice some positive thinking---I WILL GET BETTER, I AM GETTING BETTER, IT WILL ALL BE BETTER, I WILL DO WHAT I NEED TO DO TO GET BETTER!

I had both knees done two days apart. My left was a good girl, but my right was very swollen from the beginning. It took 4 weeks of doing all the right things for her to calm down. And I admit, it was a long, long 4 weeks. This recovery is challenging particularly the first 4 to 6 weeks. But if you are kind to your knee, it will finally come around and be kind to you.

Take care of yourself and keep us posted. We care. Judy
 
luvtocamp said:
Hi Lynne,
I recommend you and your husband read the book "Total Knee Replacement and Rehabilitation" by D.Brugioni and Jeff Falkel....this book and this forum will answer any questions you have, it also has lots of gently exercises you do at home. I found mine on Amazon for about 16.00..best money ever spent.
Click to expand...

Mary, I found this book on Amazon for my kindle and ordered it today. I look forward to reading it. Thx for the suggestion.
 
Of course it feels solid and hard - everybody's does at this stage. There was a group on here a couple of years ago took to calling it their 'big fat ol' monkey' strapped to their leg!

Examples of good elevation can be seen in this article Elevating your leg to control swelling and pain

And I have this other picture I shall be adding in there shortly

[Bonesmart.org] 1cruiselvr recovery diary

 
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