TKR 2 weeks post op pain and stiffness^

Feels great in the water and no pain
You have to be careful in water. It's very easy to overdo and the water adds resistance so it's like using weights.
 
You have to be careful in water. It's very easy to overdo and the water adds resistance so it's like using weights.

I think your right. I’ve started to experience real sharp stabbing pains to the outside of my knee. PT said to stop everything for now, 6 weeks post op Thursday and feel like I’m going backwards this week [emoji22][emoji22]


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Try to stay positive, recovery is definitely an up and down experience.
 
My first time in the pool set me back two weeks. A half an hour of water exercise cost me two weeks of pain and swelling. Definitely not worth it! I tried it a month later and I was OK then. It's a trial and error recovery, that's for sure.
 
@Josephine

Does anyone on our forum have experience of a full constrained knee replacement??


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Does anyone on our forum have experience of a full constrained knee replacement??
Are you asking this on behalf of someone, @pepsicola? I see from your first post that you have a De Puy LCS complete prosthesis, which, I think, is a mobile bearing.

You're still in the very early stages of this year-long recovery. There's plenty of time for your knee to improve. This recovery is a sort of "two steps forward and one step back" process.
 
Are you asking this on behalf of someone, @pepsicola? I see from your first post that you have a De Puy LCS complete prosthesis, which, I think, is a mobile bearing.

You're still in the very early stages of this year-long recovery. There's plenty of time for your knee to improve. This recovery is a sort of "two steps forward and one step back" process.

No I’m asking on behalf of myself Celle. My physio had a long chat with today and said it was a full constrained system and my surgeon had purposely not tightened it fully due to my biomechanics. I’ve been getting a definite lag inwards and a new type of pain started this week on the outer aspect of my knee.

Thanks so much for coming back to me, I def feel like I’ve taken steps back this week and my employer is also pushing for an answer on when I’m going back to work? I’m back on crutches today and can’t even think about work just now. My job involves a lot of driving and walking....feeling a bit sorry for myself this week I think. It’s so nice to have this group to reach out to


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@pepsicola I'm 9 weeks in and still couldn't do a lot of driving and walking. I think the BoneSmart recommendation of at least 12 weeks would be in order for lots of diving and standing.
 
@pepsicola I'm 9 weeks in and still couldn't do a lot of driving and walking. I think the BoneSmart recommendation of at least 12 weeks would be in order for lots of diving and standing.

Thank you! I seem to be having a lot of pain around my anterior patella area and wondered if anyone with the same type of implant had experienced the same


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my employer is also pushing for an answer on when I’m going back to work? I’m back on crutches today and can’t even think about work just now. My job involves a lot of driving and walking.
We usually advise taking about 12 weeks off work and then doing a Phased return to work , if possible. You may need to take even longer for a physically demanding job, so tell your employer "Not yet. I'll let you know, but it depends on my surgeon's decision."
Make sure your surgeon knows you have a job that is physically demanding, so that he/she doesn't release you for work too soon.
I’m a 44 year old female who is 2 weeks post op TKR with an LCS complete prosthesis.
I’m asking on behalf of myself Celle. My physio had a long chat with today and said it was a full constrained system and my surgeon had purposely not tightened it fully due to my biomechanics.
There is a constrained LCS system, but it is more commonly used for Revisions than for primary TKRs. Unless your physio has access to your full surgery notes, she/he can't know what your surgeon did.
The best person to ask about the type of prosthesis you have, and why, is your surgeon.

At this early stage of your recovery, it's normal to still have pain in some areas. There's plenty of time for your pain to settle and your knee to improve immensely. Don't start worrying whether the type of implant has any influence on your progress.
 
We usually advise taking about 12 weeks off work and then doing a Phased return to work , if possible. You may need to take even longer for a physically demanding job, so tell your employer "Not yet. I'll let you know, but it depends on my surgeon's decision."
Make sure your surgeon knows you have a job that is physically demanding, so that he/she doesn't release you for work too soon.


There is a constrained LCS system, but it is more commonly used for Revisions than for primary TKRs. Unless your physio has access to your full surgery notes, she/he can't know what your surgeon did.
The best person to ask about the type of prosthesis you have, and why, is your surgeon.

At this early stage of your recovery, it's normal to still have pain in some areas. There's plenty of time for your pain to settle and your knee to improve immensely. Don't start worrying whether the type of implant has any influence on your progress.

Ok ....yes maybe worrying for nothing. I did have the LCS constrained system because my knee was so bad. Both ACL and PCL had torn and both collateral ligaments too. My surgeon said if I hadn’t been sitting in front of him he would have thought by MRI/X-ray I was in my 70s. I had bone loss and severe degenerative osteoarthritis.

Thanks so much for the advice too regarding my employer, I see my surgeon again on 24th April so looking forward to having a really good chat about my surgery


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I just want to add my voice to those counselling restraint with PT interventions. I suffered a bad injury to my operative knee during a PT session three weeks after my right TKR, doing exercises that were supposed to strengthen my knee muscles, and after a second surgery I am still recovering from that injury. Coincidence or causation, nobody is willing to say, but in retrospect and after learning how many others on this forum have handled their recovery without PT, I do think the objectives of that particular PT program were not well matched to my own abilities at the time. The exercise was a sit to stand and they had also been putting weights on my foot during leg lifts, so I did become alarmed when I read through your thread because you mentioned some of those same things. I think some PT practitioners act more like personal trainers than clinicians, and don't think through variables such as pre-operative functional abilities and personal healing times when crafting a program for people who seek their services. I've attained better range of motion just by using the knee on a daily basis than I ever accomplished with activities such as stationary cycling, and strengthening is gradually coming naturally by just walking. I now go to a smaller private PT center where their approach is more thoughtful and individualized, and what has been helping the most has been actual gait re-training, consciously attending to the motions and mechanics of the walking process broken down step by step. It's been a slow but steady recovery, and this forum is wonderful for those days when you just need a little support. Keep up your good work!
 
I just want to add my voice to those counselling restraint with PT interventions. I suffered a bad injury to my operative knee during a PT session three weeks after my right TKR, doing exercises that were supposed to strengthen my knee muscles, and after a second surgery I am still recovering from that injury. Coincidence or causation, nobody is willing to say, but in retrospect and after learning how many others on this forum have handled their recovery without PT, I do think the objectives of that particular PT program were not well matched to my own abilities at the time. The exercise was a sit to stand and they had also been putting weights on my foot during leg lifts, so I did become alarmed when I read through your thread because you mentioned some of those same things. I think some PT practitioners act more like personal trainers than clinicians, and don't think through variables such as pre-operative functional abilities and personal healing times when crafting a program for people who seek their services. I've attained better range of motion just by using the knee on a daily basis than I ever accomplished with activities such as stationary cycling, and strengthening is gradually coming naturally by just walking. I now go to a smaller private PT center where their approach is more thoughtful and individualized, and what has been helping the most has been actual gait re-training, consciously attending to the motions and mechanics of the walking process broken down step by step. It's been a slow but steady recovery, and this forum is wonderful for those days when you just need a little support. Keep up your good work!

Thanks motherbone! Do you mind me asking what the injury was to your knee?? I have found this forum a great place to chat and discuss concerns. I know I’m only 6 weeks post op and although only 44 some days feel like I’m 84!

I have been put back on my crutches today and have to say this week (reading all other chats) has been of those 2 steps back week. Getting my pain under control has been difficult and do think I have neuropathic pain and perhaps need my meds changed.

I’m so so grateful to be able to discuss these issues with people who understand the challenges we face on a daily basis. I suppose I underestimated how long and painful a process this was going to be. Thank you to you all for making this a little easier, must say I’ve felt quite down this week with pain, so nice to chat.


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I’m so so grateful to be able to discuss these issues with people who understand the challenges we face on a daily basis. I suppose I underestimated how long and painful a process this was going to be.

I definitely agree with both of those statements. Wish I had spent some time in the recovery threads before surgery, I think I might have been a little more prepared for how much pain and discomfort would follow surgery.
 
I definitely agree with both of those statements. Wish I had spent some time in the recovery threads before surgery, I think I might have been a little more prepared for how much pain and discomfort would follow surgery.

Yes me too, I think sometimes the not knowing makes me a little more anxious and feels like something is wrong, when however, it’s actually just the long process of healing.


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@Celle thank you


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@pepsicola - My kneecap broke and my patello-femoral tendon ruptured. I was told that sometimes the patella becomes thin as a result of the surgery and that a fracture is an uncommon complication, but there was also a rupture of the internal incision into the joint capsule, which suggested to me that my knee had not healed enough to tolerate the forces that were placed on it by the PT exercises. You can track my recovery story on Motherbone's Recovery Thread, it's the only one I have for myself and I'm maintaining it chronologically so I can go back and compare how I'm doing now to how I was in the past. I'm doing much better than in early days. I think that because joint replacements have become more common, people tend to forget that they are major surgeries with a lot of tissue disruption and blood loss. That did not really sink in for me until I requested my pre and post op lab work and discovered that my hemoglobin after the second surgery was somewhere around 9. Normal would be closer to 12 or 13, so I lost a significant amount of blood. I don't want to scare you or anyone away from PT because when thoughtfully applied, PT can be very helpful in smoothing the path of recovery. But it should not hurt!!!
 
@Motherbone thanks so much for your reply. I’m going to have a read of your thread too, sounds like you have had a rough time of it.

I’m 7 weeks post op tomorrow and still have this pain and slight swelling on the right lateral aspect of my patella. A lot of pain today, so much so it stopped me in my tracks! RICE applied and resting up again, see my surgeon again on 24th and looking forward to seeing what he thinks


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I’m 7 weeks post op tomorrow and still have this pain and slight swelling on the right lateral aspect of my patella.
You're only 7 weeks into a recovery that takes a full year. At this early stage, it's normal to still be having pain and swelling.

Make sure that nothing you're doing at PT aggravates the pain and swelling. PT should never hurt, at the time or later.
 

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