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TKR 3-17 RTKR and Totally "On Course"

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@Phil75070, well done, seems like you're doing great. I have my 2nd physio session (I've only had one so even though I'm 7 weeks post op today) on Thursday. I wanted to ask is it normal for the knee to look purple after I've been on it for too long. I find it almost looks bruised again and then when I ice it, it goes down again. My physio doesn't seem to like the idea of massage, she says she doesn't like touching the scar, mind you it feels really sore when I try and massage it myself. Am doing 5 minutes on the bike still but it takes about 5 minutes doing half rotations until I can stretch to full ones.

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Phil75070 said:
It was my OS that was saying that we are not going to be "friends" for quite awhile as I haven't met my PT yet.
Click to expand...

Somewhere online I came across an 18-page primer on knee replacement that a doctor in Oregon gives to his TKR patients. It starts off like this:
"During the first 6 weeks after surgery:
• You will hate me for the first 4 weeks.
• I will not be such a bad guy at 6 weeks."

Sounds about right! :elevate:
 
Very funny. One of the honest OS's too!
 
@Jozilla @LauraLeigh At my last check up he asked me if I still hated him. Actually, I only hated him those first two hours in recovery while they were trying to get my pain under control!

@lori107 I am trying to remember how long it was before the bruises and the purple went away and I just don't recall! It seems like one day they were there and then they were gone.

My PT massages my scar vigorously and there have even been a few internal stitches that have popped through (they look like white dots but are bothersome when a pant leg rubs against them) that he has massaged until they "broke off" at or under skin level.
 
Yikes - that doesn't sound at all pleasant! I've heard of doing patella mobilization and muscle massage to keep blood clots from forming but never to the extreme of popping stitches.
 
Crikey!! I'm glad my physio is so gentle. Don't fancy stitches popping wherever they are.

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My incision was actually "glued" but there were internal stitches used but this is the third bit of one that hasn't dissolved and just broken through the skin. Maybe the use of the word "popped" is misguided. Not really painful at all just irritating when a pant leg brushes against it.
 
Phil my cycling is limited to short rides during the week then usually 50-60 miles on a weekend. I am 68 and was more of a mountain biker not a roadie. 2 years ago I road out in Moab Fruita area for a week. Living on the East Coast it was great to visit mountain biking Mecca


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Forgot to mention my PT using these medal instruments on my hammy and calf. I think he calls it grafton uses it around my scar also


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Another PT session this morning. The exercises continue to get a little easier each time and I continue to get ever so close to 0* extension. To help with that, the new wrinkle today was walking backwards on a treadmill. Supposed to help with that.

I trust all are continuing to improve as time goes by!
 
Phil, I just read your post from 9 April when you asked about driving and hydrocodone 10-325. That surprised me: I've been on that dosage for a couple of years at least and I take it throughout the day. It used to be afternoon and evening when I needed it but lately the knees have gotten worse so I take it first thing in the morning before driving to work. I've never had a problem - it doesn't make me woozy or anything. I do sometimes get sleepy on my drive but that's because I get up at 4 am!
 
Hydrocodone helps me sleep at night and that is the only time I take it now but I have no other side effects from it that would prevent me from driving, so I do and have been for a few weeks now. Tylenol seems to work well enough during the day.
 
Keep up the great work Phil . Tee time in no time !! I live about 2 miles from a golf course though I never golf. I ride my bicycle there to use pull up bars and dip bars and etc . Just chill there , get sun and clear my head . C ya !
 
Phil, I finally had the chance to catch up on your blog. Wow! What an adventure. And this is only your first knee. I'm glad I found bonesmart after surgery or else I may have said, "perhaps another few cortisone shots, please. "
My experience was so different from yours, I'm sure based on your spine. Would that condition prevent you from the epi also?
Fortunately for me (having no clue before surgery) I was one of the, as it turns out, rare ones who really experienced very little pain after surgery. I'm horrified thinking of what you went through!
The first night, at midnight no less two nurses took me on a stroll from my bed to the four of the room. I couldn't believe my knees felt fine. Then my blood pressure tanked and I barely got back to bed before I would've
Passed out.
You are motivating me to go to a driving range! Thanks, Buddy!

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@JustJeff My pre-op experience getting surgical approval was no picnic either. Due to things they would find as we went along it took about 6 weeks to get the OK for the surgery! I won't go into all the details here other than to list the tests which included a skull X-ray, two chest x-rays, two EKGs, an echo cardiogram, 2 CT scans, 1 PET scan, an ultrasound of one of my kidney's, a bone marrow aspiration and lots of blood drawn.

I asked my OS what we would do different with the other knee now knowing I couldn't get a spinal and there was no mention of an epi, just more local pain killers during surgery but he admitted they "take a while" to kick in. From my questions and research I gather that recovering from a correction of the valgus deformity is tougher than the recovery for a varus deformity which is what my other knee has. So, I am hoping it won't be as bad when I first wake up in recovery but if it is at least I will have been through it before and not scared that something went horribly wrong. :)
 
Like I said, if it was me, I'd think long and hard knowing what I went through with the first one, do I applaud your attitude and bravery! Perhaps they can induce a coma for a week to get over the initial pain. ;)

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Does quad and calf qualify as "whole leg"? At night, I get that "whole leg" is restless kind of feeling.
 
Well, I played golf for the first time since the surgery yesterday. Granted I was riding in a cart but I was very careful going up and down any slopes and in any wet areas where I might slip and made it through just fine. Two things actually surprised me. One, my stamina. I made it through all 18 holes and I nor my leg nor knee felt any tiredness or any other negative effects. The second surprise was how well I played!

You have to realize that golf is a passion for me and I have been playing since I was about 10 or so. I have been considered a pretty decent golfer with my handicap being as low as a 2 at times. Due to the increasing pain in my right knee prior to surgery I had "ballooned" to an 8, one of the reasons that drove me to putting myself through this! :snork:

Please forgive me for bragging here, but I shot a 3 under par 69 (par 72 course) from the tees I used to regularly play from. I did not move up to the "senior" tees. I also did not seem to have lost any distance off the tee or with any of my clubs. That matches my best ever score from that set of tees. Of course, being right handed and having had RTKR it is a case of pushing "off" my right side. When my LTKR is done and I have to move my weight "onto" my surgically replaced knee it could be a different story!
 
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