I’m so worried. I’m three months post op tomorrow. I was ahead of schedule as far as ROM at my 6 weeks mark and was told by my Dr I could stop going to PT. I was at 120 degrees bend and 0 degree straight.
I have to admit I lessened my in home PT.
At only 3 months you are 1/4 of the way through this recovery. Not doing PT is not what is causing your knee to lose some ROM, it's swelling. Since your knee has already bent to 120, that means it doesn't have adhesions and a MUA would do nothing but inflame it even more, causing a large setback. That bend is right there, plus an even better one as you heal! You do need to ice and elevate more than you are doing. This includes doing less to allow the time for the inflammation to leave your knee.
I figure sleep is sleep and I should sleep whenever I can.
You are exactly right. Getting sleep is an important part of healing. Sleep when and where you can. In my early days, which you are in, I took numerous naps; sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and even sometimes in the night before a normal bedtime for me. It was about 6 months before my normal sleeping habit came back. Even then, it was far from perfect.
Right now I’m doing a little housework when I feel like it and I’m cooking. I bake our own bread. We haven’t bought bread any bread at all in years. So every few days I bake bread. Lately my husband has been in the kitchen with me fetching and handing me what I need. I’ve been wondering if that’s a mistake because it’s keeping me from moving like maybe I should be.
No, you are not making a mistake. You are very early in your healing and your knee has told you that you are doing too much, which includes being on your feet more than you should be doing at your level of healing. It's too early for you to try to go back to all your normal activities. Your knee rebelled against that extra 'workload' on it. The best thing for you to do is to listen and react to your knee's reaction. If the pain and/or swelling increases, back off your activities and let your knee calm down. Then, slowly add one thing back in and see how your knee does. If OK, do it for a few days, then try adding something else. If your knee is unhappy with that added activity, then don't do it again for a few weeks, then try it again. I tried adding the swimming pool at the Y at 4 months. All I did was walk to the lap swim, swim one lap and walk back out to the showers. This angered my knee really badly. It was another 2 months before I tried it again and it did fine.
You can not speed up your healing by doing more, but you can sure slow it down. The knee is in control for the next 3-6 months for you. It is a learning process. I realize that everyone has things that they have to do, and the knee will suffer. But, if you continue to do something that inflames your knee, it slows down your healing, extending that pain and swelling.
Since you already hit 120 degrees, your knee is in good shape. Your soft tissues and bones are still in the healing mode, and that ROM will fluctuate for a long time. Try not to worry. If cutting back activities, along with icing and elevating more for a few weeks, don't bring your pain and swelling down, then it might be time to call your doctor. Remember, you don't need a MUA because it has already bent very well! You just have angry soft tissues!