MUA 5 week failure<

[Celle]

It's fine but once I am up and moving it doesn't take long to swell up. I am so sad that I can't bend it, I even massage the sides as I try to bend but still stuck.

Robin, this is a year-long recovery and you're only just over a month into it.
Stop expecting too much, too soon from your knee, or you'll drive yourself crazy!

Your knee swelling is going to be around for several months still, although it will be decreasing slowly. Until that's all gone, your knee will still be hard to bend. Massaging it won't make it bend more, so leave it alone.

Think of your knee as being like a garden hose that is full of water. That water inside it makes it stiff and hard to bend. The swelling inside your knee is doing exactly the same thing. Empty out the water and the garden hose becomes much more flexible. Exactly the same thing will happen as the swelling leaves your knee. One day you'll find, to your surprise, that your knee starts to bend more easily.

There's no need to rush to get ROM (Range of Motion) because it can continue to improve for a year, or even much longer, after a knee replacement. There isn't any deadline you have to meet:
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR

It's not exercising that gets you your ROM - it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle, and time to heal. Your ROM is there right from the start, just waiting for all that to happen, so it can show itself.

Gather up all the patience you can find, and try to accept that this recovery is a marathon, not a sprint. You're in for the long haul.
We'll be here, to help and encourage you along the way.

 

[kmak81230]

I had swelling everywhere - on and around the knee, and above and below - and still do to some extent. You can see it in my 6 month photo on my thread. I just started to be able to see some knee definition in the past 4-6 weeks. As the swelling begins to lessen (which can take a long time) you will begin to see more bend. I still swell if I stand in one place for any length of time so I would say it is perfectly normal for you to swell when you are up and about. This recovery is definitely an ultra-marathon.

 

[Robinmhs88]

Thank you, I don't know what I would do without the support and all the post I have read on Bone smart. I have never cried so much, thanks for encouragement. My PT and Dr both told me to put my big girl pantries on and just force the bend or I would need to be forced to bend it :( It's just been a struggle
Thanks!!!

 

[Brimmy]

Hi. I'm at 7 weeks po tomorrow...I have around 80 degrees of bend. My surgeon would like me to be further on but I'm not. I can live with that now. Trust your body. My swelling is right down and I can do more. You can too. Keep it up.

 

[Jockette]

Forcing the knee to bend only makes it swell more and bend less. I don’t understand why the professionals don’t get that.

 

[Polkadot]

I just had to stop by because of the title of your thread! No one is a failure at five weeks. Most of us are just getting by then. Many of us are grouchy, sore, un-bendy, harried with exercises we do because our doctors told us to, and just plain flummoxed.

Things will improve! I second all the thoughts shared about swelling impeding bending, being gentle with yourself, etc. You've got this.

 

[kmak81230]

Oh, please don't force the bend no matter what the "professionals" say! It will slow your progress and cause unnecessary pain for you and injury to your knee. My surgeon was of that mindset but fortunately my PT clinic was not. I was forcing the bend for the first four weeks or so until I found Bonesmart and I started recovering better once I quit forcing it. Your knee will heal in its own time and in its own way and will have an easier time if you don't force. If your PT is aggressive, find another one or don't go. Ah yes, crying. I spent a lot of time crying in those first months - some because of the pain, but even after I quit torturing myself with the exercises I would break out in tears at the slightest things. It is very normal to have these feelings of despair (what did I do to myself? was this a huge mistake? what if I don't recover? I'm not normal. what if I'm not doing enough? etc etc). Hang in there! Sending a ((hug)) your way.

 

[sistersinhim]

Forcing your bend will just increase your swelling and lower your bend. It's common sense...you can't bend a swollen knee. Just like you can't bend a water hose full of water!

 

[Celle]

My PT and Dr both told me to put my big girl pantries on and just force the bend or I would need to be forced to bend it :( It's just been a struggle
Thanks!!!

@Robinmhs88
There's something else you need to learn and to apply to your recovery:
It is your body and your knee and no one can do anything to it without your permission.
No one can force you to have your knee bent.
Your surgeon can't do anything without your fully informed consent. He can advise, but you have the right to choose whether or not to accept that advice.
CONSENT: what it means and how it can be used
Saying no to therapy - am I allowed to?

 

[Robinmhs88]

Not getting better... ready to give up. Emotions are taking over. I wish I would have never done this

 

[kmak81230]

((Hey Robin)): You are still quite early in this year long recovery. You're about 7 weeks in -- this is tough time of recovery (I've called it the dog days), probably not as bad as the first few weeks but still lots of healing to be done so it does not seem like you are improving. I think it is pretty normal to feel like you made a horrible mistake at this point - I know I did. At 7 weeks I could barely go upstairs and could not go downstairs foot over foot, I was still not sleeping well, using a cane to walk, had just started being able to pedal a bike, and emotional. Even at 6 months I feel my knee every day - not pain, but certainly stiffness and tightness (some days more than others). I think you will begin to notice some improvement in a few weeks. I did around the 9-10 week mark. This recovery is hard, requiring lots of patience.

 

[Sammi2]

Hi Robin I am a couple of weeks behind you. My op was on October 17. I have been fortunate my physio has been so gentle. Everything has been geared to my pace and nothing has been forced on me which has helped me to heal. Ease up on yourself and let your knee be the pacemaker not someone else. It's working for me, it will work for you.

 

[funkymuse]

Hi Robin and @Sammi2 - (Sammi2 - mine was on the same day as yours!)

I've slowed way down on my daily exercises.. doing only walks around the house, venturing out for a 15 min walk outside, some heel slides on the wall, some knee bending on a stool - all VERY gentle and NO pain and some stretching. That's it! I am in agreement (FINALLY), with all the experts on healing here on this site, and see the light about the fact that 'how in the heck can we get any more bend if our knee is swollen?' Ding, ding, ding!!! The light finally went off in my head! PT forcing my knee to get to a certain ROM does nothing but cause more swelling and so in the end, the number means nothing!

I have a PT on Monday that I am cancelling and when I see my Surgeon on 11/29 for my first post op with him, I'm going to talk with him about all this and I may cancel the rest of my PT. I can't see how the stress of the travel to get to the PT office, and the overexercising they ask me to do at PT is going to help me in the least! It hasn't so far.

I absolutely have suffered intensely with the realization that this surgery is about 100 times more than I ever anticipated, I've cried so hard, and wondered if I was ever going to get back to normal. But I have learned from reading thread after thread after thread on this site, that I have to lay back, relax, have patience, and try to enjoy the ride. How often do we really get to sit back and relax, read, watch our favorite shows, have someone else to do the chores, or maybe do some studying we've wanted to do? This is a RARE commodity for me and so I've slowly learned that I need to take advantage of this precious downtime!

I so understand how you are feeling and I can only say that the clouds come and go and to just go with your feelings as far as letting them out here and crying when you need to. We have to.. there is nothing we can do.. we did the surgery and now we are STUCK. We HAVE to recover.. there's no other way out of this. Bless you and I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Lynne Cleveland]

Robin, it is a one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time recovery. We are so programmed to move forward in life that this is a recovery in which we can’t control. The knee is going to move at its own pace. That pace is different for
everybody. My physical therapist and the many calls I have made to OS’s nurse kept reminding me of that. I too, have cried, been moody and emotional through this journey. The pain meds do have a lot to do with that, lack of sleep and a constant focus on your knee. You will turn a corner and see even the slightest improvement that will make you feel like you are progressing. In the meantime just remember, one hour at a time, one day at a time. I am almost 9 weeks postop and am finally taking those small steps of improvement as progress.

 

[Dizzy]

This whole "adventure" is very frustrating! Even though they tell us it can take up to a year to feel better, I think we want to be the "exception" to that. I know that I am always questioning myself about what I SHOULD be doing to be better and why am I not As progressed in my healing as others. Definitely too much emphasis on ROM. Just anxious to be pain free!

 

[Robinmhs88]

Woke up this morning in extreme pain, especially in my shin bone.... hard to put weight on it.

Thursday I put my compression sock on and it felt great, kept the swelling controlled at work. When I got home I iced and elevated and took off the sock before bed. Tried Friday morning and through out the day didn't feel as good. Took it off at night. Woke up Saturday morning after spending time iced and elevated as always and the swelling was way down.

Put the sock on for me to do chores... iced throughout the day but took sock off at 4pm because the pain was so intense. Having my leg elevated hurt especially when I moved to stand up.

Any thoughts or ideas??

 

[Pumpkin]

Robinmhs88,
I am going to tag @Josephine our forum nurse, to help address your concerns.

In the early days my leg hurt most when I moved from bed/elevating to sit or standing, it improved as the swelling went down.

Most of us think we should be further along than we are, Where are you in recovery?? (TKR)

Hope you are able to spend the day resting, elevating, and icing today.

 

[Polkadot]

I don’t know about the extreme pain and difficulty putting weight on your leg; kudos to you for bringing that up!

Otherwise, in general, it sounds as though you did too much, your knee swelled, you got some of the swelling to go down with icing and elevating, and then you did more! Your knee then swelled enough that the compression sock was painful—like a sausage casing with too much filling!

Elevation probably helped as does the compression sock in general, but the pain tells you that they aren’t “magic bullets” that you can apply and then go on with too much activity. Maybe your knee was telling you this morning that you need to rethink how much activity you can pull off. Intense pain is never good!

Working and doing chores at home seems like quite a lot. For now, you may need weekends to recover from the work week. Just curious: What is your work like physically, and what kinds of chores were you doing this weekend? I know that sitting with legs down for any amount of time, and standing in one place, like chopping things at the kitchen counter, were things that made my knee very unhappy the first several months. I had to really limit both of those activities for a long time.

 

[Celle]

Thursday I put my compression sock on and it felt great, kept the swelling controlled at work.

Put the sock on for me to do chores... iced throughout the day but took sock off at four because the pain was intense.

It does sound as if you did too much and your leg responded by swelling and getting more painful.
You're back at work much too soon and that is putting additional stress on your knee.
Phased return to work

It's too early to be doing chores. Since you are back at work, when you get home, you should not nothing except rest, ice and elevate your leg. Read this article again and you'll see that you are expecting far to much from your knee this early in recovery:
Activity progression for TKRs

Robin, you're not giving your knee or yourself a chance to heal properly. This recovery takes a long, long time and nothing you can do will speed that up. Continuing to to too much can actually slow down your recovery. For the sake of your knee and for your own sake too, give yourself a chance. Take the time for your knee to heal.

 

[Robinmhs88]

I had to go back to work I had just accepted a new job and my insurance from my old school stopped at the end of Oct and my new one would start when I started. I went to wk 3 weeks after surgery for 4hrs a day. Last week I started 6 hrs. My insurance just started Monday. I do rest as much as I can but am so active, I have to do more resting. Thank you for the advice I appreciate it