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TKR 5 Years Post Op

Good on ya @dvannie ! Finding a good PT and feeling confident.

I'm at 2 weeks 2 days with pretty much CONSTANT elevating and icing. Every day something changes no matter how small. Just this am I noticed the skin any knee was loose! Sudden big jump overnight.

I'm slightly warming my knee preparing for my recumbent and then will ice later. My daily routine is recumbent bike, cooking my own breakfast/lunch, short neighborhood walk, random heel slides, leg lifts, working on extensions. Just in short bursts while im reading or binging on TV :) Do any of you know the show "Packed to the Rafters"? Australian. Feel like im part of the family I've watched so much!

Keep tuning in here to maintain support. I can't believe the gasps of horror when I tell people I'm doing my own PT. Been around the block with the other knee No appt with OS until 6 weeks, so he has no say.
Hang in there.

Welcome home to hubbies. I can't imagine doing it alone but I know many of us on this list, do.

A lot of courage and love here. ♥️
 
dvannie said:
I stiffen up so much when doing my stretches and i know that if I could just relax a bit, I could do so much better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

I sometimes massaged the muscles a little bit before trying any stretches. If nothing else it felt good. Sometimes a little heat on the muscles (not the knee itself) eases that tension for a bit, but in the early days most of us find we're in the "angry tissue stage" as we call it here where there's no miracle cure but time.
 
Well, the surgeon is definitely not happy with my ROM. He wants to schedule a MUA now since he says that they do not work at about the 12 week point. Then he proceeded to force my bend and now I have an extremely swollen knee. It was feeling so good this morning that I just want to cry. I told him that have a new PT on Monday so he's willing to give me two more weeks to get the magical 90 degrees. He said that if I do not I will have a stiff knee and will require another knee replacement to fix it. He said that PT will just draw this out for a long time but a MUA will be quick and relatively painless way to reach the 90. At this point I really don't believe him and I will hang I there with what I have been doing since to me I've made a lot of progress, from about 10 degrees two weeks ago to about 60 now. He didn't seem impressed by that improvement and unfortunately there were two people who were before me at 2 weeks who had better ROM that I did. He said that I just need to up my Meds for full dosage for PT because they have to hurt me to make it better. I am quite honestly tired of of this viewpoint and I know that I will have a battle on my hands on Monday.
I feel somewhat defeated and I know that I have to get beyond this pity party, I can't wait for my hubby to get home, I miss my rock.

Thanks for your support, it means a lot!
 
In your recovery articles that would left for you, there is the article about the myth of window of opportunity for a MUA:
https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/myth-busting-window-of-opportunity-in-tkr.6895/

50* improvement is quite a good achievement. Your doctor should have been pleased. You can't bend if you're swollen. You can tell what his bending your knee past where it wanted to be bend...much increased swelling. The same thing will happen if you take full meds and go to pt, letting them bend it past the point your knee is ready to be bent. I wouldn't even go to PT until your swelling comes way down. Nothing but harm will be done to your knee if they follow your OS's instructions.

It is your knee. Your OS is your employee as is PT. You have the say so for what is done for your knee. Stay in complete control of that baby knee of yours.
 
dvannie said:
He wants to schedule a MUA now since he says that they do not work at about the 12 week point. Then he proceeded to force my bend and now I have an extremely swollen knee. It was feeling so good this morning that I just want to cry. I told him that have a new PT on Monday so he's willing to give me two more weeks to get the magical 90 degrees. He said that if I do not I will have a stiff knee and will require another knee replacement to fix it. He said that PT will just draw this out for a long time but a MUA will be quick and relatively painless way to reach the 90.
Click to expand...
It was cruel of your surgeon to force your knee - don't let him (or anyone) do that again. No one has the right to hurt you.
Your surgeon is obviously one of impatient types, wanting to do an MUA at 4 weeks. Most of what he told you is incorrect. It's possible to have an MUA many months after a knee replacement. There is no 12-week limit.
sistersinhim has given you the article about that magic "window of opportunity," - it doesn't exist. It's a total myth, because ROM can continue to improve for a year, or even longer after a TKR.

And saying you would need a complete re-do of your knee replacement is just a downright lie. I know of someone who discovered that her ROM had increased 3 years after surgery.

Go to PT by all means, but don't get trapped into thinking that you have to work hard to increase your ROM. IN fact, working too hard could actually slow it down.
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.

So, spend as much time as you can trying to reduce your knee swelling, with lots and lot of rest, ice and elevation, instead of doing lots of exercise.
 
oh my goodness @dvannie, i see you're in kitchener; i'm in "the six" (you know what that means, right?). in any case, you must have the same surgeon as me, same expectations, same opinions on physio and same threat of m.u.a. i felt exactly the same as you, an anxiety filled weekend prior to the monday appointment, when i knew i had not achieved the magical 95 degrees at 9 weeks. thankfully, he calmed down on monday (maybe the receptionist told him i tried to cancel and was terrified when he mentioned m.u.a.) and he ended up saying that as long as i had small improvements each weekly appointment, he was okay with that.

i don't know what to suggest, just wanted to let you know you're not alone in your feelings. you will feel a lot better when your hubby gets home. you're still early in your recovery ~ lots of time for your r.o.m. to increase.:console2:
 
@dvannie, I'm so sorry to hear about your awful visit with your OS; good grief! As my PT told me just yesterday "Anyone, even your husband could force your knee to 90 degrees, but it doesn't mean anything. It's only what you can do on your own that matters. Given enough time and the right therapy, you'll get there. Your OS knows this and that's why he's not concerned about your present ROM." Both the PT and my OS have 60+ years experience between them, so they've certainly seen their fair share of knees. In your shoes, I'd never go back to your surgeon. I know it's difficult (almost impossible here) to find another surgeon to follow your case until you are 100%, but I'd look! I'd look very hard.

Hope your pain is under control for the rest of the night! Big Hugs!:console2:
 
My husband is home! It's great to have my cheering section back! He hasn't seen me in ten days and keeps saying how much I've improved, especially the bend not to mention how I'm able to do most day to day things myself now. I know I had but due to the surgeons reaction to it, it made me doubt what's happened so far. Just really goes to show that for some surgeons you are more a number, an assembly line item. I knew he didn't remember or read his notes before he saw me and he didn't even remember my surgery or my previous surgeries before this when we asked if the scar tissue from them could be causing any issues.

My pain and swelling are better and I'm continuing with my stretches that has resulted in my progress so far and I will stick to my guns when I meet with my PT on Monday. I've come to the conclusion that due to my fears of being hurt when people touch me, I stiffen up so horribly and so when they do try to 'help' me this in turn causes the pain and swelling that results because I'm fighting against them. Not a great thing but good to know so that I can share it with PT so that they understand it's just a 'knee jerk' reaction ... LOL

Thanks again for your continued support. It's so good to know that there are others like me out there and I'm somewhat normal.
 
I'm happy to hear your husband is back and sees a big difference! How great is that!

I was adamant, no one touched or lifted or moved my leg but me. Not my family, not the PTs, not even the nurses. I was afraid they'd drop my leg or cause pain. There's really no reason for the PT to "help" with bending or straightening. I used a leg lifter to lift my leg until I could do it on my own. Sometimes my cane helped in that area too.
 
It just goes to show you have much you can improve and not even know it! so good that your hubby could tell. What an uplifted for you! Slow and easy on the PT. And you stay in complete control. No one does anything that you don't want them to do. That includes no touching at all.
 
My heart hurt when I read your OS forced your knee to bend. Why do people think that is helpful? It doesn't make sense to me. This isn't a minor sports injury or atrophy from being less active. Sheesh! Glad to hear your husband is home. He will give you the TlC you need.
 
Glad to hear your hubby is now home, noticed an improvement, and your feeling less pain! Whoohoo, things are looking up!:happydance:
 
I'm happy to hear that your husband is home and he was able to see all the improvement you have made. It's unfortunate that many OS just concentrate on numbers and not see the unique patient.
 
Hi, dvannie. I'm glad you're feeling better. I hope to reassure you, as others have, that you don't need heavy-handed PT, or really much PT at all.

I am a TKR recipient who, after my second TKR, didn't do much official PT by choice and everything turned out fine. When I finally started PT it was 6+ weeks post op and with the caveat that the therapist may not touch my knee or measure unless I requested it. So they didn't touch or measure- no massages, no e-stim, really nothing but instruction and observation. As a result I was much more relaxed vs my first TKR and, to reiterate, everything turned out fine. I have since confided to my OS that I slacked on PT and he was perfectly okay with it, especially when I handed him an action photo of me mountain biking. It is hard to argue with success!

I do recommend you actively bend your own knee at home- early on I did heel slides in bed and other simple stretches. But I did them on my own schedule and to my tolerance- it was pretty wonderful. As time went on I gradually increased my activities, as will you.

Best wishes and great healing!
 
It's so important to have a PT you trust and who does not hurt you. I hope your meeting went well @dvannie
 
Just wanted to share that my PT went really well. This facility is used to dealing with a lot of knee replacement clients so they see it all. She did push me and it did hurt a little but not to the point that I wanted to scream and cry. She took her time evaluating my current issues and admitted that my knee is one of the stiffer knees that she's seen in awhile but she had ideas and different things to try. She checked out my other knee and found that I only had a ROM of 110 so she figures that due to how bad this new knee was was prior to surgery, it's putting up a good fight against doing what it could hardly do in the first place.

It's funny I was there for about 70 minutes all told and walked in with a ROM of 45 and by the time we were done with stretching I was at a 65 and that was without her assisting me with the bend! Gotta say I was pretty excited! I now have some additional stretches for at home. The best of all of this is when I woke up this morning, I had no pain and swelling! I am confident that I'm now on the right track and have two more appts this week and another three next week before we have to report back to the surgeon. One of the best things about this PT is that the surgeon works at the same facility so I don't have to make an appt to see him again where I have to sit 2-3 hours waiting for him all we have to do is make a quick call to him and he will pop over to check out the bend. Fingers are crossed that I can reach my 90 ROM for him after two weeks!

Again, cannot say how much your support has meant in keeping my sanity. I now have my hubby back and also my dog and wow, what a difference! I had to farm out my dog to my inlaws during this time bacause she's a small dog and insists on laying on my knees and because we live in a condo, I couldn't take her out for her bathroom breaks.

Diane
 
that's wonderful progress, Diane, and happy you have an experienced physio and the benefit of being in close proximity to your surgeon so you don't have to make a separate appointment. does your surgeon insist on checking you on a weekly basis? mine does ~ just wondering what the protocol is for others.
 
Having a good PT is a blessing, and it sounds like you are blessed! It is best if you don't let the therapists push your knee or leg. With her pushing, the ROM doesn't count. It's only what your knee can do on its own.
 
I agree with Paula, don't let the PT push your knee or cause pain. Your new knee is only a month old and doesn't need a lot of exercise to heal. Take a look at Activity progression for TKRs to gage what your should be doing. If your in tears from pain that's a sign the activity is not good for your knee.
 
I've been reading your posts and was cringing but now am glad that things are looking up for you.

I too did some gentle exercises whenever I felt like it with whatever number I could until it got painful.
Having an understanding PT makes such a difference!
Wishing you continued healing.
Happy for you that you have your fur buddy back home. Have you taken her for a short walk already?
 
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