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TKR 6 months and leg pain gone!

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thank you @Dhare63. how easy did you take it? I am trying mainly to just lay in bed but don't know if i need to try to move anything. My OS said i had a fair amount of scar tissue and that he put something in my knee to prevent more from happening. I have no idea what he is talking about as usual. Have you heard of anything like that? every once in awhile i get stabbing needle pains in what i think is the incision and this morning was in a lot of pain so just taking my meds and resting/ Thanks again for your help
 
Here is what my Os did---he changed the spacer so that it was a little bigger and did not have the laxity of the first knee---he felt that the laxity contributed to the problem with adhesions. He also removed the adhesions.

Like @Dhare63 I had two or three days of pain when I mostly just stayed in bed with my leg propped on three pillows with ice. By the fourth day, I felt a lot better. I did not have any pt for three weeks---just did heel slides and leg lifts. Take it easy, you don't want to get the knee more inflamed.
 
thanks for your reply i guess ill know what he did when i see him for my followup. it really hurt this morning then felt a little better but got worse I'm trying not to do anything except go to the bathroom but its hard. I feel pulling when i try to raise my leg onto the bed just like after the tkr. I can deal with 3 days though it gives me hope and knowing you and Dhare went thru this helps me too. Im just worried it won't make any difference and i will end up the same but i guess that is just worry and I'm going to think more positive.
 
Please be sure that you are taking your pain medication on a regular set schedule and keeping ice on your knee constantly....day and night. That is the best way to manage this initial pain. You only need to do a few gentle bends and stretches a couple of times a day to keep the joint moving, along with walking to the kitchen or bathroom when you need to.
 
I had a revision in April, with the removal of a significant amount of scar tissue. The soft tissue has taken a long time to heal, just in the last 2 weeks I am feeling like it has healed significantly. My ROM is better than before the revision, with very little effort other than heel slides, and regular activity around the house. I spent a lot of time following the mantra, Rest, Ice, Elevate, and Medicate. I was taking pain medication on schedule until a month ago.
My recovery has been delayed by mal alignment of my revision, things have been moving very slowly, and I am getting better.
Sometimes I have had a hard time staying positive, it passes when you get over the hump. It helps me when I am thinking of other things or people.
Someone is here 24/7, you can come and vent, post, or play games in the games room.
Skigirl gives excellent advice to take it easy!
 
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oh @Pumpkln Im sorry you have had such a hard time was your revision the metal also? I will read your thread. Sometimes it seems never-ending but then if i never had the TKR i probably would not even be walking right now. I wish you the best. I have tried to ice my knee but the bandage is huge and can't even feel the ice even after an hour have been taking my meds and kind of worried about that when can i finally get off these things!!
 
Yes, they replaced the whole implant with a hinged implant.
Sorry you have such a huge bandage, hope it is removed at your next visit so you can Ice. Too early to be thinking about getting off meds, it is important to have good pain control after surgery.
Could you add your arthrotomy date to your signature, just hover over your user name top right on the screen, and a pop up window will appear, click on signature, and add your new information there. Thanks!
 
Hang in there. The pulling is likely the swelling that is crowding the joint and incision. That will pass.

I basically did ankle pumps and very gentle bending. Slow walking, heel to toe, and iced as much as possible. For me that made the difference between TKR recovery and this surgery.

It is all a test of patience and fortitude. Keep your chin up and as pumpkin says, your knee buddies are always here for support!

Be well,

Dawn
 
Thanks everyone this morning it feels better. Not great but better I know there will be ups and downs and am really trying to be positive and just chill with it. I want to be better yesterday!! Don't we all!
 
Glad to hear you are feeing better today, there are ups and downs. As you heal there will be more ups and less downs.
 
Yes, you just have to hang in there for a while. I am glad you are feeling better---it will get better. I was very frustrated by the slow reocvery. My PT would not let me do anything but leg lifts, quad sets and clam shells until 8 weeks out. At 8 weeks we began to exercise, but slowly and if the knee became hot, he would back off immediately.

This is what he said to me, "we will do everything we can to prevent the reformation of adhesions. If we do this and they come back, at least we will know that we did our best." It was good advice and two years out---am I happy? yes, and I am glad that we did it the slow and easy way.
 
@skigirl @Dhare63 @Pumpkln I don't know if you would remember the little details after your adhesion removals but i am at day 5 and just feel drained i can keep going but just can't get fully rested. also my knee/leg is tingling itching i guess thats healing. the pain hasn't been too bad ( i compare everything to post TKR) i have stiffness and can't really bend my leg too much due to the bandage. I called my OS PA and he said i do need to try to move it not too many details. So trying to move some but not too much.:scratch:. my thoughts and prayers go out to all on this forum that are not doing well reading others stories has reminded me that "its always something" i thought it was just me being a bad patient or everyone else does well why not me? Hope that came out right!
 
I also had a day like the one you are experiencing---I was convinced that the surgery was a failure and that my leg would never move. I did begin to gently move it---did they tell you to leave the bandage on? I felt so defeated--all this for nothing. Slowly, but surely, thiings began to change for me. I began to move the leg a little more---I found that walking slowly for about 100 yards and back helped. I still spent a lot of time on the couch with my knee propped up with three pillows. I did a lot of icing. Things will improve.

Elevating your leg to control swelling and pain
Using ice
 
My scar tissue was removed with a complete Revision, I had 120 degrees of flexion before the revision, and now have 130 degrees of flexion. Like Kelly says, lots of resting, icing, elevating, and medication. Your surgery was just last week you are in the early stages of healing. This process tests our patience, you will get there.

BTW: I did very little other than heel slides for flexion, it just kept getting better as I healed.
 
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thanks all! yes they told me to keep my HUGE bandage on until i see the OS this Wednesday. icing is pointless at this point it just dosent soak thru the bandage. it will be great to take a shower but i guess there are worse things in the world than dirty hair and stinky body :eeeuw:. Im visualizing my knee adhesion free and the inside not smushed working wonderfully Positive thought positive outcome lets hope. Will do some heel slides and ankle pumps but not much more when i walk i am stiff legged I'm afraid to bend it and do heel to toe i guess it can wait
 
Ditto everything that @skigirl and @pumpkin said. The feelings of exhaustion and restlessness are to be expected, and so much of the early days of TKR will be repeated with this surgery as well. Do keep trying to ice even though you don't think it's helping, the early icing can help a lot. Keep elevating the leg, nap when ever you can, and gentle stretches.

Stay in touch and let us know how you are doing. It will get better, promise!

Be well,

Dawn
 
@Pumpkln Hi i read your most recent posts and see you have IT band syndrome also. I have that and my OS PA told me my surgery would not take care of that it would be pt i guess have you seen an improvement in yours? I get my stitches out tomorrow and have not really had a WOW i feel better moment. my leg is bending better than after the surgery but when i tried to go up stairs the normal way i feel the pain on the outside middle of my knee. i guess thats the IT band. i am also feeling down like after the TKR i guess thats normal after anesthesia and getting cut and whatever else they did. i have been reading a lot of posts on the forum and hope everyone gets a little pass tonight and feels better.
 
My ITB is up and down depending on my activity. I roll my ITB every day on a soft roller.
Here is a link to an article in the library about ITB issues.
ITB (ilio-tibial band) issues and treatments
I agree the recent surgery is contributing to you feeling down.
Thanks for your good wishes,
 
When I was here yesterday, I was told I didn't have enough experience to post on your thread. I didn't notice that the exchanges above were posted in September. I'm delighted to have your thread reopened. I'll repost some of what I said elsewhere.

It is with great interest that I've been reading your post. I've been reading Frank Noyes book on arthrofibrosis and the link to his comments on what options there were for managing it. broken link removed: https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/courses/arthrofibrosis-12-part-course-frank-noyes-md/established-arthrofibrosis-options-management. Bonesmart is so nice to link us immediately to people that can bring a person to us that knows first hand what arthrotomy is about. In my experience, doctors don't begin to have time to answer the myriad of questions someone faces when they are being faced with decisions about a new procedure. That is truly a big plus to validate the need for Bonesmart. A big question for me at the moment is recovery time and you've already alluded to that. I'm sure there's more, but I have been reading in so many directions, my head is swimming. I also have a torn rotator cuff that needs attention, too.

I'll be in touch. kneewords, I hope you might share more about the last few months of your recovery and what problems you were having that led to this procedure. @Dhare63, was your scar tissue removal procedure also an arthrotomy, or is there a difference?

It was below zero earlier today and it is up to 7 now - hope you all are bundled and warm wherever you are! Avoid all slippery ice patches, too! :ice:
 
Hi Martha,

I'm not sure what you would call my surgery. The definition of arthrotomy seems to apply to so many things. I have seen it referred to as open lysis of adhesions. That's beside the point. Here is my understanding of what was done to create more flexion:

The original TKR incision was opened up. The spacer was removed. Then they removed scar tissue which had grown into the space between the spacer and bone, plus behind the knee and up my thigh. I believe he also released the capsule with incision and any additional adhesions he could see. It was a long procedure and created a lot of bruising. It was very painful for a few days right after, but then as I started to walk a bit, it was clear that the joint was much freer. I will go back and review my thread for what I posted right after it was done, but the above are the main points.

I iced the joint endlessly. I did gentle stretching, lymphatic massage and once the swelling went down, warm water pool therapy.

I would not have done this any differently if I had to do it over again.

Cold today, waiting for the big snow storm tomorrow, hoping we get more than a few inches this time!

Let me know what else I can do!

Dawn
 
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