Hello. I am almost 8 months post TKR, and while I found this site shortly after my surgery, I never started my own recovery thread because I didn't feel like my experience was all that noteworthy. But I feel like now I can add a few brief comments that might be helpful to others.
First, let me say that at almost 8 months post-surgery, I'm feeling pretty darn good. We recently returned from a trip to France to watch some of the World Cup, and many of my days involved walking 5-6 miles and the knee did not slow me down whatsoever. I did have some swelling and slight soreness on those days, but really not much.
But the road from 8 months ago to here was just as difficult as what many of you are going through now, and probably more difficult than some. My leg was severely deformed from the arthritis, and prior to the surgery, my surgeon did not think he could get it completely straight. But, in fact, he did get it straight, but told me afterwards it was a complex and difficult surgery. I suspect the difficulty of the repair caused my recovery to be a bit slower than many. And during those first few months, it seemed like it was taking FOREVER. But little by little, things got better.
The main thing I wanted to convey is that I have come to believe the Bonesmart people's ideas about recovery are right on the money. I've been active my entire life, and everything I heard and read prior to surgery was how your recovery is dependent on how much effort you put into PT. At first, I was doing everything I could to try to improve ROM, including walking laps around my house with a walker the day of surgery, enduring the pain of pedaling an exercise bicycle within a couple of days of surgery, following all the prescribed PT exercises, etc. I had found this forum by then, but had yet to fully internalize the advice.
But that changed at a PT session within a few weeks after surgery when the therapist forced by knee to bend causing severe pain. From that day forward I told the PT people not to do that, and a few weeks later simply stopped going when I realized that I would need a day or two to recover from the damage caused at PT. At one of my follow-up visits, my doctor, who had heard that I wasn't getting along with the PT people, told me he had recently read a new study that found that people who didn't have PT have just as good of outcomes one year following surgery as those who do have PT.
Don't get me wrong. It's not as though I did not exercise at all. That's never been my nature. But I felt I knew better what was good for my knee that some pre-canned PT routine. And if anything, I've been guilty of pushing it too hard myself, although I never pushed myself into as much pain as they did at PT.
I have not had my ROM measured in months, but I can tell just by looking that my bend is more than 125 degrees, maybe even 135, but I still don't quite have full extension. And it seems like the improvements in ROM come when I haven't been pushing exercise, and my knee if feeling good. So now at 8 months I can walk 6 miles in a day with only small discomfort later, I use my rowing machine almost every day, and can ride a bicycle for miles. I may even try snow skiing again this winter, something I haven't done in years due to the arthritis. My knee doesn't quite feel 100% back to normal yet, but it is getting close. So hang in there. Progress is slow, but it will come.
First, let me say that at almost 8 months post-surgery, I'm feeling pretty darn good. We recently returned from a trip to France to watch some of the World Cup, and many of my days involved walking 5-6 miles and the knee did not slow me down whatsoever. I did have some swelling and slight soreness on those days, but really not much.
But the road from 8 months ago to here was just as difficult as what many of you are going through now, and probably more difficult than some. My leg was severely deformed from the arthritis, and prior to the surgery, my surgeon did not think he could get it completely straight. But, in fact, he did get it straight, but told me afterwards it was a complex and difficult surgery. I suspect the difficulty of the repair caused my recovery to be a bit slower than many. And during those first few months, it seemed like it was taking FOREVER. But little by little, things got better.
The main thing I wanted to convey is that I have come to believe the Bonesmart people's ideas about recovery are right on the money. I've been active my entire life, and everything I heard and read prior to surgery was how your recovery is dependent on how much effort you put into PT. At first, I was doing everything I could to try to improve ROM, including walking laps around my house with a walker the day of surgery, enduring the pain of pedaling an exercise bicycle within a couple of days of surgery, following all the prescribed PT exercises, etc. I had found this forum by then, but had yet to fully internalize the advice.
But that changed at a PT session within a few weeks after surgery when the therapist forced by knee to bend causing severe pain. From that day forward I told the PT people not to do that, and a few weeks later simply stopped going when I realized that I would need a day or two to recover from the damage caused at PT. At one of my follow-up visits, my doctor, who had heard that I wasn't getting along with the PT people, told me he had recently read a new study that found that people who didn't have PT have just as good of outcomes one year following surgery as those who do have PT.
Don't get me wrong. It's not as though I did not exercise at all. That's never been my nature. But I felt I knew better what was good for my knee that some pre-canned PT routine. And if anything, I've been guilty of pushing it too hard myself, although I never pushed myself into as much pain as they did at PT.
I have not had my ROM measured in months, but I can tell just by looking that my bend is more than 125 degrees, maybe even 135, but I still don't quite have full extension. And it seems like the improvements in ROM come when I haven't been pushing exercise, and my knee if feeling good. So now at 8 months I can walk 6 miles in a day with only small discomfort later, I use my rowing machine almost every day, and can ride a bicycle for miles. I may even try snow skiing again this winter, something I haven't done in years due to the arthritis. My knee doesn't quite feel 100% back to normal yet, but it is getting close. So hang in there. Progress is slow, but it will come.