TKR 9 months post op

[Jockette]

If it is painful to elevate toes above the nose, then don’t do it. I think elevating like that is more important in the earlier days when you have massive swelling right after surgery.

It might be painful if you are keeping your leg totally straight. It’s really ok to have a slight bend.

Relaxing in a recliner with your feet up is good, and I hope that is comfortable for you.

 

[sistersinhim]

Your bend numbers are just fine and you have no need for a MUA. Most doctors will not do one after the knee can bend at 90 degrees. You are past that. As your knee heals and the swelling goes down your ROM will improve.

 

[Jessiesnana]

I was having trouble elevating until I bought the proper pillow. It is now comfortable to elevate.

What pillow do u use

 

[sistersinhim]

Elevating Dos and Don'ts

 

[leejaa]

As everyone has mentioned, the knee will not bend when swollen and having someone push on it does not help but actually produces more swelling and eventual pain.

I found an easy way for me to work on flexion was to use my platform rocker and read or watch TV. I would start with my knee at whatever bend was comfortable and just rock. Rocking is meditative in itself and then slowly if my knee wanted to I would slide my foot back toward the chair and rock slowly some more. It is sort of a heel slide but more relaxing and in a different position. I would even have ice on the knee as I rocked since I had an ice holder that wrapped around the knee. It was a relaxing way to get the exercise in. If you do this, again do not do too long or too much but listen to your knee.

Have a peaceful day.

 

[dee1001]

I was having trouble elevating until I bought the proper pillow. It is now comfortable to elevate.

What pillow do u use

 

[Dizzy]

Did u have stiff knee at all

Yes, still have stiffness some days on my first TKR 3 years ago.

 

[np7]

Jessiesnana... I am a little bit ahead of you time wise and can say the advice you are getting here is FANTASTIC. Even reading the advice for you I clicked on heel slides and learned something even after two PTs watched me do it in person and another via video visit.

we are all pulling for you!

 

[np7]

BTW, I always elevate and ice after exercise by lying on a bed with my legs on a stack of pillows so my knees are higher than my heart. (At this point 8 wks out I don't worry about the angle of my knee bend, I just get it comfortable.) Most important is that the ice really helps with the pain.

 

[Jessiesnana]

So I called my dr as recommended by PT last Monday and on Tuesday his office called wanting me to come in on Thursday.

I was very nervous in anticipation of what he might say about MUA. Well on Thursday he shook his head in regard to MUA asked me about PT. Saying maybe they were pushing too hard.

While I was sitting on the table he asked me to bend my knee back as far as I could and he said it looked about 110 to him. He started moving leg around and said he wanted me to go to a different PT.

He also ordered ultrasound on leg to make sure there were no clots and ordered blood work to check for infection. Ultrasound was negative. Haven’t received results from blood work. He called PT and spoke to them about my case.

I called PT and no openings for 2 weeks so I pleaded that dr had called and wanted PT to evaluate and get back to him within a couple of weeks.
So I have a 1/2 hr appt next Tuesday and1 hr appt next Thursday. Looking forward to this appt. so glad my dr seems to be of philosophy of not aggravating knee. Will see how it goes on Tuesday.

A couple of things that worry me is
1) difficult to ride in car. Almost seems like seat is pressing on a nerve. After 10-15mins I am wiggling with discomfort and pain
2) after any activity there is pain (bearable) onoutside and below knee then swelling at top outside of knee
3) dr has not shown me X-ray of knee. He just says it looks fine. However I wouldn’t know if it wasn’t right either. I am going to ask for copy on my next visit which will b October 30 unless I need to go in earlier.

 

[Celle]

I was very nervous in anticipation of what he might say about MUA. Well on Thursday he shook his head in regard to MUA asked me about PT. Saying maybe they were pushing too hard.

While I was sitting on the table he asked me to bend my knee back as far as I could and he said it looked about 110 to him. He started moving leg around and said he wanted me to go to a different PT.

He called PT and spoke to them about my case.

I called PT and no openings for 2 weeks so I pleaded that dr had called and wanted PT to evaluate and get back to him within a couple of weeks.
So I have a 1/2 hr appt next Tuesday and1 hr appt next Thursday. Looking forward to this appt. so glad my dr seems to be of philosophy of not aggravating knee. Will see how it goes on Tuesday.

I called PT and no openings for 2 weeks so I pleaded that dr had called and wanted PT to evaluate and get back to him within a couple of weeks.
So I have a 1/2 hr appt next Tuesday and1 hr appt next Thursday. Looking forward to this appt. so glad my dr seems to be of philosophy of not aggravating knee. Will see how it goes on Tuesday.

It seems your surgeon agrees with what I advised you, back in Post #5. There is nothing wrong with your Range of Motion (ROM). It's pretty good, in fact.

What's wrong is that you have an impatient, pushy PT therapist, and that's pretty much what your surgeon said.

See how your PT session goes on Tuesday, but if your therapist can't work with the way your surgeon wants, walk away. Now you've got so far, your ROM will continue to improve, whether you go to a gentle therapist or decide to just let your activities of daily living be your exercise.
It's your knee and you have the right to choose what happens to it.
Saying no to therapy - am I allowed to?

 

[Jessiesnana]

Back again after 2 weeks. now at 12 weeks or 3 months post op. I like new PT. He is gentler but has made comments about possibly being able to do more if i had started earlier with him. Wants me on 3 advil (600 mg) every 8 hrs to fight inflammation. Also still taking 1 norco at bedtime. Knee is still swollen and hurts to bend too far as well as when sitting in car. Seeing doctor tomorrow And plan to ask to see xrays. Blues haven’t hit since changing PT until tonight. It just doesn’t seem like progress is being made. Someone told me a lot can happen between week 9 and week 12 but not much has. I do seem to b walking better but pain is still there. I can live With the ROM but not the pain. Sorry but have been hanging onto some hope which seems to b slipping through and away

 

[Jaycey]

Recovery does not happen in a straight line. Just give yourself the time you need to heal.

Are you icing and elevating?

 

[Jockette]

I was still in a fair amount of pain and had quite a bit of swelling, especially with activity, at 3 months post op. I was still taking tylenol and ibuprofen round the clock.

This is a long, slow recovery and like Jaycey said, not a straight line. At 3 months you are 25% healed in this year long recovery.

Recently I compared this recovery to baking cookies. My chocolate chip cookies take 12 minutes to completely bake. If I take them out earlier, at 2 minutes, 4, 8 or whatever, they will only be partially baked, and not all that tasty, because they’re not done yet.

The same is true of our knee at 2 months, or 3 months, etc. It needs time to finish healing.

He is gentler but has made comments about possibly being able to do more if i had started earlier with him.

It is not your PT that heals you, it is time.

Regaining our ROM/strength is more about Time than repetitions of a list of exercises.

Time to recover.
Time for pain and swelling to settle.
Time to heal.

Our range of motion is right there all
along just waiting for that to happen so it can show itself.

In the general run of things, it doesn't need to be fought for, worked hard for or worried about. It will happen. Normal activity is the key to success.

 

[Jessiesnana]

Recovery does not happen in a straight line. Just give yourself the time you need to heal.

Are you icing and elevating?

Yes at least twice a day usually after activity and then at end of day

 

[sistersinhim]

I iced the whole time I was sitting or laying down until the pain setting down. As long as you have a cloth between you and the ice pack, you can't over ice.

 

[Celle]

And plan to ask to see xrays. Blues haven’t hit since changing PT until tonight. It just doesn’t seem like progress is being made. Someone told me a lot can happen between week 9 and week 12 but not much has. I do seem to b walking better but pain is still there. I can live With the ROM but not the pain. Sorry but have been hanging onto some hope which seems to b slipping through and away

This is a year-long recovery. It doesn't matter if progress seems to be slow,' because you still have a whole 9 months for everything to improve. Where your knee is now is not where it's going to end up.

You used to have an impatient PT, who kept telling you that things had to improve quickly, but that was wrong. Your ROM is OK and it willkeep on increasing slowly for a long time yet.

and

 

[Jessiesnana]

Thanks Celle. It’s scary. Dr spoke with PT and has written prescription for compression socks and he has contacted dr for a nerve block injection which should help with pain and swelling. He does not want to do MUA. Which is fine with me. It was good day to go into dr because it was bad day fir knee

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

@Jessiesnana
I had bilateral TKR on July 6th. This coming Monday I will be 18 weeks post op. I still take extra strength Tylenol and Advil every 6 hours around the clock. I HURT if I don’t take it! My doctor cut off the narcotic pain meds at 6 weeks - way too early in my opinion. To tell the truth, there are days (and nights) when I could still really use a hydrocodone or a Tramadol, but ice, Advil and Tylenol will have to do.

When my PT ended at 13 weeks post op, I was 110 in left knee and 100 in right knee. I know I’m better than that now. Extension is great in my left knee but seems to be regressing in my right knee. I’m kind of worried about it to tell the truth. I still do a lot of daily stretching and heel slides. And I just got a bike trainer stand so I can work on ROM using my road bike. Looking back, I have come a long way in 4 months (I’m a teacher; I walk about 8000 steps a day at work and have to go up and down lots of stairs, which I can now do normally if I hold onto the hand rail), but I still have a long ways to go. We will get better over time!!!! Too many folks who’ve gone before us have proven that we will continue to improve over the next several months.

 

[Muldoh]

Hi Jessiesnana. I am four months along in this TKR recovery, and I am definitely no expert. But I thought I would add a little of my story because it’s somewhat different from most others on this site. My OS did not recommend any formal PT after surgery. At first I was so worried because I thought that I would never progress. But he’s a big research guy and told me that much of the current research does not support the use of PT, especially the aggressive type, for beneficial recovery. He said that in most cases it only causes increased pain and swelling, which impedes the body’s healing. He also stressed that the activities of daily living for most patients would be more than enough to get them back to the ROM that they needed. I was very skeptical, especially after I went on this site and found that probably 90% of the patients were doing regular PT. But I had to trust him… He was a well-known doc in a large metropolitan area, and consistently listed by the associations as a top doc in the field. So I listened and didn’t do any specific exercises. However, I did ride the exercise bike starting off at five minutes a pop and working up to about 25 minutes which is where I am now. Not only did it help my stamina, but it seem to loosen up the knee and made it feel so much better afterwards. And at 4 months I can tell you that at least for me, my doc was spot on. My range of motion is good, the knee is working fine, I am back to work and feeling better every day. The knee is still far from perfect, but way better than it was. So the moral of my story is you don’t need to let them push you, scare you or bully you!!! I know it’s easier said than done, especially when you are in a vulnerable position as we all are after the surgery. But hang in there and listen to that knee. Icing and elevating were my best friends, along with time and patience Wishing you well!