Revised PKR to TKR Agilitymom's revision recovery<<

[Jamie]

Have you contacted your surgeon's office regarding these pains? If not, I would. The water therapy may help you as it will keep full weight from your feet as you move. Just be sure not to overdo it. That's easy to do because the water makes the movements easier. Talk to your therapist about gait training. It may be that you need to improve your gait with this new knee. And, if you are wearing pre-surgery shoes, ditch them and buy a new, good pair of walking shoes. Wear patterns on old shoes can cause problems.

 

[kneeper]

There may also be some gentle stretches your PT could show you. Sometimes when our gait is off it can affect different muscles.

 

[agilitymom]

@Jamie I am a bit concerned about something going on with my knee. By about 5pm the last 5 days my knee gets really tight feeling and when I bend it it makes squeaky noises and feels like I need to WD 40 it. I am purposefully going to PT late this afternoon so they can see it and feel it. Do you think this is my knee just getting over done? I am really not doing much yet. Walking still is very painful and just standing gets everything hot and swollen and painful. I have been doing some light pool exercising and basic cooling off now that it is so hot here.

 

[Jamie]

This early in your recovery, I would say it's probably just the soft tissues getting used to the new implant. I think it's a good idea to demonstrate this for your therapist. Let me know what they say.

Getting swelling if you stand very long is pretty typical too at one month. Describe the pain you have when walking for me, though. And, let me know what a typical day looks like for you in terms of time spent exercising or with an activity, on your feet or sitting up with legs down, and time spent icing/elevating/resting.

 

[agilitymom]

@Jamie the pain is in 2 places When I walk. Worst is on inside of knee any time I basically put weight on it. It has been terribly bruised but is getting better slowly. I also get what I call shin splints and now right on top of my foot. I also get the tight band feeling so many others get.

Daily I am trying to walk about 15 minutes in the morning. It usually hurts enough that I go elevate and ice as it is also swollen then. I am also starting to fix meals, very easy ones, and do more around the house. I am also doing water therapy 2 to 3 times a week. My PT knows all the problems I have had and does not push me. We both thought water PT might be a good option and so far it has been.
I have been sitting up more without elevating. I do try To elevate quite a bit.

 

[Jamie]

What you're describing sounds pretty normal to me. I think you're just going to need to continue to take things very slow and let your body take its time to heal. This surgery may take longer than your others. Knees get rather put out with a lot of procedures in a relatively short period of time like you've had.

If you were not able to walk on your knee, I'd say to contact your surgeon. But if weight bearing just brings out some tenderness and soreness, then I'd say give it another couple of weeks and see where you are. It is possible to have some slight impingement of soft tissue between the articulating surfaces of your knee. That can be worse if you have any swelling in the knee compartment. So, since this just started up, it's possible that your increases in activity caused some swelling. In the next couple of weeks, also try cutting back on activity and exercise while adding more rest, ice, and elevation. If that makes an improvement then you'll know you were pushing just a bit too hard for this early in your recovery. It's such a fine dance we do......hang in there.

 

[sistersinhim]

It's such a fine dance we do.

This is so true, that's why it's so important to listen and watch your knee's reaction to what you do. If it's not ready to do what you are doing, it will fuss at you about it with increased pain and swelling.

 

[agilitymom]

@Jamie and @sistersinhim i think you are both right. I am trying so hard to no over do, but it is so difficult! Thank you both for your kind support.

 

[Jockette]

I know it’s hard to take it easy but maybe it’s even harder to pay the price of doing too much, even though we don’t think it’s too much at the time.

Your poor knee has had more than it’s share if procedures.

 

[agilitymom]

@Jockette ,
I go in for my 1 year checkup on my 2nd revision next week. I am not a happy camper with my new knee. I still have to ice every day as any walking on it makes it swell to about twice normal size. Very painful around top of knee and outside on right side of right knee. The pain goes all the way down the right front of my leg and into my foot. Lots of swelling behind my knee also. Rest and elevation help also, but as soon as any weight is on it, like standing up, the pain is back. I have never achieved full extension, close but can’t stand on both legs equally more than 5 minutes before I have to sit or just put all weight on left.
If you have any suggestions what I should ask my Dr I would be grateful.

 

[Jockette]

I’m sorry, I personally don’t have any suggestions, but I’ll take it to the rest of the staff for discussion.

 

[BBCG]

Laurenkate, I posted a note on my local neighborhood NextDoor group asking if anyone had an ice machine I could borrow! I got several very sweet replies and ended up borrowing two, which was fortunate since one had had the measurement lines removed! This might be a possibility if they are commonly used in your part of the world? I used it fur about 2 weeks, then only maybe once more. Will return them this coming week...

 

[Schaargi]

Hi @agilitymom

I noticed your handle and felt the need to say hi.
I'm so sorry you are having so much trouble!

I don't have any expertise to add to your thread but wanted to reach out. I had a hip replacement a year ago after about a year of pain and now have a torn labrum.

My Dalmatian and I had been having a great time with "Fungility," which is a light, laid-back agility. I went from wanting to keep up with the group (and having to quit) to wanting to just be able to walk my dog (still not possible). I am still sidelined and my dog is now getting too old.

I feel for you and hope you can get back to having fun with your dogs.

 

[Sisterpat]

agilitymom , so sorry you are struggling so. Praying you will receive some answers when you see your OS. Keep us posted. I know we’re all rooting for you!

 

[agilitymom]

@Schaargi I have given up on Agility. I know my girls miss it but it is just a bit too much. Now we are doing Scentwork to keep these Aussie girls busy. My 2 year old Aussie is now an official gopher hunter as she can sniff out the tunnel and stick her nose in and catch the gopher. Now to get her to replace the lawn she digs up. We still do a little agility in the back yard.

 

[Jamie]

Obviously at this point you should not be having this level of pain and swelling with small walks or standing. So, when you see your surgeon, you need to lay these problems out very clearly then see what he has to say. Assuming the x-ray he should take looks normal, it is still possible that there is some soft tissue impingement, so ask about that if he doesn't mention it. Also ask what else he thinks could be causing this continuing problem. His response will tell you whether you need to see someone else. If this is the case, it's going to be helpful to know who both your surgeons were. Then I may be able to point you toward some options for another set of eyes to view your knee.

 

[eaglemom]

I totally agree with everything that has been said here. Something I've found is that I write down my questions. It seems we get in the surgeon and they ask some questions, but if I have my questions written down I feel I've 'participated' in the visit.

I've been through multiple surgeries, and I've always found that working together with the surgeon works better than simply saying "my knee hurts." (Or something to that effect.) Surgeons like specifics - when I'm getting out of a chair my knee ..............., I'm really struggling to do stairs..................., when I'm trying to cook dinner I have to sit down after a few minutes, etc. Specifics.

Report how the visit goes.

 

[GiantFinnegan]

I've been through multiple surgeries, and I've always found that working together with the surgeon works better than simply saying "my knee hurts." (Or something to that effect.) Surgeons like specifics - when I'm getting out of a chair my knee ..............., I'm really struggling to do stairs..................., when I'm trying to cook dinner I have to sit down after a few minutes, etc. Specifics.

I agree with this. My surgeon really didn't want to do a TKR on me because I'm on the young side, until I explained that I go up the stairs using my hands too and go down the stairs sideways, have to wait a few minutes when I stand up because I can't walk until the knees decide to engage, can barely walk around the block some days, etc. That's when he started to take me seriously, even though my x-rays showed zero cartilage on the laterals of both knees.

 

[agilitymom]

Thanks to all of you for your replies and suggestions. I saw my surgeon this morning and he was very concerned. He did not like how swollen and painful my knee is. He said it was nothing like at 6 months when it looked great but still needed a bit of healing. He aspirated 2 giant syringes of fluid from one of the areas on my knee. He is worried about infection so also ordered blood work done today. I had written down some questions for him and one was whether NTM lung disease, which I was diagnosed with 3 months ago could cause problems in my knee? He said it was rare but he had just had a case with it in a patients replaced hip a couple months ago. So now he is going to culture the knee fluid for that also. 8 weeks of waiting for that culture. If not an infection he says we will have to look for other reasons for the swelling and pain. He thinks the knee appliance is stable.

 

[Jamie]

It sounds like you did an excellent job describing what has been happening with your knee. I'm pleased to see your surgeon has jumped in to begin checking things out. This is good and for now, it sounds like you're on the right path to getting to the bottom of what's going on. Please let us know how things go and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that whatever the problem might be is discovered quickly.