TKR Almost one year, still a bit sore

[Jockette]

I’m sorry you are still swollen and in pain. It sure can take a long time for some of us.

“All the walking you did” when your sister was here will not loosen up your knee, if it was too much for your knee it will make it swell more. I couldn’t do tons of walking at 3 months. In fact, I have not been to any events yet, that require lots of walking.

I wish I had something better to tell you. I wish our bodies healed faster, but they just don’t, and it varies from person to person.

My sister broke her big toe a few years back. It took months for the swelling to go down enough to wear a regular shoe again. And that was just a toe. And she didn’t even have any surgery on it. And it took months!!

Our knee joint is much more complex and it took a beating ( literally! ) during surgery. It’s going to take a long time to repair itself.

 

[Irelandliz]

Thanks @Jockette i guess I was just thinking of what had been said about the normal day to day living we do is enough exercise for our knees and that will be enough. I was hoping the day to day walking and getting up and down would all help to improve my flexion but as you say I am still only at 3 months and have a lot of repairing still to take place within my new knee before I will feel normal again.

You’ll laugh but when the surgeon told me I should be able to drive at 6 weeks I thought I’d be right as rain at six weeks lol. Meanwhile I could only drive at 9 weeks and it’s so uncomfortable for me to do it I avoid it at all costs even now... moving my leg from accelerator to brake is quite a chore!!

And you’re right - I’ve broken toes before and the one time it was about 6 weeks before I could even walk properly and our knees are so much more complex joints than our toes!

Some days it is just harder to accept this temporary disability than others....

Thank you for your shoulder Jockette

 

[Jockette]

Not to further discourage you, but I still have times of discouragement and I’m 8 months post op! While my walking speed is getting faster it still isn’t as fast as before surgery.

I had a partial replacement. That’s what my surgeon said I needed. So I looked it up and found only good things about it. I read it had a shorter recovery, smaller incision, and a more natural feel since the only one knee compartment would be replaced, the other 2 would be my natural ones.

The PA at my surgeon’s office said I would be in the hospital one night, I’d use a walker for 2 weeks, and a cane for 4 weeks, and I’d have a couple of months of therapy. I figured if I was done with therapy I would be recovered. So, all this information had me expecting a recovery that lasted 2-3 months.

Well, what a shock to learn, at 4 weeks post op when I found Bonesmart, that recovery from a partial is the same as a total, and takes a year! I am still struggling with that but not to the extent I did. To be honest, I feel cheated that I wasn’t told the truth. And no one told me how difficult this recovery would be. I still have more limitations now 8 months into recovery than I did with my arthritis before surgery.

Because I was not yet bone on bone,
I thought by catching my arthritis early that my partial would last me for life.

Now I learn that is unlikely. I SO do not want to do this again.

I also have friends and acquaintances in my 55 community who say to me some version of “you’re still having problems?” because I am not yet able to do things that others who had replacements either before or after me can do. No, I’m not having problems, just a par for the course recovery. I did not expect this kind of pressure from others.

So I understand discouragement and some depression with this very long slow process.

And I do believe that just our daily activities and some reasonable walking will “allow our knees the privilege of sorting themselves out” to quote Josephine. It just takes time.

@SusieShoes
Would you please post Bert’s progression of ROM here, I think it will be very encouraging.

 

[Irelandliz]

Gosh @Jockette I didn't realise that a partial had the same recovery time - my surgeon told me to have a partial for me would just be a temporary improvement and that I would definitely still require a TKR so I may as well have the full one now. I am sorry that you were misled and I totally understand your frustration. People have 'big mouths' sometimes [emoji849] I have experienced that too! "Oh you're still limping? Wasn't your surgery a few months ago?" Really!!!! If I had a rubber mallet I'd bonk them on the head lol

You know every day I try to bring my leg in a wee bit more and it is just too painful, I can't do it. I feel like I need to lie in bed for a week and move as little as possible to heal whatever is so sore inside my kneecap.

Also I don't know if I would have gone through with the surgery if I'd read some of the stories on here first but I have to move forward now as the deed is done - no Boston Marathon for me but I am aiming to just getting back on the beach for my morning walk!! Baby steps


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[Jockette]

I’m still walking slower than I did before, but it is a bit faster, so, it’s coming.

I still need the car door open pretty wide to get in and out, but not as wide as before.

It’s still hard to reach my feet. Putting socks on is not fun, nor fastening my Velcro straps on my sandals. But at least I can do it myself, early on my husband had to do it for me.

And I don’t do stairs well. I don’t have any inside my house and the ones outside my front door are short, so not much practice.

My surgery was March 13, 2017. I am definitely going to need the year and maybe more to feel recovered. There are days when I mentally grit my teeth and think, it’s been 8 months...and I’m not there yet.

 

[SusieShoes]

I'm sorry you're feeling down about your recovery. You're not doing badly at all, and yet it can seem that way because progress is so slow, and expectations are so high. My OS had me thinking I should be back to normal by three months. Didn't happen. But I also didn't expect it to because I'd read too many recovery threads on BoneSmart to think it could.

ROM can take a while to come around. It's not unusual at all for people to see no gains for weeks or months... and then big gains. Or for people to endure a long string of minor gains that takes forever to get them to full ROM.

Here is the ROM progression Jockette requested, @bertschb's record of his ROM over the full year of his recovery. He just posted it this week and gave us permission to make it part of our advice.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm 12 months out from my surgery and have some advice based on my experience:
1. Stop going to PT - all it will do is make your knee swell and reduce ROM
2. Don't worry about your ROM
3. Be patient - VERY patient!!!

Here is my ROM history (more or less):
1 month - 60 degrees
2 months - 80 degrees
3 months - 85 degrees
4 months - 90 degrees
5 months - 90 degrees
6 months - 110 degrees
7 months - 120 degrees
8 months - 125 degrees
9 months - 130 degrees
10 months - 135 degrees
11 months - 140 degrees
12 months - 140 degrees

I spent waaaaay too much time worrying about ROM. I thought I'd be riding my bike a couple months after surgery but it took SIX months!

Looking back on my surgery, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have wasted my time with PT and I wouldn't have worried about ROM.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It's easy to be frustrated by ROM. If you can, relax and find quiet ways to enjoy the holidays (no long shopping trips). You're not yet at three months and, well, I went back into my thread to see how I was doing at three months. I wasn't doing nearly as much as you are doing. Other than my daily walks, I only did a little grocery shopping once a week. My knees were still swollen and stiff much of the time. I couldn't stand for long periods at all and had not reached 0 extension in one knee. My flexion was okay, but that's about it. I wasn't even going up or down the stairs foot over foot reliably. Three months is still very early.

I hope you get a rubber mallet for the holidays, so you can conk anyone who besmirches your recovery!

 

[Irelandliz]

@SusieShoes Thank you for sharing that progression - I feel a bit better... some days are just better than others as I’m sure you’re well aware. With my sister here for 16 days we did a lot together. When we weren’t going to Costco or Marshall’s or out to lunch we were spending hours trying to tidy my beading room which I had let get into disarray. I did ice my knee when I got home and after long sessions of getting up and down from a chair but getting in and out of the car is so hard for me as I am tall and as Jockette mentioned too the door just isn’t wide enough for me to get my sore leg out of, so I have to do contortions.

Anyway I will keep that progression of ROM in mind and try to ease up on myself.

Thank you for the encouragement

 

[Polkadot]

Hang in there, Irelandliz! I’m at 6 months and still needing patience.

 

[liam2015]

yes, hang in there Irelandliz ~ i'm 7 months and still healing, can't pedal full rotation on my bike, but i am pain-free, other than stiffness when getting up from standing and long car drives. i still use my lounge doctor for sleeping at night ~ tried without a couple nights and couldn't keep comfortable. sounds like you've had some very active days with your company visiting and then having to do catch-up after they left ~ maybe you've overdone it a little bit. we need to find balance in this recovery. i'm sorry you're still having pain.

 

[Irelandliz]

@liam2015 Wow! You sleep using your Lounge doctor! I wonder if I could do that!! I never even thought of it

I have been contemplating buying one of those desk cycles as I have stopped going to Physio but am not sure if I should get the one that is electric and rotates your legs for you, or just a manual one!

I just struggle with the pain of it all - my husband thinks I am a wuss and maybe I am but I am not good at pushing myself to the point of pain

I think I did overdo it, you’re right so maybe a few days of leg up and lots of ice is on the agenda for this weekend!

And thanks @Polkadot - it does help knowing I’m not the only one who is impatient to get back to normal again

 

[SusieShoes]

Sleep with the Lounge Doctor? I did that from the very start of my recovery. First night I was home, I slept with my legs up because, well, that's what they liked best. They were comfy. If they were comfy, I had a shot at some sleep. So I slept with my legs up on the Lounge Doctor every night for four months.

Oh, I tried here and there to sleep with my legs on the bed like a normal person. But no... my left knee especially, but sometimes my right and often both, would get cranky. Pain just wasn't worth it, so I would haul the Lounge Doctor back onto the bed.

Mr. Shoes was very happy when finally, in my fifth month, I booted the Lounge Doctor permanently off the bed. Finally I could sleep through the night without it. I still often use a nice pillow between my knees. But no more Lounge Doctor.

Anyway, I can vouch that sleeping with legs up on a foam wedge does no harm.

 

[Jockette]

I still sleep with my leg on my elevating wedge. I like it. It totally relaxes my leg for the night.

I don’t ice hardly at all anymore but when I was I would wrap a gel pack around the knee, put it up on my wedge and be in bed for the night.

 

[kmak81230]

I would think that the manual pedaler would be better as it requires a little muscle work on your end vs just passively moving the legs - just like short walks every hour or so are very beneficial right after surgery vs the CPM machine which just passively moves your legs.

 

[sistersinhim]

When I try and bring my leg in more it hurts like the devil

You know the Bonesmart guideline. "If it hurts, don't do it." Your knee is not ready for that bend yet. Stop trying it for a couple of weeks. Just do things that don't hurt your knee at all. At three months, you're only 1/4 of the way to being healed. Patience!

 

[Polkadot]

I got a manual pedaler. I found that I could use it way before I could rotate our exercise bike. For one thing, you can situate your chair at various distances and move it closer as your “bend” improves. Mine slid around on our hardwood floor. We have one small room that is carpeted, so that became my “exercise room.” It also works on a floor mat.

Get the most durable, heavy duty one you can afford. Read reviews that discuss stability, in particular. The cheaper ones can move around a lot. I got the Desk Cycle.

 

[Irelandliz]

@SusieShoes i tried the lounge doctor in bed but I struggled to sleep because I am usually a side sleeper. I did however find a small squishy travel pillow with a cotton cover at Tuesday Morning, a store here in Florida, and I can sleep with that between my knees and also change sides easily keeping it between them as I turn. I do however use the lounge doctor on the sofa every evening watching TV and I usually put my polar ice machine wrap on at the same time. It definitely reduces the discomfort and pain -

@Jockette I love the ice - isn't it funny how everyone is different! I find it a great pain reliever and put my machine on every evening... When I sit outside in the day on my patio I wrap one of those gelpacks around my knee too - helps me to sit longer I find..

@sistersinhim thank you for your words of wisdom - I know in my heart that pain is BAD but the doc every check up keeps telling me to push through it - no more though - I have had enough of the pain

@kmak81230 Youre right of course! I did read about those manipulation machines not affecting the ROM in the long term so I will get a manual peddler! Thank you

@Polkadot thanks for your advice, I'm looking at Amazon to see which one gets the best reviews and that doesn't move around too much...

 

[Polkadot]

Yay, @Irelandliz, we have to celebrate your proactivity!

Funny story: The ladies at my mom’s senior living apartments get together several times a week to pedal their little cycles, do hand work, and talk. We got my mom the same cycle I got—very solid, very stable, very quiet. Several ladies went to WalMart and got similar-looking ones that were much cheaper. They pedal a little bit, then have to stop and adjust the position of their cycles. Pedal a bit, stop and adjust. They also complain about the squeaks and the noise. My mom pedals continuously and fluidly. Her cycle came with a timer and distance-recorder, so they depend on her to keep track of and announce when their goals have been reached. So she is now known as the cycling expert of the group! Whenever she can’t make it to the gab-and-cycle session, the others fight over who is going to borrow her cycle. She had to start a list to make it fair.

 

[Irelandliz]

@Polkadot well thank you, you helped me decide to go ahead and bite the bullet and order the Desk cycle. It will arrive from Amazon on Wednesday so I am excited. I do plan however to take it really slow as I have been having breakthrough pain again...


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[Polkadot]

Yes, take it slowly! A few tips: use a sturdy chair. Over time, the motion of cycling loosened the joints of the old wooden chair I used. Experiment with seat height. I needed a cushion on the chair to get a comfortable angle at first. At each session (until you can pedal easily), rock the pedals back and forth to loosen up. Edge your chair closer to increase “bend,” or further away to decrease it.

 

[Irelandliz]

Hi everyone
Thought I'd drop by and celebrate my 90 degrees and all I've been doing is walking a wee bit and propping my leg from the calf down on an ottoman when I'm doing my jewelry. It seems to have softened the back of the knee up a bit although I am still struggling with the pain of getting up after I've been sitting for a bit! And I'm still walking like my leg is shorter than the left one which I suppose it still is!

I haven't been able to do a full rotation on the exercycle yet, just moving it back and forth and honestly I think I am more afraid of pushing to do the full rotation rather than my knee nort letting me do it!

I'm still not loving driving - having to move my leg from pedal to pedal is uncomfortable to say the least so I am avoiding that as much as I can.

Hope you're all enjoying the Christmas carols in the shops - I am not missing them lol