MUA and still in pain

[tashia]

You need to get control of the pain. Please get a hold of the nurse or doctor. You should not hurt with the aid of pain medicane. The Pt should not hurt you. I will pray for you that you will get you pain under control. Mine wasn't and it hurts. Josephine should be along soon. Remember go slow, Ice, elevate, pain control. Please keep us informed on whats going on so we can surport you. Remember we are here 24 hours a day, every day. We have a social room for games. Take care and remember go slow. I will check back later and see how you are doing. Tashia

 

[maryo52]

Clarrox, your post should be framed! Really excellent point.

 

[Jamie]

These folks are right on target. Your manipulation did increase your ROM and that's good. Now you have swelling, which can happen after the forced bending and straightening done during the MUA. Now, your number one job is to get the swelling under control. This means exactly what has been said....rest (lots of it), ice (tons of it all through the day and night), elevation (toes above the nose as much as you can), and taking pain medications (prescription or over the counter) on a schedule throughout the day and night.

Remember, if you adhere to this program....things should get better. And, it's only a temporary situation! Once the swelling starts going down, you'll be able to add a bit more activity gradually to your days. I'm sorry your recovery didn't go as fast as you'd hoped. Each person heals on their own schedule, so it's nothing you did or didn't do. As long as you don't try to push yourself, you'll improve. This is a time for some serious patience (difficult for most of us, by the way).

 

[Josephine]

Renew Josephine says PLEASE STOP MAKING NEW THREADS EVERY TIME YOU POST! You never come back to reply to answers and so I can only assume that you never actually read them either.

When you can tell me you've read all the posts in here I can reply but please keep posting in here so we know you're actually reading them.

 

[scaredinCA]

I see that everyone is trying to help with your swelling and pain by telling you to elevate, ice, rest and take your pain meds on time. I don't mean to sound negative, but I think perhaps you are seeking a magic solution. With knee surgery there are no magic cures, no magic formula's. Ice your knee, rest your knee, elevate your knee and take your meds when you do **Gentle exercises**. Thats it, thats all you can do.. You cannot force your knee to heal faster, its impossible. No matter what else is going on in your life or job, your knee won't heal on your schedual. It doesn't work that way. Try to keep your mind on those simple things, Rest, Elevate, Ice and Meds. I hope you get better soon.

 

[Renew]

Wow, thank you for all your advise and help. I am realizing that I am pushing to hard the PT keeps saying keep pushing the band and today my knee is in so much pain it even hurts to walk so I am going to listen to those with experience cut back on my bending exercises and talk to my PT. I have had a few nights where I have cried myself to sleep. It is my fault cause I should have been keeping up with checking out this site. You are all amazing and supportive and I can never tell you by words how much it means to me. I will do my best to keep your update.!!!!

 

[Renew]

Renew You never come back to reply to answers and so I can only assume that you never actually read them either.

Yes Josephine I did read them and I am sorry for posting the second one I did not know I could reply to these now that I do I will make sure I keep watching and will do my best to respond. Thank you for having this forum

 

[Campervan]

Hi Renew, thanks Mary052 for tagging me. First I'll give you a small administration tip - bookmark or favourite your own thread then you won't struggle to find it. I use Google Chrome and have bookmarked my thread and Knee post op.

OK, low ROM - yes I struggled, although I had 90 immediately post op but still only had 92 at 8 weeks. At no stage did OS suggest MUA. I felt like I had tight rubber bands around my knee for up to 8 months. I was prescribed diclofenac (NSAID) and paracetemol when I left hospital. I stopped taking the diclofenac after a couple of weeks, and the tightness increased. Thanks to the forum I started the diclofenac again and things settled down.

I have an exercycle at home and I was told not to even try until 2 weeks post op and then it was at least another 2 weeks before I could go all the way round. I would just rock back and forward until one day I could do a full resolution backwards and then a day or so later forwards. For another couple of weeks I'd have to rock first before it'd go round, but steadily the time it took came down. Since then I've progressively lowered the seat.

From my recovery thread https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/slow-slow-quick-quick-slow.12959/ I've pulled out the following ROM measurements.
92 - 8 weeks post op
105 - 10 weeks
107 - 5 months
110 - 6 months
112 - 7 months
116 - 9 months
119 - 11 months
118 - 1 yr
120 - 1yr 2 months
125 - 1 yr 8 months (now

So, stop worrying (hard to say I know) and you'll need to learn to have patience by the bucket load. Now watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJd0Vvtrd3I

 

[maryo52]

Oh Margaret. You've hit a home run with that one. Folks, definitely watch the youtube video she posted!!

 

[Renew]

Campervan, thank you for sending me the video, it made me smile and made a great point "Patience pays off"

 

[Renew]

Well today is Aug 30,2013, after looking over the replies, I decided not to go to physio today as my knee
is very swollen and painful and my Pt really pushes me hard, so I decided to stay home elevate ,ice and rest hoping that it will help me so that I can begin with gentle exercises over the weekend and hopefully get the swelling down before my next Physio appt. on Tuesday. I have also found a gentle exercise schedule at a pool close to my home and am going to start that next week as well. One of the other KNR I do physio with says she had started doing it and it has really helped her as it is not as uncomfortable in the water. Will let you know how it goes

 

[kneeper]

Happy knee-cation. Sometimes giving the knee a vacation is just what you need! Good for you.

 

[Josephine]

Yes Josephine I did read them and I am sorry for posting the second one I did not know I could reply to these now that I do I will make sure I keep watching and will do my best to respond

That's perfectly okay. My only concern is that you get the most and the best out of using this forum!

I decided not to go to physio today as my knee is very swollen and painful and my Pt really pushes me hard

If your knee is that swollen and painful, do remember that it will take more than one day's rest to get it better. But in the meantime, you can still do gentle heel slides and some walking about your house. Those are just as good as anything else you can do.

 

[Bionic woman2]

I decided not to go to physio today as my knee is very swollen and painful

YES! That's the ticket! I think you'll see some results by just following the advice of the previous posters. I know it's hard and you wanna see results, but you seem to be doing this when you want to be doing this.

Our OS and P/T folks mean well but most of them have never had TKR. lol It's hard finding a balance between what our Drs advise and what is stressed here at Bonesmart. I've found I get the best stretches when I have rested, iced and elevated. When my knee is swollen it won't move as much and it hurts. I've learned to take "kneecations" and just be lazy on those days. It's amazing how our body responds to rest. I DO find that I'm stiff after laying around, but once I ice and elevate, I can stretch again. I may have to ease into the stretch (say like a heel side, I gradually pull my leg closer each time till I reach MY stopping point. The LAST time I went to P/T he stepped on my foot to hold it in place to measure my ROM while I screamed. Notice I said the last time. NO THANK YOU! When I do go back THAT will not happen again. We have to learn how to say no, and that's the hard part. I know my ROM has improved w/o being forced. My situation is different than yours and I'm about to do it again in a few weeks. We'll see if I'll be all Ms. Advice then. lol For now though, I think everyone is saying the same thing... Get some ice and CHILL!

I do have something to share that hasn't been covered. I totally understand wanting to start a new thread when you're not getting any feedback. I also understand the need for one thread per recovery. I've found that if I change my thread title to the problem I'm currently experiencing, I sometimes get more responses. Also tagging people who have previously responded, may jog their memory. There so much on here, sometimes we forget about people we started communicating with.

You can't change your thread title yourself, but you can tag an administrator requesting the change within your thread and they will change it for you. You can tag someone by placing an @ directly in front of their username (no spaces.)

I hope this is helpful. Wishing you a nice restful and healing weekend.

 

[Travlingirl04]

Hi Renew...I absolutely agree it is time for a kneecation...I'm coming up on 6 weeks on Monday and have had to take a few along the way. Thankfully, I've got an awesome PT who never pushes me beyond where I am uncomfortable so I am able to do more on my own on the other days. We did go out and purchase a stationary bike a couple of weeks ago and spending 10 minutes for 2-3 x per day has really helped. In addition to all the icing and elevating, I have also made it a point to have NO added salt on anything and I've been eating foods that are natural diuretics such as watermelon, asparagus, cucumbers. I'm not an expert, but I figure it can't hurt and most days ( though not all) the swelling hasn't been to bad. My bend was at 118 today, but the bigger challenge for me has been to straighten...yikes I am still at 7 degrees and working on it is super uncomfortable. I will be keeping you in my thoughts and wish you the very best in your recovery. The help you can get here is the best..I can't imagine how much harder it would have been without Bonesmart.

 

[Renew]

Thank you for your help and advice.

 

[Renew]

Today is Aug 31 and yes as some have mentioned with my kneevacation I am finding it tighter and painful but I know it was needed am doing my icing and elevation. I will admit though am still having a hard time with this, I always thought I had a high pain tolerance but after this not so much.

Has anyone tried using a gentle exercise class in the pool? I am looking into one that starts next week and thought it might make it a little easier for me to do the exercises and bend my knee.

ANY THOUGHTS?

 

[bottomshollow]

RenewFYI: It is not necessary to use the "Quote This Message" to reply to a post. This feature should be used only when there is a post or several posts on another topic between your post and the post you want to respond to.

To reply to a post, just scroll down and put your cursor in the dialogue box and start typing.

You can quote a sentence or a section of a post by simply highlighting it and clicking on the "Quote Me" oblong that appears in gray at the end of the highlighted selection. This is frequently a better choice than quoting a whole post.
Please do not be upset by this bit of info---many new members have this very same problem---so you're in very good company---and we're not mad at you---just trying to keep the forum neat and tidy.

Take care and keep us posted. We care.

 

[Campervan]

The tightness took around 8 months to fully go away. It'll ease, and come back. Mine came back particularly is I cut out the NSAID. I think it was 3 months before I cut then out completely.

 

[Renew]

Renew Josephine says PLEASE STOP MAKING NEW THREADS EVERY TIME YOU POST! You never come back to reply to answers and so I can only assume that you never actually read them either.

When you can tell me you've read all the posts in here I can reply but please keep posting in here so we know you're actually reading them.

Hi Josephine could you change my title to had MUA Aug 22,2013 ( Knee hurts more now a week later?)