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TKR And the Marathon Begins<<

That is a great report!

My surgeon was way too focused on ROM, too, and in spite of my long term issues, he was able to push my leg to some wonderful numbers the first 4 months, so a ROM number early on is not indicative of recovery.
 
@Jockette Interesting how recovery and good ROM are thought of as one and the same when, as you’ve said and are living through, it is not always the case. Have you seen the TV show Myth Busters? This would be a good episode for them to bust. Lol. They’d could hire lots of us to have on their show. Maybe we could make money on our low ROM and recovery issues :)))))

Sat next to a sweet woman last night at the ice cream social that had “the” scar. I asked her about it. TKR. We chatted all about knee recoveries Her’s was 10 years prior, BUT crazy enough was done by my surgeon!! Small world.
 
I think TKR ROMs would be a great issue for Myth Busters, though it would be more long-term than they’d want. Months and months and... months. Still, it’s an interesting topic!

My OS never fretted about ROM. Maybe it was because I started out at 90+ in both knees, so he saw no reason to go into ROM-mode. My PT didn’t measure me very often either; he was more interested in other things. Again, maybe because I had decent flexion and extension going in. Still, not having that pressure to “perform” put upon me was invaluable.

I think making ROM a proving ground misses the point. We want to recover function, not a number. The number is an artificial designator. Kind of like a border. You stand at a border (I’ve stood at several) and you think, “If I step over this line, what really changes?” Artificial human-imposed stuff changes: governments, laws, social welfare benefits (or not). But the land looks the same on either side. People too still look just like people. Nature keeps doing its thing.

Our knees are a lot like that: ROM as a number is just a number. It matters in an abstract way. Function and being pain-free ultimately are what the knee (and its owner) want and need.
 
My OS was wonderful. He never mentioned the numbers. He just had me show him what I could do. My extension was slower coming in, and he just said that it would come in time. No pressure from him at all! He will do my left one, when I decide to do it.
 
Well done you. You are on track. I am back at work now full time. Although if I have physio or appointment I make it for the afternoon and don't go back. Onward and upward
 
Here's some things to take one's mind of off a knee!

Went to San Francisco airport today to drop off daughter. Will miss her! 3 weeks of College Geology camp in Minnesota! She's scared of the tick population we heard was on high right now so we sprayed her clothes with good chemicals. Then we went on for a day of fun. I walked a lot and in San Fran, that really means a lot! Good food, good shopping, clean air by the bay. Knee feels fine. But I got some Oh so worried looks from a few onlookers that saw me take my first couple slow steps and scar. After my warm up, I could keep up with the rest of the group. All in all a very nice day:flwrysmile:

But just got a call from my son, whom is stranded 3 hours away at the beach with a boat on a broken trailer. He's with a few fellows, all in there 20s and smart guys (but trailer beyond fixable at the moment), so are utilizing our tow service to get it towed 150 miles:heehee: 90 min wait for the tow, then 3 hours home, and its almost 10 here. Gonna be a late night for them! But they caught some salmon and rockfish!!! I gotta laugh. These are the adventures my family is quite used to.

Any one else have luck like that? I think maybe it builds character.....
 
life's adventures. it's good to hear you did the walking. I am trying to get a bit faster. can walk up incline better which is a positive and did more steps as well.
 
How did your knee hold up to all that walking, @nuttybrunette? Sometimes it takes a day or two for the knee to fully express itself. :heehee: I hope all is still good with the knee!

It's pretty amazing when the knee has healed enough for one to enjoy this kind of outing. Being able to sightsee is one of life's great pleasures. I can only imagine what it's like in San Francisco! Did you do any hills? Inclines (up or down) can still be a challenge at a few months post-TKR.

As for character... we can all use a little refresher from time to time. Just not too often! And anyone who has undergone a TKR has had a full credit course in it!
 
@SusieShoes My knee held up surprisingly well. I keep thinking I need to baby it, but it pulls thru for me sometimes! We were in an area that was flat, tho so no hill walking. I did try a very very small incline at home, walking up a short incline from a river and wasn't sure I liked doing it. The car ride was a good 3 hours each way, too. A successful trip and no knee complaining afterwards.

At PT I asked why I sort of still limp, so he watched me walk. Apparently I don't roll off the ball of my foot like you should. I kind of pick the foot up flat and plant it in front of me, causing the limp. So I'm working on rolling off my foot more. The muscles in my foot are getting woken up and they are complaining. I'm assuming I learned to walk that way to compensate for the bad knee.

When people ask how the knee is coming along, it's such a loaded question. The actual knee feels the best compared to the hip, back, ankle, and foot that all need retraining to walk right, gain muscle, and to deal with the new angles of things. It' s hard for people to get that. I still think I need a nasty looking scar. At this point of recoveries, scars generally look pretty decent. But it may not match what's still going on inside. I say we invent a long skin colored bandaid that is tattooed with a bad scar, so we can still get sympathy when we want it. LOL But there are those other times where you're feeling pretty confident and walking around with shorts on and everyone can see the scar/s and give you that look of "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry......" Sometimes I wish the scars were invisible. I'm fickle, I know!:heehee:
 
@Jamie I was just doing a search on restless legs at night and came across your name on some responses back in 2010, I believe. You were talking about riding your exercise bike in the middle of the night. THIS is why this forum is so important. I too have been doing that and to convince my husband I am not bat crazy, I quoted YOU!:heehee: Most people wouldn't imagine what we do to try and get by in the middle of the night, would they? I also saw your name back in 2008 with Doug and Pattipoo. When I had my first TKR back then, I wasn't too sure about joining groups or posting, so I just stalked. EVERY DAY! Their witty banter was hilarious and kept me in good spirits as they made light and joked about all the TKR issues. I had crazy images with Doug, I think, with some stuffed monkey on his knee. Crazy stuff. Gotta laugh in life, right?!! They comforted me tremendously, even though they never knew I existed. I felt like they were my friends. :rotfl: or that could have been the Norco! Or both.

Back to restless legs at night: From what I have gleamed by poking around on past posts I need to get back to taking my calcium/D/magnesium and iron. Which is a bit ironic because I stopped taking those religiously after 6 weeks post op. And this restless leg thing started in week 8. So may make sense. I also bought something called Hylands for leg cramps today, the pharmacist recommended. I'll try it all tonight. I had broke out my bottle of Percoset last night, that I haven't used since week 2!! I do not want to start doing that, for sure! But man, I'm getting desperate. 3 weeks of this no sleep stuff is exhausting.

Happy cycling to all the other midnight riders out there.
 
I feel everyone's pain. My L leg is restless at night. I have swapped sides in bed so I can move it around without too much distress for my husband. I tried one night to go without tramadol and it did not go well. it is now the only medication I need for pain relief. so fingers crossed I have had a few nights of reasonable sleep. I am climbing stairs quite well but down is still not great when the step is deep. but I feel it has progressed quite well. I see the physio tomorrow so will see what improvements are noted.
 
I, too, read a lot of Bonesmart for 4 months before I had the nerve to join. Any time I had a question I would google the issue, then add “post op tkr bonesmart” and google would find the posts for me.

I still do that occasionally as not everyone right now has the issue I’m interested in.

By the time I joined I felt like I knew a lot of the members. (I “knew” @SusieShoes way before she was a forum advisor!)
 
Jockette said:
By the time I joined I felt like I knew a lot of the members. (I “knew” @SusieShoes way before she was a forum advisor!)
Click to expand...

And before we ever met in person, confirming we are, indeed, real people. :heehee: I too lurked long before I joined. Had to make sure the natives were friendly! It made TKR seem much less intimidating to know so many people had gone through the surgery and had shared their recoveries so I could learn from their actual experiences.

I had only minor restless legs but it was annoying. No hints to offer other than that it does go away, thank goodness! Restless sleep, though, hung on for a while. It was the very worst part of recovery for me.
 
I discovered the Benedryl was adding to my restless legs. It makes me itch all over. My PA suggested I try heat on my thighs before bed to see if that would help, but it didn't. It just went away on its own.
 
@nuttybrunette .... what a great story about you and your midnight cycling adventures! I can assure you that you aren't the first person to be in the club we used to call the "Night Stalkers." Those were great days with our old BoneSmartie friends, Doug and Pattipoo. We all still keep in contact now and then and they are as crazy as ever. That poor monkey had some real adventures, but he helped us laugh our days away in recovery.

I'm assuming you found the Library article on restless legs in our BoneSmart Library. But just in case you or someone else needs to read that information, here is a direct link:

Restless legs following knee replacement surgery

The bicycle worked well for me. But I also really depended on my heating pad at the small of my back. That heat seemed to calm the jerkiness in most cases. You might give that a try as well.
 
Thanks for all the responses. The article is good and I’ve tried many of the suggestions. I’ll try the heating pad tonight but mine doesn’t have auto shut off. So I can either plan on it not working and I’ll still be awake after 20 minutes to turn it off OR it will actually work and I’ll be a cooked zombie. Lol. Or maybe somewhere in between, hopefully.

At dr now seeing if she has any bright/new ideas but afraid I’ll know more than her.

Do they prescribe those animal tranquilizer guns? The ones they use to take down elephants or big wild cats out of trees when they want to put trackers on them. I am positive my husband would love to do me the honor of aiming and shooting. Lol. Just kidding!!!!

I took 2 of the Tylenol PM last night. The “high” you get from those is not fun if you’re awake. Clearly one is supposed to be sound asleep while it’s doing it’s thing on your brain. Too weird to be awake on those. Not sure I can repeat that.
 
Forgot to mention the cupping. PT has been wanting to do it. I finally agreed because a few of you said you’d done it. Figured it couldn’t hurt anything. LOL. I was laying down and he came back to the table with it. I bolted upright as it kinda looked medical and not yoga or spa treatmentish, like I imagined. I said no way. He said we could try it on another part of my body. I said no way. I said him first! So he did it to his own arm first! LOL. Then I let him do it to the side of my leg. Wasn’t too bad. Then he tried it on the very top part of my incision where he thinks I would benefit from it. OH. MY. GOODNESS! No sooner than he had it on and pumped up and I saw my skin getting sucked in it I screamed!! Ouch, ouch, ouch. He released it as fast as he could. I broke out in a sweat! I scared the other people in the PT gym. LOL. Needless to say, I can check cupping off my bucket list and not revisit it.
 
Tylenol PM is nothing but Tylenol with the same ingredients as Benedryl added in it. Benedryl makes a lot of people sleepy.
 
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