TKR Bigt's recovery thread

[tpellerin]

Yeah, I'm in agreement w/ everyone above that says that the knee can do what it can do.
My PT told me that if he anesthetized me that he could bend the knee all the way to 180 wicked easily, and that it's only scar tissue that the body makes as it heals, but man that stuff hurts!

 

[Celle]

My PT told me that if he anesthetized me that he could bend the knee all the way to 180 wicked easily, and that it's only scar tissue that the body makes as it heals, but man that stuff hurts!

Sure he could, but he'd also do a lot of damage to your soft tissues. It is far too early in your recovery for you to have developed any scar tissue that prevents bending. It is swelling and trauma that are stopping your knee from bending right now. As your knee heals and the swelling goes down, your knee will be able to bend.
There's no need at all to rush to get ROM, becasue it can continue to increase for a year, or even longer, after a knee replacement.
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR

 

[sistersinhim]

Try stopping all exercising for a couple of weeks and see what will happen. I know what will happen, your motion range will increase. Just try it. What do you have to lose except a whole lot of swelling and pain!

 

[bigt]

OK so I'm at roughly 5 1/2 weeks postop and I can finally say I reached over 90° range of motion I actually went to 92 on Thursday which was great I did take everyone's advice and cut way back on the exercising. I have been walking around the house and going for short walks outside. I have been stretching a lot which seems to help me improve my ROM. Thanks for all the great advice. I am actually excited to see my dr next week to show him the improvement. Hopefully he will think it is good enough and not bring up MUA.


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[Pumpkin]

90+ is great for 5-6 weeks, most surgeons won't even consider a MUA once you are 90 degrees. Still plenty of time for your ROM to increase.
Keep up your gentle program, seems to be working well.

 

[LFitz]

Congrats bigt I can't see any reason they would even bring it up.


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[sistersinhim]

Good to hear you're doing so well. 92* is great! There is no reason to even consider a MUA now! You have found out the less exercising is more ROM!

 

[Tabbycat]

That's fab news, same thing happened to me at 11 weeks, the ROM just gradually increased when I wasn't looking!
Tabby

 

[kneeper]

 

[Suz]

That is AWESOME @bigt-!! I doubt too your surgeon will bring up an MUA! Hopefully you are seeing improvements in your soft tissue swelling & pain since you're following the BoneSmart way to recover! Very Happy For You~!!

 

[sistersinhim]

@bigt, how are you stretching? That's something I'm not doing that would probably help me feel better.

 

[TML]

@bigt i just read your thread and wanted to share a couple things that helped me reduce swelling. Home PT watched me ice and elevate and noticed that I was not elevating high enough nor keeping my entire leg elevated in a straight line (there's a pic in the library that shows what this looks like). I also had too many layers of cloth between the ice pack and my skin (I feared frostbite), so my knee wasn't getting cold enough. Finally, home PT said swelling could be a sign of dehydration and suggested I increase my fluid intake. I changed these things and my swelling reduced significantly in just a few days. Shortly afterwards, I began to see an improvement in ROM. Wishing you the best.

 

[bigt]

@TML thanks for the tips!
I had PT yesterday and I was able to ride the bike with full rotations! So I was excited to have my ROM measured and I'm at 110!!!!!! I could not believe it. I'm so relieved and happy. It amazes me how all of a sudden the "band" of tightness around my knee starts to alleviate and BAM I can bend my knee again!
Thank you all for the advice it really helped! Can't wait to see my surgeon Friday!


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[sistersinhim]

What wonderful news! That is great! Doesn't it feel good to be able to ride the bike! Just last week I was finally able to peddle forward instead of just backward. Keep up the good work!

 

[teacher ted]

Well done!
The bike really punched my 4 week old knee ROM out without the pain of the slides. I've got to wait a couple weeks now to recommence the biking since TKR #2 was 2 days ago.

 

[uva55]

@bigt great progress on your recovery!!!