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Bilateral TKR Bilateral TKR

I'm now 6 weeks post and I am walking about the house with no walker. No stairs though. I am still on the Tramadol and have not yet healed enough for the pain to be under control but it will be soon. I have about 109* flex on my right and about 100* on my left, 8-10* from straight on both (left has not been straight for years). What was a pleasant surprise was to realize that I don't have any pain in my knee where it's been a constant for four or five years! PT on Tuesday where I'm going to tell them I ain't coming back for a few weeks until the pain is Tylenol level.
Keep your chins up, there is a light out there...
 
In 5 days it will be 2 full months since I had my knees "done." I am still on Tramadol as the pain is still enough to keep me from sleeping right through and I still haven't found a comfortable position that lasts longer than my urge to roll over!
I can walk around the house without the walker although I am definitely stiff. It's a treat to not have the pain I've had in my knees for years! Still can't get over that.
I have average ROM in the right leg although it's still not quite straight and I have less motion in the left as that was the leg that hadn't been straight for years. It was probably 10 or 12 years ago that I first couldn't sit on my heels or squat.
Anyway, I'm back to driving so no more volunteer drivers to pester so that is good.
Still don't have much of an appetite but I put that down to the drugs.
TTFN
 
That's quite a good 2 month update esp for a bilateral where they can't substitute for each others' postop weaknesses! :flwrysmile:

My severe overnight stiffness lasted on my L knee until just past 12 weeks.
My R knee, otherwise well healed and functional, still has mild to moderate stiffness with flexion overnight or prolonged sitting, but that's due to an annoying long term soft tissue problem that - compared to my many years of pre-op pain and limitations - I can easily live with.
 
Happy Two Month Anniversary!
You're doing well for only two months post op with two brand new knees. I'll bet the independence of getting behind the wheel again felt great. :driver:Have a good week!
@Xsbank
 
I had an amazing experience this morning, I woke up and swung my legs over the side of the bed as per my routine and something was wrong! I sat there for a few moments befuddled (after all, I had just woken up!) before I realized what was wrong - NO PAIN! None! I sat there for a few moments longer and decided to get up and get the coffee (not done by me ever since THAT day) and as I sloped off to the kitchen it started to come back...so once more I'm attached to the ice machine and I just took my Tylenol but I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT! Sorry to shout but this last week after physio I felt like cutting my throat so this is a very positive step for me and a pithy reminder that it will get better. I wanted to shout that out and I wanted to shout out pithy too because it almost demands it but I'm taking it easy on you, Dear Reader.
 
I’m glad that you have seen the light, even if it’s small and in the distance.

I hope you enjoyed that extra special, celebration, cup of coffee! :cheers:

Xsbank said:
Sorry to shout but this last week after physio I felt like cutting my throat
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You don’t have to have that kind of PT. You’ll recover just fine with a lesser session. It’s your choice.
 
Xsbank said:
Sorry to shout
Click to expand...
Shout all you want. :yahoo: It's great news and worth shouting about.
This recovery biz takes time, especially when you didn't have a good leg to stand on. :wink:
You're doing it, Xsbank!
 
I'm 11 weeks! Hard to believe but no walker, (unless It's folded and rolling next to me on longer treks) and I'm now taking extended-release Tramadol so I only take it once a day. It's supposed to go 24 hours but is an hour or two shorter. Then I just take it when the pain starts to poke. I feel a lot like I'm in that old Three Stooges episode where they go "step-by-step, inch-by-inch..." That feels where I am now.
I have backed off physio to once a week and that helps, it takes me that long to recover and I assure you I am being very gentle. I have good ROM except neither are straight yet which makes me walk like Groucho Marx. (I'm NOT stuck in that era!).
This is a darn tough road but I'm very glad to be on it.
 
Yes, for many of us extension took a lot longer than flexion.

The extension WILL happen - please don't let the physio push down on your knee or use weights; members have been injured that way!

Staffer @EalingGran recommends what she did: lying on your tummy and letting the lower part of the leg hang off to encourage a gentle stretch. Not for too long, not too often!
 
Just wanted to say just read all your posts @Xsbank and saying wow to your guts to have both knees done and at 11 weeks you seem to be doing OK.
Up and downs yes but hey anybody that can get pithy into a sentence must be doing OK.
Hope your wife is surviving ok too - I think at least half of your dear readers were sending her hugs too.
It’s the little things isn’t it?
I noticed today when I placed my feet on the floor they were level and the bad one wasn’t slightly forward of the good! Very small things but I’m taking that as progress!
 
Small things are exactly what I watch for now. I'll go bumbling along for a week, thinking that my life is boring and if I have to strap on the ice machine one more time I'll lose it, then I realize that something subtle happened - I slept through the night! - or some other small incremental improvement. It doesn't mean that I'll sleep through tonight but I have seen the light!

My wife is an absolute saint and it takes all my willpower to not milk her kindness now that I am improving. She has been beyond wonderful and I cannot ever thank her enough. I'll tell her that some of you are cheering for her!

There is no way you can have two gnees done without a support system. One, possibly.

I have decided that because my old knees have been made into key fobs or earrings, my brand new, made in Taiwan knees should be called gnees. The downside is that gnees drives my spell-check nuts.
 
"What's gnu?"
"Oh, just my gnees!"
 
Happy Three Month Anniversary!
Happy Summer too! I hope Summer 2024 is one of your best. :SUNsmile:
@Xsbank
 
4 months now and still improving except for straight gnees. I can bend about 130 on a good day but I'm 10* on the right and about 20* on the left. I am slightly concerned that it does not feel like I'm pressing against something elastic it feels like it hits a stop on both sides. I still can't walk for very long but I can do stairs (not pretty though) and as I said before, I'm only on Tylenol. I think the pain returns because I am just not straight yet so I walk like Frankenstein's monster.
Anyways, last week was a bad one, I went to my old volunteer job and put in 2 hours of my normal 6 and I overdid it. The setbacks are hard on my psyche but I am optimistic again so all is not lost.
I could just do without the setbacks...
 
It's possible your extension may from be tight hamstrings more than swelling at this point.

I found the best stretches were ones I could relax into, breathing slowly and deeply, finding the comfort range then slowly easing into light to moderate discomfort - not acute pain! - and holding that position for 10 - 20 seconds.
Rather than doing a lot all at once, it seemed more productive to do three or four then do more later in the day.

Yeh, I put in one hour at my volunteer gig the first time returning! Slow and steady as she goes!
 
Xsbank said:
The setbacks are hard on my psyche but I am optimistic again so all is not lost.
I could just do without the setbacks...
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Eventually those setbacks will take less and less time to recover from. Hang in there!
 
Xsbank said:
I'm 10* on the right and about 20* on the left. I am slightly concerned that it does not feel like I'm pressing against something elastic it feels like it hits a stop on both sides
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Were you able to straighten your legs pre-surgery? If not, this would perhaps partially explain this effect.

Are you doing daily stretching to attempt to improve straightening?
 
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