Guest viewing is limited

Revision TKR Bruising 3 years out

I think I've got it backwards lol. I can bend my knee up to 100° but only straighten it to 5° (haven't made it to 0 just yet). It's still more than I could do yesterday, so every little bit of progress makes me cheer.
 
Wow 100 degrees this soon from surgery. I'm at 92 degrees and feeling good about it. From experience I know this is not a competition. ROM will happen. Forcing it does no good. Next week will be better than this one. The one after that will be even better. Pain subdides. Swelling goes down. Your spirit improves. Now if I could only sleep at night...instead of reading bonesmart posts...lol
 
Lol same here. I should be sleeping but I'm stubborn and can't put the phone down :heehee: I'll be glad when the swelling goes down too. Right now I feel like I've got a softball for a knee and everything is so darn tight. I get it bent that much using the CPM machine. I know there's no proof that CPMs actually do any good, but I find mine to be very theraputic and have actually fallen asleep in it a few times. The only part that gets painful is when it extends my leg trying to pull it to 0, that pain is excruciating, so I set the level to just past where I can straighten it and it's alot smoother. I figure I can increase it as the swelling and resistance goes down. I don't believe in self torture lol :bolt:I had a really good day today tho, hardly any pain and what pain I did have felt more like an achy type pain. I actually went most of the day withr no pain meds and without the pain to remind me I needed them I just went on with my day until it started hurting again and then I took my pain meds. Nightime for me is rough. Seems like that's when the pain likes to hit the most, but then I have a full day of doing stuff too. I really need to learn what relax means lol :alarm:
 
Xanaphia said:
I can bend my knee up to 100° but only straighten it to 5° (haven't made it to 0 just yet).
Click to expand...
I don't know many times I have to say this to get through to people! That is totally ace for 10 days out! So stop fretting about ROM and just get on with life. Remember what I said earlier

"It's not the exercising that gets you your ROM, it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle and time to heal. One thing that seems to be missing from all the PT's protocols is that all your ROM is there right from the start, just waiting for all that to happen so it can show itself. In the general run of things, it doesn't need to be fought for, worked hard for or worried about. It will happen. Exercise as in strength training is counter-productive and does more harm than good. Normal activity is the key to success."
 
I wish they would teach the PT out here that. Here they push and push. I got news for that lady today... Im not doing it. She came out yesterday and I was doing really good, didn't have to take my pain meds at all. Today my leg is swollen again and I'm in more pain. I don't care if she gets mad I will flat refuse anything that causes pain. I'm not ready for the leg lifts and I told her that yesterday and she pushed anyway. Not today. I can't do it. Today is one of those days where I'm asking myself if the surgery was really worth it. I think I've got the post op blues because all I can do is lay in bed and cry
 
Hang in there. You're in the 'dark days of recovery' time period where it seems to hit most of us with the blues. You're doing great holding your ground with the therapist. Don't let anyone hurt you . Take it easy this weekend. You might want to tell the therapist you don't want her to come that often since she has been causing you pain. I hope you start to feel better soon.
 
As Josephine says...time is the key. It's your leg, not the therapists. I'm going to out patient PT next week. 2nd knee with the same PT... good person, but I'm going to dictate the pace this time. I'm also getting a massage tomorrow too. Can't wait.
So relax. Some days are not as good as others, but over time ... (there's that word again)...the good days out number the bad days, and before you know it, you can't remember the bad days.
 
I'm going to agree with what Joesphine, newlybionic and Vintage51 have said. Stick up for your knee and don't let anyone hurt it. It's your knee and you have the absolute right to decide what will happen to it.
Your therapist works for you, not the other way round. You're the boss. You don't have to please your therapist. She/he has to please you.

Set you rules with the therapist. Say something like "I will not allow you to do anything that hurts my knee or works it too hard."
 
I did flat out refuse to do a couple of the exercises today and I could tell it was frusterating her but my extension is at 9 today because of the swelling, yesterday it was at 5, and I told her that yesterday was too hard on me. She complained of course, saying that my extension should be at 0 because most people with TKR have problems bending, not straightening and that it's odd that I can bend but not straighten my knee. She really made me feel like a failure today and left me almost in tears because of it. The more she complains the more frusterated and depressed I get. She said I need to spend the weekend manually forcing it to straighten more and I don't like that because I get to a certain point and then it's like there's a wall inside my knee that keeps me from straightening it any more. Is this normal or is she just being mean about it?
 
To me she sounds like a bully. For me it seems to take me longer to achieve extension. The first time it slowly got better pretty much on its own. You are right that your knee can't function well when it's swollen. Don't worry it will come just by walking more and more as you start to feel better. There are exercises for extension in the library here. The key is not to do any of them if they start hurting you.
 
Xanaphia said:
my extension is at 9 today because of the swelling, yesterday it was at 5, and I told her that yesterday was too hard on me. She complained of course, saying that my extension should be at 0 because most people with TKR have problems bending, not straightening and that it's odd that I can bend but not straighten my knee. She really made me feel like a failure today and left me almost in tears because of it. The more she complains the more frusterated and depressed I get. She said I need to spend the weekend manually forcing it to straighten more and I don't like that because I get to a certain point and then it's like there's a wall inside my knee that keeps me from straightening it any more. Is this normal or is she just being mean about it?
Click to expand...
This is not the right therapist for you! Either ask for a different therapist or stop using that facility. There are others.
She is wrong on so many counts:
  • It's only 11 days since you had major surgery and you shouldn't be doing any exercises at all yet, apart from a few (very few!) Heel slides and how to do them - and you don't need to go to outside PT to do them.
  • She does't know much. It's perfectly normal for people not to have full extension this early.
  • She has no business showing her feelings. Yours are what matter and she's obviously not considering them.
  • Making you feel like a failure is unprofessional and unforgivable. You are not a failure. You are doing great!
  • Comparing your progress with the progress of others is inadvisable, because every person and every knee is different.
  • There is no deadline by which time you have to achieve certain degrees of bending and straightening. You have all the time in the world, because ROM (range of motion) can continue to improve for a year, or even longer.
Get her out of your life. She's doing you harm, both physically and mentally. You need gentle treatment, plus encouragement, not criticism.

And yes, it's perfectly normal for your knee to stop at a certain point. Heavens, it's still a wounded, new baby!
It's not exercise that will improve your ROM. It's time, and getting rid of swelling. The ROM is already there. It's just the swelling that's stopping it.
 
Hate to say it, but your therapist is wrong! My bend was great...125, but I don't think my extension ever got to 0 during PT. I was told not to worry about it and that it would happen eventually. I took her advice and pretty much forgot about it. I would definitely say it's been to 0 for close to two years. Just my everyday walking and living did the trick!


Sent from my iPad using BoneSmart®
 
I think something got messed up today. If I stand or sit up, the swelling feels so tight it's almost like my knee is going to pop, and my leg and foot turn a kind of purplish color and it goes numb and starts the hot tingling all over. Is this from too much exercise or should I get checked out??
 
The soonest I could get in would be Monday (and that's if I get lucky which is rare at my doctors office) unless I go to the er again :/
 
Doesn't your doctor keep a bit of appointment time for urgent cases? If not, he/she should. Stress to everyone that this is urgent.
 
My doctor did my surgery, was there until me and the others discharged and is now out of the office until may because his wife just had their second child. So I'm basically stuck with going to the hospital. My follow up with him isn't even until the 9th of may. I went to hospital a few days ago because of severe pain and they did an xray and ultrasound and said they didn't find anything but I noticed on my records that they didn't do a d-dimer test so I'm not so sure they can rule out dvt so easily. I've got one spot in my calf that's been hurting for days and I've been massaging it to try to get the pain to go away because I'm not sure if it's muscle pain or something else. What it appears is my lower leg and foot aren't getting good circulation because if I run my fingers over them I can't feel it, and I get bouts of hot flashes in my knee and then it feels like a million little needles are pricking me all over, all at once. And no matter how much I rest, elevate and ice, the swelling doesn't budge at all
 
If you can't get to your doctor I suggest going into a walkin clinic or the ER probably might be worth the trip especially since you say your foot looks purple. It needs to be checked out because that color usually does mean there is no circulation getting through and/or none coming back up. If you foot turns any darker I think that would be considered an emergency situation.
 
Xanaphia said:
My doctor did my surgery, was there until me and the others discharged and is now out of the office until may because his wife just had their second child. So I'm basically stuck with going to the hospital. My follow up with him isn't even until the 9th of may.
Click to expand...
A responsible surgeon arranges for someone to cover for his patients while he is away, or at the very least gives you an emergency contact person.

My surgeon went overseas for 4 weeks, one week after my latest TKR. He was at pains to tell me his colleague was covering for me, gave me his colleague's contact details, and also gave me his own mobile phone number, telling me to contact him at any time, day or night, if I was worried.

If your leg feels no better by Sunday morning, after resting, icing, elevating and taking your pain medications on schedule - an no exercises - go to the ER.
 
The red/purplish color goes away if I lay down for a while but quickly comes back if I stand up. I've been having spasms in my knee, not sure what's causing that but it's dreadful. My last hospital visit showed nothing wrong which is only fueling my anxiety. Did they over look something or am I just going thru nerve damage of some kind?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Members online

Total: 858 (members: 3, guests: 855)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom