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TKR Can lost ROM be regained

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Back from funeral stiff and exhausted. Managed to get into pool for a short time am. Ate unnecessary large breakfast this morning so not very hungry at lunchtime and even less hungry for funeral tea. Didn't get much chance to speak to friend as there were loads of people there, but she will come and stay with us soon when she has sorted herself out a bit and done what has to be done after a death. Knees have held up fairly well as I followed sitting all day yesterday with standing most of today, and wearing heeled shoes for part of the time. The trouble is I shall be sitting for several hours again tomorrow and it is our dancing class in the evening, doubtful if we shall make it. We go on holiday on Sunday, so busy time ahead. Dinner time now but we aren't hungry.
 
Had a lovely time on holiday on the Isle of Wight. Weather very good indeed, much better than the forecast, we even used sun loungers one day, and did lots of dancing in the evenings. Had a good journey back, although I was itchy in my hair and blamed the midges, which do tend to attack me in warm weather. The day after I had more of the 'bites'on my forehead and along my hairline.

On Tuesday I saw the surgery nurse and asked what to do about them. She sent me to see the Nurse Practitioner who examined me tested my left eye and diagnosed Shingles. I certainly got a shock. I was started straight away on tablets every 4 hours, and the following day I had to go to the emergency eye clinic at the local hospital.

Since then I haver felt dreadful, I came out in little lumps on my forehead down the side of my face and on my eyelid and nose. I had a swollen gland and an aching jaw. I have felt like I have flu, and ached everywhere. My eyelids were so swollen by Thursday morning that my eye wouldn't open, and I spent three days looking just through one. I am much better today and have even been out for a short walk. My knees are still aching like mad, and really painful if I stand for long, and I still want to sleep a lot.

@Josephine could this be a side effect of the tablets Aciclovir, or is it a symptom of Shingles?

Hope everyone is much better than when I last posted.
 
Oh poor you! That's a nightmare! I also had shingles on the face but it was around and inside my mouth. Of course, it's quite a rampant infection - albeit viral - which can indeed give you all those symptoms.

However, Aciclovir can also give you these just to add to your misery!
nausea
diarrhoea and vomiting
headache
dizziness
tiredness
muscle or joint aches
visual changes
​
Hope you feel better soon!
 
Bless you @Josephine for answering so quickly, especially on a Bank Holiday. I certainly have or have had many of the symptoms you list. Also I am still on a daily dose of Nitrofurontoin and I think that that can also affect muscles, although as they come in a bottle without a leaflet I'm not sure. I should at last be off them by the end of June, then if my UTI symptoms return the Urologist wants to try 5 weekly injections directly into my bladder. I don't particularly fancy the idea, but if it is the only answer I am prepared to give it a go. Once again thanks.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that you have developed shingles. My dad had them in the same area you describe so I understand how terrible it can be. I hope you feel better soon. :flwrysmile:
 
Thanks to everyone for their kind comments and good wishes. I am feeling really down today though. My knees are giving me no trouble at all now, but oh my muscles. They are tight, painful, sore and making it very difficult to stand for long or walk with anything like comfort. The sun is shining, the weather is perfect, and all I want to do is sit inside, and mope.
I don't know if the muscle tightness is made worse by the Shingles, the Anti viral tablets, which I finished yesterday thankfulLy, or the Nitrofurantoin which I have been on since last August and can only come off on the 25th June. Then hopefully the UTI Will not return. I just don't know where to turn next. I am seeing a pediatrist next week to see if I need orthotics, and I am also having another massage. Sorry to be such a moaner, I don't like to tell my husband as it makes him so sad that I have gone through two TKR's and am still in so much pain. Sorry if I depress you, but I have no one else to tell.
 
@Majic Our knees are troublesome little wotsits aren't they? I know I exactly how you feel although my knee is stiff and tight still. Are you still having sports massage or is it normal massage? Have you spoken to your GP about whether your symptoms are linked to shingles etc? Guess shingles can make you very depressed too. Feel free to vent on here anytime, l always do! I'm due to see my OS tomorrow so will post an update in the evening.
 
@CATSMUM Thanks for your concern, shingles much better and now I have stopped the antivirals so are my muscles. Nitrofurantoin also can cause muscle pain, and I am still on that until end of June, so coming off that may help. Shingles certainly causes you to feel depressed, I felt like I had a bad dose of flu but with awful itchy spots and an eye so swollen that I couldn't see out and my specs wouldn't sit on my nose properly. I am still having weekly massage, but have missed 3 weeks due to holiday and then being infectious. I can finally go again this week. It is a therapeutic massage now, not sports massage, not sure about the difference, but it is more gentle, and more expensive unfortunately. Hoping to go dancing tonight muscles allowing, although I can't yet wear makeup and I am very pale still. Do let me know how you get on today.
 
@Majic didn't know that nitrofuratin could cause muscle pain. Hopefully, you'll feel a lot better when you come off of them. I've known a few people who've had shingles and it's not a nice illness, really hope you feel much better soon. My sports massage really got into the muscles (deep massage) and helped tremendously - it sorted out my IT Band problems.
Will update my thread later this afternoon.

Take care and fingers crossed that you are able to go dancing tonight. x
 
Saw hospital podiatrist on Friday, which was good as she had access by computer to all the notes my PT had made. She tested all the muscles around my knees, legs and feet. Then she checked how I stood and watched me walk barefoot up and down a corridor twice. She had me stand in different ways eg on tiptoe one foot at a time, and took a full history from TKR no 1 to present.
Her conclusion was that after the fast weight loss and subsequent loss of muscle, my calf muscles were too tight for me to walk properly and so I have adapted my style of walking by using the small muscles down the sides of my legs and around my knees instead. This had put a lot of strain on muscles that were also weak and are not meant to be used on this way, and so the pain had built up over time, moving from place to place depending on what I am doing and which shoes I am wearing.
Her conclusion was that she would make some orthotics which would throw my weight back onto the parts of my foot which I should be using and therefore I will hopefully train myself to use the right muscles and relieve the small ones. She has also given me exercises to do 3 X day to strengthen and stretch my calf muscles.
I am praying that this will work, as I am now in as much if not more muscle pain as I was in pain from my knees before the operation. I am trying to suffer in silence, as I feel strangely ashamed of the fact that I have not ended up pain free like the friends and neighbours I have who have also had two TKRs. Does anyone else who has had a disappointing result at 10+ months feel like this?
 
@Majic Jackie, you must not feel that you need to suffer in silence and you should not be ashamed to let people know how much discomfort you are still suffering. You know that both @Raffs and myself are still having problems and I'm now over a year out. My first TKR was trouble free and I guess that's why I was so disappointed when the second one caused problems. As you know, I'm scheduled for a MUA at the end of the month and I'm feeling positive about it.
Let's hope that the podiatrist is correct about what is causing your gait problem and that the orthotics help. Tight calf muscles can really cause a lot of pain and discomfort. Does your dancing help them??
Feel free to vent on here because we know exactly what you're going through. Sending you a virtual hug. Claire x :console2:
 
@CATSMUM Many thanks for your reply. I suppose I am used to suffering in silence, and have over the years become so used to telling no one about my epilepsy that it has carried over to everything else to do with health. When people ask how I am I never think they really want to know so I always say I'm fine. I am also plagued by an elderly man who lives just behind us who had his second TKR 2 months after mine. He has boasted constantly about his lack of pain and how he has only needed paracetamol. I have now started to avoid him if I can. When I am dancing I seem better but have been told that wearing heels shortens the calf muscles so that is maybe why. Unfortunately I don't get the orthotics until 1st July, as we are going away and so is the podiatrist. I should have seen her almost a month ago, but Shingles put a stop to that. So I have yet another fairly painful holiday ahead. There are 19 of us going together and one of them also has 2 TKRs he had them a year apart and has had no trouble at all with either of them, so I just hope he doesn't ask about mine. I don't know why I feel this strange embarrassment it carries over to other parts of my life as well. I constantly feel embarrassed for other people too.
 
Do not compare yourself to others. I've been through that and it's difficult not to. It only brings on a sense of failure. You now have a doctor who has studied your gait and is working with you to help your calf muscles so that you are more comfortable walking. We may have gotten off to a slow start but that doesn't mean that we won't get to where we want to be.
 
I went through a stage of wanting to "over-share" about my TKR's with everyone I met. There is nothing at all to be embarrassed about, Jackie, but don't feel obligated to talk about your surgeries with strangers. It's your own private business.

Heels are definitely hard on the calves. I don't know what type of dancing you do, but have you considered wearing flats? Dancing is hard work, by the way, and I think you're awesome!

Speaking of dancing (or in my case, making a pure fool of myself), I might take a beginner western line dancing class at the local senior center. I already have boots- one for each of my two left feet!
 
@Clipless Thanks for your reply. Where I love virtually no one is a stranger so everyone I meet asks about my knees. Some because they are considering the op. themselves. I don't want to frighten them from what could be the answer to their problems.
I don't find dancing too difficult or painful. I wear about one and three quarter to two and a half inch heels which takes the strain off my hamstrings as you are mainly on your toes. We dance ballroom and Latin American dancing, and apart from the samba I find the Latin fairly easy on the legs and knees. I am still wearing laced practice dance shoes, so they give lots of support. I think it would be difficult in flats. Ballroom dance shoes have special soles so they slide easily but don't slip. Thanks for your thoughts.
 
I am not a dancer but I too am having more problems than I thought I would at this stage in recovery, about 11 months post-op. I don't know if my problems are worse or better than anyone else's but I do know there are enough of us that are taking the full one-year-plus to recover, and that makes me feel like what's happening to me is normal.
 
@Jamie. I can't remember if you are British, if not could you ask someone who is please. I would like to make a donation to Bonesmart, but the site only seems to deal in dollars. How can I make a donation in pounds sterling? I have asked as a general question before but nobody answered.
 
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