TKR Can't straighten leg or walk eleven weeks post op
- Thread starter JamesAB
- Start date
Yahoo! What wonderful news and how fantastic for you! You will be starting 2024 much better than you started 2023!
This is a welcome good report! So many times the soft tissue issues with joint replacement can be quite a challenge and take time to resolve. It sounds like your stretching to get into that oversized vehicle may have done the trick to put you on the right path.
@JamesAB .... I've copied your New Year's post over to our BoneSmart Party thread. You might want to pop over to the party and chat there with your fellow BoneSmarties! Be sure and bring your favorite New Year's treats for the gang!
OP
OP
JamesAB
member
Hello everybody, here I am again five and a half years after my RTKR and 16 months after my kneecap resurfacing with a Vanguard button.
How I wish I could say that I was walking about ok but I cannot. The euphoria I felt at last Christmas when I was walking around the kitchen unaided has, all but, evaporated as I have not been able to repeat it. My recovery is still VERY MUCH swings and roundabouts in that I have good days and bad days. It seems at the moment that bad days are outnumbering the good days for example: On occasion I can climb stairs foot over foot fairly quickly. Often I find that the knee is quite painful the next day when I can only go up the stairs by putting my good leg first and then bringing up the bad leg to the same stair and so on.
On good days I can furniture hop ok and maybe a step or too without support. Despite the muscles on the bad leg really growing I still cannot put all my weight on it maybe 2/3 only. At the moment I feel a bit down but this has happened before and then I have had a few really good days. No real pain at all unless it's a bad day and I put my weight on the knee. Am I down-hearted? Well a little bit but I am still hopeful a miracle will happen. My surgeon told me 6 months ago that I have at least a year of recovery to go. Roll on Christmas!!
Kindest Regards to all,
Jim
How I wish I could say that I was walking about ok but I cannot. The euphoria I felt at last Christmas when I was walking around the kitchen unaided has, all but, evaporated as I have not been able to repeat it. My recovery is still VERY MUCH swings and roundabouts in that I have good days and bad days. It seems at the moment that bad days are outnumbering the good days for example: On occasion I can climb stairs foot over foot fairly quickly. Often I find that the knee is quite painful the next day when I can only go up the stairs by putting my good leg first and then bringing up the bad leg to the same stair and so on.
On good days I can furniture hop ok and maybe a step or too without support. Despite the muscles on the bad leg really growing I still cannot put all my weight on it maybe 2/3 only. At the moment I feel a bit down but this has happened before and then I have had a few really good days. No real pain at all unless it's a bad day and I put my weight on the knee. Am I down-hearted? Well a little bit but I am still hopeful a miracle will happen. My surgeon told me 6 months ago that I have at least a year of recovery to go. Roll on Christmas!!
Kindest Regards to all,
Jim
I really hope you see the improvement you need. While my situation is not nearly like yours, I do understand the chronic issues of things not being like they should. 
Hi, @JamesAB …. So sorry to hear you are still having ups and downs. This does happen sometimes and, as long as your surgeon has verified that your prosthesis is okay, then it probably is just a matter of time. Depending on how long your knee had been a problem, how difficult the surgery was, and what condition your soft tissue was in before surgery, recovery can be slow in coming.
If you haven’t seen a therapist in a while, you might ask your GP for an order for some therapy. This an help identify the precise problem for muscle weakness and hopefully give you some things you can do on your own to help things along.
If you haven’t seen a therapist in a while, you might ask your GP for an order for some therapy. This an help identify the precise problem for muscle weakness and hopefully give you some things you can do on your own to help things along.
Sorry to hear you are struggling. But apparently the hope of painless function is there. I once worked with a doctor who would use the phrase "Tincture of Time," and I rather loved that term. It's what works in so many instances. Probably right, your "bad" knee needs time, and it might help to rename your knee to something positive. Perhaps "Baby knee" and that might inspire even greater patience than you already have.
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