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TKR Careful what you wish for

Hi @Reebok

Saturday about 1:00 pm in Dublin,as I write this.

My progress reports is an echo yours at 10 weeks.
Stationary bike, slow squats with ball and sleep deprivation are part of my life too.

But, you have the addition of being back at work full time, my hat is off to you on that !

We are both slowly getting back to a normal life, but it is the slowness that sometimes frustrates me.
I am an optimistic person and patience is something that I usually have.
But, the TKR is putting that to a test at times.

Enjoy your weekend,
Cathie
 
End of first full week at work, fifth week back at work, now eleven weeks post tkr.
Struggling in the evening, but sleep is now in two hr lots rather than one hr lots, which is way better.!

When using the stairs at work, I hesitate and do some lunges for stretching, Use what you can!
Leg is starting to feel more normal. Still limping, but can control this if I slow down and think about it.

This week, was able to dry my "bad"leg after a shower by lifting the leg, bending and dry it like a normal one. Progress indeed.

Still icing of an evening, and elevating when I can.

But progres, however small, is still progress.


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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! @Reebok !
I have been trawling the recovery site for some positive role models...and you're it!!
I had a complicated THR on April 5 last year...without boring you with the details my hip and knee issues are all a legacy of congenital hip dyspasia...knee took most of the brunt of the bad hip/ bad gait.my earlier thread will fill you in if you are bored at any time! Lol!
BUT...I did just like you and made the hip recovery a key project! Result...hip is fantastic.
Now I intend to do the same with the knee op! I know it's a harder recovery but...being a Type A personality, I will give this the same focus .
I got such a lot of support/ hints from fellow hippies on this site last year and always gravitated to threads where the people had a positive approach and found a cohort of fellow hippies who had the same attitude!
In fact we've all made contact on Facebook and still share a laugh and news of our gym classes, overseas travels and take joy in our easy mobility....at least it WAS easy until my knee collapsed.
Anyway, my surgery is scheduled for Oct 9.. Same surgeon, same hospital and same recovery plan..rehab, physio for stretching those muscles that end up as tight as guitar strings, then back to my gym !
Fingers crossed it will all work out as planned.
Meanwhile, it's very cheering to read a thread that is not all doom and gloom, so thank you.
 
Hello @Reebok

Echoing what Janet @gr82cu2 and @Maeve said. It is uplifting to read posts from you and your positive approach to your TKR recovery.

Celebrating the small accomplishments and taking it day by day and step by step(pun intended).

Continue on your recovery journey it's a road that we would also like to travel with you.

Take care,
Cathie
 
@Reebok I too am echoing what @Maeve , @gr82cu2 and @marmora have said. As a pre-op, I really need to hear how post-ops are regaining their lives by doing ordinary stuff and the milestones they are making. It gives me something to strive for and reassures me that there actually is a life after this surgery. Thank you for letting us know recovery is actually possible following this surgery, because I was beginning to wonder .
 
@Reebok Sounds like you are doing great except for the sleep thing. Hubby is off narcotics and has been on Ambien for 2 nights now, with it he is getting about 5 or 5 1/2 hours straight sleep and then drifting off for another hour or two. It's about time! Hope you start getting sleep. In many ways he says the lack of sleep is the worst part of his TKR recoveries.
 
@Reebok @gr82cu2 @marmora As someone who regularly works nights and sometimes has problems switching between day sleep and night sleep, you can find loads of stuff to help you drop off on youtube - relaxing music or sounds (ocean sounds are my personal favourite) guided meditation etc or you can download apps like 'relax and sleep' . Works for me and better for you than medication. I've found spraying lavender essential oil on my pillow helpful too.
 
@TeeEm I am the TKR sleeping champion!! I've really had no trouble at all other than the 1st night of my surgery in the hospital and this past Wednesday night when I joined the ODIC club painting on my house. Was in too much pain that night. I learned a long time ago to never go to bed (or lately to the couch or recliner) until I can't keep my little eyes open one more minute. If I go before that I end up tossing and turning and get mad and frustrated and can't sleep at all. Luckily I don't work so it doesn't really matter what time of night I get to sleep. Since my TKR I've slept really well. Usually only waking once in the night to potty and then right back to sleep. I think what happens for some folks is the anesthesia and pain messes with their sleep rhythms and then it becomes a habit for their body to awaken at times when they would rather it didn't. Somehow I've avoided that. Crossing fingers it doesn't happen the next time either. The good news is if you can't sleep someone is always here on Bonesmart :)
 
@TeeEm, @marmora @gr82cu2 @Maeve.

Thanks for the reassuring words
I am glad I may have lifted at least one heart.
I was starting to think I had taken much from this forum and given little back.

I am just trying to get my own life back. It is not all bad.
It is indeed a struggle, but one we can achieve. We finish better off than we started out, which is of course the goal.
The road is bumpier for some than others though, so I dont want anyone to feel that I have got off lightly, and discourage them when they compare to their own experience.

I work with quite a few people whose glass is always less than half full to them. There is so little joy in the world for them. If misery loves company, they are hanging around with the wrong people.
I take a look around, and am very grateful for what I have.
Be mess if I am going to give away the joy in what I have. I am going to extract it and my smile becomes the interest earned.
Quite a few smiles in the bank now.
I might be nieve and innocent, but I am happy, nieve and innocent. Sorta balances out the cynical bits.

Keep smiling. The cynical ones will be hard at work guessing what is going on.



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Another week bites the dust.
Struggling tonight being friday night.
Few roadworks and traffic issue during the week. When the twenty minute commute turns into an hour or more, I really suffer.
Will be doing little rather than a lot this weekend, other than mowing the lawns.
Bathurst weekend, so couch time is coming.
For any bloke that doesnt know what bathurst weekend is about! Look for darryl waltrip at bathurst on youtube.
One of the best tracks in the world for endurance racing, with breathtaking elevation changes and sequences of corners and long long straights. I used to race motorbike there in the seventies, later, sports cars in the nineties. Just the best.
Is Actually a normal rural road for 51 weeks of the year. Then it is a racetrack. Plenty of concrete walls now, but barbed wire fences was the go in the seventies. Makes a mess of an errant biker!

Sleeping is still an issue, but I have to be patient!
Twelve weeks post tkr now, another checkup with OS next week. Will post his comments.


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Hi @Reebok

Another week down for you and at your suggestion have looked up The Bathurst 1000 for Super V8s and see that Jamie Whincup has crashed out. Wow ! It is exciting and that should oocupy you for the weekend.


Sleep still an issue for me too and I'm also at 12 weeks. But, now getting about 4 hours between waking up, so that's an improvement.

Saw my OS last week, he's not concerned with my Flexion at 100 and extension at 6-8 or the continuing stiff knee and swelling.
Basically told me, it takes as long as it takes for recovery and that I'm improved from my 6 week check-up/ I would certainly hope so. And he will see me on 8 Januaru 2015,

Take care and enjoy your weekend and looking for your update at the end of next week after you see your OS.

Cathie
 
I looked up the race, too! Looks fun. Maybe more fun to be racing than watching, but you have to get better before you are racing again. Concrete or barbed wire? Tough call.
 
Three month checkup today.
OS looked at xrays and says everything is tracking straight and true, muscle tone is good, flexion and straightening is good.
He explained the features of the implant ( vanguard) and gave me a biomet card with the tkr details for airport use.
Next visit in six months.
I made sure I thanked the girls in the front office, and dropped in on the physio staff at the hospital ( OS office is part of hospital).
The girls in the front office were the ones responsible for moving my operation forward by six weeks, and I am grateful for their efforts. The physios helped me prepare prior to the op, and I credit with making my stay in hospital only three days, and my recovery to a manageable level so quick.
All in all I am happy, hope to celebrate with a good nights sleep, LOL.

Wishing the same for everyone else.


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This is an awesome report, Reebok. How does your knee feel to you? My friend was hit by a Toyota 27 years ago and just had both knees replaced. The knees sustained most of the damage of the accident. He's doing very well.
 
How does it feel?
Like a slight sprain all the time.uncomfortable rather than painful.
Doesnt feel like a block of wood as some have described it.
Bend is limited, but I can sit at a chair comfortably, drive a car, ride a bike, and do things like eat at a restaurant, walk in the shops, socialise, mow the lawns, work in the shed etc.
Things I have been slowly avoiding over the past few years.
I dont believe I am as grumpy as before, and my concentration levels are definitely higher.

At thirteen weeks, I am very happy to have had a tkr done.
I do advise people though that it is not a cure, it comes with its own set of issues. But a better and more manageable set of issues.
Very much looking forward to the next six months and what it brings.



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Hello @Reebok

Very good and very realistic update in both of your posts above.
Very positive and good to hear that.
Take care and keep up the good work in your recovery.

Take care,
Cathie
 
I agree with @marmora, your summary is perfect. I hadn't thought of a TKR in those exact terms, but I'm beginning to learn to do so. Thanks for this, Reebok. (I think it should be a stickie!)
 
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