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TKR Carole’s recovery thread

Thanks, @luvcats . I am sure there will be bad days too, and I will not hesitate to come here on those days too.

So far today I am still in the fairly woozy and weak state that I seem to often be in right after awakening, this week. Maybe that is due to the remnants of the one hydrocodone+acetaminophen that I took when I went to bed last night. It should have worn off by now, though, I'd think. Oh well! I do have my coffee with me and need to drink it.

I hope this coffee perks me up because I have BOTH PT and Home Health coming by today and I need to be awake and energetic. No more sleep for me! At least not until they have both come and gone. Over the weekend I was feeling pretty energetic so hopefully that energy will return. PT is coming this afternoon, but heaven knows when the Home Health nurse is coming. They may have told me but I don't have it on my calendar. Ah, for the old pre-surgery days when I lived the quiet life of a retiree and didn't need to worry about keeping a calendar up to date. :snork:

As for being pleased about things, I definitely am! I wasn't sure if I would even wake up from anesthesia, being old, diabetic, almost completely immobile (so no strength), and not having had surgery this major ever before. Oh, plus having a tendency to be unlucky sometimes. So I am pleased as punch that I even survived, and the lack of severe pain (so far!) adds to that.

Meanwhile I need to dress, take my pills, eat breakfast, empty the portable commode, and wash up a little. Oh, and to do all that with my cellphone at hand, just in case Home Health calls. And I need to ice for a while. After that, maybe I should put those dreaded compression hose back on since surely the nurse will freak out when she doesn't see them on me.
 
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Coffee helps in my opinion. If nothing else it keeps you warm when you and your knee are :ice:.
 
ApricotPie said:
Coffee helps in my opinion. If nothing else it keeps you warm when you and your knee are :ice:.
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Yes, it really did help! I still feel a little sleepy, but my energy is back and I'll take a nap later on sometime.

Home health nurse just came here while I was writing this post. She changed my dressing, and it looks surprisingly good compared with what I am seeing on the photos thread on this forum. She says my knee looks almost four times as big as the other knee, and suggested more icing and wearing those compression hose to keep the swelling down. I swell a lot. Ugh. OK, I have the compression hose back on. :nah: She tried to get them all the way on for me, and could not do it either for the surgical knee so she folded that one down. That's a little more bearable.
 
I'm so thankful that I didn't have to wear those hose. I iced and elevated almost constantly while I was either sitting or laying down. That helped to keep the swelling down. You might want to do ice and elevate more often than you are now. It's worth a try.
 
After the Home Health nurse came over and left, Physical Therapy arrived again. My sweetie was here for both appointments which I greatly appreciated.

I have been able to walk more and put more weight on my surgical knee, and I am doing pretty well with PT exercises too. I got one more degree in range of motion, 69 degrees, despite the swelling. It is still very difficult for me to get on and off of my bed unassisted, the most painful thing I have experienced since arriving home from the hospital. I told the physical therapist this, and she decided that getting on and off my bed independently is my PT goal for the week. She might as well have assigned climbing Mt. Everest (grump, grump!
[Bonesmart.org] Carole’s recovery thread
[Bonesmart.org] Carole’s recovery thread
).

She wasn't very clear about how I was to do it, except to put the foot of my surgery leg, on top of the toes of my other foot and try to lift my entire surgery leg up with the other leg while seated on the side of the bed. Uh huh. She had me do it once but it started slipping off so she helped me. I have not done it without her helping, ever. I'll try to suspend my disbelief about it even being doable, and at least try.

Whether due to the compression hose (as I suspect), or not, it has become painful to even ice and elevate and I am getting all those "zingers" that people talk about. Time for more pain medication.
 
You will be able to lift your leg yourself when you heal a bit more. My husband put my leg where I needed it until I could do it myself. It took me a few weeks. I didn’t “work on it,” the only time I tried was when I was going to bed and needed my leg up on my elevating wedge. All of a sudden I could do it. :happydance:
 
Jockette said:
You will be able to lift your leg yourself when you heal a bit more. My husband put my leg where I needed it until I could do it myself. It took me a few weeks. I didn’t “work on it,” the only time I tried was when I was going to bed and needed my leg up on my elevating wedge. All of a sudden I could do it. :happydance:
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That's my sense of it too. I said I was sure I could do it soon, but that it hasn't even been a week. She said she had to push early on to keep patients' knees from freezing. (rolling my eyes)

Oh well. I guess I will just do what I can do.
 
Yes, keep rolling your eyes, you’re not going to freeze. :doh:Where do they come up with these things they say.

I can still hear and see someone standing in my kitchen saying something about my knee freezing. I didn’t believe it but it has stuck in my mind. It still makes me mad. :hairpulling:
 
Ha Ha, remember when you would make faces as a kid or cross your eyes and you mother would tell you would freeze that way?

Have you tried using the belt from your bathrobe to lift your leg? That's what I used at first to get my leg up on the couch or into the car.

Tomorrow's my turn and I'll be joining you over here in recovery land.
 
IMHO, if the compression stockings hurt, I'd remove them and put them in the round file! But, what I suggest you at least do is have a trial run of leaving them off and icing/elevating for long periods of time, then see where you are. I used my ice machine continuously if I was not up walking around, plus I iced all night every night without fail.
As for the PT even suggesting she push on your knee would make me throw the penalty flag on that play! Tell her in no uncertain terms that that is unacceptable and will not be allowed.
 
Oh, and are you having a time of it getting off your bed due to not being able to lift your leg yourself? If so, know that one of these days when you aren't thinking about it, you'll find yourself naturally lifting your leg on it's own, as that function will return and surprise you, as it did me. In the meantime, I used a soft, slightly stretchy long cloth tube that they gave me in the hospital with a large knot at each end. I think it's what they use to place over a limb before putting on casts, and it worked perfectly. I just held it at each end, then lightly tossed it in the vicinity of my foot, pulled on it and it fit into my instep, and I was easily able to lift my leg to get in and out of bed. Maybe a tube scarf would work for you, if you have one.
 
I borrowed one of my husband's belts to help me through the 'log-leg' period. It was weird. I came home from surgery able to lift my leg just fine, but just a few days later I couldn't. How's that for swelling? So I took the husband's spare belt and made a loop in it to stick my foot in in. I think I needed that for about a week?
 
Thanks for the ideas, @luvcats , @lovetocookandsew , @sewhat and everyone. I have one of those leg lifter devices (basically a metal loop encased in cloth), that I got on Amazon.

I am just tired, in pain, and scared to do it because of the over-the-top pain when I tried to do it during the PT visit, and the feeling of helplessness when I got stuck in the most painful part of it and couldn't rescue myself (and *finally* the PT rescued me).

I did talk to my sweetie last night when he was over here, and we are going to try it today. I'll try using the leg lifter device and he will be ready to rescue me if I mess up. I am sure that once I do it a couple of times I'll be fine with it. Right now the thought of it just inspires mindless terror.

I did wear my compression stockings overnight and that was OK, but this morning I have the one from my surgical leg off. I need to try to get it back on after writing this.

My PT really caused a lot of new pain yesterday, although it didn't seem that bad when we were actually doing the PT (or I would have refused!) but afterwards the pain set in. Despite icing a lot and elevating as much as I could, it just was awful. I had that back of the knee pain too, and leg cramps, and zingers as well as the regular knee pain. Last night at bedtime, for the first time since surgery I took 2 hydrocodone+acetaminophen and thank heavens I did. They made me a little "loopy" but I went to sleep about a half hour later and the respite from pain is what I needed to get through the night. I am allowed to take 2 of those pills every 4-6 hours but had been doing so well that I did not need two pills ever until last night.

I was progressing so nicely over the weekend when PT was leaving me alone and I felt so successful with the progress I was seeing. It's hard to not blame PT for the pain and feelings of inadequate progress that I felt last night and today, but I am not sure my anger is justified. Knowing me, likely it is just anger at myself that I am displacing onto the PT instead. If I had my way, I'd ditch PT but I want my doctor to think I am a compliant patient since I want him to replace my other knee in a few months. So, might as well go through the motions if I can do it without causing damage.

Sorry my upbeat posts got interrupted by this one! LOL Oh well, that couldn't last forever.
 
The thing I liked about the cloth lifter is I could use both hands to evenly apply the motion needed to lift my leg and it was much more of a smooth motion, as opposed to the kind that are stiff and loop around your foot, and use just one hand. It was so much easier for me to do than the one-handed kind, which is why I was thinking it may work better for you.
As for PT, you could cancel a couple of sessions and see how it goes without formal PT and only ADLs for a short time. You're not being non-compliant if you choose to forego PT, you're making your own decision on what works, or doesn't work, for your particular knee. You gave PT a trial (and it was a trial...lol) and can now decide to at least slow it down, if not stop it altogether. Right now you're in pain, which tells me PT, as it is currently, doesn't work for your knee and you need to make a change of some kind before another session. What that change is is entirely up to you, but you have the right to be your own advocate and decide how you want to travel your recovery path.
 
I spent the first few weeks either getting other people to lift my leg for me, or using an old yoga belt to pull my leg up and over. Give it a bit more time.

In regards to PT, I am finding it useful in the sense that she points out things I am doing wrong as I over compensate for having a surgical knee. So I make a point to walk with a more normal gait rather than like the 'pegleg' walk I was doing. Still, I wish there was more coordination between the surgeon and the PT folks.
 
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@lovetocookandsew , thanks for explaining that. The soft lifter does sound like it would work better. I guess I'll try the Amazon one since I have it already, but at least I won't completely despair if it is too hard to use.

@ApricotPie , thanks to you, too, so much. That is so encouraging to me!
 
If the one you have doesn't work, try a long scarf in both hands and see if that works for you. Just either knot both ends, or at least wrap it around your hands, before lifting so as to avoid it slipping.
 
Glad you were able to get some pain relief...maintaining that is the key to feeling better and getting back up and moving. I was lucky not to have had any difficulty lifting my legs two years ago and saying that, this go around I will probably have issues!! (:D Murphy's Law)
You are still doing great so don't let anything keep you from being positive about it all. I'm sure the swelling is the main culprit so keep doing what you are doing and don't overdo it!
:good-bad:
 
I DID IT!!!! :spin::dancy:
I DID IT!!!! I DID IT!!!! I DID IT!!!! :loveshwr: :wowspring::flwrysmile::yay::happydance:

Thank goodness. My sweetie and I were eating lunch over here, and I showed him a youtube about getting onto and off of a bed using a leg lifter like mine. Then I tried it with him right there, to rescue me and he didn't have to do a thing!!! I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF!!! Well, with him there to rescue me if needed. Getting off the bed was so much easier in comparison that it was almost trivial.

(My leg lifter is just one that I found on Amazon for around $10, a long metal thing with a loop at the end to put your foot into, and all covered with cloth. )

I still don't have the confidence to do it while all alone, but maybe 3-4 more tries with him there and I'll be ready for that.

I iced this morning and I have been able to wear my compression hose for several hours so this day is definitely looking up.
 
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