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Bilateral TKR Colleen’s Bilateral TKR Marathon
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HappyHen
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I am doing great!
My PT measured my knee bend: it is 138 for my left knee and 132 for my right knee. He is very pleased.
My PT has never given the degree to which I can flatten the knee a number, at least not to me, but he says it is great. I can reach the table with the back of my knee if I purposely push down.
I still have not attempted a walk longer than the 2.2 miles I walked 13 days ago, but will try for 3.1 miles (a 5K’s worth of distance) later this week. That will be on the nice, level, indoor track at my gym, with its rubber flooring. Neither my PT nor my doctor’s nurse practitioner want me walking a 5K on city streets yet. They say there is too good of a chance of damaging the knee right now, if I hit unlevel or cracked pavement or other things that might twist the knees. So, I will limit my longer walks to the gym‘s walking/running track for awhile longer.
I do alot of pool work, and that helps the knees.
One thing that has really helped my knee bends is what I do while sitting in the gym’s hot tub.
The muscles get so relaxed in the hot water, and I take full advantage of that.
We have concrete seats built into the sides of the hot tub. I sit on the bench, put my knees together at a 90 degree angle in normal sitting posture.
Then, I push myself off the concrete bench, without moving my feet or ankles at all. I slide myself slowly, carefully, off the bench and onto my knees, which automatically bends the knees as far as they will bend, as I slide down onto my legs. I stay in that bent leg position until I count to 12, then I slowly come back onto the concrete hot tub bench.
Amazingly, it does not hurt to bend the knees in the hot tub, and I seem to gain more ability to bend in the hot water. In fact, it is much easier to bend my knees in the hot tub, then out on dry land. Yet the increased ability I gain in my bend while in the hot tub carries over as I bend on dry land.
Anyway, thanks for asking. I am doing great.
And I have not taken any opioid pain killers in about 10 days. I think my time using opioids to sleep is about over - and I still have a few pills left unused. I never did ask for a refill.
My PT measured my knee bend: it is 138 for my left knee and 132 for my right knee. He is very pleased.
My PT has never given the degree to which I can flatten the knee a number, at least not to me, but he says it is great. I can reach the table with the back of my knee if I purposely push down.
I still have not attempted a walk longer than the 2.2 miles I walked 13 days ago, but will try for 3.1 miles (a 5K’s worth of distance) later this week. That will be on the nice, level, indoor track at my gym, with its rubber flooring. Neither my PT nor my doctor’s nurse practitioner want me walking a 5K on city streets yet. They say there is too good of a chance of damaging the knee right now, if I hit unlevel or cracked pavement or other things that might twist the knees. So, I will limit my longer walks to the gym‘s walking/running track for awhile longer.
I do alot of pool work, and that helps the knees.
One thing that has really helped my knee bends is what I do while sitting in the gym’s hot tub.
The muscles get so relaxed in the hot water, and I take full advantage of that.
We have concrete seats built into the sides of the hot tub. I sit on the bench, put my knees together at a 90 degree angle in normal sitting posture.
Then, I push myself off the concrete bench, without moving my feet or ankles at all. I slide myself slowly, carefully, off the bench and onto my knees, which automatically bends the knees as far as they will bend, as I slide down onto my legs. I stay in that bent leg position until I count to 12, then I slowly come back onto the concrete hot tub bench.
Amazingly, it does not hurt to bend the knees in the hot tub, and I seem to gain more ability to bend in the hot water. In fact, it is much easier to bend my knees in the hot tub, then out on dry land. Yet the increased ability I gain in my bend while in the hot tub carries over as I bend on dry land.
Anyway, thanks for asking. I am doing great.
And I have not taken any opioid pain killers in about 10 days. I think my time using opioids to sleep is about over - and I still have a few pills left unused. I never did ask for a refill.
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After each of my kneecap removals, after all incisions and scabs were healed, I got in my bathtub with hot water and I'd do what you did except I'd slide my butt back and forth to work on my bend. After my TKR, I did nothing but my normal daily activities with no tub workouts. I recovered just fine without working on that bend. It took at least a year to get back to normal from all three of these major surgeries, so, for me, working on my bend made no difference in my recovery. You might find the same for you.
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HappyHen
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It is three months already…
They say you are about 80% to 90% recovered at 12 weeks post-surgery. Well, that is what the licensed Physical Therapists on You Tube videos say.
My knees ARE doing alot better.
To celebrate my anniversary, I went to the gym and walked 5 miles on their indoor walking/running track today.
I am very short (5 foot, 1 inch) with legs and a short stride to match. It takes a typical 5 foot, 10 inch adult about 2000 steps to walk a mile.
Because I am so short and my steps are shorter than most people’s, it takes me about 2,430 steps to walk the same mile. (This is why men tend to run marathons, on average, much faster than women. They are talller, and it literally takes them fewer steps to run a mile. Over the 26.2 miles - the length of a full marathon - the difference in steps needed to complete a mile really adds up.)
Anyway, despite my short steps, I still was able to walk that 5 mile distance in a total of 2 hours and 2 minutes.
And, believe me, I felt each and every one of those steps. Not pain, mind you. It is just I have not reached the point yet where I can walk long distances without thinking about it. Not yet. My PT - a runner himself - says I will get there. But it is too soon to expect that right now. I will gain the ability to walk faster as time progresses. I have to admit, I am kind of embarrassed to admit that it took me a full two hours to complete a 5 mile walk.
My knees extension is perfect, my PT says. My knee flexion is 140 on the right leg, and 138 on the left knee.
The left knee flexion has not changed over the last month, although the right knee improved. My PT says that is about the best I can expect, and said I would be OK to cut back some on the knee range of motion exercises.
He has recommended doing exercises that will build up leg strength and balance instead.
Also, he says it is time to resume whole body workouts - cardio, strength and balance exercises for the entire body. I needed to center my attention on exercising my knees over the last three months, as bilateral TKR is a hard surgery to recover from. But now that my knees are back, he says it is time to return to whole body workouts. So I do cardio workouts on an eliptical machine, a recumbent bike, and by swimming.
And I am doing arm, hip, and core exercises on land and in the therapy pool.
It is time to move into a new phase in my recovery efforts. It feels really good.
They say you are about 80% to 90% recovered at 12 weeks post-surgery. Well, that is what the licensed Physical Therapists on You Tube videos say.
My knees ARE doing alot better.
To celebrate my anniversary, I went to the gym and walked 5 miles on their indoor walking/running track today.
I am very short (5 foot, 1 inch) with legs and a short stride to match. It takes a typical 5 foot, 10 inch adult about 2000 steps to walk a mile.
Because I am so short and my steps are shorter than most people’s, it takes me about 2,430 steps to walk the same mile. (This is why men tend to run marathons, on average, much faster than women. They are talller, and it literally takes them fewer steps to run a mile. Over the 26.2 miles - the length of a full marathon - the difference in steps needed to complete a mile really adds up.)
Anyway, despite my short steps, I still was able to walk that 5 mile distance in a total of 2 hours and 2 minutes.
And, believe me, I felt each and every one of those steps. Not pain, mind you. It is just I have not reached the point yet where I can walk long distances without thinking about it. Not yet. My PT - a runner himself - says I will get there. But it is too soon to expect that right now. I will gain the ability to walk faster as time progresses. I have to admit, I am kind of embarrassed to admit that it took me a full two hours to complete a 5 mile walk.
My knees extension is perfect, my PT says. My knee flexion is 140 on the right leg, and 138 on the left knee.
The left knee flexion has not changed over the last month, although the right knee improved. My PT says that is about the best I can expect, and said I would be OK to cut back some on the knee range of motion exercises.
He has recommended doing exercises that will build up leg strength and balance instead.
Also, he says it is time to resume whole body workouts - cardio, strength and balance exercises for the entire body. I needed to center my attention on exercising my knees over the last three months, as bilateral TKR is a hard surgery to recover from. But now that my knees are back, he says it is time to return to whole body workouts. So I do cardio workouts on an eliptical machine, a recumbent bike, and by swimming.
And I am doing arm, hip, and core exercises on land and in the therapy pool.
It is time to move into a new phase in my recovery efforts. It feels really good.
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I can only take your word for it since I don't know that I'd ever be brave enough to undergo bilateral joint replacement, after the diagnosis.
You are doing so well! Thank you for taking the time to update by sharing your inspirational recovery.
Best Wishes for a beautiful holiday season and many blessings to you in 2024!
RockyBones
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HappyHen
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RockyBones, yes I was active before my bilateral TKR.
I ran/walked marathons, half marathons, and even an annual 100 mile race with bone on bone arthritis in my knees for 7 years before I finally had my surgery. (That SOUNDS worse than it really was - I got rooster shots to lubricate my knee joints twice a year, and I had a pair of bulky unloader knee braces that I ran every race with). Plus, I ran a slow run. I never worried about winning the race - only successfully completing the race.
But it wasn’t so much the fact that I was physically active that helped me so much.
It was the fact that I was in the habit of exercising long and hard. Exercise is a way of life to me, and so I did it often no matter what. A physical therapist friend had warned me in advance that the harder (within reason, of course) I worked in the first days and weeks after surgery, the easier and less painful things would be one month, or two months or three months after surgery.
So I always made sure to go the extra mile with my exercise. Even as early as my first hours out of the recovery room, when I did frequent ankle pumps and butt squeezes.
But there were other things, too.
I had THE BEST SURGEON (according to the official ranking of orthopedic surgeons who do knee replacements, which you can find on medicare.gov) in my state (Tennessee).
My doctor’s exceptional surgery history was due in great part to his skill as a surgeon, of course. But it is also because of the all the “extras” that he gives every patient. For example, he mandates that every patient sleep six hours a night in a leg immobilizer for the first two or three weeks after surgery. Now, I hated sleeping in the thing, but sleeping in the leg immobilizer all but completely insures that the patient will have 100% extension down the road, because of how it stretches the joint while sleeping and also, how it helps prevent the formation of dehabilitating scar tissue.
The PT protocol he mandates PTs use for his patients is somewhat different than standard fare PT, and the differences really help with that flexion.
He mandates that every patient on Medicare (the insurance provider for most of his patients) be given one of those knee cooling ice machines at Medicare’s expense, which also helps his patients to do more exercise in the early weeks (because they get fast pain relief after PT from the ice machine). That, too, helps with developing flexion.
But that was me.
RockyBones, the first thing to realize is that we all recover from this surgery at a different pace.
Your flexion might not be the same as what mine was at 2 months, but you are actually doing quite well.
Keep working the exercises your PT gives you. Unless you have some scar tissue that has developed inside the knee, the knee bending exercises will get you where you need to go.
(If you do have problematic scar tissue formation inside the knee, your surgeon will probably do a Manipulation under Anastesia, whivh will break up the scar tissue and get you back on track).
Keep working that knee, RockyBones. Do not be afraid of the momentary pain when you work it, because each time you work the knee, the pain will decrease.
Ultimately, the way to get pain free knees with good flexion is to exercise the knee frequently, and as far into the bend position as you can.
Yes, there will be some pain. For a while, anyway.
But the more you work the knee, the less it will hurt.
Until one day, it will bend with ease, and will not hurt at all.
You WILL get there, RockyBones!
I ran/walked marathons, half marathons, and even an annual 100 mile race with bone on bone arthritis in my knees for 7 years before I finally had my surgery. (That SOUNDS worse than it really was - I got rooster shots to lubricate my knee joints twice a year, and I had a pair of bulky unloader knee braces that I ran every race with). Plus, I ran a slow run. I never worried about winning the race - only successfully completing the race.
But it wasn’t so much the fact that I was physically active that helped me so much.
It was the fact that I was in the habit of exercising long and hard. Exercise is a way of life to me, and so I did it often no matter what. A physical therapist friend had warned me in advance that the harder (within reason, of course) I worked in the first days and weeks after surgery, the easier and less painful things would be one month, or two months or three months after surgery.
So I always made sure to go the extra mile with my exercise. Even as early as my first hours out of the recovery room, when I did frequent ankle pumps and butt squeezes.
But there were other things, too.
I had THE BEST SURGEON (according to the official ranking of orthopedic surgeons who do knee replacements, which you can find on medicare.gov) in my state (Tennessee).
My doctor’s exceptional surgery history was due in great part to his skill as a surgeon, of course. But it is also because of the all the “extras” that he gives every patient. For example, he mandates that every patient sleep six hours a night in a leg immobilizer for the first two or three weeks after surgery. Now, I hated sleeping in the thing, but sleeping in the leg immobilizer all but completely insures that the patient will have 100% extension down the road, because of how it stretches the joint while sleeping and also, how it helps prevent the formation of dehabilitating scar tissue.
The PT protocol he mandates PTs use for his patients is somewhat different than standard fare PT, and the differences really help with that flexion.
He mandates that every patient on Medicare (the insurance provider for most of his patients) be given one of those knee cooling ice machines at Medicare’s expense, which also helps his patients to do more exercise in the early weeks (because they get fast pain relief after PT from the ice machine). That, too, helps with developing flexion.
But that was me.
RockyBones, the first thing to realize is that we all recover from this surgery at a different pace.
Your flexion might not be the same as what mine was at 2 months, but you are actually doing quite well.
Keep working the exercises your PT gives you. Unless you have some scar tissue that has developed inside the knee, the knee bending exercises will get you where you need to go.
(If you do have problematic scar tissue formation inside the knee, your surgeon will probably do a Manipulation under Anastesia, whivh will break up the scar tissue and get you back on track).
Keep working that knee, RockyBones. Do not be afraid of the momentary pain when you work it, because each time you work the knee, the pain will decrease.
Ultimately, the way to get pain free knees with good flexion is to exercise the knee frequently, and as far into the bend position as you can.
Yes, there will be some pain. For a while, anyway.
But the more you work the knee, the less it will hurt.
Until one day, it will bend with ease, and will not hurt at all.
You WILL get there, RockyBones!
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@RockyBones HappyHen is correct that we all recover from this surgery at a different pace. Her aggressive rehab worked very well for her, but it doesn’t work for everyone. For many of us, the gentle approach works very well and gives a great outcome.
RockyBones
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@HappyHen thank for the great summary and congrats on your rapid recovery
The reason I asked that question is because I’ve read that the more active you are prior to surgery, the likelihood is that your knee joint capsule is already more flexible than say a sedentary person like me who would have to work harder to loosen it up
And realizing that we all recover differently, I suppose I kinda look for reasons why one recovery if different than another. In my mind it gives me perspective on how to view my recovery and what to expect. If that makes sense
And thank you @Jockette for your reassurance
The reason I asked that question is because I’ve read that the more active you are prior to surgery, the likelihood is that your knee joint capsule is already more flexible than say a sedentary person like me who would have to work harder to loosen it up
And realizing that we all recover differently, I suppose I kinda look for reasons why one recovery if different than another. In my mind it gives me perspective on how to view my recovery and what to expect. If that makes sense
And thank you @Jockette for your reassurance
Wow, HappyHen, you really pushed yourself and did great with that. But, we have found that most of our members have found that doing this much early in their recovery actually slowed down their recovery by causing extra pain and swelling. That is why we say to do what works for you, not what works for someone else. As we all know, not all knees are the same and neither are their recoveries.
