United StatesI had right TKA on 11/23/2021 and MUA on 2/8/22. In-home PT was great and I was ahead of the norm when I changed to clinic PT. Clinic PT was not a good experience for many reasons and I made no significant progress. The main complaint is that they did not believe I was doing enough at-home exercise and encouraged me to push "past the pain", despite 2.5 hrs of exercise at home daily.
I ended up having MUA at 11 weeks (which helped ROM tremendously). Changed to a new therapist who said the knee was continuously swollen from doing too much at-home exercise. Turns out that the knee is very sensitive to overdoing it. Recovery has been a process of doing too much, backing off, then increasing again. I have continued (paying out of pocket) with the new therapist but backed down to 2 sessions per month, still doing strengthening and balance exercises at home. My new PT gives me an exercise app with specific exercises to do at home, personalized for me.
At end of July, I had a big trip/conference where I walked 20,000+ steps daily for about 4 days. Fitbit logged 44 miles for the week. Clearly overdid it and iced it at night, and had increasing pain as the week wore on. It was a real setback. When I saw the therapist 2 weeks ago, he was able to relieve some of the fluid and made my knee feel a little better. When I saw him yesterday, nothing he did seemed to help.
Most pain is mechanical pain. I have been limping since my trip. I have painful crepitus upon extending my knee. I also have severe pain going up and down (worse going down) the stairs. Before the trip, I could alternate on stairs. Now, pain keeps me from bending my right knee so that I go up/down stairs one step at a time. Two weeks ago, the therapist said I didn't do anything other than irritate my knee and that it just needed rest, ice, and compression. So, I have been babying it and only doing isometric exercises and working ROM in the hot tub. Yesterday, he said it should have recovered by now since it has been 4 weeks. If not better next week, he wants me to go back to the surgeon.
I am back to constantly thinking about my knee. The knee is just achy when at rest. When extending it or stepping/walking, the pain is on the lateral side of the knee cap, in line with the bottom half of the knee cap. But, it almost seems to be deeper, like deep in the joint. It is puffy there from the joint fluid. The knee is still swollen and warm to the touch, but it has almost always been swollen and warm to the touch since surgery. It is definitely several degrees warmer than good knee so much that you can feel temp difference through my jeans.
Has anyone else had an experience of overdoing it and then just not getting over it? Or, does anyone experience pain in that location and know what caused it for them? It has only been 9 months and I know it takes 12 months. But, I am frustrated beyond measure and concerned that I may have done some damage with overuse.
I ended up having MUA at 11 weeks (which helped ROM tremendously). Changed to a new therapist who said the knee was continuously swollen from doing too much at-home exercise. Turns out that the knee is very sensitive to overdoing it. Recovery has been a process of doing too much, backing off, then increasing again. I have continued (paying out of pocket) with the new therapist but backed down to 2 sessions per month, still doing strengthening and balance exercises at home. My new PT gives me an exercise app with specific exercises to do at home, personalized for me.
At end of July, I had a big trip/conference where I walked 20,000+ steps daily for about 4 days. Fitbit logged 44 miles for the week. Clearly overdid it and iced it at night, and had increasing pain as the week wore on. It was a real setback. When I saw the therapist 2 weeks ago, he was able to relieve some of the fluid and made my knee feel a little better. When I saw him yesterday, nothing he did seemed to help.
Most pain is mechanical pain. I have been limping since my trip. I have painful crepitus upon extending my knee. I also have severe pain going up and down (worse going down) the stairs. Before the trip, I could alternate on stairs. Now, pain keeps me from bending my right knee so that I go up/down stairs one step at a time. Two weeks ago, the therapist said I didn't do anything other than irritate my knee and that it just needed rest, ice, and compression. So, I have been babying it and only doing isometric exercises and working ROM in the hot tub. Yesterday, he said it should have recovered by now since it has been 4 weeks. If not better next week, he wants me to go back to the surgeon.
I am back to constantly thinking about my knee. The knee is just achy when at rest. When extending it or stepping/walking, the pain is on the lateral side of the knee cap, in line with the bottom half of the knee cap. But, it almost seems to be deeper, like deep in the joint. It is puffy there from the joint fluid. The knee is still swollen and warm to the touch, but it has almost always been swollen and warm to the touch since surgery. It is definitely several degrees warmer than good knee so much that you can feel temp difference through my jeans.
Has anyone else had an experience of overdoing it and then just not getting over it? Or, does anyone experience pain in that location and know what caused it for them? It has only been 9 months and I know it takes 12 months. But, I am frustrated beyond measure and concerned that I may have done some damage with overuse.
