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TKR Dewey Did It...#1 AND #2

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Dewey, hope you made it home today and that you are still doing OK. You are probably worn out, look forward to hearing from you once you are rested. Take care!
 
Hello!! There's no place like home!! Tonight, those are the truest words you can imagine! I've been home about an hour! I'm already on my comfy couch, dear, sweet husband has cooked me dinner, and my little doggie is on my lap! Almost brings tears to my eyes!

Knees are doing ok. #1 has sure "stepped up" to help. I can't believe it. New knee is quite sore and I'm having trouble getting it comfy. Probably my life for a few weeks now!

I will begin with a new pt in my home tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Sure hope he believes in the Bonesmart mantra! Ill let you know tomorrow. Going to elevate, ice, and rest now! Thanks for being there for me!!!!
 
Good to hear you are home and happy to be there. The new knee will adjust as you well know. Thank you for sharing your happiness with us.
 
Welcome Home!!! Sounds like your doing much better just being home..happy you arranged to come today. Sounds like you have a good plan, rest, ice and elevate!! Hope you night is good.
hugs
Susie
 
So so sorry you had a bad experience with rehab. It sure sounded like a good idea -- no stress, no mess. I hope you and your husband follow up with the powers that be; these places charge a lot of money & need to deliver what you and your insurance company pay for.
 
Hi Dewey, I am pleased you are home, hope things are going well for you,
Hugs, Toothfairy x :egypdance: :happydance:
 
Dewey so glad to hear you are in the comfort of your own home. I hope these early days at home have been gentle on you and that your home PT does in fact follow the mantra.

Wishing you well friend, remember these early days/weeks will pass and then you will have two shiny, strong and bionic new knees to take you where ever you want to go!!

Check in when you're up to it - we miss you!
 
Just a quick hello to let you know I am thinking of you. I hope you are taking care of yourself and progressing well. Let us know when you can but first take care of yourself.
 
Hello! I've finally felt like getting my computer fired up! Thanks for your encouraging words and warm welcome homes! I really can't express how happy I am to be here!

Things are going pretty well. My new knee is now 10 days old. I've had a lot more discomfort with this knee, but knee #1 (11 weeks old now) is not bothering me at all. It's really amazing! It doesn't ache, it doesn't swell, and it holds me up! Im really happy with it! Knee #2 continues to swell, and it's really hard to get it comfy. The first couple of hours after the pain medication I do pretty well, but those last two hours are sometimes a bit tough. I'm still taking it around the clock, and I plan to do that until I no longer need to.

I see the OS tomorrow morning to get the staples removed. I'm not looking forward to it....I remember it wasn't much fun with the first one! I guess it actually wasn't as bad as I had feared, so I'm sure it will be ok. Sure hope he is pleased with my progress.

My new in-home physical therapist is a real nice guy. I've seen him twice now. He will come three times a week until the end of next week. Then I will begin therapy at a rehab facility close to my home. I'm not sure this guy follows the BS mantra.....it seems to be to be an ego booster for him to get my ROM to increase each time he comes! He hasn't laid a hand on me, but he does encourage me to go as far as I can go. I do push it, and I'm sore afterwards, but I never actually go to extreme pain. Hope that's ok!

I am anxious to get back to reading everyone's posts again. I look forward to hearing how everyone is doing! Hope all of you with beautiful new knees are doing well and recovering without pain. Thanks, again, for being here for us! It's such a comfort to know there's someplace to go with questions and concerns!
 
Good morning Dewey, :goodpost:
What a heartening post. It is reassuring to hear that knee 1 is supporting you and not causing you trouble. :wink:
Sounds like you are doing really well.
Good news that your physical therapist is so good, you deserve a bit of luck after your poor rehab experience.
Hope staple removal goes well. That will be another milestone achieved.
Have a good day,
Hugs Toothfairy x :egypdance: :happydance:
 
Yeah Dewey! So glad all seems ok, and as TF said, glad #1 is doing it's proper job.

I know you are leery about pain medicine and how they affect your :sick: . However, I wonder if you should tell you OS that they are not working for the whole time period. They may be able to up the dose a bit, or add something else to help. I know in my early days taking a time released Oxycontin along with my pain meds every four hours was needed. I hate to hear that you're in pain with #2 and hope they can work it out for you without messing with that stomach of yours.

I hope your staple removal goes quickly and easily this morning and feel some relief soon.
 
Great news about knee #1. How is the ROM on that side? Knee #2 is probably acting like #1 did, you just don't remember (I keep thinking Cat in the Hat "thing one and thing two"). I agree that you should try to get some long acting meds. I took long acting oxycontin for 4 weeks (and my OS even gave me a script for another month that I chose not to fill). Keep doing what you know is right! It's good to hear from you!
 
Dewey - Reading your post regarding the stiffness and the swelling reminded me of the question I asked everytime I went to PT while in rehab: when will it go away? They assured me that eventually my knees would quit swelling and the stiffness would gradually disappear. At the time it seemed like it would be forever. But here I am at 9 weeks post BTKR and I realize that most of the time there is no swelling, and the stiffness only shows up occasionally. Now that you are home, you are probably already worrying a lot less and feeling a lot better. I had to stop looking at my progress by the day and start looking at it by the week. Now I'm looking at it by the month. I just entered the third month, and it is definitely better than the beginning of month two! Hang in there. I can hardly wait to hear your report at the end of month one, and then month two.
 
Good afternoon....just thought I'd drop by and update. Tomorrow is 2 weeks......I'm so glad to say that as I've read many, many times here that the first two weeks are the worst! I do remember with #1 that it did get better after that two week mark. New knee is doing pretty good. ROM is already better than #2, and I'm so glad I won't have to worry about that improving (hopefully!) Knee #1 has sure caused enough worry for both of them!

I can tell you that my patience is worse this time! I guess it's because it's now been 12 weeks since this journey began, and I know I've got a long time to go yet! I'm just so tired of EVERYTHING being so difficult! Even putting my own socks on is hard! And the energy drain.....oh my, I can't believe how much a shower takes out of me!

I'm feeling like the swelling is a bit better today, but I'm sure it's because I've only done gentle (real gentle!) exercises for the last two days. I worry when I don't do enough, and I worry when I do too much! I'm trying to find the "happy medium", but it's hard.

Pain medication is, for the most part, doing it's job. I take 1 5/25 Percocet every 4 - 6 hours. Once in a while i supplement with two extra-strength Tylenol, but mostly it's just the Percocet. I'm so pleased that I'm not experiencing any nausea this time. I will want to get off of the narcotic med as soon as I can, but I'm not worried about it as yet.

Thanks to those of you reading my posts! It's so nice to know there's others that truly understand how I spend my day and how I feel. It helps so much just knowing you're all here!

So......no major worries at this time. I'm just taking it one day at a time, and taking it very easy. Rest, rest, rest and ice, ice, ice. I work in elevating, too! I have one more week of in-home PT, and then I'll be driving myself to a facility close to home.
 
[Bonesmart.org] Dewey Did It...#1 AND #2
Reading your post makes me realize how lucky I was that my OS would do my knees two days apart---I got over all the misery just one time. So I know that those of you who have them done several weeks or months apart are really the brave ones. But at least they're both done now and it's mostly down hill from here.

Just keep rolling with the slow, slow flow of recovery---don't push yourself or those knees. TIME and PATIENCE are all you need. Hopefully with nicer weather, you can at least sit outside some of the time and get out of the house without having to go too far.

Take care and keep us posted. We care. [Bonesmart.org] Dewey Did It...#1 AND #2
 
Nice to hear from you Dewey. The worst part is almost over. You can handle it. Maybe you should use this time off to plan a really big party for yourself when you feel you have all of this behind you. Rest and post when you feel up to it.
 
Hello, again...

Just checking in. No real changes as yet. Things seem to be going pretty well. I'm still real stiff and sore, but things continue to improve. I'm working hard to only use my cane now, but I'm noticing that my balance is not great this time. The PT gave me some exercises to work on that. I've also noticed that my stamina is just terrible right now. I'm not able to stand for any length of time at all. Just standing to dry my hair or put on a little makeup is hard. I'm sure that will come with time and patience. I try to get up often during the day and try to increase my time walking and standing. I imagine it's pretty normal. At least, I hope it is!

I'm hoping for some nice weather soon. These dreary, cloudy dark days do nothing at all for my mood! I'm trying hard to stay positive, but these cloudy and cold days are real downers!

What do you all do to keep yourself busy once mindless TV is no longer a good time-filler? I've watched just about all I can stand, and for some reason, I just can't get interested in a good book. I guess I'm not able to concentrate enough to read? Seems so strange since that's always been a great pass-time for me. I'm guessing it might be the pain med.

Thanks, again, for reading my updates and responding on my progress. It helps me so much to know that things are normal, and others are right here with me! Take good care, and continue making progress with those new knees!:puppysmooze:
 
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