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TKR Full moon and Friday the 13th!

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@tiredwife thank you for the welcome! I hope that your husband's recovery is going well! This is the second week that my husband has been back to work while trying to keep up with much of my normal household work. I have had 20 years of learning how to accomplish all my work even during the school year. I have been watching him and try not to ask him to do too much because he just seems exhausted. I try to give him suggestions to help make it easier for him and try to send him to bed so that he gets enough sleep. I also try to thank him as sincerely and as often as possible,but I know that it is hard on him. So on behalf of someone on the receiving end of the caregiving, THANK YOU for all the extras that you are doing for your husband even if he doesn't notice being wrapped up in his recovery. The work that you do to help him is invaluable to his recovery!

@Jozilla thank you for the well wishes! It's amazing how reading through others people's experiences can help mentally prepare us for this recovery. I read many posts, including yours, since I found this site back in November even though I wasn't scheduled for surgery until June, so thank you for sharing your journey.
 
@H2OPoloMom My husband is doing great. I only needed to do things for him the first few weeks. After 37 years we've grown use to taking care of eachother through the tough times. He doesn't need me to do anything for him, other than what I was doing before the surgery (laundry, clean house, etc.) I watch our grandson (3 years old), but don't have an outside job. Hubby isn't retired yet. He even made dinner last night and did the dishes. He has always liked cooking more than me. He is so bored, but isn't ready to go back to work. I have to keep reminding him to not overdo it.
 
H2OPoloMom said:
Just got back from my first OPT appointment and have discovered that his idea of pain equals my idea of just becoming uncomfortable. He wanted to start out slow to figure out how much I could handle without paying for it later.
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I like this! :thumb:
 
One of the other things that my PT told me was that my incision was healed enough that I could start helping my steri strips to come off after a shower. So I'll admit that as a child, I was notorious for picking at my scabs ( and I had a ton of them growing up). Needless to say, I had them all off by yesterday afternoon. I have to send out big kudos to my surgeon because he did a fabulous job of stitching and stapling me back together. At 3 weeks post op, it really looks amazing. There are parts of my incision that already are difficult to see even knowing they are there! Well done doc, well done!
 
The last time that I got my Percocet prescription refilled, the nurse told me that the next time I needed a refill, the doctor was going to prescribe a smaller dosage. In preparation for this, I've been trying to stretch out taking my pills from every four hours to every 5 or 6 hours, although I usually only make it to the 5 hour mark. The consequence of this is that I have to carefully plan when I do my home PT to get in the minimum number of times that I do my PT (it's supposed to be 3-5 and I've been able to reach the 3 mark). So I'm wondering if I should just take my meds every 4 hours and be more comfortable for the next few days or continue to try to stretch my meds so it's not such a shock when my dosage goes down? I'll be moving from a 10mg tablet to a 7.5mg tablet. I also take ibuprophen regularly now. Tylenol, Vicodin, and norco do not work for my pain. As such, I've asked for the acetometaphine free form that was prescribed the first time I filled my prescription. I figured there was no point in exposing my liver to so much acetometaphine when it wasn't helping anyway and the pills are smaller so they don't get stuck going down. When I asked for this, the nurse I was talking to started getting suspicious on me like I was asking for a much larger pain killer when I wouldn't have even known to ask if I hadn't already been prescribed it in this form.
 
You know that feeling you get when you are just about asleep and you feel like you are falling and you body just gives a sudden jerk and wakes you up? My operated leg has been doing that lately, is this normal?
 
I have had that a few times. I think I heard that it is your body trying to release some muscle tension. :scratch:
 
Ok, 2nd OPT: had a different therapist for this appointment. My therapy felt like a list of what not to do with a 3 week new knee. The highlights of the appointment include 30 reps of each-going up a stair bad leg up, good leg down, squats, marching, walking heel-toe unaided (yup, I still use a walker), sitting on the edge of the table doing bent leg lifts (still at 30 reps) and so on. My favorite part though ( please read the thick sarcasm) was he he pressed my knee flat on the table while I was lying on it. He started out slowly, so he caught me off guard. Keep in mind that the last time I was measured, I was at 10 degrees from being straight. I'm pretty sure I heard something snap. After that, he started massaging me kneecap which felt pretty good, but then he had me lie back on the table and proceeded to bend my knee. He got to a point where I asked him to stop and he did. I asked him if he would measure my flexion in a chair instead of on a table. He said no. I said, I get much better flexion in a chair than on a table, and he started bending my knee again. I was so mad that I started working against him so he couldn't bend my knee any further. He measured a 105 and was pleased. Mind you that I was measured at 115 with my in home therapist. If I didn't already have an appointment scheduled with the other, good, therapist, there would have been quite a scene. That and I really wanted ice.:gaah:
 
Thank you @kneeper, my leg, and only my leg, has been doing it more and more. It's nice to know that it's kind of normal.
 
Yes, what not to do indeed. :(
 
I iced like mad last night and kept waiting for the pain to hit as it always did with the arthritis, but it didn't hurt. It did get very tight which from my reading here is just a different kind of pain, but still perplexing that the arthritis pain didn't hit. Silver lining, I KNOW that I can trust this new knee because it does work as promised. Maybe he thought I was further along because my scar does look pretty awesomely healed!
 
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This evening, my knee started doing something new and it's very uncomfortable! It's like a muscle spasm but on the outside of my knee. I can get some temporary relief by extending my knee as much as possible and flexing my foot, but within minutes of stopping it comes back. How can I relieve this long term? I am taking flexeril, but my last prescription my dose was changed from every 8 hours to every 12 hours.
 
Well, sleep seems to be elusive when your knee feels like it's been in labor for the past 5 hours :headbang:
 
Thank you @msmechanic58! I did manage about another hour an a half of in and out sleep. It seems to have mostly stopped, now it's just sore from its "workout."
 
You could try a heating pad if it's a bit away from the knee itself.
 
Strangely, the focal point seems to be the middle of the numb area on the outside my knee and it radiates out. I haven't had a problem with it today, but my knee has been radiating heat like the sun. I have about a 20 minute block of time that I can be ice free before elevating and icing again. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have a repeat episode tonight. I have been gently massage my knee, calf, and quads much of the day, so maybe this will help too.

Thank you for checking in on me!
 
My son learned today, that baking soda really does put out grease fires and dinner was still on the table by 6. Life certainly isn't boring around here!
 
Actually, I did. Not sure what my husband has been grilling, but the bottom of the grill was filled with grease that ignited. My son called for me, but didn't tell me why. I "hurried" with my walker to the garage switched to my cane because of the stairs (I'm sure I was a sight to behold hustling with my walker and cane) and sent him back in to get the baking soda. Shook it over the grill and poof, fire out, problem solved, and dinner was still edible:yahoo:. Sixteen years of teaching chemistry to high schoolers comes in handy sometimes.
 
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