PKR Gatornet's knee

[Gatornet]

@Gatornet You have have noticed I moved your posts into the recovery forum in their own thread. If you want another title, just say and I'll change it for you - or one of the other mods will.

Sure I think I'd like another title but right now I can't think of any that would actually be appropriate and not contain maybe a bad word. And I don't usually swear. This has really thrown me. If it were the first time ok, roll with it, but the whole reason I took so long to do this badly needed third surgery, same knee, is that the very first surgery caused osteonecrosis and a piece of cartilage to die off from something that happened intraoperatively. I had to do the 2nd surgery just to get walking again. That was a logs...more than a year long process on crutches with so much pain. Very hard on the marriage. I searched long and hard for the right surgeon for this surgery, even almost started surgery a couple different times with other OS a few years ago.

I think if I weren't in so much pain I could at least think a little more clearly and see that this will all work out sometime. But right now it's now working. I know I didn't plan on this and my DH is having a hard time with it...he was not planning on me still being out of commission and unavailable emotionally and in such pain. Yes I can still stick a load in the washer or dryer but I have to ask for so much daily help and find myself wishing things like my polar pack would be filled each night instead of my having to ask (my son is getting pretty good now at remembering to do this actually). Every little thing that we thought would be coming to a close...that you think oh well, you can stand anything for a little while...now stretches out again for who knows how long.

Sorry, guess I just needed to vent a little.

 

[Pumpkin]

I can think of other members who sustained fractures, they healed up, and have gotten along with life.
Sorry you are having to go through this, and wishing you all the best,

 

[Gatornet]

On vacation and struggling a bit with pain levels. I wish I could just enjoy this time away, but instead I've got a very stiff, sore knee and we haven't even gotten to the beach yet (tomorrow, we are still visiting family now). I feel like my pain levels have increased from the early weeks and maybe it's just that I'm no longer on any pain medications, or maybe my expectations are too high, but I'm feeling nervous about the level and types of pain I'm having. It's both the cranky sort as well as the burning stinging type, and kind of still hurts in the spots like it did before surgery to boot! I swear I felt better last week. Then again they have been working me fairly hard in PT, although it's only two days a week. I do try to push myself to do the home exercises that I'm supposed to, but I never ever go overboard.

Monday will be five weeks. I guess I thought I would be feeling less pain each week. I guess I probably need to realize not all recovery is in a straight line.....or else something is going wrong here! Is this a common time for some people to get discouraged?

Edited to add that I've got some quad weakness going on that is causing my patella to not track well right now which can itself be painful so I've felt more comfortable wearing my TED hose longer than I ever thought I would, but that's not really going to fly at the beach. I've got some support sleeve things but they tend to roll at the top so....nothing is really ideal right now (of course the red raised scar isn't exactly beach appropriate either nor do I plan on letting that get any sun!)

 

[Pumpkin]

Sorry to hear you are not able to enjoy your vacation like you would. You are probably doing too much on vacation and in PT you are still early in your recovery, a little over a month. You are still having pain, and need to be on appropriate pain medications, sounds like you may have stopped too soon. You may want to go back and read the recovery articles Josephine left you earlier.
Don't forget the Mantra, Rest, Ice, Elevate, and Medicate!
I do hope you can enjoy some of your vacation!

 

[DogLoverx3]

I'm with @Pumpkln on the pain meds. If you're in pain, you need them. There is no set time frame for not needing them any more. This recovery has taken most of us longer than we ever anticipated. I am sorry that you are struggling. I have heard that recovery from a partial is not all that much better/shorter/easier than that from a total. Having a fractured femur to boot certainly adds to the challenges. I think you are probably doing too much activity/exercise wise. At 5 weeks, I was still using a walker or crutches and the only time I was able to leave the house (thanks to energy drain, pain, motivation, etc...) was at 6 weeks and that was only for a couple of hours. I can't imagine going on vacation at 5 weeks!

This is such a challenging recovery. There is such a feeling of helplessness and for most, we're not used to having to ask for help. We're usually the ones doing the helping. It takes patience and more patience. Not my strong point. The mantras really do work. I hope once you get to the beach, all you do is rest and relax. Please be careful if you try to walk on sand. I can't imagine trying that at 5 weeks. It's so easy to plant your foot wrong and twist your knee.

Please be careful and be good to yourself. As much as we'd all like to 'move our recoveries along', there's nothing that WE can do to speed up the process. :-(

 

[cjf1222]

Oh my, I can sympathize with you as I had my right medial PKR in Atlanta on March 19. About two weeks ago my knee twisted ever so slightly inward while standing at the sink and I had had a very sharp pain in the area. I'd been mostly in bed for the previous 4 weeks with bad bronchitis and had done only minimal in-bed exercises and a little walking so quads were weak. Two weeks later and it still is painful. I went from pain free before the pull. Tried 1 1/2 leg lifts on 4th of July and wham...sharp pain in same area. That taught me a lesson. Probably a ligament pull but don't know as I am loathe to see a Pt or call OS yet.
Regarding the bruising, I was that bad at about 5 days out. I bruise easily so not too shocked. It started fading slowly day 7 onward. I had micro fractures of medial tibia head last summer and was told to keep weight off knee as much as possible. They healed over a 6-8 week period.
You are so early in to healing and have to follow the Bonesmart mantras. It will take quite a while yet. I was lucky to have a husband who has been there in even worse situations but I know he is anxious we get on with our lives.
How is the bruising now? I can't see a fracture healing without your being off the knee as much as possible. It is hard to have patience. I'll be sending healing thoughts to you and following your progress. Please rest while you are on vacation.

Christie

 

[ladymax]

Oh my! So very sorry to hear of your fracture and all the pain you are having. I truly feel for you. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Gatornet]

Your prayers and healing thoughts worked! Thanks! I had those couple of really bad days (could it have been the 9 hour car ride?) and every day got better after that. I am right now looking at my knee....flexion is almost equal to the right side which is crazy good. I've been doing my home PT every day. We measured the right side and it was like 150. This left side is getting so close to that! Every day I've just pushed thru any little pain, which honestly hasn't been bad, and I've walked with my son about 1.5 miles in the evening, and walking on the beach to get to my chair has been a breeze. Honestly I should not have been concerned about that at all. And standing in the lovely warm Gulf waters watching the pelicans dive around me is good exercise too. Kneecap still has pain but I know that will be the case while my quads are so weak.

I think the best thing I did was to ditch the support hose and sleeve I'd been wearing. It felt nice to have it on. But thinking back to a neck injury I had in college where they gave me one of those neck collars, I remember how weak my neck was while using it. I finally had to give that up gradually to strengthen my neck again. I figured it might be the same with my knee, and so far that seems to be the case. My quads still have a long way to go, but this way I can actually see how far they have to go. And I believe it now that it can take a full year to get things back to "normal", whatever that is.

Christie did you ever figure out what happened to your knee?

 

[cjf1222]

You are doing sooo well rebounding from the setback! Wonderful!
I am giving up going to Jekyll with DH this weekend as I can't shake the sinus problem, bronchitis and pulled whatever in knee. Have been resting and watching quads shrink. Back on different antibiotics and will hope to be better in a week at which time I'll have knee looked at.
Wow, I could see a trip to the beach soon. I can tell it's been good for mind, spirit and body! Really happy for you.
Christie