TKR Gingerbread's RTKR Recovery Marathon

[Gingerbread]

One lady on YouTube puts cabbage leaves in the wrap. I wouldn't want to walk around smelling like cabbage though!

I'll smell like a skunk if it takes this pain away!!! I have my knee wrapped now. The jury is out because it's not the witching hour yet.

 

[Gingerbread]

Well, I've had the plastic wrap (regular ole' saran wrap) on my knee over a white paper towel since I have one tiny area that tends to open up now and then. I did fine until about 10:30-11, which is when the horrible pain always sets in. It woke me, I applied my ice, and surprisingly it helped! I did not need an Oxycodone last night! I still woke frequently and have to be up in a little while to "get ready" for work, but I am going to say this was a huge success! Not having to take the Oxycodone..only having to take the Tramadol makes a giant difference in my mental state. I want to kiss the older gentleman who uploaded the video to YouTube!

 

[sistersinhim]

Yay! It's great to hear how well this plastic wrap did for you! I know what you mean about Tramadol versus Oxycodone. Oxy really can leave you 'hungover'. Not Tramadol.

 

[Gingerbread]

I also want to add that my ROM was definitely better when I got up this morning as well! The plastic wrap, at least for me, is the real deal!
I've been working now since 7:15. Definitely hard to achieve a comfortable position. My back, which has always been a problem, is killing me as well.
I'm ok with that, as knowing I have some relief for those overnight terrors gives me some sense that there is a light at the end of this journey.
My poor husband is very sick with a cold so I'm caring for him now too as he was doing so much for me this long month...
I also have a virtual appointment with my holistic practitioner tomorrow morning to see what she suggests. Things are slowly looking up.

 

[Susie-Q]

Glad things are looking up, Gingerbread! Remember, slow and steady, don't overdo it!

 

[Gingerbread]

Well, tonight I had the plastic wrap on again but I gave up. I've been tossing and turning with pain so I just took an oxycodone. I know it's because my knee was in an awkward position for 8+ hours yesterday working, plus I had to do everything for myself because my husband literally could not move without getting dizzy, so I was trying to care take him as best I could while playing catch up on a months worth of work.
I know I shouldn't feel like a failure but I do. I have the work ethic that I was training for this; I was in fairly good shape before this; I purposely exercised and worked the muscles I knew I would need to recover faster...yet I am in severe pain still , flexion at barely 80% and the thought of PT tomorrow evening after work makes me want to run away ( if only...right?) . I literally collapsed into my recliner after work at 4 pm today. I don't see being able to go to PT tomorrow....
I will digress and say I do believe the plastic wrap works with pain on a 5-7 scale, if you also ice when it starts to get to 7. Anything beyond that (where I am now), you may need to resort to your strong pain meds.

 

[FCBayern]

You're not a failure @Gingerbread, you just came into this with unrealistic expectations. I would have been in agony every night if I had done as much as you are so soon in recovery. Do you ice during the day? When I did go back to work, I used a large ace bandage to hold a gel pack in place. It even let me walk to the printer, bathroom, etc., all while icing. I think it really helped keep the pain down so I could sleep.

 

[Gingerbread]

You're not a failure @Gingerbread, you just came into this with unrealistic expectations. I would have been in agony every night if I had done as much as you are so soon in recovery. Do you ice during the day? When I did go back to work, I used a large ace bandage to hold a gel pack in place. It even let me walk to the printer, bathroom, etc., all while icing. I think it really helped keep the pain down so I could sleep.

I do ice frequently during the day and overnight. The pain persists. My director (work) says she can't imagine what I'm going through yet piled a ton more work on me...how's that for sympathy? Empty words.
I know she nor anyone else on my team would be working in the condition I'm in...I'm no martyr but I certainly am not being cut any slack either.

 

[Jamie]

@Gingerbread, when you're on the schedule you have set for yourself, please allow yourself to skip therapy sessions. You don't need them when your activities of daily living alone are causing you pain. Therapy will just make it worse. The only exception would be if you could find someone who could perform lymphatic or even regular massage for you to counter all the sitting upright and movement you're attempting each day.

Have you considered using the Family Medical Leave Act to take additional time from work? Granted it is not paid time off, but a company with more than 50 employees is required to grant it.

 

[Gingerbread]

I went to PT this evening. My PT held my knee 3x's 5 seconds at 90 degrees flexion. It was excruciating. She is telling me we want to avoid MUA and she has my husband convinced of the same.So I let her do it to my knee, because my husband literally has gotten sick taking care of me.
My life is not my own I feel. I'm a slave to this knee and the establishment and my job. Quite depressed doesn't begin to describe it.

 

[Gingerbread]

@Gingerbread, when you're on the schedule you have set for yourself, please allow yourself to skip therapy sessions. You don't need them when your activities of daily living alone are causing you pain. Therapy will just make it worse. The only exception would be if you could find someone who could perform lymphatic or even regular massage for you to counter all the sitting upright and movement you're attempting each day.

Have you considered using the Family Medical Leave Act to take additional time from work? Granted it is not paid time off, but a company with more than 50 employees is required to grant it.

I wish I could take FMLA. I feel like I may have a nervous breakdown so I may not have a choice. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Jamie]

If FMLA is something you need, you just have to make an application for it to your supervisor. As long as the medical issue falls in the covered areas (yours does), no one can deny you the time off and they must hold your job for you. You are allowed up to 12 weeks in any calendar year.

You also may consider starting back to work half days instead of the full 8 hours for a couple of months. You're having problems because sitting for long periods results in knee pain. It's part of why we advise people to plan on being off work for at least 10-12 weeks following surgery.

 

[Gingerbread]

If FMLA is something you need, you just have to make an application for it to your supervisor. As long as the medical issue falls in the covered areas (yours does), no one can deny you the time off and they must hold your job for you. You are allowed up to 12 weeks in any calendar year.

You also may consider starting back to work half days instead of the full 8 hours for a couple of months. You're having problems because sitting for long periods results in knee pain. It's part of why we advise people to plan on being off work for at least 10-12 weeks following surgery.

@Jamie I really appreciate all your suggestions. Thank you for being so persistent with me
I wonder, are there any FMLA allotments to make your employer allow you to work part time? I feel I could do half days; it's the 8+ ( such as yesterday my fabulous director changed a meeting to 4 pm when I had already been working since 7:15... typical in my job) that is really killing me.

 

[Daveboy1810]

Gingerbread,
Try to keep your spirits up, I know it is very depressing and taxing but every day is one day closer to feeling better. Don't let PT push you too hard. You are not a failure, you did what you had to do and now your are on the road back! Soon you will be a winner. This experience will make you a better person, Chin up!

 

[BBCG]

Gingerbread, good grief! If your boss is piling more work on you, while mouthing sympathetic words, that’s just cruel! No other words for it, in my opinion. If I were you, I would give serious thought to telling your boss you will be applying for FMLA unless you are able to work for only 4 hour days for the next 12 weeks! Having you half time…AS LONG AS you walk away at 4 hours, will be better for them than 0 hours if you take full FMLA! Mouthing sympathetic words while piling on work are not fair, are putting you in a terrible spot, and you owe it to your new baby knee and your own self and body, to be kinder to you! Especially since you don’t seem to be willing to buck the aggressive PT. It is YOUR body; it is YOUR knee, and if PT is pushing your knee as you described, with an area that tends to open, that could cause an infection even. You owe it to your rest of your life to take charge of your recovery as it is your body which will pay the price of assaulting it with overwork, aggressive PT, unsympathetic family members, etc.

Lots of us have been in similar spots! We DID finally take charge! We are still here; the world did not come crashing down; our marriages held firm; we took charge, said “that’s enough of that plan” and finally did it our way… to great success! If you need permission to step in and take charge of your recovery, I’m happy to give you permission! Please do consider the long view: what you are giving in to could cause you long term negative results… if you don’t allow your knee to heal, it may take much longer to get pain relief. It may take much longer to heal. It make make your long term results less beneficial, more problematic for any number of years.

I really do encourage you to take stock, think carefully of how you are pitting your new baby knee against all of these adverse events and decisions you are making that are not in its best interest…or really for your life, either, if something goes wrong because you’ve not allowed it to heal.

We’re all rooting for you, but you need to root for yourself, too! Am hoping you reconsider your present path!

 

[MerlinWizard]

Hi Gingerbread!

I've read through your journey and I am sorry that it has been rough so far.

I m part of the OIDC and the founding member of the "Bonehead Club" along with @Ghostpipe . My journey has been one of "what not to do during recovery".

I have recently found out that the pain I had before surgery was very excruciating. As a "Bonehead", I was in pain for so long that I just learned to live with it. On the rare occasion I would take some Naproxin before bed. I'd never been on pain killers for any length of time because my spouse always had them around for her surgeries (many) and she rarely took them despite her pain which I always assumed was worse than mine. Turns out I was probably wrong and I didn't find that out until recently.

So when it came to my surgery, I took a "full steam ahead" approach. I was completely off the oxy within 5 days of surgery and completely off of the Tramadol as a regimen around 7 days. I still take one now and again if I over did it that day before bed although it's been awhile, a month or more.

I also went back to work week 2. I also work from home but I have been doing that for a dozen years or so anyway. So my attitude was that I could do it as long as I wasn't doped up. I lasted 4 hours the first day but silly me I tried to sit at a desk in week 2! I then modified my work area so that I could sit with my legs raised in the recliner. I worked roughly 6-8 hours a day, early on I would fall asleep around 2-4 so my team knew if I didn't respond then why. I have a pretty forgiving employer who figured part of my time was better than none of my time.

I also didn't abide by that whole "20 minutes an hour" with the ice. I pretty much had those ice machines running non-stop for the first month. Whenever my legs were up, the ice was on. I also didn't sleep hardly at all the first 4-6 weeks either and to me, that was the worst part.

For me personally, I looked for pain that wasn't right. With the help of @BoneSmart I was able to cobble together what pains weren't right and what pains were to be expected. I compartmentalized my pain and I "powered" through it. Looking back, I wonder if I would be where I am at if I hadn't. The reality is I will never know as our journey's have so many similarities but also so many differences.

Now being over 6 months out, I am still not 100% but I am 1000% better than I was before surgery. I knew by week 4 I think that I did the right thing. The pain I went through was nothing compared to the pain I'd had before surgery. My goal is to be able to work kneeling. I do a lot of DIY stuff and I would hate to put a hardwood floor or tile floor in not being able to kneel for long periods.

All that being said, the biggest surprise to me was the emotional side. I wasn't prepared for the highs and lows. And I didn't have anywhere near the incoming medical challenges you have had. Thankfully there are many people here who have "been there done that" and that's why we are here.

As far as the lipademia, I have had two family members who have had this. One is still with us although they don't directly treat it and in fact ignore it so I fear they will be gone soon. While I cannot speak to that personally, I can speak to swelling and it's effect on recovery.

My surgeon told me to wear calf high compression socks once the full leg stockings came off. They didn't tell me for how long, just to wear them. So I had it in my head I would get to 4-5 months and stop wearing them. So I have waffled back and forth over the past few months wearing them, not wearing them, etc. Long story short, I just received 5 pairs the other day as I had worn out my original 3. I find them to be really beneficial in keeping the swelling that comes with this surgery at bay and allow my knees to work all day without much bother. The problem of course is that I get lazy and don't put them on and at the end of the day all sore and stiff I beat myself up for being a Bonehead =).

Whether or not I have to wear them the rest of my life I don't care. I don't care what I look like and if I can embarrass my wife in public all the better. So if you see a guy wearing shorts with blaze orange or electric green socks with sandals or Dudes, you'll know who I am ! Seriously I think my wife has come to love that part of my personality because she doesn't say a word anymore.

You are definitely in the right place, chin up ~ It's worth it!

 

[Gingerbread]

Gingerbread, good grief! If your boss is piling more work on you, while mouthing sympathetic words, that’s just cruel! No other words for it, in my opinion. If I were you, I would give serious thought to telling your boss you will be applying for FMLA unless you are able to work for only 4 hour days for the next 12 weeks! Having you half time…AS LONG AS you walk away at 4 hours, will be better for them than 0 hours if you take full FMLA! Mouthing sympathetic words while piling on work are not fair, are putting you in a terrible spot, and you owe it to your new baby knee and your own self and body, to be kinder to you! Especially since you don’t seem to be willing to buck the aggressive PT. It is YOUR body; it is YOUR knee, and if PT is pushing your knee as you described, with an area that tends to open, that could cause an infection even. You owe it to your rest of your life to take charge of your recovery as it is your body which will pay the price of assaulting it with overwork, aggressive PT, unsympathetic family members, etc.

Lots of us have been in similar spots! We DID finally take charge! We are still here; the world did not come crashing down; our marriages held firm; we took charge, said “that’s enough of that plan” and finally did it our way… to great success! If you need permission to step in and take charge of your recovery, I’m happy to give you permission! Please do consider the long view: what you are giving in to could cause you long term negative results… if you don’t allow your knee to heal, it may take much longer to get pain relief. It may take much longer to heal. It make make your long term results less beneficial, more problematic for any number of years.

I really do encourage you to take stock, think carefully of how you are pitting your new baby knee against all of these adverse events and decisions you are making that are not in its best interest…or really for your life, either, if something goes wrong because you’ve not allowed it to heal.

We’re all rooting for you, but you need to root for yourself, too! Am hoping you reconsider your present path!

I appreciate everything you've said. I may lose my husband if I refuse PT. He is on his last straw with me and this recovery. He has been amazing, is amazing, but has watched me do things over the years that have not always bode well for my health. This time he absolutely does not believe me when I say time and rest will heal my knee. He believes the surgeon and PT and thinks I'm being a quitter (his words). So, I will plug along with PT and endure the pain.
As for work, I took a half day today and do not know what tomorrow will bring. I have a case due tomorrow that simply won't be done. I used to care...every other person on my team has backup except for me (I'm the only "clinical" person on our team therefore certain tasks can only be done by me).
I called my surgeon and he ordered blood work, thinking I'm infected because of the pain. He also wants to see me for an x-ray. My knee should be glowing by now. And again, my husband is at his wits end, ready to run away I fear. He's furious to be honest.

 

[MerlinWizard]

I appreciate everything you've said. I may lose my husband if I refuse PT. He is on his last straw with me and this recovery. He has been amazing, is amazing, but has watched me do things over the years that have not always bode well for my health. This time he absolutely does not believe me when I say time and rest will heal my knee. He believes the surgeon and PT and thinks I'm being a quitter (his words). So, I will plug along with PT and endure the pain.
As for work, I took a half day today and do not know what tomorrow will bring. I have a case due tomorrow that simply won't be done. I used to care...every other person on my team has backup except for me (I'm the only "clinical" person on our team therefore certain tasks can only be done by me).
I called my surgeon and he ordered blood work, thinking I'm infected because of the pain. He also wants to see me for an x-ray. My knee should be glowing by now. And again, my husband is at his wits end, ready to run away I fear. He's furious to be honest.

My wife has a similar attitude when it comes to PT and it isn't one that I necessarily disagree with. PT over all should push you and you know that based upon your professional experience. The difference here I think is that you should also know what is "good" and "bad" pain. My wife and I are in sync in that regard, we know when something isn't right.

To me, the pain from PT was all "good" even if it really hurt. I knew rehabbing and getting things to come alive again wasn't going to be pleasant. The PT I worked with were all really good. For the most part, they didn't intentionally cause pain and would "stop" if I said enough. They were good at reading body language and knew when it was enough, I was fortunate. They would always ask "do you have any more in you?" and they would "push" but ever so gently. I dealt with 4 different people and they all had similar but different approaches and none of them forced anything on me. They did have to for some people. Some people just don't like pain at all, I don't know if anyone really "likes it" but some people just aren't having it.

You have a wealth of personal and professional knowledge and if I were your spouse, I would respect that. You know what you know and more importantly you know your body.

It's a long process that requires patience not only from ourselves but also those around us. Even being just over 6 months out, my wife frequently forgets I had surgery and asks me to do something and I look at her and go "really?". Although me being a bull in a china shop, I always figure out a way to do whatever she wants me to~!

 

[kneeper]

I would never encourage people to lie to their spouses, but if he's not there with you every minute, does your husband really know how many exercises you're doing? You can do some without doing boot camp and can still tell him honestly that you're doing exercises.

You are really overworking the knee. You can keep going at this pace but your knee will not be happy with you. This is in your hands.

 

[Susie-Q]

Gingerbread, I'm so sorry you are going through this! I wish there was something I could do to help you.