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Hey @sporti9. , i was gonna recommend cutting out the oxy and just stick with tramadol and tylenol , in fact i even was given celebrex. Nevertheless continue properly elevating and excessive iceing. Thats the biggest tip. And be leary of the physical torturist . As for appetite ,3 hours after my surgery i ate a super chicken burrito with a large starbucks coffee and 2 hours later i ate all me hospital dinner. however when i got home it was hit and miss,1 day i could barely eat peanut butter on saltines with honey than the next day over 2 pounds of spaghetti with garlic bread. My GF made sure i was feed. Appetite was not much of a deal, lack of sleep was my nightmare, no pun intended. You will gradually start to feel normal but it varies for everyone. I was fortunate and consider my knee knee a absolute miracle. You will be so glad you had your knee fixed. Just be a little patient. Bone on bone pain gone forever. YEAH ! Best of luck , Iceman.
@1ELISEA , hello my friend. Havent heard much from you. Hope you are well. All is absolutely great with me. Work is a piece of cake now, unlike my first 2 weeks back to work. Im getting killed in my fantasy football league and pick em league. !!! Cant figure it out. Go 9ers !!!!
 
Appetite is much better and pain pretty well controlled. Had PT today, ROM 102 and extension -3 was hoping it would be a little better. I'm in my 5th week and next week I return to work 3 days a week for 2 weeks, then 4 days which is my normal schedule. I sit most of the day, can elevate and ice at work as much as needed. I work in a primary care medical clinic so everyone is very very understanding. Regardless, I'm a little nervous about it because there is no place like home for recovery.
 
You will want to stand up and walk around for a minute periodically during the day if you sit a lot at work. As you've probably learned, keeping your leg down gets uncomfortable. I'm glad you can phase in.
 
Hi all, I'm back at work 3 days a week and so far it's going well. I'm able to ice and elevate when needed and take walks in between patients. But now I'm worrying about getting my leg straight. It was at -2 but this week was at -5. Does that mean more swelling? I've heard mentioned that ROM and straightening can continue to improve without manipulation. For those of you who got good extension and ROM later - How long did it take and how did you do it? I'm at 6 weeks post op on Friday 10/10.
 
It will get better! Remember this was a HUGE surgery and you need to give yourself plenty of time. I am now 8 months past my surgery and I just now really starting to feel like I can say I feel like normal. It has really been the last 2 weeks that my knee has gotten a big jump in my ROM. I would guess I am at 140 and until then I felt "stuck" and not making much progress. I also just in the last few weeks stopped the last bit of prescription pain meds. I admit I was feeling a bit discouraged about the 6 month mark feeling like I should be " all better now". Many people told me to give it a full year and now I believe them!! Appetite for me was non existent in the beginning but it gave me the benefit of a 20 lbs weight loss but is now back in track. Take it easy being back to work and just rest and elevate once back at home! I too went back after 5 weeks and could sit and elevate but was still exhausted once at home. Take care of yourself!
 
Thank you Nana Mo, this is exactly what I was hoping to hear. You have restored my hope. Anyone else have recovery stories like this? I am very swollen tonight, because I am not elevating enough at work. I did ice a few times but it's hard to get the elevation in as I had hoped.
 
When was your surgery? When I was first back at work it actually felt better to be walking around than sitting at my desk. Sitting with the 90 degree bend really stiffen the knee up. Walking loosened it up. I couldn't ice much at work so I would sleep with my cryogenic cuff on. Icing made the most difference I believe!
 
Had surgery on August 29th so it's six weeks this Friday. Yes I do get up and walk and it does feel better. Icing and elevating now, feels so good. Thanks for the encouragement.
 
sporti9 said:
For those of you who got good extension and ROM later - How long did it take and how did you do it? I'm at 6 weeks post op on Friday 10/10.
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Please remember that this TKR recovery is very much like a roller coaster ride---you will have some good days and some real clunkers---ups and downs. Actually, recovery can look very much like this:
[Bonesmart.org] Grateful for Bonesmart


Please---please---understand that you are a unique individual, and that your recovery is equally unique---do not worry about where you should be or where others have been---there is no "By this time you should be here..." schedule---you will reach your destination of being fully recovered, but you will have some good days and some not-so-good days---and it will take longer than you think it should.

My recovery from a BTKR did challenge my patience, too---it took me about five months to lose a pesky little limp.

Six weeks sounds like a long time, but in terms of a TKR recovery, you still have quite a ways to go---and you will get there!
 
I was at 80%-85% at six months, and it was not until eight months when I could say that I was at 90%-95%---and I still took a while longer to slowly---ever so slowly---completely recover.

You will get there---don't fret---you will get that extension back, but it will be on your knee's schedule, and not yours.
 
Thanks Tim I really appreciate the pep talk, I was feeling a bit discouraged today.
Best, Marc
 
Also remember that measuring ROM can vary depending on who does it and how exactly they measure. How you feel and what you can do is more important than numbers.
Happy :ice:
 
Do not worry about numbers---let others--the PT folks---obsess with numbers. They are indeed a quantitative lot.

Numbers mean nothing---it is all about what you can do and what you can enjoy now---and more down the road. You will get the extension back, but, in the long run, numbers mean nothing---focus on the "here and now"---and do not worry about the "when's." You will get everything back---the ROM, the extension---but the most important thing you will get back is the life that was stolen from you by arthritis.
 
I may be in the minority, but I worry more about extension then flexion. After I had arthroscopic surgery a year ago, I had complications. Afterward I never could completely straighten my leg. It caused all kinds of problems, like limping and pain. I'm working hard at getting my extension to zero. I figure flexion will come in it's own time.
 
I worry about straightening also. I was at -2 and now -5 this past week, so now working harder to get that extension. But icing, elevating and taking pain meds are still critical. I was slacking off for a few days and now I have learned my lesson. I just want my full mobility back and tend to get impatient.
 
@sporti9 your ROM will indeed improve. Hubby's first knee the ROM was pretty slow but it got better! The extension is still a little off, about a 2 or 3 but it is enough to do what he needs it to and it will still improve.
 
Forgot to add that sometimes the ROM gets worse for a while and gets better again, don't worry about it.
 
sporti9 said:
Can't wait until my new knee feels better than the old one.
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Oh, it will---I can go for days at a time not thinking about my "new knees."

They feel every bit a part of me---except not as old, of course.

They allow me to do things that I could not do a few years before my BTKR.

I can guarantee you that, after you are fully recoverd and over the "Oh Wows!" of the TKR---like, "I cannot believe how great I am feeling as that used to really hurt..", your knees will be normal knees and you will go about your daily life without giving them a second though.
 
sporti9 said:
I just want my full mobility back and tend to get impatient.
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Yep--that is all perfectly normal and to be expected. We had a TKR or a BTKR to get our lives back to normal---and we figure that "enough is enough."

We crave the very normalcy that was the reason for having the TKR in the first place.

Consider, though a couple of issues---one is that our knees took a long, long time to get so bad that we considered replacing them---so, to put it into perspective, the time we spend in recovery, even though it seems to drag on, is still much, much shorter than the time it took for them to become so bad.

Secondly, we tend to forget the amount of surgical trauma that occurred during your TKR---two bones were sawed off---you basically had two of your bones amputated. An implant was put into place, and it was not gently done. In short, your surgical knee sustained major surgical trauma and will take a long time t.o recover---longer than we would like it to be, obviously, but we have to keep this in perspective.

We have to reach deep down inside of ourselves and find patience that we did not know that we had.
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Patience, Grasshopper, Patience!
 
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