TKR Help

[sistersinhim]

Oh, your poor knee. I can't believe that there are still some PT that do that barbaric, out of date therapy. You will recovery just fine without any PT at all.

Many of us never took PT or did exercises. I am one of them. I am had 11 knee surgeries, 2 of them kneecap removals and 1 tkr. Even after those I never took PT. But, I didn't just sit around and do nothing. I took care of myself, my house and yard. This was enough therapy and would be for any tkr patient. All the awful pain of PT is so unnecessary. All you have to do is use it in your daily living!

Your knee is swollen because it has been through a major surgery that caused a lot of trauma. Those aggressive exercises you've been forced to do have caused even more inflammation and swelling. You can't bend a water hose full water, just like you can't bend a knee that's full of fluid.

Instead of doing lots of exercises now, you need to concentrate on helping to reduce the swelling, with as much rest, ice and elevation as you can manage.

It's not exercising that gets you your ROM - it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle, and time to heal. Your ROM is there right from the start, just waiting for all that to happen, so it can show itself.

 

[Tex101]

I want that and will be getting that treatment since I made changes today. I'm happy it's going to be a long road but no more pain.

 

[PolarBear60]

Good for you, Tex.

 

[Tex101]

Yes a lot of the exercises were and are barbaric. I guess I trusted the medical profession to make my decisions, but after reading all of this forum I'm surprised I didn't tear my hair out.

I still wake up in pain with a tight band of muscle on top of my leg. It wakes me up at 3 or 4 am. Im not sure what to do about that. My leg is stiff but I can bend it and straighten it. Any suggestions?

 

[JJ65]

@Tex101 I have found out that if I get stiff at anytime and it bothers me that I just do some bending and straightening of the knee. I am not sure if it helps other people, but it works for me. I hope you find something that helps you with this. I know it is a pain to deal with that lots of people have.

 

[SusieShoes]

I also find that moving my knee alleviates some of the stiffness and pain. Some people get up and walk around. I usually get enough relief by extending my leg and bending it several times.

 

[Pk4tmjsd]

Hi Tex..........WOW.......... Replaced right knee March 28; left knee June 6. LOL - pinky under knee?!?!? Jiminy Crickets!?!?!? Last week, my right knee went to 3 degrees, on my own, and we (patient and PT peeps) were ecstatic. Left knee, finally, made it to single digits 8 degrees, and we were happy. 22.5 weeks right; 12.5 weeks left - post op on both

Hard to read you are experiencing five pound weight and Grafton technique. Adding to other posts - Ice, Ice, Ice, elevation, and rest. Your poor soft tissues are sore. I have had that "hot to touch" feeling at each knee at various points of my journey - those days were not my best memories. Josephine and others, more experienced than me, will be providing you lots of good information. Good Luck ~ Pat

 

[Tex101]

Thank you to everyone for your combined advice. It's been a life changer for me since I started reading all the articles and experiences here.

I will get better and stronger as the days go by, but with ice, elevation and rest. This has helped me tremendously. The swelling has gone down some. I am able to move it a bit more. I'm not stressing like I was before I met everyone here.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Yes hurricane Harvey was a deterrent, but it won't keep this Texas gal down lol. Today I walked, iced and rested and I felt a bit better. With this heat though I have had nausea I'm hoping that will go away.

Thank you.

 

[Jockette]

I'm so glad your are feeling comforted by this community. I found it when I was 4 weeks post op when my PT was doing more harm than good, but my PT was nothing compared to yours! I am just shocked at their thinking, and also that of some surgeons who see what this surgery is that they do.

Anyway, we get good council here and I am also so thankful for this forum!

And I was wondering how close to Harvey you were. Such awful flooding! And being in the midst of knee replacement recovery I can't imagine how painful it must be for those in that flooded area who must have had replacements just prior to Harvey's arrival who have had to evacuate or be rescued in early stages of recovery.

Best wishes to you on your continued recovery journey.

 

[Pumpkin]

Tex101,
That tight band feeling is normal, "Tight band" feeling across the front of my knee

 

[Tex101]

Was wondering about a constant pain I'm getting on my upper leg. It feels tight like a band what can i do?

 

[Josephine]

@Tex101 you will notice that I have merged your two threads together as we prefer that members in recovery only have one thread.

This is for three reasons
1. if you keep starting new threads, you miss the posts others have left you in the old threads
2. it often ends up that information is unnecessarily repeated
3. it's best if we can keep all your recovery story in one place so it's easily accessed if necessary

 

[Tex101]

Jockette I live in Portland Tx so very close to the eye of Harvey. It was a terrible storm. I'm not that computer savy so I want to apologize to Josephine. I'm still after reading this forum having trouble where to post . So I'm sorry Josephine didn't mean to pm you from my email. I thought since you sent replied it was ok but it's not and I do apologize. I'll just read and not post for a while until I get the hang of this forum. Thank you again for your advice.

 

[Jockette]

I hope you're doing ok with being so close to where Harvey hit!

I'm not sure what you're talking about with the email thing so don't worry about it!

The tight band thing is normal, we all have it and I'm told it will get better. There's an article about it in the reading we all get. I don't know how to post the link, just go back to that reading list you got and it will explain it better than I can.

 

[Tex101]

Ok so I've been going to therapy it's done some good, but I still get knots all all along the side of my leg and inner thigh. I also get chin splints. I don't sleep I don't eat much because of the pain. I've lost 22lbs since Aug 7th.

Therapy and chiropractor say that the scar tissue from my first surgery (microfrature) done in june and now my total knee replacement done in August is preventing me from bending my knee. The pain is so bad that I have moved in with my parents so they help me massage the knots when they hit me at 3 4 5am in the morning.

Dr says that the only way to help me is manipulation. I'm scared but I can't go on living like this either. Does anyone know what the pain level is and how long do i recover from this? HELP!

 

[OJ2]

My best recommendation is to ice, ice, ice that knee. Last week I developed such tight calf muscles that I could hardly walk. My trainer told me to put heat on the calves to get the blood flowing, walk around a bit to stretch them, and then put ice on them to avoid swelling. I definitely have more pain when I overdo things. But it is hard to "sit around" for so long and not be doing things. Recovery from a tkr is a full time job and requires LOTS of rest.