TKR Hi! New to the group! TKR at 8 wks - I can't stop pushing<

[sistersinhim]

I could go on a disability, but that is only 60% of my salary.

Steve, you need to take into consideration that disability is not taxable, and they don't take out SS or Medicare either, so you might be able to make it on it. It's worth a try. I was blessed to have been able to do it!

Trying to work on lack of sleep is not good for you or your coworkers. Your number one job right now should be healing that knee of yours. You'll be much better off in the long run.

 

[SteveInDC!]

Getting Stronger! Riding my bike, but I'm having a issue while riding my bike. It feels as if there is a pop behind my knee. Much of the time the pain on the inside behind my knee and less often, occurs on both side of the knee. My PT is stumped. She says it is not any of the muscles associated with my TKR, but 'most likely' one or both insertions of my hamstring. My anatomy courses were a long time ago and I hadn't found an online diagram anywhere that makes sense to me. This pop happens when my knee is bent as much as it will go. I'm surprised that my PT can't tell me for sure.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[Jamie]

My first thought is that any consistent popping or pain in your knee is an indicator that you need to stop the activity that causes it for a couple of weeks. But, let's see what @Josephine has to say.

 

[Josephine]

To Josephine: Yes. I'm ready for all of your questions. Hit me!

Gosh, I missed this because you had it in the middle of text all squidged up!!

Thanks for all of the replies. Yes, I think I am very lucky in my recovery.
To Josephine: Yes. I'm ready for all of your questions. Hit me!
To RadioGal: Thank you for enjoying my 'Mid-life-Crisis' bike concept. It is fast and sporty and it is sort of a convertible!
To SkiGirl: Yes, I do have pain at night that keeps me awake or

anyway - here y'go!

It would be very helpful if you would answer each one individually - numbered as I have done - in as much detail as you can then I'll come back as see where you are ....

1. what are your pain levels right now? (remember the 1-10 scale: 1 = no pain and 10 = the worst you can imagine. And don't forget to factor in other forms of pain such as soreness, burning, stabbing, throbbing, aching, swelling and stiffness).

2. what pain medications have you been prescribed, how much are you taking (in mg please) and how often?

3. how swollen is your leg compared to these?

4. what is your ROM - that's flexion (bend) and extension (straightness)

5. are you icing your knee at all? If so, how often and for how long?

6. are you elevating your leg. If so how often and for how long?

7. what is your activity level? What do you do in the way of housework, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc., and

8. are you doing any exercises at home? If so what and how often?
This is the most crucial question so please help me by using the format I have left as an example
(which means please make a list and not an essay!)

Exercises done at home
- how many sessions you do each day
- enter exercise by name then number of repetitions of each
etc., etc.

Anything done at PT
- how many times a week
- enter exercise by name then number of repetitions of each
etc., etc.

 

[SteveInDC!]

Hi Josephine! Thank you for getting back to me.

The answers are as follows:

Q1 requires three parts: Pain varies this way. If I am stressed, I can feel slight pain up to 2. I'm back at work as an architect, where my work involves sitting working on a computer, I attend meetings, but the stress of the job adds to the pain. I try to make a point to get up and climb stairs (there are 4 levels in the building) or walk around. There is the transitional pain and stiffness when I stand up to move around. It takes just a moment for it to subside.
I have slowly eased myself to riding my bike to work as I did before the surgery, just not nearly as fast. Very little pain!
However at night I seem to pile all of the pain, combined with some restlessness focused on my knee. Without the distractions of my day the pain can seem to be severe, but I doubt that it rises above a 3/4. I still have suffer with terrible sleep which I make up by napping, etc.

Q2 I was originally prescribed the standard oxy 5-325 and tramadol. 1-2 oxy every 6 hrs and 1 tram every 8 hrs.
I am now down to 1/2 of a oxy 5-325 at bedtime. I realize that I should be off!

Q3 Somewhere between slight and moderate. It is more towards slight.

Q4 I am at 124 bend and at 5-3 extension

Q5 I live in a breezy 100 year old house and since October turned to Nov, it is just too darn cold to ice.

Q6 I do elevate at minimum 45 min per hour at special temporarily modified sofa. Sometimes I'll watch TV with it elevated and it will add another hour or so to it. Once I understood the correct method as described on this site, I made huge strides in reducing the swelling by elevating.

Q7 High, probably too high. I ride my bike to work 3.5 miles each way. Prior time was 15 minutes and now I am down to 25-30. I try to climb the stairs at work twice each day and then walk 3000 steps in the block around my office.

Q8 I work hard on improving my extension is what's left. I do this while elevating and try to press the back of my knee flat 3 sets of 20

I hope that this did not turn into an essay and provided the info you need!

Thank you so much for reading this!

 

[Josephine]

at night I seem to pile all of the pain, combined with some restlessness focused on my knee. Without the distractions of my day the pain can seem to be severe, but I doubt that it rises above a 3/4.

Okay

I was originally prescribed the standard oxy 5-325 and Tramadol. 1-2 oxy every 6hrs and 1 Tram every 8hrs. I am now down to ½of a oxy 5-325 at bedtime. I realize that I should be off!

Not at 10 weeks! I wonder if you'd be better taking Tramadol instead . It's less of a problem than the oxy. And I also suggest you take it will 1,000mg of Tylenol which will make it a lot more effective. Then eventually you can stop the Tramadol and just stick with the Tylenol.

Somewhere between slight and moderate. It is more towards slight.

Okay, that's good.

I am at 124 bend and at 5-3 extension

I take it you mean your extension is +5-3. Here's a chart to show you the difference between + and -!

I live in a breezy 100 year old house and since October turned to Nov, it is just too darn cold to ice.

I must admit I had a good chuckle at that!

I do elevate at minimum 45 min per hour at special temporarily modified sofa. Sometimes I'll watch TV with it elevated and it will add another hour or so to it. Once I understood the correct method as described on this site, I made huge strides in reducing the swelling by elevating.

That's good.

High, probably too high. I ride my bike to work 3.5 miles each way. Prior time was 15 minutes and now I am down to 25-30. I try to climb the stairs at work twice each day and then walk 3000 steps in the block around my office.

Previously it was 15 and now it's down to 25-30? That doesn't make sense!

I work hard on improving my extension is what's left. I do this while elevating and try to press the back of my knee flat 3 sets of 20

You've absolutely no need "work hard" on your extension. Being only 10 weeks out, you have plenty of time for it to improve and it's pretty near zero anyway. Doing stuff like that will actually worsen the extension rather than improve it.

 

[SteveInDC!]

Josephine,
Thank you for your helpful answers. Q7 was meant to indicate that prior to surgery, my ride to work on my bike would be 15 minutes. When I first began to ride again after surgery, It would take me nearly 45 minutes. Now, It takes 25-30 minutes.

 

[SteveInDC!]

Josephine, I will change to the Tramadol, which didn't seem to be so helpful in the beginning. Do you expect that I will have any issues changing from Percocet to Tramadol. I'm afraid that I may already be a little dependent on it. This will be a good experiment, perhaps!

Thank you!

 

[sistersinhim]

If you add Tylenol with the Tramadol, you'll have much better pain control. Be sure to add up any Tylenol that is in anything else you are taking so you don't go over the 4000 a day.

 

[Josephine]

I will change to the Tramadol, which didn't seem to be so helpful in the beginning.

Most likely because you weren't taking a proper dose. I see Paula has left you my chart so follow that.

Do you expect that I will have any issues changing from Percocet to Tramadol.

After only 10 weeks? I very much doubt it.

 

[SteveInDC!]

No! No! It ca..ca.. can't be!

I'm recovering very well from my Sept 18, 17 TKR and In the recent weeks I have discovered that I have been compensating a lot of my body movement with my opposite leg (left). I notice that getting up from a chair and other similar functions I have what seems to be pain in the front of where I imagine my hip joint is. It is quite painful. Perhaps it is a muscle strain from all I'm asking my good side to do falls on the hip area and it is just my muscles/tendons in that area that are compensating and overworking. It occurred to me that this might be my hip getting the last laugh on me and is threatening me to go back under the knife again and get some shiny new bionic parts. As much fun as this has been, I really don't want this to be happening!

Any thoughts?? Thank you, as always!

Steve

 

[SteveInDC!]

What the heck is invalid about my message??

 

[Pumpkin]

The forum has been wonky lately, sounds like it is time to get that hip x rayed.

 

[Jamie]

Steve, I don't see anything that says "invalid" about your last post, but I do see that the same post was recorded twice. That is a problem our system seems to get now and then that we just cannot get completely fixed. You were right to delete the duplicate message.

As for your hip pain, it probably would be a good idea to get it checked out, but my guess is you've just strained some soft tissue in there and you'll need some time for it to get better. But better to know for sure and I feel like that would ease your mind.

 

[SteveInDC!]

MRI's and TKR's

Happy Holidays everyone. I recently had a worrisome PSA score and was asked to go for a biopsy. I've read all about this kind of biopsy and am honestly scared to death. Many recommend a Prostate MRI as it is non invasive, but now that I have this new Bionic knee I wonder if I can even be in the same room as an MRI?

There must be some experience with this by my friends on the board!

Thank you and have a terrific Holiday!

 

[Celle]

You should be able to have the MRI. Make sure they staff know about your knee replacement. They will take precautions. They won't be imaging your knees.

I have two knee replacements and I recently had a full abdominal MRI - no problems at all.

 

[robhunt3]

Hi Steve,
It looks like you're doing really well so far, so well done!

I'm also a keen cyclist (UK) and am due to have a right TKR on Jan 26th 2018.

I appreciate everyone is different in their post operative outcomes, but I've been trying to find other cyclists (without much success!) that have had this surgery to see what the chances are of me being able to continue where I left off on the bike.

Only 10 weeks ago I did a 90 mile sportive with 8100ft of climbing with no issues at all, but I haven't been on the bike much since (as my leg won't straighten fully after a minor accident, and hasn't improved). I was averaging about 100 miles a week generally so a very active rider really.

So I'll be really interested to see how you get on with it and what your experiences are of the new knee on the bike.

Anyway, all the best, keep up the great recovery and I'll follow your progress!
Cheers,
Rob

 

[Celle]

There is a thread in the Social Room for cyclists, here:
https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/cycling-club-for-us.12123/

 

[robhunt3]

Thanks @Celle, I think I was this link before but couldn't get it to work. Now I have. Thank you!

 

[birdwatchr]

@SteveInDC! Enjoying your posts! I too had an mri after tkr (of my foot and ankle). I just let them know about the tkr, and they took it from there. Keep posting... makes me smile!