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TKR Highlander's New Knee

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The first two weeks can be difficult. Don't try to do to much, the bend will come in time, but your knee is reacting to the trauma of surgery. Once the soft tissue heals from that trauma you'll fell better and see a difference.
 
@karrieB Thank so much for you guidance down the TKR road :)

Do you think a little heat on my thigh would be ok as well?
 
Heat will add to your swelling, so let's ask @Jamie what she thinks. You are not even a week post op so there will be a lot of aches and pains in the coming weeks.

Continue to take your pain meds on schedule for now. Pain meds made feel a little wonky, but for the first week or so I just gave in, napped, elevated, iced and walked around the house a bit.
 
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The first two weeks are basically hell. You will have bouts of depression/emotion. I am the same as you a pretty tough cookie with high pain tolerence. But TKA put me on my knees:bawl:. My gut quits working if I smell an opiate drug. That would drive me nuts not being able to go poo.

I would not use heat yet. As for icing my personal likes were about 40-45 minutes of ice and 20 minutes off.

Remember you just had two broken bones in essence plus the little extras you went through. It gets better every 3 days you will reach a new milestone with ROM generally speaking.
 
Thanks knee team! feeling much more upbeat tonight. With my wife and bonesmarties- I have a pretty awesome team!
 
Day 7- went back to my OS to get checked out today. Incision looked "good" from a non infected point, and the leg looks quite beat up, bruised and swollen. His NP examined me and noted the massive amount of tightness and swelling in the knee, inner quad and thigh due to the bunch of big spurs he hacked out. I had some dark bruising in back of knee and heat.

She opted to do a quick ultrasound of my entire leg and the veins. Hooray! No blood clots at all.

So its really just a matter of gently working it and walking, stretching and lots of elevation and icing. Been having a LOT of twitches and jerks in the knee and thigh to boot. They took me off of flexeril (it made my heart go into major PVC mode) and gave me valium to try for relaxer. Also added tramodol to the Oxycodone tool chest as needed.

The NP made an interesting comment- that surprised me as forward thinking and right up the BoneSmart alley- she said "recent studies have shown that just gentle walking, stretching and rest are achieving the same long range result as active PT" So she told me not to sweat it and nurture the knee and not become obsessed on short term ROM. Good stuff. By the way- I really like the valium :)
 
Sounds like you are doing well now. Those zingers can hit when you get some quick jolts of pain. I frightened my dogs in the middle of the night by yelling OW very loudly. As you are already seeing being kind to your knee is helping you progress steadily.
 
Hello, Highlander! Sorry I'm just now getting here, but at 5 weeks out, I'm still sleeping a lot, and since I didn't find Bonesmart until week 3 and unable to sleep, I'm still reading and learning a lot.

I had a very tough time in the beginning as well, and although I'm nowhere near where I thought I'd be at 5 weeks (this whole ordeal has been a huge surprise!!), I am making progress. I really appreciate the advice and support I've received here, so I'm mainly just trying to "listen to my body" at this point. It sounds like you're coming along well now, so good luck with your continued progress.
 
@ltkt4xmas Thanks and good luck- Looking forward to both of us learning and getting stronger!
 
Day 8- is up and going. Actually Im taking it easy this am (in bed longer) and doing some laptop work as my Ossur ice Machine soothes the elevated knee. Did my usual paleo breakfast of farm fresh eggs from our own chickens, avacado slices, berries, organic decaf coffee, and our own farm raised pastured bacon. Nutrients for healing! Ready to get up after the ice treatment and do a little walker training, and may be a few quad flexes, followed by very gentle heel slides. My wife- god bless her- is out on the farm feeding our 100 cattle, 150 sheep, 30 hogs and laying hens. She is a rock. She takes care of me 24x7 and runs the farm without a hitch. Having that type of partner is making this so much better. I thought I was tough- but now I really see who the tough one is in this family! Sleep was decent - using some Tramadol now as well as the Percocet. And an occasional valium for muscle relaxer. That stuff makes me sleep like a baby.
 
Hello fellow Virginian. It's good to hear you're coming along and are finally resting with the Valium. Be sure and follow the Bonesmart way, and you'll have a much easier and quicker recovery. There are many on here that never took pt, and I'm one of them. We are all doing quite well and didn't have to experience the hell you went through in the hospital. I am so thankful I insisted that I not do anything to hurt my new knee from the very beginning. Of course as my activities increased, so did my pain and swelling, but nothing that couldn't be controlled with elevating and icing. If I wasn't up, I was icing. It has proven to me more than once that it's a great pain controller!
 
I just saw your post to me today. Yes, I'm doing much better on my pain control. Just remember, you are in the midst of the dark days and are almost out of them. It gets better! I too am on 1 aspirin (325mg) 2 x per day for 6 weeks as my blood thinner. I was on it for my 1 night stay in the hospital as well. Yes, my husband is taking care of our horses, dog walking, cats, and chickens and me, plus working 40 hours. He says he is last on the food chain! :) Each day will be better! When I put on my slippers now with no pain, I can still remember having a #7 just putting my foot down and sliding into them.
 
Day 9 starting up. Went to my first outpatient PT session today and really like my PT. We did gentle work, trying to get my inner VMO Quad to loosen up. She says 80 % of that tight band of pain in the VMO is from all the swelling and the other 20% is probably from the manipulation during surgery. My knee would not flex more than about 93 before surgery, and of course the OS probably flexed it all around to test the new knee while I was under. Those quads had not seen that type of flexion in 20 years. The other thing she wants to wrk on in the upper thigh swelling from the tourniquet. Because I have so many spurs, the OS had to leave that tourniquet in place a lot longer than most. So my PT wants more icing and more elevation. She is going to be great to work with. Anyone else have that tight inner quad? Thats the only area that really kills me during PT.
 
It sounds like you have a good match for your pt! What a blessing that is! My inner, upper knee area is still uncomfortable when I bend too far. I did a complete squat in the pool Tuesday and that was an ouch, but it didn't last any time at all. Yours will diminish, too, in time. New knees are painful, older knees are uncomfortable. A huge improvement over the arthritis pain!
 
Day 10 cranking up- PT yesterday left me a little more sore during the night. I really trying not to obsess on my ROM right now. But cant help it. My extension is great, at basically 0. But my flexion is only 55. It was 97 the day I left the hospital. IT is all in that inner quad- that just remains rigid. Im hoping that the more aggressive icing and elevating we are doing, is going to take more fluid out of the area and free it u. My knee and thigh are smaller and looser in just one day of doing this. - Using thinner cloth barriers and really cranking up the cold for an hour on and 30 minutes off. My thigh is a little more sore- and I think it may be because the swelling is not in there to cushion the strained muscles from the tourniquet. Any one else have experience with a mildly more sore thigh and quad as swelling goes away?

I want to get back to the 97 and above I had day 3 on flexion- and hope its just the swelling and not a tear in the quad.
 
Day 10 cranking up- PT yesterday left me a little more sore during the night. I really trying not to obsess on my ROM right now. But cant help it. My extension is great, at basically 0. But my flexion is only 55. It was 97 the day I left the hospital. It is all in that inner quad- that just remains rigid. Im hoping that the more aggressive icing and elevating we are doing, is going to take more fluid out of the area and free it up. My knee and thigh are smaller and looser in just one day of doing this.

Using thinner cloth barriers and really cranking up the cold for an hour on and 30 minutes off. My thigh is a little more sore- and I think it may be because the swelling is not in there to cushion the strained muscles from the tourniquet damage. Any one else have experience with a mildly more sore thigh and quad as swelling goes away?

I want to get back to the 97 ROM and above I had day 3 on flexion- and hope its just the swelling and not a tear in the quad.
 
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