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Bilateral TKR Home after BTKR

Anthi, I really admire you for having both knee done at the same time! wow !
I had both knees done 6 months apart and that was about all I could handle:flabber:
hoping that your leg swelling improves with more elevation and :ice:
 
Anthi said:
I found a rather good section on this site - 'how to elevate properly' - and followed some advice there - . Result - yesterday evening at 6.30 I ordered 4 pillows from Argos.
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@Anthi
Did you read the articles that KarriB left you, in Post #3?
All those words in blue are links to the articles - so you don't have to go searching on the site.
 
Hi Celle and thank you for your post. Yes - thank you - I have now read the articles and am finding them very useful.

Majella - thank you for your post too. I hope you're doing well after your two TKRs. In fact my swelling has nearly gone down I'm happy to say - well that is - it goes down after I've been elevating and then comes up again once I start moving around but it's not nearly as bad as it was. I'm trying to get the right balance of rest and exercise.

It's 10.00 a.m. here and I've just been down and up the 28 stairs to my flat for some practice. I can do them by myself perfectly well, but am still lacking somewhat in confidence so I asked my neighbour to be there just in case. I plan to be doing the stairs alone soon.

All the articles on this site talk about week 1/2/3 etc. I take it we measure from when we come home with week 1 is that right? I spent 7 nights in hospital so in effect had my first week there.

I have to say I'm feeling miles better than when I first came home. The skin rash has gone as have the mouth ulcers. My guts are still rather sensitive ( I became incredibly constipated in hospital - more so I think as I had an epidural for the surgery which was left in for 36 hours after the surgery so it took me longer to mobilise than other people. It took me several days to clear the constipation after coming home but I have IBS so being constipated causes me lots of pain and I'm still not feeling too good in the guts department, but that will settle).

I still haven't been to outpatient physio or made a decision whether or not to go yet. I'm doing exercises regularly at home. My right knee is doing better than the left one but I guess we can't expect them to react exactly in the same manner. I have to see the surgeon this week so I'll see what he says.
 
Anthi said:
All the articles on this site talk about week 1/2/3 etc. I take it we measure from when we come home with week 1 is that right? I spent 7 nights in hospital so in effect had my first week there.
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We start counting from the day of your surgery, so your Week One was the 7 days you spent in hospital.
Anthi said:
My right knee is doing better than the left one but I guess we can't expect them to react exactly in the same manner.
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Although both knees were done on the same day, it's very common for them to recover at different rates. Most people have one knee that recovers faster than the other. There's often no explanation for that, but it could be because the slower knee needed more work during surgery than the other knee.
 
Anthi said:
My right knee is doing better than the left one but I guess we can't expect them to react exactly in the same manner.
Click to expand...
I had a BTKR nine years ago. My left knee was the "angel" and my right knee was the "problem child." In the end, they both fully recovered completely, and I feel great---but the right one gave me a bit of a limp and took longer to recover.
 
Hello everyone. I've had a worrying couple of days. Generally speaking things are going pretty well. I'm trying to balance the right amount of rest with exercise and think so far I'm getting it right. I'm more or less off the painkillers now during the daytime although nights are still bad. I've been a desperately bad sleeper for years and have been depending on Zopiclone for a long time. While I was in hospital the heavy duty stuff gave me pretty good nights and for a time, too, after I came home but now I'm getting used to my usual pattern of bad sleeping. Once I'm over the knees I shall concentrate on getting off sleeping pills but that is another story.
My recent worry is to do with Bio Oil. When I saw the consultant 2 weeks ago he told me that it was OK to use moisturizer etc. on the scars. I didn't do so straightaway as I could see that there were minute scabs on both scars. However, a few days ago I put on some Bio Oil as I had been told it was a very good thing to use. The first time I used just a tiny bit and there was no problem. BUT the second time I used more and the result was bright red skin for a few millimetres around each scar. Each scar felt a bit warm - but nothing else. Since then I have used nothing else. I did a search on this site earlier and found some warnings about Bio Oil, saying that it can irritate the skin.
Annoying, as it's expensive and I had assumed that it was a good thing. The skin is still red, but apart from that, everything is ok and I'm assuming it will probably just settle in time. Does anyone else have any experience of this?
 
The only thing I put on my incisi9n was vitamin E cream after about two months. My skin is very sensitive and I decided the vitamin E wasn't for me. I always use scent free baby lotion for sensitive skin. It's much cheaper than anything else but really does a good job.
 
I have heard of Bio Oil causing a skin reaction in some people. If it does, it's best not to use it.

Actually, any sort of moisturiser will work. There's no need to buy special creams or lotions. Nothing will improve the look of your scar, except time. In time, it will fade and all the lumps and bumps will flatten out, even if you don't put anything at all on it. Just keep your skin moisturised, so it doesn't feel dry and uncomfortable.
 
If you have a favorite moisturizer use that after the redness dissipates. I used Palmers Cocoa butter because it's what my PT used to massage my knee. I'm addicted to it now!
 
I've lost count of which week I'm in - possibly week 11 or 12, but my bi-lateral replacements were done on 10th November last year. I think I'm doing OK but I don't really know. I haven't been to physio at all (on the advice of this excellent site) and exercise at home a bit - really just heel slides. I started driving again - a manual car - about a month ago. I am about to give my crutches back to the person who lent them to me. I can now walk for one mile using just one stick although not as quickly as I would like. I live alone (and have been alone since I came out of hospital) and I have to do most things for myself. My raised loo seat came out of the bathroom a couple of weeks ago. I can get up from the loo OK without it although I still can't do it without grunting but I hated the look of the raised seat so I feel better psychologically not having to look at it ! I still have occasional aches and stiffness - especially in one knee - but I would not describe it as pain and I haven't needed painkillers for weeks and weeks. I can now climb stairs normally but CANNOT go down them normally and am still having to do them one at a time. This irritates me as I live in an apartment up two flights of stairs so it's really time-consuming. Does being able to go down always take longer to come back and are there any exercises which will help? I'd feel a bit silly starting physio at this stage and would really prefer not to.
 
Stairs in general can take up to a year, so it's great that you can go up foot over foot. Going down will come. When you think of it (as someone else said today) going down is almost depending on your TKRs to do squats as you descend. Remember, this recovery can take a year, so give it time.
 
Don't worry about going down stairs it will come in time. If you have a stair way at home with handrails on both side you can practice by doing the bottom two steps and then try to do three when you are able. You will find some days that you aren't able to do any and some days you can do all of them.
 
Hello everyone. I had bi-lateral replacements on November 10th last year and am doing pretty well I think. I didn't have any physio after leaving hospital and am fairly active. I can now get up and down stairs normally and walk about two miles every day.
My problem is I cannot kneel. Sometime I forget and start to kneel down and it is EXCRUCIATING !!
Shall I ever be able to kneel without pain and if so approximately how long will it take. Is there anything I can do to speed the process?
 
Some TKRs can't kneel. I really try not to do it at all. I've had to kneel a few times to get up off the floor and it's extremely unpleasant. Some have tried using a pillow between the floor and knee to work at kneeling.
 
Some surgeons prefer their patients not to kneel, so it could be a good idea to ask your surgeon.

I can kneel, but many people never can. I started by kneeling on the bed, then on a cushion on the carpet and gradually worked up to kneeling on the carpet itself. Hard surfaces will never be easy.

Although I can kneel, I really don't like the feeling, so I don't do it very often.
 
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