TKR I year anniversary

@dmichael21 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 we need to advise you.

Please keep all your questions and updates on this thread. If you would like a new thread title just give a shout.
 
Hello, it’s now 13 weeks or so and I’m doing good, not great but I’m now have taken the gloves off and exercise every day after work and mountain bike on hilly farm fields. I pedal fine but I can’t stand up and pedal yet. My pain is tolerable but still there and my bend is around 120 ish and my hamstrings under my knee is what’s stopping me from bending anymore. I’m now working on them and I still need at least 3 more inches of quad muscle to even be close to my 21” other healthy quad.
 
The day I can go 24 hours without thinking of my knee will be a great day. Every step I do and every conversation and even in my sleep I think about this new knee , can’t wait to get back to normal.
 
@dmichael21 Looks like you have hit the recovery path hard and heavy. I love your enthusiasm and commitment to physical fitness. I've started incorporating some light dumbbell upper body workouts into my routine. It does make me feel better overall.... feels good to have some semblance of normalcy in my daily routine …

I also find it difficult to "take it easy" with the recovery protocol. Have to constantly remind myself that this is nothing like I've ever experienced before and need to understand the experience of those that have gone through this process.
It's a challenging balancing act...:good-bad:

Best of luck with your continued recovery!:thumb:
 
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Thanks JD, it’s not easy at all and I think the harder you train the better, I slacked off and I wasn’t gaining so I just started working hard and then results started happening, the one thing that stands out is if I step down real hard there’s no pain from it and my old knee hated down pressure do to the arthritis and it would kill me with pain.
 
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Had a good visit with OS Friday evening and I finally had a heart to heart talk with Dr Mark and I told him I’m not where I want to be at just over 3 months. Told him I gave friends my age and share my sport who have had TKR and healed much quicker than I, and he replied did they have patellectomy like you did and I said no and then he smiled and told me it will take much longer to build strength in the quads due to my non existing patella . Now I understand a little better now.
 
And that is exactly why we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others. We’ve each had different aspects to our surgeries, and our bodies are different even if we had a similar procedure.

I know it’s hard to feel we are slower than others with this recovery, I’ve been there myself. I recently learned something about my surgery that explained my “slow” recovery.
 
I wasn't mountain biking like you, but I can tell you that the back of the knee area seemed to be the last to "normalize" for me. Just a little nagging stiffness feeling there that gradually went away.
 
he replied did they have patellectomy like you did and I said no and then he smiled and told me it will take much longer to build strength in the quads due to my non existing patella .
Yep, I agree with him since I'm living proof of it. Patience, my dear. Your knee is very different as are mine.
 
This morning I rode 12 miles on my mountain bike on gravel road with some decent elevation, knee felt great and now I’m icing and elevate, by far the most exercise I did to date and felt good to get my heart rate up.
 
Have to share this one, half hour ago I have been so occupied with a new system in my tractor trailer computer log system so I haven’t been thinking about my new knee (13 weeks)so I jumped out of my truck instead of climbing out and in mid air I knew I messed up so on landing I bent my knees to absorb the landing and I felt 3 pops behind my knee and felt sick for a second and it hurt but not bad and all at once I gained another 8 to 10 degrees of flexion. It did swell up to a soft swell instead of the usual hard swell but being honest I self manipulated my knee. I’ve walked around and my knee feels better now than it did post op.Look forward to bringing down the swell now.the drop was about 4 feet.
 
Wow - I can imagine how you felt mid-jump. :holysheep: Ice is your friend - get that swelling under control. Just another pothole in the recovery road.
 
I'm glad your DIY manipulation without anesthetic didn't cause you more pain - and the gain in ROM is a definite plus. It must have been scary when you realised in mid-air what you had done. :yikes:

Treat your knee to some extra rest, ice and elevation, to get rid of the new swelling.
 
it’s been a couple hours and the swelling has gone down on it’s own, the tightness behind my knee has been a problem and this may very well be a thing of the past. Just did some steps going down and noticed a major improvement already.
 
Now I’m 4 months and my job slowed down so I joined a gym and I can go 2x a day and I’m gaining but still have discomfort and swelling.

I’m taking an Aleve every 12 hours.

I learned a new way to gain flexion, not recommended for everyone, you stand in front of a chair and put your operated foot under the chair and then sit and your body weight will naturally bend your knee and some pops will happen and voi la you gain a bunch. I’m gonna try and send a pic and please guess my degrees of flexion.

I see my OS next Friday and hope I can impress him. I’m busting my hump and stretch as much as possible. Thanks.

This is the chair I do the bend trick

DM 1-horz.jpg
 
Hey Michael,

I am not sure what to make of your story ! It seems to go against everything I have been reading, especially here at bonesmart. I am guessing you are / were a fit and active type of person before your op and have tried to continue that post op with what appears to be great success.

I am certainly less active than I want to be or have been in the past but with 2 dodgy knees and a dodgy back there is not a lot I can do. Everything I have tried causes pain, although I have found being in the pool helps so I am trying to do more of that before surgery.

Hoping you continue with your recovery, I will keep following for inspiration :) :-) (:
 
I was following a OS on YouTube and he made it clear and simple at 3 months post op you must work on strength and bend 8 days a week and most importantly to forget you even have a new knee.

I’m a exercise nut and I’m within 3 lbs of my high school weight so I have that on my side. It’s frustrating for sure and the improvements are so minor it drives me to try even harder. I wake up every hour and I just relax my knee and bend it with anger.

md.png
 
most importantly to forget you even have a new knee
This is the best thing that person said. We need to try to just get on with our lives, do what we can and as we heal, we’ll be able to do more.

At 3 months post op you are only 25% healed in a healing process that takes about 12 months.
was following a OS on YouTube and he made it clear and simple at 3 months post op you must work on strength and bend 8 days a week
This is just one opinion of many different ones.

Being an exercise nut, as you put it, I realize working the exercises are important to you. Just keep in mind that the healing itself is also a factor and you don’t have control of that healing aspect. Try to keep that in mind at those frustrating times.

You’re doing really well for 3 months, but you do still have a ways to go.
 
Your chair exercise sets all kinds of alarm bells ringing. Even a healthy knee should not extend past the toes on any squat position.
I realize each of us chooses our own journey but encourage you to be cautious this early it is really easy to knock yourself backwards. Patience pays out, I am 8 months post RTKR with Rom of 135/-5 .
 

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