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TKR Irish471's Recovery Thread

@Irish471 ouch... much as you knew what was coming still painful. Make sure you plan for rest returning to work. I went back early for both hip replacements and was exhausted after a few hours. Can’t imagine with the knee, just make sure you build time to ice and elevate so your pain doesn’t take over at night.
 
I worked from home after my second week but when I went into the office after 6 weeks it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Make sure you have ice packs available, I use jel packs and an Ace bandage to hold them in place so I can still make trips to the printer etc. I've found meeting a great time to ice as well since you aren't going anywhere. Hopefully you don't have too much of a commute, that definitely complicated my return and was one of the most painful parts of my early days. Good luck!:)
 
I went back to work at 6 weeks 1/2 days. It was tough and i made sure once I got home all I did was ice and elevate. At 8 weeks full days but again didn't do much once I got home. Now at 3 months I am doing well i may even add a errand or 2 and each day gets a bit better and then dang a bad night will creep up on me if I did too much. Last night it was jumpy and twitchy! I realized I had done a couple of extra sets of steps. You will get there and just being busy and among people is a great recovery tool as we are not 100% obsessed with that knee!
 
Irish471 said:
Sure enough, he bent my leg as far as it would go and told me to push against his hold. He said good, now relax, and really quickly, he pushed the bend farther. I jumped a bit while he held it there for a minute. He definitely showed my knee who’s the boss! I think he pushed through some scar tissue also. Ouch! I had some pain and swelling and came home and rested the remainder of the day with my good friend, oxycodone
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He shouldn't have forced your knee like that. He and you may think he knows what he's doing, but it's bad for your knee. Your knee should be the boss in this recovery, not him.
Irish471 said:
I told him how work has been chomping at the bit for me to come back. He likes to see his patients stay out for 3 months, but as long as i can tolerate it, he thinks I should be able to do a few hours a couple days per week as long as it doesn’t set me back. I am thinking maybe Monday, I can try making an appearance.
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We advise taking about 12 weeks off work and then doing a Phased return to work .
If you go back early, expect to have increased pain and swelling of your knee.
When you come home from work, try to do nothing but rest, elevate, and ice.
 
@Celle, yes, the PT and OS warned me that I need to make the return to work slowly. As for the OS testing the limits of my flexion, I was expecting that he would do that. I was tensed up pushing against his hold, so it definitely took me off guard when he bent it back again. It wasn't as brutal or forceful as it may have sounded; he was just swift. He didn't cause any damage. I am fine today :)
 
Sevens weeks! I am loving that I can drive again!!! I made my first appearance back at work yesterday and stayed for 4 hours. I am very fortunate that I live only 5 miles from where I work. Driving greater distances would surely fatigue my leg. I went home and elevated and iced before my PT appointment. I did another 4 hours in the office today and am icing and elevating now. I slept so good last night, the best so far since the surgery! Could it be because I went back to work?!?! We’ll see! I ordered a leg rest to go under my desk. I tried using a box, but that was stretching the back of my leg and making me uncomfortable. Today, I tried a soft case wheeled suitcase which worked better, but I think this leg rest should do the trick. Hopefully, it will arrive by the end of the week.

I still have a flexion problem that we are trying to get to the bottom of. Once I get past about 95 degrees,I get a pain in the back of my knee, just above the crease on the lateral side. It almost feels like a cramp or like something catches. It really hinders me from bending farther. My PT thinks it could be that the popliteal nerve is irritated. He tried pressing two fingers in the area and had me bend my leg again and it felt so much better. I wish I knew what the issue is! The OS’s PA said it was probably my hamstring. I’m not so sure. If anyone else has had something similar happen, please let me know!

Other than that little issue, things are going good. It’s so nice not to have the arthritis pain anymore. The soft tissue is still a little bit sore sometimes, but that will resolve. I have weaned off of Lyrica and that’s gone well. Still taking meloxicam. I thought I would stay on that while I phased my return to work. Gosh, next Monday will mark 2 months.:wowspring:
 
@Irish471 Great report, I'm glad to hear things are going well for you and going back to work hasn't been a problem. I envy you your commute, the long ride in definitely made my return to work harder. I hope things continue to improve for you. :flwrysmile:
 
With your going back to work now, you don't even need PT anymore. The activity of getting ready for work, then working and then going back home is all the exercise your knee needs now. I have pain in the back of my knee every so often. I have a Baker's cyst. Taking turmeric has helped reduce its size and pain. Could this be the cause of your pain?
https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/bakers-cysts-and-other-knee-bursae.10510/
 
@sistersinhim , I don’t think it’s a Baker’s cyst. I can’t seem to figure out if it’s something being pinched or if it’s some kind of muscle spasm. My physical therapist worked on it quite a bit yesterday. He got all the tightness out of my calf just by holding my leg/foot in a certain position. I will give it more time and if it’s not resolving in the next couple of weeks, I will message my OS.

Yes, returning to work has been interesting, especially since sleep is still not the greatest. My energy level has plummeted with each day. I’ve done 4 hours each day, with the exception of yesterday. I stayed home yesterday. My boss is understanding but I feel like others aren’t. I have gotten comments like ‘oh, wow, you’re moving around really good!’ Like everything is all back to normal now. Yes, it’s true, I move around good, but they don’t get the fact that I walk a fine line from over doing it. I am missing being comfortable at home where I can elevate the leg and nap whenever I need to. I think the energy drain is the worst. I came home after the 4 hours today and climbed into bed.
 
Sounds like you're taking the right approach Irish. Rest, ice, and elevate as much as possible after work.
 
@Irish471 our pain is so similar except mine is just below the crease lateral side. I can move through the bend but the pain takes my breath away. Both my pt and OS are stumped but feel it’s soft tissue related.
Sounds like work is going as well as it can at this stage, it really is unfortunate people judge so quickly, they don’t get it that your being at work uses your whole days strength in 4 hours .
Thinking of you
 
Hiya,

Sounds like you are doing great. I have that pain now (pre-op) and also find that if I push behind my knee it feels better, hopefully it's fixed when they do the surgery.

Following with interest :) :-) (:
 
@Irish471 well done going back to work, I'm due back on 20th May, NOT looking forward to it. I completely agree with you regarding 'moving well' , I walk normally now but my endurance is still very limited and it's easy to overdo it. People think I'm completely back to normal ( including my partner frustratingly - "how much telly have u watched today? :-( ) but my knee doesn't half throw a tantrum if I do too much.
Think how far we've come rom this awful early days? I do hope that pain settles.
 
Sounds like you are doing well with your return to work. I totally understand the exhaustion after 4 hours. Been there....whew! I had a coworker yesterday ask how long recovery from knee replacement was? Surely it was healed by now? They really don’t have a clue!!
 
Irish471 said:
they don’t get the fact that I walk a fine line from over doing it.
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That's a good way to put it. I've had a few days over the last two weeks where I've been out and about and working on something around the house that took 4+ hours each time, and before you know it you're starting to doubt your knee is alright after all. It's very easy to cross that fine line where you have to go back to taking "ice/elevate" very seriously again. It's much better if you can avoid getting anywhere near that line.
 
“I have gotten comments like ‘oh, wow, you’re moving around really good!’ Like everything is all back to normal now. Yes, it’s true, I move around good, but they don’t get the fact that I walk a fine line from over doing it.”

Doesn’t that drive you crazy?! As if being able to traverse a room/go through the motions of life is a reliable indicator of advanced healing or an absence of considerable pain. *eye roll*
 
@DLR, you know, sometimes it's hard to tell whether that pain is above or below the crease in the back of the knee. It definitely does take my breath away, too! Now I tense up every time just before I get to that point. Sometimes I wonder if the tibial implant is pushing against something. I sure hope it resolves for both of us!
 
@Irish471 i just saw my chiropractor. He had me sit on the end of the table and lift and extend my foot (ankle pump) I said it doesn’t trigger the pain. His thought is that while the point of pain is in my lateral calf he strongly suspects it is the hamstring attachment that is causing the pain. Perhaps due to being so stretched to fix the valgus knee. He thinks time will heal it but I could see if my pt has cold laser therapy to help.
 
@DLR, really! The hamstring! Mmy hamstrings do feel really tight. I stretched this morning and it was painful. My PT has some kind of laser therapy, but I think it's all out of pocket. Keep me posted and I will do the same :)
 
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