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Bilateral TKR It's finally time!!

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The massage sounds divine! I can't believe you walked 2 miles! I walked around Walmart today and now I'm miserable. My leg hurts so bad! Blah! How's the repaired recliner?? No working is awesome! Next June will be 10 years since I quit working to be able to do a lot more for my mom and dad. Hard to believe!
 
@gr82cu2 I guess I forgot to tell you about my recliner saga. So the repair guy came. He actually wasn't the one to repair, but they send him first to look and see what the problem is - he took it apart and said everything was perfect. I was at work but hubby put him on the phone with me. I told him he was nuts (ok, not in so many words but I wasn't happy). I told him that it made two loud popping noises that sounded like springs broke and then a week later one other noise. And now when I recline it makes a terrible rubbing noise and at times a squeeking noise. He told me that the noise was normal. I told him NO WAY, that it never made that noise ever until the second I heard the springs pop. Then it started. I also told him that if this chair would have been making these noises, I never would have bought it. Told him the chair is only 5 months old (didn't tell him I have already had at least 3 years of use out of it, LOL) and there is no way that I will be satisfied with it in this condition. I spoke with the supervisor and she is sending a new person out to look at it. This time, the actual repair person. Fingers crossed they can find out what's wrong with it. If they can't, at least I have the problem well documented - as I'm convinced something is wrong. I am hoping to get a new recliner if they can't figure out what to fix - but I'm not holding my breath either.

You will soon be walking two miles also!! I'm a bit achey right now - but I am happy that I can do it finally.
 
I went to my final PT today. It wasn't until 6:45 pm, and I really don't like going so late. I haven't been since the end of November. Today was just to check in and see how I am doing, ask questions, check ROM and strength, etc. She showed me one or two exercises to do at the gym, which may help my hamstring/IT band problem. With my stiffness and swelling, I was worried I had lost some ROM. I measured 123 on both legs. I was at 125 on the left, but given I had a long day with trainer at the gym, a dr appointment, grocery shopping, etc. I was a bit swollen so I'm not worried about those two degrees. My right leg was at 120 the last time, so I was happy to have gained 3 degrees, especially after my long day out. Some day, I look forward to bending my leg as much as I can, and not have it hurt. I'm not there yet - and both legs still hurt when I got to my maximum ROM - otherwise, maybe I could have squeaked out a few more degrees.

She measured my strength, and all the measurements have at least doubled or tripled since before my surgery. I had no idea that the pain before surgery had caused me to lose so much strength. All my numbers measured tonight were above average so I was very happy about that. I have a long ways to go to get to where I used to be, but it's nice to see that I'm already better than before the surgery. I had no idea I had come that far.
 
Those are great numbers after a long day! That day when we can bend without pain or discomfort will be glorious!! I'm curious, how did she measure your strength?

Have a Merry Christmas! :merry christmas:
 
@gr82cu2 She held a small instrument (called a dynomometer) that measures force I'm exerting as I'm pushing one way while she is resisting my push (hope that makes sense). So sitting on the edge of the table, I try to straighten my leg out while she pushes in, bend my leg down while she pushes in, lay on my side and try to lift my leg up while she pushes down, and one other I'm blanking on. The instrument that she's holding measure the force I'm exerting in pounds. Then you can compare those numbers to what I was presurgery, right after surgery and now. She also looked up what the average non-injured person is for comparison. I am definitely still weak in my quads, and still building up strength again, but at least in the areas she measured, I am doing better than pre-surgery.
 
Neat! I guess my PT doesn't do that. It must be encouraging to know you are getting stronger. Merry Christmas!
 
@gr82cu2 Somehow I missed your response. Sorry.

On the one hand, I do feel that I'm getting stronger, but then I do more, and am sore and sidelined for a bit. I've been hurting a lot more the last few days. I took Christmas and the day after off from all exercising, and just sat and iced, etc. I'm still pretty sore - right above my knees.

Last week I increased my workouts at the gym. I'm still going easy - just easy walking or biking, nothing too crazy. But I think the increased time caused me to get sore. Even after a few days off, I still feel achey. I went back to the gym today and just did some easy pedaling for awhile, but am quite sore and stiff still.

I really hate this because it's such a fine line figuring out what you can and can't do - and as we've said before - the knee is in charge. This sure gets old sometimes!!
 
Yep, it's like walking a tightrope. And finding the right balance between being a sloth and an acrobat is hard! Lately, I've been really wanting to do more around the house but when I do, I pay for it later. We'll get there though, eventually. Remember, up to a year or more for complete recovery! We're not even half way there yet. It just gets discouraging when otherwise we feel great and want to get up and do the things we couldn't before the new knees. The last time I saw my OS I was a crying fool and I told him 'I did this to get my life back and it feels farther away than ever.' He told me he's not giving me my old life back he's giving me a new, better life but I just have to be patient. It will come. ....sigh....so much easier said than done.
 
<<He told me he's not giving me my old life back he's giving me a new, better life>>

Awesome quote from you OS! I can't wait to get to that point!!
 
I've been quietly checking my Alerts and waiting to be told that there is activity on people I follow! Guess the Alerts haven't been working. @ljrfrm I've been picturing you and your recliner curled up together with a book. It sure doesn't sound like it. The measuring they do is awesome for your ROM. They never really gave me numbers at rehab, I just guessed but looking at the BoneSmart chart. My right leg is much happier than my left but I'm slowly trying to get more active now that the Christmas festivities are over. I found that getting places and just sitting for long periods of time, tiring. But, you've already taught me that that's "normal". I'm trying to get out for a walk everyday - walking around our place doesn't give me much mileage. I hope that I'm not totally wrong with my visual of you - curled up with a book on your noisy recliner :yes:
 
@Threads I am definitely spending quality time reunited with my recliner!! I am going to the gym each day though, trying to get some miles logged onto the bike as well. I figure that will justify my sitting around the rest of the day, LOL. My knees are telling me they want time off from the gym though, so tomorrow will be just me and my recliner :)

You are probably doing far more already than I did at 6-8 weeks out - I did get tired so quickly. So go with it if needed and rest - as I've said before, I regret that I didn't nap more earlier on!

BTW, the repair man came back again yesterday. Agreed that the recliner shouldn't be "noisy" like it is, but said he doesn't see anything wrong with it. I called his supervisor and left a message for her to call me back. We'll see where that gets me!!! Take care of those knees!!!
 
The repairman agreed that it shouldn't be noisy but doesn't see anything wrong!!!! You're right - time to move up the complaints line.

I've got an appointment with my naturopath later this week, to see whether he can do anything about the nerve pain. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still there. I don't have a lot of reserve energy but I slept well last night and I'm sure that had something to do with my walk, so I'll keep that up. I haven't figured out how to walk with two canes and carry an umbrella, though. Our weather comes with really wet stuff, not nice crisp white stuff.
 
@Threads You need a third arm!!! Hope the naturopath has some answers. I've tried reiki, aromatherapy and massage during recovery - I think all helped!
 
@Threads You need one of these :)

[Bonesmart.org] It's finally time!!
 
@ljrfrm - any word from the recliner supervisor????? It would be nice if you could get that situation on the road to being taken care of before - and I'm whispering - you have to go back to work.

I've been out shopping, buying red meat. I don't eat a lot of it but it suddenly dawned on me that a lot of the food that I squirreled away for recovery is heavy on the vegetarian side. I've been reading BoneSmart and realize I've probably not been eating enough complete protein since I returned home. Doug is out on a Costco run and when he gets home we'll get an old fashioned pot roast slowly cooking in the oven. I plan to head back into the pool next week and want to have the right nutrition in my system to help strengthen those muscles and bones.

You sound like you are working hard with your exercising and cycling. I've been lazy over the holidays but hope to change that next week.
 
@Threads I can't believe you said the dreaded "W" (work) word. Shhhhhhh!!!

I got a call today from the supervisor regarding my reliner. I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but we also had a small tear in the leather on the loveseat (also delivered in July) so they were repairing that. The repairman ended up replacing the leather OVER the recliner/footrest (sofa and loveseat both open up and recline too) handle. Duh! She apologized profusely and agreed to send him back out to fix it on Thursday. I told her that I don't take much stock in what the repairman says regarding my recliner given the fact that he totally screwed up the other repair. She agreed and said she will talk to her district manager about what to do and will call me back. Fingers crossed!!

Today I went to the gym and worked out with my trainer for 30 min. Then I did 30 min on the bike. I came home, iced and spent most of the day in my beloved recliner watching Family Feud (LOL) reruns with my son. Soon I will have to worry about dinner but for now, it's nice to sit around and enjoy having my legs up.
 
@ljrfrm - but I whispered the dreaded word, honest I did! You've got amazing hearing to hear me over 3,000 miles away. I'm impressed with the workout you did today! I've avoided going downstairs so far today because the bike might look at me in a way that will make me feel guilty. We just got a pot roast in the oven and I'm surprised at how sore my knees are from standing cooking. There was no leftover turkey at our house this year, so no fridge grazing for days after Christmas.
 
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