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TKR It's The HoneyB's Knees

Hey HoneyB - you are doing great for 6 weeks! I was also a member of the "slow bending and straightening" club - you will continue to improve if you are patient and don't do things that will aggravate and further inflame your healing knee. That exercise you described with the weight pushing down sounds like torture - I would definitely refuse to do that again. I was very fortunate to have excellent PT's who never pushed my ROM (I even wanted them to when I was frustrated by my slow progress) - they focused soley on functional movement - my gait, my balance, strengthening the surrounding muscle groups like glutes and quads to take the pressure off my healing knee. Walking is your friend (as well as lots of patience). I did not achieve 110 flexion until the 6 month mark and still don't have 0 extension at 11 months - but I can do all the activities I enjoy and am working to build my stamina. Hang in there!
 
Thank you, kmak81230! I'm getting ready now to head out to the sidewalk for a walk. The longest distance I've walked so far is about 1/2 mile. Many days I walk less, but today is feeling like a 1/2 mile day. It'll depend on how I feel at the halfway mark. :)
 
That is what did and do! Only walk to the point of feeling energized, then turn back. Adding a little more distance as I felt my endurance and knee would tolerate. I always came back to my starting point feeling refreshed!
 
I used to time my walks, not calculate the distance.

I'd take a kitchen timer with me and set the alarm to go off when I reached half my chosen time. That meant it was time to turn round and head for home again. Ten minutes out and ten minutes back, for example. I just increased the time gradually.
 
I'm a time walker and bike rider, too. Some days I go farther than others. But, I do it the time I want to do.
 
My neighborhood is built in a 1/2 mile circle. I'm not walking all the way around the circle. I start at my house, walk 1/8 mile to the left and back, then 1/8 mile to the right and back. That way, if I complete the route I've walked 1/2 mile, but I'm never very far from home if my knee starts to hurt. As it feels better, I'll extend the walk a house or two in each direction. My knee felt pretty good after my walk today. I always ice immediately when I get back home. Before knee problems, I walked 2.5 or 3 miles every day (5 or 6 trips around the circle). I'm so looking forward to getting back to that. I miss the walk and seeing my neighbors every day.
 
1/2 mile at your stage of recovery is great! You will be walking your 3 miles daily before you know it! Healing and recovery has it’s own timetable. I started walking 1/8 of a mile then gradually added more circles around the walking track, and then “graduated “ to walking longer distances, and hills.
 
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Good morning, everybody! For the first time since my February 19 surgery, I slept enough last night that I woke up feeling refreshed instead of tired. Yay! I hope that means I've turned a corner. I slept four hours, woke up briefly, and slept two more hours. It felt like I'd slept twelve hours. I didn't have to use any of the many sleep aids (various size pillows, blankets, etc.) that I keep nearby at night for placing under my leg or between my knees, but I did have one thin pillow under the length of my leg the entire time. Anyway, I wanted to document this date so I could reference it after my right TKR which I'm planning for May.
 
I have things I want to do and I'm tired of planning my activities (or lack of activities) around bad knees. It'll be a rough stretch of several months, but 6 weeks after my first TKR, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. The light is still far away, but it's there. I'm heading toward that light. I remind myself that I'm fortunate that the body parts that are giving me problems are replaceable parts that can be bought and don't have to come from another person. I'm trying to look on the bright side of all of this, and a good night's sleep is helping. :)
 
HoneyB said:
I remind myself that I'm fortunate that the body parts that are giving me problems are replaceable parts that can be bought and don't have to come from another person.
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I love that! What a wonderful way to look at it!

You can't buy a good night's sleep. I pray yours will continue!
 
Ah yes! Starting to get some decent sleep is so beneficial to recovery! And congrats on the walking - that is great.
 
I've been weaning myself off of my pain meds. I'll be 7 weeks post-op tomorrow so I stopped my pain meds today. The pain hasn't been bad today (mostly scar pain), but I'm unpleasantly surprised at the increased knee stiffness. I could still pedal my exercise bike, do heel slides, etc., and I still went on a 1/2 mile walk, but my knee sure feels stiff now.
 
You probably overdid the exercise and that's why your knee feels so stiff today.
Try doing a little less tomorrow and see if your knee feels any different.
 
After going to PT today and seeing that my range of motion is still in the same place after 3 weeks (105-108), I had to go back through my own thread and read again the advice from everybody to not stress over ROM. It's hard for me. Instead of relaxing about it, I sort of want to switch to a therapist who would push me harder. My progress in all other areas besides flex is good and I'm now off all pain meds except Tylenol.
 
105-108 at this stage is OK. Do try to forget about the numbers. They aren't that important. What you can do with your knee is far more important.

Don't be tempted into going to a therapist who will push you harder- that will do more harm than good.

It's not exercising that gets you your ROM - it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle, and time to heal. Your ROM is there right from the start, just waiting for all that to happen, so it can show itself.
 
Just using your knee in your everyday living will increase your ROM. It happens when you don't even think about it. Obsessing about it does absolutely no good and just causes you worry. Enjoy what your new knee can do and quit worrying about numbers!
 
Is it normal at 7 weeks for my knee to still be red and warm?
 
Yes, the redness will fade gradually, but your knee could feel warmer than the other knee for as long as a year. It's a sign that healing is still going on under the surface.
 
My knee threw off a lot of heat. Within minutes of icing my knee was hot whereas the rest of my leg that had been iced was still cold. The heat seemed to dissipate for the most part at 13 weeks. I saw my OS at 8 weeks or confirm the heat wasn’t anything to be alarmed about, and as I had no fever, or other signs of an infection, he said the heat was nothing to be concerned about. As for redness, my scar becomes redder after I get up in the morning and calms back down at night.
 
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