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TKR It's The HoneyB's Knees

Thanks, Celle and CdnCarol! The redness goes away when I'm lying in bed (not sleeping) and comes back as soon as I get up or as soon as I get up after icing. I thought it was probably normal since I never had a problem with my incision and I've never had fever, but just wanted to double check. I find that everything seems odder when I'm lying in bed not sleeping.....:loll:
 
This is what looks like fun to a two-year-old when her grandmother has a new knee. If only I could do that! I think she's just showing off! :)
[Bonesmart.org] It's The HoneyB's Knees
 
She's precious and she's showing off for all of us tkr people!
 
Hang on. As a fellow conformis knee recipient, its interesting to watch it happen all over again with someone else. I had a good 3 weeks where it seemed like I wasn't gaining and i kind of got a little obsessed with ROM . I think I started making good progress again between weeks 6-8 after i was finished with PT. I am one of the few people on here who liked PT. I would have gone longer but I was thinking I needed to save the rest of my allowed PT appointments for the second knee. It turned out the second one got put off and i could have used them all. Nonetheless, I kept walking and riding my exercise bike and doing a few stretches and made good progress. I think we conformis people might move along quicker in the beginning but eventually the rest catch up. Keep exercising as much as you can without undue swelling and pain and it will come. Stiffness was my biggest challenge for a long time, noticeable when I came off prescription meds and for months afterwards. It tapered off very gradually but I did notice an initial difference about 12 weeks. Im 9 months out and only recently has the stiffness disappeared completely. Although I have been up to normal activity levels for months. You seem to be doing fine. This is much longer recovery than many of us expected.
 
Thanks, y’all! I love my little exercise partner. I babysit her for 12 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so she provides a different kind of leg exercise on those days.

@Jajakio, I have also enjoyed PT. Except for one instance when my therapists did something that caused a lot of pain (and they haven’t requested I do that again after I told them how much it hurt), my therapists have been wonderful. My knee also stiffened up after I stopped taking pain meds, but I can still walk and ride my exercise bike without pain, and I’m continuing with gentle stretching. I agree about the fast start for ConforMIS knees followed by a leveling off with everyone else. I hope to get a second ConforMIS knee in May.

I know I have IT Band problems. I’ve had them for years. After reading a lot about IT Band issues the past few weeks, I’ve convinced myself that I need to go to a therapist that does deep massaging. My therapists do spot massages, but not deep, whole-leg massages. I’ve read several articles that talked about IT Bands becoming meshed/entangled with muscles. For a visual, one likened it to a fish net (IT Band) being pushed into raw hamburger (muscle) and how the two would become meshed. It seems that deep massage of the muscle and surrounding tissue, but not of the actual IT Band along the side of the leg, is often successful in releasing the entanglement. I think that’s what I need because, when my knee stiffens as I bend it, the pain points are at the very top outer edge of my thigh and a spot on my outer shin just below my knee. I’ve also read that when the IT Band becomes entangled with muscle, when the knee bends, the muscle will be pulled toward the IT Band/outer leg. When I bend my knee, I feel a “pop” in my thigh (from behind my knee to my hip bone) and then the feeling that something shifts to the left (toward the outer edge of my thigh). I’ll have 10 PT visits left after I see my OS 4/17 for my 8-week checkup. I’m thinking of switching those last 10 visits to a therapist a TKR friend is using who provides deep, whole-leg massage. She had ROM problems and was a few days away from an MUA. With two days of deep massage, she gained 20 degrees in her ROM and her OS canceled the MUA. My ROM isn’t as bad as her was, but I think deep massage might get me moving again. I’d appreciate anyone’s thoughts on this. I’ll definitely talk to my OS about it 4/17.
 
Could an admin please change my thread title to the following: It's The HoneyB's Knees. Also, in my signature, "ConforMiS" should be "ConforMIS" and "i Total" should be "iTotal". Thanks!
 
HoneyB,
I've updated your thread title and signature for you. If you would like any other changes in the future, just post it here.
 
I had my 8-week PT evaluation today. ROM was 0 – 108 once and 0 – 111 on a second try. I think if they’d measured five times, they’d have gotten five different readings between 105 – 111 because I’ve been stuck in that range for four weeks. I got good marks for everything except ROM, and for what it’s worth, I got an A+ for effort and cooperation for ROM. I see the surgeon tomorrow for his evaluation. I’m eager to talk to him about the “pop” I feel in the back of my thigh and the associated tightness/pain I feel in my knee, outer shin, and upper thigh/hip that I think is limiting my progression with ROM. Aside from that pop, I have some stiffness, but little to no pain without pain meds.
 
You are doing very well for 8 weeks and that goes for your ROM as well. Many PTs rush things and expect way too much way too early.

This recovery is a rollercoaster and not always a progressive each day is better than the one before. ROM is the same way. It will vary even throughout a day.

Your ROM will continue to improve at its own rate. And those tools they use to measure it are not an exact measurement.

The fact that you have little to no pain at 8 weeks is awesome!
 
Yep, been there done that with the IT band issues you’re discussing. That area where it attaches near the knee is still an area of soreness for me. I have found these last few months that using a roller has made my IT band much better. I use those big ones where you lay on top of it. I can sure tell the difference on my natural leg - it hurts more on it because I hadn’t been doing it there lol. I told my OS this and he said, keep it up on both legs.

Your baby flex demo is very very cute!

Oh, and by the way... I was stuck at 105 flex for several weeks around the same period you are and all of a sudden it started moving. It was kinda amazing.
 
8 weeks is really still pretty early in your recovery. Less is still more. The pains and sensations you describe are likely part of the healing process. For example I had a "weird pain" behind my knee for many weeks with knee #1 and thought maybe something was wrong with a ligament or something. But no, it just needed time to heal. But let us know what the doctor says.
 
I saw my surgeon today for my 8-week plus 1-day LTKR checkup. While I’ve been frustrated with my stalled progress (range of motion has been at 0 – 110ish since week 4), my surgeon said that he’s extremely pleased with my progress. While sitting on the exam table with my knees dangling at 90 degrees, he told me to pull my left leg back under the table, and said he could see that it was easily pulling back to at least 110 degrees, and probably beyond that, and he was very pleased. He said that given my long-time IT Band problems, it could take me 2 or 3 months more, or even longer, to get to where I (not he) THINK I should be, but to remember that this is a year-long healing process. He said that the IT Band has a “spiderweb” of connections at the knee, so it’s not unusual that I’m feeling stiffness in my knee while flexing as I deal with trying to stretch my IT Band. He also said that as things (muscles, tendons, etc.) in my leg are having to shift positions due to my realignment, I need to remember that my leg isn’t hollow, and that the shifting is pushing tissue out of the way, which then requires a healing process. He said he’s not going to tell me to “not be me,” but I need to be a little less Type A about this and stop thinking so much about degrees/weeks. He said that he’s confident that if I continue to do what I’m doing now, I’ll get to full range of motion.


I asked if he thought I was in shape for my right knee replacement, and he agreed that I am. They did an x-ray of my right knee for his office to submit to my insurance company for approval of a CT scan for having a ConforMIS custom knee built for the RTKR surgery. He said I might need a different ConforMIS implant for the right knee because that leg is a little more deformed (more bowed). I think that implant has a slightly longer post. The only sort of bad news was that, once the right knee is replaced and properly aligned so that my bowed leg is straighter, I might go back to my life-long status of having one leg slightly longer than the other. I’m going to enjoy the next few weeks of being completely level in case that disappears soon.

As usual, y'all were right......patience is the key. That's so hard for me.
 
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Practicing patience is HARD. It unfortunately doesn't sound at all like "doing." Humans dearly love to be "doing" something to advance ourselves... which is also why we so love to measure our progress, because that's doing something.

You are conducting a highly sophisticated operation of mentally accommodating a healing body. If you can stop measuring your flexion and simply enjoy the various things your new knee(s) can now do, life will take over and time will fly as your knee gets better and better. :running:
 
HoneyB said:
He said he’s not going to tell me to “not be me,” but I need to be a little less Type A about this and stop thinking so much about degrees/weeks. He said that he’s confident that if I continue to do what I’m doing now, I’ll get to full range of motion.
Click to expand...
I love what your OS said! He is right along with Bonesmart's guidelines! He's a winner! Hold on to 'em!
 
HoneyB said:
because that leg is a little more deformed (more bowed
Click to expand...

@HoneyB My right leg was very bowed before surgery and is quite straight now. I don't think either leg is longer than the other, but I am an inch taller than before the surgery.
 
Oh my gosh, @HoneyB we are complete opposites - I was 5' 9 1/2" and am now 5' 10 1/2". True Mutt and Jeff are we! :heehee:
 
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