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TKR Jane B.'s New Knee

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Day 12:

Saturday was so crazy, that I turned into a vegetable on Sunday. I did my exercises. Started reading a new book. Iced and elevated. I tried to ignore the messy house. The guys watched football and I took a nap.

My 18 month old grandson has been tentative around me since the surgery. He took a good whack at my knee yesterday. It had the ice machine thingy wrapped around. It didn't hurt at all, the dogs leap off of my knee all day long, but it showed where his feelings about Gimpy Grandma lie.

My staples are pulling and there is a bit of a foreign body reaction around most of them. They were pretty annoying last night. The "sweatshirt" nurse was supposed to order a removal kit to be sent to the house. Nothing has come, I have to get on the phone and make sure that happens quickly. The staples are supposed to come out today or tomorrow, and I vote for today.

As I have said, I have a low hematocrit. Went in with a 38 and came out with a 25. I get wobbly if I'm up too long.

I use the walker, mostly because I'm afraid I'll get dizzy, and the PT told me to use it. But I find I'm parking it or lifting it over things, and except for getting up in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning, I don't think I need it as much. Yesterday I tried walking around the house with the cane. Meh.

The PT and I discussed what to do if I felt really faint and needed to lie on the floor. Her advice: get on the floor fast, it doesn't have to be pretty! I've read a lot of recovery threads, and after reading @DogLoverx3's thread, my husband and I walked around the house and figured out how to pull myself up from the floor in all the different rooms. The PT added that it helps to take the seat cushion off of a firm living room chair or sofa and pull yourself up on the lowered surface.

And in other news, my friend who had such a good outcome after his first knee replacement is going today for his second. This leg got squished more when he got hit by the car and there are rods in his bones (not sure which ones). He felt sick to his stomach all day yesterday. So even those of us with the best outcomes, don't look forward to this surgery!

Carry on, B.S.ers!
 
I vote for staple removal early and often. I have a revolting little gap, like a little pair of lips, right in the middle of what is otherwise a very respectable looking scar. I keep strapping it together with steri-strips and it keeps smiling back and insisting it is happy the way it is. It looks healed, its not seeping or anything. I keep thinking it wouldn't have pulled this stunt if it had been sutured.

I could use the jeano clone myself today. I'd send her to town to go to PT, drop off scripts, get my hair cut, pick up drugs and a few things at the grocery, grab a coffee with a buddy, then buy a bag of ice and schlep everything home. I'd be more up for this jaunt if I hadn't trimmed all 8 horse hoofs over the weekend. Wonder if my clone even knows how to trim?

Downward Dog gets me off the floor. Ain't worth doodly squat for getting out of a bathtub, though.
 
My staples don't come out till Wednesday. Grrrr. Not liking that at all. I also have some slight bleeding from one of the staples. I know once they are out I will feel much better!! Hope yours come out soon!
 
@jeano, you may want to consider plastic surgery and/or a tattoo for your scar pucker!

@Jozilla, that seems unfair, your surgery was two days ahead of mine. Staples come out tomorrow morning at 9. I'd rather not spend another night with them in, but that's when the nurse comes. Insurance wouldn't pay for a kit to come to the house, or my husband or son could have taken them out. I called the office and PT called the office. That's the best I've got.

And today I realized that I'm not eating enough food. That's not good for anyone. Must be the narcotics. I get super hungry, then dizzy when I get up to prepare something, throw something together, and then nothing appeals to me, or don't finish what I've got. Dogs are happy.

But it's not helping the hematocrit or the dizzies.

I'm going to set up a healthy snack station next to the sofa. Dogs will be very happy!
 
Hi Jane B. get some ensure or boost protein shakes. They as well as protein bars have helped me get over not being hungry. They are loaded with vitamins etc. probably another reason why I am not so fatigued this time! Lucky you getting staples out tomorrow! I want to cry!!!
 
The tattoo idea has a certain appeal but given the appearance of the defect I feel certain it would morph into something, ahem, salacious? Obscene? Or maybe just yucky.

PT errands and all burned 4 hours of my life. Knee held up surprisingly well.

Narcotics put me off my feed and even worse make beer taste bad. No matter how puny I feel there are a couple of things I can always eat so I never lose much weight if I have those things on hand. Since one of those things is poached eggs I am happy that we keep chickens.

I love protein shakes myself. Whey protein powder, chunks of frozen banana, some blueberries, put in the blender with ice and water and drink up. I have been eating as much protein as I can pack in for this knee.
 
I don't know if I have the energy to make a protein shake, @jeano. But I do love eggs. Especially fresh-fresh blue eggs. I'll go with the Ensure, to get me over the purple narcotic haze hump, @Jozilla. I'm going to put nuts, power bars, dried fruit, fresh fruit, and juice boxes in a basket in the living room so I can snack.

Husband admitted to not know what to make me for dinner. I agreed. He said, "How about pasta with fresh pesto from the garden?" I said, "How about meatballs?" I guess pesto has nuts and cheese, but it doesn't seem right.

I may have to back off the narcotics during the day, and probably should get my blood tested.
 
Dear Bone Smart Folks,

A brief word of advice or caution:

Don't trip over your cat or dog.

And I thank you.

Jane B.
 
Ouch ouch ouch!

Did you hit the floor or catch yourself? Sometimes the latter is worse than embracing the complete fall, as it were.
I trust that if you did go to ground that you are not whiling away the hours posting until someone comes home and helps you up.

I stepped right on a dog a few nights ago, that was a near miss. A few days after the surgery I stubbed my right foot against the wretched pedaling contraption just hard enough that I reflexively tried to raise that knee to my chin. Saw stars that time. So far, knock on wood, no actual falls. Since I fall all the time four whole weeks may well be a PR.
 
I had just let the dachshunds out of their crate to feed them. Chili, the younger and the bad dog, was running and I didn't realize it. I may have had a cane, or may have been holding onto the metal bed frame, so I didn't fall over. But it hurt and hurt a long time.
The worst pain I've had was when I forgot about my knee, and sat right down in the wheelchair leaving the hospital, like I was a regular person.
The nurse just called to remind me she's on her way to take out the stitches and to take pain medications. I asked her if she needed clean rags and boiling water....
 
Don't forget the knotted sheet tied to the bedposts to hang onto. And the bullet to bite. Or perhaps a gag to muffle your screams.
 
The good news is, that while you are in awful pain, you did not damage to the impl;ants---those little boogers are impressive and hard to damage!

I would ice the painful areas as much as I can.

It is interesting about the dogs---I had four labs when I had my BTKR seven years ago---and none of them seemed to get in my way---they would be like a flock and walk after me from place to place, but they never got in my way.
 
Probably my biggest recovery concern is being taken out by my dogs...I certainly hope mine behave as Tim's did but I won't be holding my breath.

Congrats on getting rid of the staples!!!
 
Worst mine have done besides being black and impossible to see in the dark, is give me a tail whap or two. At least Jane's dogs will have to get something to stand on in order to reach her knee.
 
The nurse came to take out the staples. She had my knee flat, and it was incredibly painful. Unbearably so. And I'm of that unfortunate generation of women who thought natural child birth was a good idea.

She got about half way through and I was in too much pain for her to continue. (And ready to toss breakfast.) She thought the staples had "been in too long" and that maybe "the doctor should take them out under local." She had me call his office and luckily it's clinic day, and I could go in. There were sharp edges of broken staples sticking out of my knee.

We went to the Big Ivy Covered Hospital, waited a bit with all the other people in wheelchairs and walkers, and he took the rest out quickly and relatively painlessly. He had me bend my knee, and wasn't thrilled with my 90 degrees. Wants me to work on that. Maybe tomorrow.

Ugh.
 
I am so sorry your staples were a mess. I didn't like mine,but God knows they didn't turn on me like yours did.

First, my nurse didn't have to flatten my leg to remove staples. And OS be damned, 90 degrees isn't bad for an abused knee no further out than you are, and finally I betcha he's just eyeballing that measurement. Phooey.
 
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Husband and non-medical student son said it was painful to watch the nurse try to take the staples out. And husband was very impressed by the strength I had in my hand, I was squeezing his!
 
Note to self - just say "no!" to staples! glad you are on the other side of that.
 
@TexasTee Negotiate the no staple clause carefully, surgeons tend to get very set in their ways. Some are staplers, some are stitchers, others like glue. Once they find a way of closing an incision they like, that's what they tend to do. I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker if you are otherwise happy with your OS. And if he usually uses staples but tells you he'll make an exception for you, you could end up with a bad job of sewing--you don't want that. As far as I know, and remember I'm NOT a surgical nurse, there's no convincing rationale for preferring one method of closing over another.

Stitches can make you almost as miserable as staples when they are due to come out, especially if there's swelling. For me the saving grace of stitches was there were only about 3 of them in my left knee, externally at least (I'm sure there were more deeper down) as opposed to TEN staples in the right although the stapled incision is only an inch longer than the sutured one.
 
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