TKR Jane B.'s New Knee

[Jamie]

That's a wonderful set of family and friends you have there who would care so much about your wellbeing to intervene in your wedding plans. You are one lucky person!!! Glad you're listening to the advice.

 

[Jamie]

If you continue to feel lightheaded, it might be a good idea to either make an appointment with your GP or ask for a visit from a home health nurse to check you out. They can check standing/sitting blood pressure and maybe even do a little blood workup for you to see what's going on. Please don't ignore those symptoms or try to write them off as a nutrition issue. I don't recommend that you take iron supplements without the approval of your GP. Overdoing iron can cause problems. You don't want to take them unless you are sure (with a blood test and the guidance of your doctor) you need additional iron and know just how much you should be taking.

 

[Jane B.]

@Jamie, my husband is a doc. He remembered my numbers from the hospital: my hematocrit went from 38 before surgery to 25 or 26 after surgery. Husband didn't want me to take full iron tablets, just the multivitamins and food, but now it's taking too long. I am trying to eat, but like many of us, I have no appetite. His cooking, lets just say we have very different tastes. And, please, he is the one who brought home parsnips as a health restoring vegetable. Gross.

Oh, I forgot that when PT was here I went all the way around on the stationary bike pedals. It's a high bike, and hard to get on, so I brought a kitchen chair up to face the bike handle bars. Didn't hurt at all. Granted I went very, very slowly.

I agree that my family saw my situation better than I did. It made me feel good that they were all in agreement, and they were right. I love my brother and wanted to be there for my nephew's wedding. He understood. Let's hope the family doesn't have to do many more interventions!

 

[jeano]

Originally my girlfriends who will visit me the last week of October were going to come the week after my surgery! What on EARTH was I thinking???? God intervened in the form of a car accident (no injuries!) and some job stuff for one friend so the visit was rescheduled.

Both gfs are RNs, but sweet Lord, that wouldn't have been much of a vacation for any of us.

This will be for the best. Wonder can you Skype a wedding? We live in an age of electronic miracles.

 

[Jane B.]

My daughter and sister are going to send me real time videos, Jeano. I guess we could FaceTime, but that may be too dizzying! On the other hand, (you have me thinking) FaceTime might be a perfect to touch base with the key players, like my brother and sister-in-law. They are the ones with the horses.

They live in a beautiful old Quaker farm area in South-South Jersey. When my parents were alive they lived in a progressive care place near them and I visited frequently. They get thousands of migrating snow geese that feed on the farm lands. It's so beautiful to see all those white birds on a field.

 

[Jane B.]

Three week anniversary today. It's cool and raining and the dogs are all piled up on the couch with me sharing a down throw, but not my ice wrap.

I put on jeans for the first time today, soft ones. I added an old cashmere sweater I bought on eBay for cheap.

The heat wave broke and I went back to my little city walk yesterday. I had a muscle pinching on the lateral side of my knee so I redid the sidewalk on our side of the street a few times. That way I was not far from home. Muscle twinges are to be expected. The other day the dogs and I were hanging in the living room doing our basic stuff and I had one of those electrical jolts you all talk about. I bolted upright and they did, too.

I have slept well since I've the surgery. I wonder if it helps that I take neurontin or gabapentin at bedtime? Anyway, I do wake up once to go to the bathroom, or loo, and find that's when I worry. I worry about all kinds of things, infection in the device, Pes Anserine bursitis, and oh, blood clots are a biggie. And then I go to sleep. Last night I was afraid that my extension was a mess and would never be right. It's been bad since my arthroscopic surgery. But I also think that it's anxiety provoking to be so vulnerable after a surgery like this. So there I was at 3 a.m. doing stretches in bed. Crazy.

Yesterday I got down on the floor to do exercises a few times and to wrestle with my grandson. It was easy to get up, but I did not do a kneeling test drive on the new knee. Too many people think it's weird, and I don't need more weird right now.

I have been eating carefully and taking plenty of iron supplements (with stool softeners and Metamucil). I get up from a sitting position, not lying down, and have not been dizzy in a couple of days. Husband is sure I'll feel way better once my hematocrit is stronger.

My new knee has always felt comfortable or like it "fits". I totally credit the surgeon. He told me that doing replacements (he only does hip and knee replacement surgery) is all he knows, he does them all day long, and loves it.

 

[marmora]

Hello Jane @Jane B.

You've reached the three week milestone ! Congratulations

The waking in the night is hard and seems to be a very common problem for a few months with many here on the BoneSmart forum.

About a week ago, my PT gave me a kneeling stretch and it did feel weird. But, I'm doing it each day. Big pillow on the floor next to the bed. Knee on to that' put arms and elbows on the bed and then bend your bottom back towards your heels and hold for 5 seconds, relax and repeat 4/5 times.

It is to increase Flexion, was a bit tough in the beginning, but less tough this week.

Take care,
Cathie

 

[jeano]

@marmora I want to try this exercise since I'd love to be able to go back to some yoga postures that require kneeling and/or greater ROM, plus at some point I would love to stop offering up the pain in my shins from getting cracked with a kneeler in church.

Since I've given up 'nesting' on my bed I have tons of pillows and two wedges going to waste, might use those.

@Jane B. I was about ready to dig some narcs out of the Nightstand Stash From Hell last night. Bedtime extended release Tylenol hadn't kicked in and the knee was twanging like a banjo. Did ankle pumps for about five minutes and it Just Stopped. Even more entertaining for me is the rash of twinges from the tendons in my LEFT leg as it struggles to adjust to its new mate. Its always something.

 

[Jane B.]

I have slept well since I've the surgery.

I actually said this on Wednesday. Well, I jinxed myself. Last night I just lay there awake until I got up and read a bit. Finally went back to bed and fell asleep.

You know you are getting better when: I love my husband, but he is driving me absolutely crazy. I think I'm driving myself crazy, and he's just the closest moving target. He's going to go and winterize our cottage on Cape Cod this weekend. Good. Go!

I'm tired of the couch. The dogs think it's theirs. We all pile on in the morning, and I'd rather not. I was reading an old post on BS and someone said, "We get out of bed so we can go sit down." I spent enough time on the couch before the surgery. I want to get off!

PT went very well yesterday. She was pleased that the iron pills were working their magic and I was much stronger. She noticed that some of my exercises had become "too easy". She gave me a fun, "round the world" leg raise exercise that's done on the bed. She has not measured my ROM once, at least not with a tool.

And following very far back in @jeano's footsteps, I've been watching my narcotic intake and skipping a few pills. The first one I skipped was a middle of the night dose. I had no pain and did not want to take a pill, just because. I've dropped from five a day to four a day, I know it's not much, but last night went 12 hours. I'm upping the Tylenol (within safe limits) and Advil just for fun. It's interesting, when your pain decreases and you do not take a narcotic, you feel your knee in a new and different way. There is a bionic part in your body and we need to adjust to it.

And in good news, Dark Chocolate Dove Ice Cream Bars have 2% of daily iron requirements.

 

[jeano]

There must be something in the water... last night was about the 3rd worse night I've had since the surgery, just couldn't get comfortable enough to waft off. Knee wasn't bad, really, just the nerve ends bumping into each other and getting rebuffed: 'you aren't my other half--Go Away!' I've got some tendonitis or something in both arms and i'm a side sleeper. Aches and pains exacerbated by big weather change coming. Our lows have been in the mid to upper sixties and our highs in the mid 80s. Sunday morning the low will be around 40 and highs for a few. Days will be in the 60s and low 70s. Time to haul out the sweaters and blankets.

That's an interesting observation about the change in awareness of the implant. So true about Dove Bars. I justify every indulgent thing I put iin my mouth by pointing out that it has iron. Or calcium. Or protein. Or fiber.

 

[kneeper]

Sounds like you're reducing the narcotics very naturally. Just the way to do it--decrease as you need less.

 

[Celle]

You know you are getting better when: I love my husband, but he is driving me absolutely crazy. I think I'm driving myself crazy, and he's just the closest moving target.

@Jane B.
You sure hit the nail on the head there! That's just how I feel sometimes.
I tried shouting at the cats, but they just ran away and hid.

 

[marmora]

Hello Jane, @Jane B.

I can relate to the new 'bionic knee' feeling, hard to describe , but aware that there is a foreign body where the old knee had been.

Would you describe your new "around the world" exercise.
Love to travel, so it sounds interesting,...

Take care and enjoy your weekend,
Cathie

 

[Jane B.]

Hi Cathie, the PT had me lie on the bed and do leg lifts in various positions. You start on your back and do leg lifts, roll on your side, then on your stomach, and your other side all doing different leg lifts. They are written down, but I wasn't sure I did them all correctly, after only doing them once with the PT. She laughed at me saying, "Yeah, you are getting tired!"
Here are her written instructions, hope they make sense:

Bed Exercises:

1. On back, SLR (do single leg raises)
a. With foot straight
b. With foot slightly rolled out, toes pointing at 1 o'clock

2. On side, hip abduction- lift top leg up (pillow between legs)
adduction- lift bottom leg up (I wrote, sort of roll over) put top leg behind you

3. On stomach
Hip extension- lift leg straight up (tighten abdominal muscles)
bend knee and left leg up

Knee extension- pull toes up on bed, (get up on toes) both feet, tighten quads (lifting knees up from the bed)

Knee flexion- bend knee (on stomach)

Have fun!

 

[marmora]

Hi Jane, @Jane B.

If we keep practicing those exercises we will be able to audition for "The Folies Bergere" in Paris !


Cathie

 

[Jane B.]

OK folks, there's nothing to see here except a lady on the couch icing and elevating.

Yesterday my knee felt stiff and not totally great. I decided to do my exercises really carefully, and ride the bike slowly for ten minutes looking at a Pottery Barn catalog, and go for my short outdoor walk on a beautiful fall day.

You can predict the rest: I crashed and burned with tremendous pain.

An ice pack didn't calm it down, but the ice machine did. Interesting. And some Advil and Tylenol added to the daily narcotic.

I took a Knee-cation Day today.

My family FaceTimed from the wedding. Everyone looked wonderful.

I would not know what I would do if I hadn't found BoneSmart. I'd be a bit lost, truthfully. Now I know this is all totally normal.

 

[jeano]

So, next time you'll try the bike for NINE minutes? Or, better idea, ditch the Pottery Barn catalog. You have no business trying to haul that catalog along on a bike ride. What am I going to DO with you?

 

[referee54]

'm tired of the couch. The dogs think it's theirs. We all pile on in the morning, and I'd rather not. I was reading an old post on BS and someone said, "We get out of bed so we can go sit down." I spent enough time on the couch before the surgery. I want to get off!

There will be plenty of time to do this---just understand that your patience will be tested, and after you are fully recovered, that you will be much more active and able to enjoy it much, much more! Patience is the key!

You can predict the rest: I crashed and burned with tremendous pain.

Welcome to the club---the "I guess I over did things a little bit" club---we have all been there and have all, in our own way, paid the price.

The icing and the elevating and the resting will get things back on track, and, down the road, yo will not have to worry about the "paybacks" of overdoing things!

 

[jeano]

I finally abandoned my 'nest' on my bed just so I could demonstrate progression from lolling around most of the day on the bed to lolling around most of the day in a living room chair. Big woo hoo for today was trip to Atlanta to see the ancient mother in law. 12 full hours of No Elevation and Not Much Icing, and it didn't kill me. I packed half a lortab Just In Case,, but managed without indulging. Mr Jeano had to cope with all the critter care when we got home because I hit the ice and haven't budged since. Next time I'm sending my clone.

 

[Celle]

@Jane B.

It's so hard to be patient and do next to nothing, isn't it?
I'm feeling the same frustration, but I keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end.