TKR JDinCT Recovery Thread

[Celle]

I think I will stop at the weekend!

remember not to stop "cold turkey", or you might experience withdrawal symptoms.
It's best to decrease the doses gradually.

 

[JDinCT]

Good morning everyone! Hope everyone is having a great recovery day!

Today I'm playing hooky from work and getting some "real world" PT in..... at the marina and now the boat has been moved to its summer slip..... well... that just happens to be about a 1/4 mile walk to land each way. So today I will be doing LOTS of walking.... maybe even a ladder or two.... … another glimpse of normalcy...

Hope to reward myself with dinner out tonight …

Hope the new knee is up to the challenge..... will report in tomorrow on the outcome...

Will still try to ice throughout the day...

 

[catkin69]

Beautiful blue sky! Enjoy your day but take it steady. I walked 1 and 1/2 miles today. It’s the furthest I’ve done. Its now time for a nap. I have no stamina yet.

 

[Bionic]

What better way to spend the day than playing hooky from work. I hope the knee is ok for all that you have planned.
Its a lovely day here too. Have walked 1.25 miles in the sun.
We are off out to dinner this evening too.
Tried the TENS machine last night for 20 mins. Not sure if it made any difference but it certainly didn't seem to do any harm.

 

[Bionic]

@catkin69 our posts crossed. You walked further than I did today. My knee was fine but I dont have the stamina either. The walk was getting slower and slower towards the end. Still, I had to remind myself that before this op I could only walk a few paces and with 2 hip ops last year have hardly done any walking for over a year. Its not surprising that I need to build up the muscles.

 

[Lilli215]

@JDinCT, looks like a glorious New England day you’re having, it is absolutely glorious here in Scotland at the moment but still a bit chilly, I decided hubs needed a bit of fresh air to help banish this cold he has sooff we went for a drive to Lochranza at the north end ofthe island. Popped into the local distillery to buy their latest limited edition whisky and had a coffee. We then took the dog for a walk round the castle and then drove home and the best news of the day was I wasn’t aware of my knee at all until I was getting out of car when we got home and then I was aware that it felt tight, so looking forward to warmer sunny days when I dont have to suffer the pain of crocked knees. One of which I dragged round Cape Cod two years ago!!

 

[JDinCT]

Good day everyone!!… well... the verdict is in.....

I managed about 6 round trips up and down the dock (~3 miles) yesterday... up and down a ladder about 4-5 times... plus some other boat chores.... and did make it to dinner (lamb) as well for a cocktail and some wine...

I felt tired at the end of the day and the knee was tight. Did not sleep as well as normal and was up at 4 AM with the knee being uncomfortable.... not necessarily excruciating pain... but tight and ... well uncomfortable..

I then drove the 1.5 hours back home from marina around 5:30 AM this morning....

I went back to sleep once home and woke up around 11 AM .... I have to say.... I was pretty much wiped out...

The knee held up very well overall.... but my overall stamina is still no where near "normal"...

But.... sometimes you have to test the limits to know where the limit is...

All in all..... pretty good day …

 

[JDinCT]

@Lilli215 Sounds like you had a lovely outing!!!... whiskey... castles and coffee.... sounds AWESOME..

 

[JDinCT]

@catkin69 @Bionic Great to hear you guys got out for a walk... it great to do "normal" things isn't it!!…

 

[JDinCT]

So I thought it might be interesting to post up pics of my knee after the marathon activity day yesterday.... not bad all things considered ..

I also posted up a thermal image …. interesting to see the temperature difference between the operative knee/leg (right) and the non-operative knee....

 

[catkin69]

@JDinCT well done you! That’s a lot of activity. Which cocktail did you have? That knee definitely looks more swollen than previous picture!! The thermal picture is very eye opening. It’s hot hot!!

 

[JDinCT]

@JDinCT well done you! That’s a lot of activity. Which cocktail did you have? That knee definitely looks more swollen than previous picture!! The thermal picture is very eye opening. It’s hot hot!!

Titos Vodka martini... two olives...

 

[Lilli215]

It’s looking not too bad considering the amount of work it had to do. You’re spot on with the stamina levels, I’m beg to build a bit more but still got a way to go. I’m noticing that my back is getting achey when I’m mobile, guess the muscles got lazy with allthe sitting about that occurs during first few weeks of recovery

 

[FCBayern]

Titos Vodka martini... two olives...

Titos is the best!

 

[Irish471]

@JDinCT , Cool thermal picture! How exactly do you do that?

 

[JDinCT]

@Irish471 The engineering geek that I am.... I have a FLIR thermal imaging camera attachment that connects to my Iphone ….

 

[JDinCT]

Good morning everyone! One interesting side effect of the marathon day out.... I managed to sleep throughout the night last night.... the first "normal" nights sleep in weeks.... ahhhhhhh

 

[catkin69]

That’s spooky, 3 of us had the best sleeps so far last night. Glad you had a good night too.

 

[Bionic]

There is only a week between us so maybe it's just the 5/6 week mark that is magic

 

[JDinCT]

Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a great week!

I was traveling all week with my six week old knee and todays travel was down to NYC for my six-week surgical follow up.

Monday I flew down to Key West which was my first flight experience with the new knee. All went pretty well and I did take an ice pack on the plane on the outbound flight. It did seem to help a bit, but was really done after the first two hour leg of the trip.... not sure it was worth dragging it around the remainder of the day for the two hour flight.

Here is the ice pack I really like use …

I also traveled with my old ice machine which is an older, smaller Aircast machine as compared to the Game Ready device I have been using since my TKR. Since I was on my feet 4-6 hours each day, this really helped me at night when I had time to elevate and ice. For me, lugging this along on my trip was worth it.

So I had my six week surgical follow-up today. My OS told me that I am his TKR post-op recovery poster child. He was impressed by my progress noting that the ability to up AND down stairs foot-over-foot was the most impressive. He is 18 weeks post-TKR himself and still not able to go down stairs foot-over-foot. He checked my gait and stated it looked very good.... ROM was +5 and +125. He did not release me from follow-up but simply asked me to call him in about two months and let him know how I was doing.

Below are some interesting x-ray images.... Happy Easter to Everyone!!!

Pre-op...

Engineering the implant....

Post-op six weeks.....