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TKR Joy's Recovery thread<

I wasn’t pressured the first week at PT either (my first out patient PT session was 48 hours after surgery :doh:as I didn’t qualify for home therapy) My therapist was very nice and soft spoken.

Exactly one week post op he surprised me by gently pushing my knee to a point where I thought it would explode. I hung on to the sides of the table for dear life. I hadn’t found Bonesmart yet, so I didn’t know to keep my guard up.

I went home in tears and went to bed. I woke up an hour later, not just with an upset knee, but with a burning pain in my left shoulder. I had been using my arms for movements because I couldn’t yet use my leg. A few days later I was back in my OS office for a shoulder X-ray because the pain persisted, and was diagnosed with acute tendinitis. The pain was a 10 and the dilaudid I was on didn’t touch it! Grabbing that table was the last straw that caused the tendinitis.

I rode the bike at PT too early and tried too hard (pre-Bonesmart) and it took 2-3 days to recover.

My surgeon had PT put me in the pool at 4 weeks. It was a 50 minute session with countless knee bending exercises.

I thought I had to work hard and do what they said. It took 3 days to recover from the pool and that’s when I decided to take charge of my recovery.

I googled stopping PT, found Bonesmart and the rest is history, as they say.

So I’m a bit over protective of all our knees and I now know all I went through was not necessary.

Next time I won’t go to PT and I will recover better without it and with less pain.
 
It sounds like you have a good PT, so far. Don't let her sneak anything bad for you as you progress.
 
@Jockette - I have read your entire story, as I have read most peoples, which helps me during my recovery. And... wow.. you were bowling so early in your recovery. I can’t imagine lifting the weight of the ball. Good for you!

I’m so sorry you experienced those repeated traumatic events. Especially when those were put upon you by people who you should have been able to trust. While you can’t erase what happened to you, you now know you have the power and control to say “no” to anything you choose. You are in charge of your recovery!
 
@sistersinhim yes I do feel I have a good PT. Thank you for your positivity.

I feel empowered to get through this recovery. I have set my own goals. Some of them are: I know that I will have bad days mixed in with good, I know that on those days when I look in the mirror and the site of my unbrushed hair and no makeup scare me - I’m beautiful inside, I know I have the choice to say “no” to anything I choose, and everyday I want to try something new. It doesn’t have to be big because sometimes those tiny victories are the best!
 
Day 18 (2 & 3/4 weeks)-

I'm not quite at 3 weeks yet and I feel good about my progress.

Walker - I still use my walker although I find that I'm walking away from it more and more. I do keep it close by in case I'm feeling a little unstable. In the kitchen I don't need it because of all the counters I can hold on to if needed for support. In the family room I have enough furniture to hold on to if needed. But if I go down the long hall or out to the back yard I keep the walker with me. If chairs have arms I can get up fine but I need the walker to get up from the toilet. I really want to progress to a cane but my leg isn't telling me it's ready yet so I'm listening to my leg. My quad just isn't strong enough. I'm in a single story home so I don't have to deal with stairs except 1 - 2 stairs getting in/out of the house.

Pain Meds - I'm taking Percocet 10/325 every 5 - 6 hours. If I have a day where I'm just laying around I can extend that to 7 hours. But most days I'm moving around quite a bit so the every 5-6 hrs is the norm.

Household chores - I do the dishes, cook my own food, dust, trim my roses, water my back yard, wash down the patio and the most difficult is vacuuming but I do it. I figure the more chores I do the more my leg is getting a natural workout.

Sleeping - I've never had a problem sleeping. I'm generally up once around 3am to go to the bathroom but I can get back to sleep. I feel like when I do sleep, I sleep soundly. Thank goodness. If I happen to wake up early (4-5am) I find that in the afternoon I really need a nap so I allow myself the luxury of a nap. Everyday I'm always up by 6:00am as that's as late as my dogs will let me sleep. lol

Stretching, Elevating and Icing - I stretch every day. I have exercises that PT had given me and I do them at least once a day - on occasion twice. Physical Therapy requested three times a day but I'm willing to do them once. The stretching actually feels good. I stretch and hold when I get to the point of feeling the pull but before any significant pain. That seems to work well for me. I elevate and ice several times a day. When I ice I'm generally icing about 45 min - 1 hr at a time (generally through one tv show). I also make sure I'm up and moving at least once every hour or so. Even if it's just to go to the bathroom and back. I get out of my recliner.

Surgeon appt - I had an early morning appt for my first follow up with my surgeon. She talked about the large amount of bone spurs she needed to remove. She explained why the inner side of my knee is more sore and showed me, on a fake knee, the tendon she has to push aside. We talked about my pain meds and she told me I was on track and not to worry about needing more. I told her I felt bad asking for a refill a few days earlier as I didn't want to seem like a drug addict. She said absolutely not. I'm not even three weeks out and she wants me to be comfortable. She explained how to taper off when I feel ready. She feels that in a few weeks I should be ready to begin to cut back and to let my leg and activity level let me know. She's very careful about watching pain meds but that I'm not there yet. She didn't do any official measurements but eyeballed my ROM and said I was doing great. She told me I had a "Zimmer" brand knee with the model called "Persona". She said overall she's very pleased with how I am doing. I see her again in one month.

PT appointment - Today was my 2nd outpatient PT appointment. Just like last time my therapist never touches me. When she was working with me she also had another patient. This patient asked her to feel something on her thigh and the therapist said "I don't need to feel it. I understand what you are describing". So that made me realize she's a therapist that just doesn't touch people, or at least not that I've seen yet. She had me do different exercises than last time. None of them too difficult but I could tell they were stretching. She lets me gauge how much I want to stretch. I like it because I'm in control. I'm finding that I do push myself pretty far but I know I can stop when I want. And she can see that I do push myself. She measures my ROM at the end. Last session I was 0 extension and 90 Flexion. Today I was 0 extension and 100 Flexion. I was so happy I was at 100 and it was due to very bearable work on my part.

Goal - To return to work in about one month with minimal pain.

Overall, I feel very successful. I know there's still plenty of work to do on my knee, but I think the worse part and most painful part is behind me. Yay!
:flwrysmile:
 
What a wonderful, positive post! Everything is look great for you!
 
@sistersinhim I have a question for you and for anyone with a Lounge Doctor.

My Lounge Doctor finally arrived which seemed to take forever to get here via Amazon. It wasn’t any longer than usual it was just I wanted it! Lol.

For leg elevation, I tried stacking pillows but that didn’t work as they moved around, would tumble over and just weren’t stable enough. So Yay to my Lounge Doctor!

Sistersinhim do you sleep all night with yours? I slept with mine, two nights ago, putting both legs up thinking that would keep my back aligned better thus reducing the low back pain. That seemed to be okay but when I woke I realized I had taken my non surgical leg off of it. It’s pretty comfortable and seemed to help with reduction in swelling. So much better than the stacking pillows. I still had some low back pain.

Last night I positioned my surgical leg on it and purposely kept my non surgical leg off of it. It felt comfortable. I also found that half way through the night I took my leg off of it and had pushed it aside. At that point my leg had been raised for 5 hours. It might be coincidence but last night I didn’t take my middle of the night pain med. I woke up to my phone alarm, told myself I needed to take my pain med, but instead fell back to sleep because I was too comfortable to move. I woke up 4 hours, after I should have taken my pain med, and I was fine. No intense pain. I wonder if that’s attributed to having my leg raised, reduced swelling, etc or just that’s it’s getting to the time where I need less pain meds. Maybe some of both.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I read you have a Lounge Doctor and am wondering how / when you use yours. Both legs up or just one? Sleep with it all night or only use it during the day on occasion?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
I’ll jump in here, I have an elevating wedge that my hospital sent home with me. It is designed for one leg only. One of the reasons I like it is that it has a trough for my leg that keeps my leg in place. I still use it all night, at 18 months, because I’m so comfortable on it.

For many months I slept with my operated leg on it, and my other leg just next to it on the bed and was very comfortable. I’m not sure when I started putting both legs up on it, but I’ve had both on it for a while now and like that, too.

However, my wedge does not like both kegs on it, the second leg doesn’t fit in the trough so it is putting pressure on the wedge and the seam is beginning to separate. Oh well, we can’t have everything.

Do whatever works to keep your body happy!
 
You have done so well! Hope my recovery is as smooth as yours!

I am having bilateral on 10/16 at 2:00 p.m. I am not supposed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight (not even water). This is going to be very hard since I wake up during the night with dry mouth and my mouth is very dry in the morning. That is great that your surgeon let you drink until 2 hours before surgery.

It looks like to me you would be very dehydrated and harder to get IV started and all that with nothing at all to drink for so long. That's 14 hours - maybe I will take a few sips of water. What do you guys think? Why is every surgeon so different?
 
I had two, one LD and another brand. I had one on my bed and one on my recliner. I elevated the whole time I was down. I did that for at least 9 months. This kept my swelling down, thus my pain level down. I was blessed to have them when I broke my foot/ankle and had to elevate that, along with my knee again, since I had soft tissue damage to it because of my fall directly on it.

I'd say use it as much as you want, along with icing. They keep that swelling and pain down!
 
@Jockette thanks for sharing how you use your wedge. Mine doesn’t have a trough.. it’s one piece but it does have a slight bend for the knee. I’ve attached a photo. I guess it doesn’t matter if I put one or two legs on it... it’s whatever is comfortable. I really like the bend it has. And it has a cover that easily comes off so you can throw it in the wash. It sounds like these are used for many months which means this was a good purchase for me. I’ll keep using it to help with decreasing the swelling. :) :-) (:

@sistersinhim .. wow you elevated every time you were sitting down. I did elevate but I know I wasn’t getting my leg high enough which is why I got this item. I tried it in the recliner but I felt trapped and couldnt get out without help. So I’ve decided to use it mainly in bed and on the sofa. I’ll be better about elevating with this. Thanks for your input! :) :-) (:

@MissViv18 This was the first time I’ve been told I can drink after midnight. And my surgeon said.. she recommended electrolytes just nothing red or orange as it will change the color of my tissue which they didn’t want.

However, when I got the call the evening before the nurse told me nothing after midnight. I shared what the surgeon said .. to drink something with electrolytes as the recovery is better... the nurse got perturbed on the phone. She said she was in charge as she’s from the anesthesiologist’s office. I shared it’s upsetting when two doctors are telling me two different things and I find out the evening before my surgery. I explained they needed to communicate better the requirements for the patients. She backed down a little and said I could drink up to 4 hours before I arrived at the hospital. I felt that was a nice compromise so I agreed to that. I ended up not drinking a lot but it was nice to have a bit of drink in the morning. I explained what happened to my surgeon and she apologized and said they need to communicate better with all of the surgery staff their recommendations.

So for you I can’t tell you what you should do. In past surgeries I have “sipped” water the morning of surgery to moisten my mouth and nothing every happened. I think for some people the water makes them throw up and if you are intubated you can choke. But I’m not sure. You should ask your doctor. I wish you the best for your surgery! I would say the first two weeks are the toughest (at least for me). That’s when you should just sleep, take your pain meds and elevate your legs. Sleep all you can! But after that it’s very manageable. I have no regrets!
 

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That's the very one I have.

I was told to take a couple of meds the morning of my surgery with water and I had no problems.
 
Well, I haven't had my pre-op testing, that is on 10/03 so will see what they say but I plan on taking a few tiny sips of water. They said nothing but I could brush my teeth.

But, as I told my husband, when you have surgery at 8:00 a.m. you have nothing to eat or drink after midnight and mine is not until 2:00 p.m. so I would think a few sips of water for a dry throat would be okay up until 10:00 a.m. or so.
 
One Month Post Surgery - update

Walker - I don’t use my walker at all.

Cane - I use the cane minimally. Generally at home I don’t use it. Occasionally when my leg feels tired I’ll use it but that’s not very often. I will use it when I’m going someplace and don’t know what to expect about the terrain. Today I walked into physical therapy with no cane. It feels good not needing it.

Pain Meds - I'm taking Percocet 10/325 every 6 hours. If I have a day where I'm just laying around I can extend that to 7 hours. But most days I'm moving around quite a bit so the every 6 hrs is the norm. I’d like to begin cutting back but by 6 hours I really feel I need it. Maybe there’s an alternative that will reduce the pain without the drug having to be an opioid. I’ll ask my surgeon next week at my appointment.

Household chores - I do the dishes, cook my own food, dust, trim my roses, water my back yard, wash down the patio and vacuuming. There’s little I don’t do. I just move a little slower and with more caution. But it all can be done. I figure the more chores I do the more my leg is getting a natural workout.

Sleeping - I've never had a problem sleeping. I'm generally up once around 3am to go to the bathroom but I can get back to sleep. I feel like when I do sleep, I sleep soundly. Thank goodness. I’m beginning to experiment with different positions. I’m a side sleeper so always being on my back is uncomfortable. I’ve started side sleeping using pillows in various places. I asked if I can do any damage to my knee and the PT told me I can’t (or it would be very difficult to) injure my knee moving around in bed. Sometimes I get in a position that’s only comfortable for about 30 minutes then I have to shift. But it’s not bad. I sleep with my Lounge Dr for a few hours at the beginning of my sleep. I then push it aside and find a comfortable position without it.

Stretching, Elevating and Icing - I stretch every day. I keep moving. I also take time to elevate and ice my leg. I work on not overdoing it. Icing keeps the swelling down and that’s what I want.

Surgeon appt - My next appointment with my surgeon is a week from this Friday. I’m in the process of coming up with questions for her.

Crossing my legs - I was always a leg crosser. I surprised myself when last week I crossed my legs without thinking about it. Lol. I was comfortable for a bit.. but after 15 - 20 minutes I needed to uncross them. I found that interesting and thought I’d share it.

Physical Therapy - The first two weeks I had physical therapy at home. I then transitioned to going to the physical therapy office. Since surgery, I’ve attended PT two days a week and have not missed any appointments. I love my physical therapist. She’s very encouraging and doesn’t push me beyond what I want to do. There’s no tweeking, pushing, pulling, etc. She guides me and shows me what to do. My physical therapy has gone very well. Today my range of motion measurements are 0 degrees extension and 118 degrees flexion. I’m so proud of myself for reaching those numbers in 4 weeks.

Work - I plan on returning to work in two weeks with minimal pain. That’ll be 6 weeks after surgery.

I’m satisfied with my progress. There’s still a ways to go. I still have pain but it’s manageable. I will be getting my right knee done next summer. I have three weddings to attend prior to my next surgery. One of the weddings is my son’s.

:flwrysmile:
 
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You’ve got some really good things going for you, you’re coming along well.
Joy77 said:
wash down the patio and vacuuming.
Click to expand...
However, it is way too early to be doing things like this, and
Joy77 said:
There’s little I don’t do
Click to expand...
Seriously, if you cut back on your activities you will have less pain to manage.
 
Thanks @Jockette I know I’ll have less pain it’s just that it’s difficult for me to sit back and relax. Don’t get me wrong.. I do have lots of sitting, icing and elevating. But then I begin to get stir crazy and need to do something. But I also think it’s this getting back to my normal routine that’s helping my recovery move along so well.

Once I get back to work, in two weeks, I’ll have less time focusing on what needs to be done around the house. I have a sitting job therefore the physical demands will slow down. My focus will shift to learning to be able to sit at greater lengths. My goal will be to sit for 45 - 50 minutes, get up and take a walk and stretch for 15 min or so, then sit again. I’m a business owner and I’m looking forward to getting back to work. When I don’t work I have no income and that’s not good.
 
One thing I forgot to mention is that over the last two weeks I’ve been focusing on anti-inflammatory foods. One think, in particular, is that I make an anti-inflammatory smoothie and drink it several times a week. Besides the anti-inflammatory benefits, it keeps me very “regular” and helps combat the constipation that the pain meds cause. (I still take my Colace on most days.)

Here’s the link for the recipe I use. https://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/ultimate-anti-inflammatory-smoothie/ You will see other recipes on that page but I’ve only made the anti-inflammatory smoothie.

I change a few things. I don’t use any coconut oil as I try to avoid high saturated fats and I cut the ginger they use in half. When I first made it I used the amount of ginger they suggested and the ginger was too overpowering for me. So I now cut the ginger in 1/2 of what the recipe calls for and I find it tastes so much better. I use frozen blueberries. The Anti-inflammatory smoothie tastes very good to me. I make a batch of it and keep it in the refrigerator. I drink at least a cup of it 3 -4 times a week.

I hope some of you will give this a try. It’s very refreshing.
 
Hi all!

I’m back after having TLKR done 6 months ago! This past Monday, February 18, 2019, I had a RTKR done. I’m on day 3 post op. I’m so happy to have had both knees done and looking forward to my goal of being able to walk with little to no pain.

At 4 months post op I realized my left knee was no longer hurting, beside a very occasional sore day. So I emailed my surgeon and said “let’s do it!”. Let’s get this right knee done! I think knowing what to expect will make this recovery a bit easier. I know what to expect as far as pain and I know what to expect from the physical therapist.

Can someone please add my surgery date of February 18, 2019 for my RTKR. Thank you! Do I begin a new thread for my right knee or just keep adding on from my LTKR thread?

It’ll be interesting to compare my recovery this time from my first one.

Best wishes to all!

Joy
 
Well done. I hope this recovery goes smoothly. It helps knowing what to expect. My second TKR was a breeze compared to the first!
Just think, only 4 months from now...!
 
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