TKR Jozilla Part 2 - 9/8/14 LTKR

[Jozilla]

Thank you @lavender I am doing good - look forward to getting stronger everyday!

 

[Pumpkin]

HI Jozilla,
Silly me, I am eating a popsicle while reading your thread, the stick has a joke. I am going to share it with you.
"Why didn't the cashier laugh at Emily's joke? ............................................It didn't make cents.

 

[Jozilla]

I have a Popsicle for my knee! I feel like its December already! Thanks for the good thoughts!

 

[jul]

@Jozilla if you don't mind me asking what gentle excises do you do how many and how often I'm just curious.

Glad to see you are doing great.

My right knee is playing havoc because of the ltkr so I think I may have to get that one done soon so I don't ruin my my back and new knee.

Ju

 

[Jozilla]

Morning @jul very simple exercises 10x each two - three times a day. Heel pumps, heel slides, leg lift, press leg and buttocks into bed. Then sitting I kick out ten times and march ten times. That is it! Good thing cuz I am lazy! So far I am happy with getting the 2nd knee done and so is my back! I say do the second one as soon as you can and your body is strong enough. I am almost off narcotics for the first time in a year. Good luck!

 

[Jozilla]

I am a lot surprised as to how well I am doing. I hardly have any pain and my mobility is great. Good thing as my pain meds have already been cut! I am taking Tylenol and celebrex which I did not take for the first knee. I am really wondering if this is the big difference. I couldn't pedal a bike for three weeks with the first knee. I can't explain it except (1) celebrex and (2) blood levels good - I am not anemic and all levels are good. I am sleeping normally (thank you Lord) and am more confident in what I can do.

The only issue and I can't remember the first knee is the skin on my kneecap is really ugly - almost dead looking and I still have a little blood discharging from one or two staples. I will see my OS Wednesday to have the staples removed. Did I tell everyone this bothers me the most about this surgery. I hate staple removal and am saving one pain pill for the occasion.

It is gorgeous here today. I think I will take some short walks up and down my driveway! Happy Saturday!

 

[dogwheels]

Hi @Jozilla
Just been catching up on your progress, and so pleased that everything is going well for you. Well done with the bike - that is amazing!
Not long and those staples will be out. I am SO glad that I did not have mine stapled - makes my stomach churn to think about. Usually I heal really quickly, in fact sometimes too quickly - and although my scar healed really well, really quick, just one little bit at the base leaked a tiny bit for quite some time afterwards.
Anyway - enjoy your weekend and take care.
Love XXX

 

[Jane B.]

My medical student son wants to take out my staples, "I put them in, and take them out, all day long." So why do mine? The visiting nurse, who is supposed to take them out, wore the same sweatshirt (with sparkles on it) to see me twice this week. I like the sweatshirt, just wondered if it had been washed between visits?

I'm really glad you are doing well.

 

[CanukTriMom]

The ice machine is your best friend in recovery. If you don't own one, see if you could rent one for a month. I had an anterior hip replacementlastbweek and absolutely use my ice machine around the clock.

 

[chestnc]

Hi @Jozilla, how are you doing. Trying to catch up. Glad things are better with you. It is amazing how you forget some things about the first surgery. Hope you are feeling better real soon. Are you still taking your meds, ice and resting..most important of all. Hope you have a great time. Take care of yourself and will be checking in on you.

 

[chestnc]

Hi again @ Jozilla, you will feel so much better when the staples come out. @dogwheels,I had sutures and steristrips that just needed to fall off. I give you guys credit with the staples business. The sutures do make me nervous, but it is what your surgeon prefers.

 

[Ellejay]

Hi @Jozilla, it's good to read that you are doing so well, it gives us all hope that the 2nd time around will be OK. It's fantastic that you could do a full resolution on the bike so soon, well done! I was really nervous about the staples being removed but I honestly felt nothing at all, so it's nothing to be worried about. Continue with your excellent recovery, xx

 

[Jozilla]

Thank you all for stopping by. Yes I have a Donjoy ice machine I love.

I just watched Godzilla. Yes it was awesome @new knee in June I felt like I was ten again! Actually made Godzilla back into the good guy. Yeah!

Jane B I think I would let my son take out the staples. Sounds safer!

 

[jeano]

I had 10 staples for this knee and the first 7 didnt hurt at all coming out. The last 3 pinched momentarily. As the nurse said, shaking her head, 'they were in the MEAT!' I was ready to take them out myself. Aggravating, too, that they didn't do that great of a job keeping the wound edges snug against each other and so I still have stern- strips over the middle of the incision as the scar consolidates.

I have a completely unconfirmed theory that for some people, using narcotics for too long might slow their recovery, my reasoning being that it might be easier for one to cut back on the icing and elevation and go out and work the knee too hard while doped up. Wonder if any studies have been done. For me personally the theory would be disproved by the fact that I can't hold my head up when I take opiates...

My dirty little secret for @jul as regards exercises. For this knee, except for pedaling a very little, rocking in a rocking chair, and bending my knee some in the shower while running warm water over it--I haven't done ANY exercises except during PT sessions 3 days a week. Flexion was 127 at 22 days. Which is better than my first knee was after 5 weeks of PT 5 days a week and exercises at home twice a day, most days.

 

[Jozilla]

Awesome @jeano I am hoping I can do this without many narcotics. The surgeons around here have cut way back on narcotics and actually support your theory. Seems the recoveries are better with less if any. I was pretty resistant to this thinking until me. Now I am proving they might be right. Though as stubborn as I have been about needing meds I am seeing better results this time. It is early though and we shall see.

I was looking at my staples wishing I could take them out today. I just hope the little oozing I have stops!

 

[jeano]

Two knees don't a statistic make, obviously, but its a fact that I quit taking dope even sooner for this knee--after 3 days as opposed to roughly ten days with some intermittent use for another week or so for the first knee.

My DH is after me to 'start walking' by which he means daily, structured walks of increasing length. He is probably right but I am currently pursuing a strategy of sloth now and see if my energy picks up first.

Last night went to bed at 10, woke briefly at 5, back to sleep until after 7! Pleased about that. Sleeping Much better after this knee.

 

[Pumpkin]

Jozilla,
I am impressed that the celebrex and tylenol are working for you. For uneventful and properly placed replacements this may be the way to go. For those of us who have too large a prothesis, mal alignment, and injury, this approach may be a problem.
They cut off my narcotics and I ended up with a night I never want to repeat, I would have signed a consent for an amputation, the pain was so bad. Next day I had BP through the roof, ended up with an ER bill over 7,000 dollars, glad I have insurance. The OS did apologize when I told him about the pain and the ER.
I think the OS's need to be nuanced in their approach to pain medication with individualized plans.

 

[Jane B.]

Obviously this is a painful recovery. Why don't the researchers and docs come up with better pain control that doesn't involve narcotics, or just a small amount of narcotics focused on the knee? Mini nerve blocks? I know absolutely nothing, but it stands to reason there must be something to help, other than ice. Wouldn't make enough money?

 

[jeano]

Nuance is probably too much to hope for. Surgeons like most folks and nearly all doctors like to follow fads and fashions. Remember when HRT was going to preserve our bone density, prolong our dewy youthful complexions, prevent heart attacks and raise our IQs?

The pendulum swings, bonks a bunch of people on the head, swings back, takes out a different swath of innocent victims.

Will add that for no good reason I had horrific pain, MUCH worse than anything I experienced with the first knee, my first night even though stuffed to the gills with morphine. Next 2 days I took dlaudid and no morphine and felt fine. After that I was fine on plain Tylenol. It didn't make sense that I'd have that much pain barely touched by the strongest pain medicine you can get, only to have it vanish and stay gone. just lucky, I guess.

 

[Jane B.]

We need a @jeano clone.