Become an Insider

Knee Infection July 16 - had a revision due to infection

I am 3 weeks and 3 days post op. I have been in rehab for over two weeks. When the doc doc found out what I was asked to do in PT he wrote I was only allowed to practice walking and learn to be independent. Rehab was really planned so I could get infusions every four hours 24 hrs a day. One reason for the change was the damage to soft tissue due to the infection.

Things are going better. Rehab is boring but a required thing. Life could be worse.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I was in rehab twice and found it more boring with the infection because I could only do PT that didn't require bending my knee. I was so emotional, depressed and exhausted from the surgery and infection I couldn't read or concentrate at all. I'm sorry to hear of this on going problem.
 
KarriB rehab is boring. Today I was discharged from OT. PT can work my left leg to strengthen it. My right leg cannot be bent so all I can do is walk on it. Boring place. When you are in rehab for infection all you can do do limited rehab and sit in one spot as your IV solutions run. For me it's every four hours. And it runs for an hour. I must do this for three more weeks. Some days it is a challenge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@waitingtogarden Will you have to stay until you're done with the antibiotics? They let me go home after a week, but I didn't have the antibiotic spacer. I had an antibiotic washout and the spacer replaced, then oral and IV antibiotics (I may have already to,d you this). A home health care nurse came and showed me how to run the antibiotics through the PICC and once a week came to change the PICC dressing. After my release I saw my OS twice a week and my ID once a month. My body rebelled against the antibiotics after about 6 weeks and quit making white cells, so the ID took me off all antibiotics until I started making white cells again. Altogether I was pretty much house bound or in the hospital/rehab (my rehab was actually on the same floor as ortho in the hospital) from Oct. 29th until January 15. I went back to work part time January 29th. Pretty amazing considering everything that happened!
So I totally get how bored you are! I really had a difficult time concentrating on anything for about 2 1/2 months.
In rehab my OTs let me bake and cook in the kitchen, as long as I didn't bend my knee. It was close to Christmas so I made Christmas cookies for patients and staff. I had to take breaks and elevate, but at least it passed the time.
 
As I am reading this I am sitting in a rehab unit having just finished my 8:00 pm round of my NEXT four hours of round the clock antibiotics. It is my second infection of my right knee. While I didn't get a spacer I am not allowed to work on flexing at all.

Getting a lot of therapy to make my left leg stronger and walking. Doing more pt than I would like. Walking makes my right foot hurt too much.

Blood work done weekly CBC LIVER FUNCTION AND KIDNEY FUNCTION.

During my first infection my PICC line got infected. I still have two more weeks of antibiotics for this round.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So you're knee is infected now a second time? Do you have an infectious disease doctor?

I wasn't allowed to bend my knee for a month after having the spacer replaced and an antibiotic washout. I had IV and oral antibiotics.
 
@waitingtogarden .... I've moved your latest post to your recovery thread, as it is more appropriate here as an update to your recovery. You've been through so much, I do hope things improve for you.
 
@KarriB. This is the second infection to the same knee. I had 6 weeks of IV antibiotics both times. First was dec of 2014. Second time is July of 2015.

This time I was take oral meds until told otherwise. I do have an infectious disease doc in charge of all that

I can bend my knee as I learned it just in life skills. No weights or hard work for it.

Today I did one step- up and down - three times!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm 20 months out from my infection and still taking 100mg of doxycycline. My ID put me on 200mg when my white count got straightened out, then last summer took it down to 100mg. I'm a little nervous to go off the doxy as I fear the infection will come back and I don't want an antibiotic spacer. I have 13 steps to the floor of my house so not sure where I'd stay. Everyone in my family has multiple steps in their homes. I do take a probiotic to stave off stomach issues and C-diff.
I am sorry to hear it came back. What were the symptoms?
 
I really didn't have many. I had no fever, no warmth, no redness. I finally developed pain in my knee and a small abcess that grew huge in the next 24 hours. By then surgery was scheduled.

But the OS said it had been severely infected long before what I saw and felt it. Makes me kind of nervous that this can happen and I can't tell. One doc told me to watch my blood pressure. It could prove more helpful. I don't know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Eight or nine days of infusion to be done until I am finished. Hopefully the IF doc count the same way. We should go to an oral med then. 30 days of spending my life with 84 yr old room mate and many ladies with dementia, not being able to leave my room hardly at all because of the infusion schedule is reaching its limit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I m so sorry for your suffering due to complication, I sincerely believed they fixed it completely and you will soon be on road to freedom. Best wishes.
 
@waitingtogarden im sorry you got infected o hope yoi get to garden soon i also love gardening ever chance we get. I had a hip replacement last august i got mrsa had five surgerys to fix it and on a picc line for ever but mrsa gone now recovery knee replacent two weeks old tuesday ;) ;) so hang in there time will pass and youll be pk take care god bless
 
Cannot imagine what you are going through. 8 or 9 days left, huh? You are a strong woman. Worth it all to kill that infection. I appreciate your sharing your experience. Thinking of you often.
 
Tuesday I saw my OS and he is pleased with my recovery so far - 6-7 weeks. I have reached over 90* without doing any flexion exercise. The infection in my knee drained through to form an large absess below my knee. This drainage and absess damaged a lot of soft tissue around my knee so those exercises were not allowed. ( newer information). He recognized that just living gives us rom. I see him in another month.

Tuesday I saw the infectious disease doc and after reviewing my inflammation markers he has determined they are low enough (very low) and I can stop with the infusions on Monday evening. The PICC line can be pulled and I start oral meds and leave rehab. I am so ready.

They want to continue at home therapy. While I want accountability, we are not having this go on forever. Right now I want to sleep , ice and elevate for awhile.

What I really want to do is encourage each of you the keep an eye on your knee. I didn't get this infection because of dental work, hurting my body- cuts, etc or anything else. It just happened.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I cancelled my in home PT when I left rehab. I wasn't allowed to bend because of the same soft tissue problem you mentioned, so after one visit I decided to not waste the therapy on a straight leg. Really happy to hear you're going home. Almost there...
 
@KarriB. Thanks for the suggestion and I just might do that. It will all depend on what they plan.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Wonderful news! I know this has seemed like forever. When you say "at home therapy", do you mean physical therapy or antibiotic therapy? And thanks for the warning that infection can just happen. So glad for you that they were able to treat it so effectively.
 
I m so happy you can now concentrate your efforts on rest ice and slowly exercise to build up your strength.
 
I have been home about 10days. I did not get home on September 1st as planned. It seems that I cannot do anything simply.. On August 31st I woke up in a really good mood. It was the last day of infusions. The nurses and I were counting down my infusions- the last midnight one --the last 4 am. I had eaten my breakfast while getting my last 8 am infusion. Was getting ready to get dressed when I found it harder to breath. I could only take shallow breaths.

At first they thought it was just excitement. But it got much worse....very fast. Ambulance was called and the met with Advanced Life Support half way to the hospital. I was drowning in the water in my own body. I was having an event of fast onset pulmonary edema. Fortunately for me ALS put me on a Bi-mask which forced the water back out my lungs and large doses of lasiks removed it from me. I suspect that my slower activity and a saltier diet than I liked didn't help me. No one can tell me what causes it.

So I spent about five days in the hospital for that. My OS an IF debated during this stay if the last small spot of of my incision was infected or fine. Finally they decided I would go home on high doses of antibiotics.

My home PT program is a bit different. Since I did six weeks of therapy we are working on balance, more walking, and learning new equipment like a rollerator.

My leg/ knee is going well. No sign of infection.

My days seem so simple now. I put away sixes weeks of stuff when my DH was home alone and what was sent home from rehab and stuff from the hospital. I have therapy twice a week and a nurse visit once a week.

Any new guys reading my posts please understand that these things do not happen to 99.99% of the people who have TKR. And I don't understand why they happen to me. When I had my left knee done it was normal and no excitement.


Chris
Sent from my iPad using BoneSmart Forum
LTKR March, 2014
RTKR September 2014, infection revision December 2014
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Staff online

  • benne68
    benne68
    Staff member since February 4, 2022

Members online

Total: 575 (members: 3, guests: 572)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom