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TKR Katchmo's Knees: Round Two!

@katchmo enjoyed reading your posts through the nighttime wishing I was asleep hours :) I am 3 days behind your 2nd knee. Thanks for the encouragement and inspiration
 
Ultrasound was negative (yay!) and the nurse wasn't too alarmed about anything. Still swollen so she said to continue to ice, elevate, and take it easy till the swelling goes down a bit. No argument from me. I had to walk a fair bit to get to the different departments and I feel like I tolerated it quite well.
 
That's really good news! Now, you have even more reason to RIE, (rest, ice and elevate)!
 
Knowing what you don’t have to worry about is a great blessing. Now you can relax and let nature do the heavy lifting. I treated my resting/icing/elevating as “spa” time. It’s okay to have fun with recovery.
 
Errrrrrrrrmagerrrrrrsh, as my daughter would say, another little setback today. I accidentally did a MWA (Manipulation Without Anesthesia.) :dead: I was using my leg lifting strap while sitting in my recliner to do some stretching, and I actually had my leg straight and my foot up above my head. The stretch felt good....until my foot slipped out of the strap and went all the way to the floor, bending my knee hard.:yikes: I roared with pain, then whimpered a bit, no one was home to give me any sympathy. Back to icing and elevating and a couple of pain pills. I am sore but it feels like everything is still in working order. Tomorrow might be a bit rough. :groan:
 
Ouch! Prepare for an onslaught of... swelling. Elevate! Ice! Bring back the pain meds if necessary. I'm so sorry this happened to you. :gaah:
 
Do nothing much for the next couple of days to let your poor knee recovery the MWA, that's without!
 
Thanks everyone, I am definitely taking the advice to do little but ice and elevate. :elevate: Happily I am only a little more sore but walking is no problem. I'm actually shocked at how little pain I have when walking. In fact it feels good. Last time any walking was so painful and any increase in activity or any unplanned event like yesterday would leave me barely able to move for days.
 
This is encouragement for all you "slow benders" out there. Hi, I'm Kathleen and I am a slow bender. At my RTKR pre-op appointment Lefty was a painful 105. When I tried to push more I had a painful sensation in the back of my knee, quite unpleasant. At 3 month it was work just to get to 90. You know, the dreaded three month window where we are warned that you get what you get? Well, since my RTKR, I haven't been paying too much attention to what Lefty has been up to, but these last few days I realized that while sitting in my recliner I could pull my left foot much further up the recliner seat than before. You know, the landmark creases on the recliner, and for awhile only my heel, could reach it, then my arch, then the ball of my foot etc. Anyway I realized I was pulling my foot up totally past the crease. So I got my goniometer out and I am PAST 120!!!!! I'll do a proper measurement in the morning, but for now, at 8 months post op, I took a giant leap in flexion! Apparently having pain meds on board helped me to unconsciously push past whatever that pain was in the back of my knee and it's GONE! :loveshwr::wowspring::dancy:
 
You know how the watched pot never boils? Well, the watched knee never bends. :wink:

It's amazing how well our knees respond to benign neglect. While the pain meds in your system probably didn't hurt matter (pun intended), what helped most was time. Lefty got some much appreciated time to heal and responded beautifully. :yes!:
 
As you were down with your new right knee, lefty had a chance to heal more, too! If we just ignore them, they will do what they are supposed to do!
 
My ROM at 17 months is better than at 12 months! Waaaaaay past that “3 month window”
 
I just took my first walk outside and it felt good. I maybe went the equivalent of a block. My neighbor across the street was also outside for the first time since his multiple myeloma diagnosis 6 weeks ago, so he walked a little ways with me and said it was the longest he had walked since his diagnosis (he went in with severe neck pain, found a cervical disc completely eaten away, and was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital where he stayed in bed five weeks.) He said, "Hope I don't fall, " and I replied, "I hope not, too, because I won't be able to help you up or run for help!"
 
I took another walk, maybe 20 minutes, about the equivalent of around a city block. My right calf muscle is very tight and it makes my foot want to turn in. I was glad to have my trekking poles. Then I took the car for a short spin to see if I am ready to drive to church tomorrow and all went fine. Small victories!
 
katchmo said:
I wonder who came up with this window????
Click to expand...

That 3-month window is a total myth that should have died long ago. I don't know who came up with it, but I wish they hadn't. It's been the cause of a lot of pain and heartache for so many people.

There's no need to rush to get ROM (Range of Motion) because it can continue to improve for a year, or even much longer, after a knee replacement. There isn't any deadline you have to meet:
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR

We've even had someone on here (Campervan) who discovered that her flexion had improved after 6 years.
 
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