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TKR kmak's TKR recovery thread

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great 4 month report kmak. i'm impressed you are climbing the stairs hands-free at times and also your level of fitness to work out as you do. i'm sure your surgeon will be impressed at your 6 month follow-up.:thumb:
 
Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone rested and stayed out of the ODIC. We went off grid for a few days - camping in a wilderness area at 10,000' with our little teardrop camper. No cell service, ice or lounge doc for 3 days! For those wondering about adult beverages with no ice we have a plug in cooler and a solar panel for the camper :cheers2: Hiked 7 miles on Sat and 6 miles on Sunday. Knee performed like a champ - no pain, just the usual end of day swelling that was mostly better the next day. Sidelined today by a couple of blisters on my feet - HA! Had to focus on a non-knee pain for a change.
 
that's great. what did you eat and were you allowed to make a camp fire? that's fantastic your knee behaved ~ too bad about the blisters. glad you enjoyed the weekend.
 
KNEERAH! What a splendid weekend you had, other than the feet blisters! You sure did a LOT of hiking @kmak81230; huge kudos!
 
We could have a campfire @liam2015. Unfortunately the pine & spruce beetles have decimated the forests so lots of available firewood. We had one campfire. The other nights it was either too windy or a few rain showers.

Nothing exotic on the food front. Mexican themed, pasta with garden veggies, Thai-themed. My knee did not like to stand still for camp cooking - or lifting things around camp. Felt great to be outside and electronics-free.
 
Great job on the walking!!! I can't even imagine walking that far. My drama queen knee balked at the 1/2 mile I did last week. It's being very uncooperative these days.
 
So encouraged so encouraged by your activities. I am tired of walking this fine line of making sure I don't overdo things.
 
:SUNsmile:I had my every two week PT appointment today. Good visit - she said extension is "not too horrible" :yes: translated as "there's hope for this laggard knee." I was a little worried as I seemed to have a little more than usual swelling this morning and thought it might be an "official" measuring day / my new PT had not yet measured and this was my third visit with her. I asked about it and she said at this point she just eyeballs it :yes!:. Her official eyeball said about 3 for extension - improvement from eyeball of 5 two weeks ago. Because she is able to get me to 0 with joint mobilization which is not painful we are optimistic about me being able to get close to 0 by my next OS appt in about 2 months. :fingersx: One of the issues is my slow to respond quad - I seem to be compensating some with other muscle groups in various activities and exercises. Had some e-stim for the first time - talk about giving yourself zingers! Worked on some other quad activities that I can do over the next two weeks. A tiring, but good, productive appointment. Did a little hopping (mostly weight transfer activities). I guess she wants me to eventually answer "yes" to the silly hopping question. I like the exercises/activities at PT as I think they help me to get past the mental hurdles associated with various movements. I also like having things to work on as long as I can see improvement and it feels like I am improving - very slowly, but improving nonetheless.:) :-) (:
 
Good for you! Sounds like your PT is just what you need. What does a slow-to-respond quad feel like/do/not do?
 
Hi @Polkadot - I have been really fortunate as both of my PTs have been stellar - particularly since I did not know what a good PT was or how important (or detrimental) they can be to recovery. As for my quad, when I contract to press knee to table, my hip/glute and calf/foot were trying to do most of the work. I have also been compensating on some other activities with my no op leg or with other muscle groups. Like today we did this little exercise where you are in a front to back stride position and switch feet from front to back using a short hop - the goal is to hop and land with both feet at same time - which I thought I was doing but apparently I was taking most of the weight on my nonop leg as it got really tired while my op leg
was happy as a clam. :shrug:The e-stim is supposed to help me recognize what it actually feels like to have the quad firing.
 
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Sounds like a good report! My PT would interpret the hopping question as being able to *hop* over a puddle or onto the curb if cars were coming. She always emphasized that it did not mean *real* hopping. Regarding your quads, that is part of the reason my OS suggested the special sleeve worn on thigh that targets quad and hamstring to get things firing again properly
 
excellent report kmak81230 ~ if your extension is 3, then that is an enormous improvement since you last reported that you could fit your whole hand under. that's great that you are learning from the different exercises what muscle groups you need to work on. there are certainly a lot of mental hurdles to overcome in this recovery and you've faced them and overcome many of them.:thumb:
 
Well @liam2015 - I think the whole hand still fits under at times if I have not been stretching. The eyeball 3 came after some good stretching work at PT but I'll take any improvement I can get at this point. Getting over the mental hurdles is certainly good for confidence! Thanks for the encouragement. :) :-) (:
 
I have been hiking on the weekends for the past couple of weeks and yesterday did a 5 mile hike that was more strenuous in terms of elevation gain. :hiking: Probably not the best idea as I was sore last night and am more swollen and stiff this morning. I think the steep downhill sections were tough on the soft tissues surrounding the new knee. I hope this will be a temporary setback as I have been enjoying these late summer hikes. I will have to look for some that are more mellow though. :yes:
 
Wow, hopping! Haven't tried that yet, but... why not, right? And I bet that five mile hike was worth a little soreness the next day, and a little more icing and elevating. At this point in recovery (we are almost recovery twins, after all) it seems our knees bounce back more quickly than they did earlier. We're going to test them every so often by pushing at our limits, and they're going to let us know whether it's too much. Sometimes it will be too much, then it's back to babying them for a week before pushing at them again.
Positive Thought for Today: All setbacks are temporary! :flwrysmile:
 
Thanks for the positive thought for the day @SusieShoes! It is comforting to know the setbacks are temporary. Last night I felt a squishy area and a little crunchiness which gave me pause but today I'm back to my normal swell . . . ing self.
 
Thanks for the explanation, @kmak81230! I'm going to bring it up with my PT. I've noticed actions where I don't think the quad is firing correctly. I think I'm overcompensating in several ways. I have just a few more visits so want to make sure to optimize them. My PT always asks if I have questions. She'll be pleased.
 
Same for me @Polkadot - just a few more visits left so am trying to ask lots of questions and get the most out of the visits while I can . .
 
So even though your extension is not ideal you are still able to hike 5 miles, without major consequences, that is awesome!!

I so wish I had gotten a nurturing PT!
 
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