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TKR kmak's TKR recovery thread

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Wow, I see I have lots to catch-up on since coming home from my Northern Exposure, house-hunting trip! @kmak81230, you are positively glowing in your impressive kneeling photo from the gym! Huzzah, on dancing and hiking, with no day off in-between! :yay: You are "Living the Dream," lol!

I will be following the @Polkadot exercise route for the time being, meaning, just the bike and walking for exercise. Though I did not appear to experience any ill effects from the leg-press/shuttle machine done at PT (only after 4 month mark) I don't feel comfortable with all the conflicting information found here and elsewhere. Loosening cement holds zero appeal, ya know? Just the word *torsion* makes me cringe; ugh, so no thanks.

Gee, after reading through all the posts here, I'm thinking perhaps I should have tuned into the Golf Channel for some much needed R & R yesterday; hah! :snork:
 
Watching golf has got to one of the biggest snooze-fests ever! My DH spends a fair amount of time educating golf course superintendents and employees, but I didn't know that when I first met him by phone. He mentioned golf, and I..er, sort of...made fun of it...at least, watching it. :shrug: Later he told me that was one reason he wanted to meet me in person--because I wasn't just saying what he wanted to hear. Whew!
:dubious:
 
I think I will try to do more of what you are doing @Polkadot - the evening walk. I have been primarily doing longer walks on the weekend due to working all day and elevating at night but I think I would be helped with more consistent longer walks during the week. Maybe not every night but at least 3 nights a week to start. Rode 10 miles in 46:30 today in spin class. A couple of weeks ago it would take that long to ride 8 miles. I actually did not ride too hard as I have PT tomorrow so want to keep the swelling of this Super Swelling Stiff to a minimum. Our weather has been unsettled - windy, cold, rainy, so no fun riding the bike outside currently.
 
I'm walking 1.3 miles every night before dinner. If we get there early enough (the park closes at dusk), we add another loop that increases the distance to 2 miles. That's about all I can handle without swelling at this time.

That's great about your bike mileage! It's encouraging to see the stats that tell you you are improving. I'm walking faster now but have a ways to go before I hit my pre-TKR, pre-bone-on-bone speed.

Our weather has been gorgeous, with higher temperatures (much higher on some days!) than usual. We've had some glorious sunsets that I wish I could have viewed over Lake MIchigan.
 
I think it is 22.5 weeks or somewhere around the 5 month mark for this Slow Bending (and Straightening) Super Swelling Stiff. I may have to truncate and leave off the *Stiff* as I seem to be a little less stiff upon waking or getting up from a long stint of sitting. I asked my PT to rank my recovery status on a scale of 1-10. She was hesitant to do so as she does not measure or care about these meaningless numbers like I do but with some prodding she decided to humor me and declared me as 6.5. I'll take it! After some activities that shall not be named, I am now able to extend the new knee a bit more than the other knee (which is not fully straight). Still not fully extended on my own but making some progress. I have a month until my next OS visit and we are strategizing on the best method of displaying my best extension (e.g., shoe off, sitting vs lying down). The quad seems to be functioning better and the glutes are getting stronger. Still feel the knee with every step - no pain, just there. No change in flexion but external swelling seems to be a bit less.
 
I agree, no shoes on for the extension assessment! I realized that my shoe was raising my heel a bit so of course the back of my knee didn't touch the table at my OS check ups. So I started taking them off before I got on the table.
 
I was at a fundraiser tonight and ended up in the adult beverage line behind my OS :martini: . . . pleasant chit chat and I told him I was doing great. He said I could skate - which my PT was not keen on (I tend to have more confidence in her so think I will wait a bit to do so). He did ask about my flexion :hairpulling: I was tempted to make up some amazing number but knowing I will be seeing him in a month I confessed to 115. Fortunately he did not ask about extension. :wink:
 
Snow at 7700' today :tantrum: I had to get the cane out to avoid the possibility of slipping - we are supposed to get a couple of inches. Good news is that is will probably melt tomorrow and be dry the rest of the week.
 

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Interesting he said you could skate. At my 4 month check mine said I could go in the ocean. Just because my incision can handle ocean water does not mean my knee could handle navigating the sand to get to it. :doh:
 
And I just love those smileys, they make me laugh !!!
 
I know -- I was a little surprised @Jockette . . . but he also told me at 2 weeks "You can't hurt the knee - the knee should hurt you" - meaning that he wanted me to exercise the :censored: out of it. Little does he know how little exercise I did after finding BoneSmart at the 4 week mark. I don't think the actual skating action will hurt but my PT is worried I will fall on it - and so am I. I think I will wait until December to try it out for a short period of time.
 
Well falling is definitely a concern, but I know my knee would not even like the movement, drama queen that it is!

And yes, my OS doesn't know how little "exercises" I've done since Bonesmart. My appointment is one week from tomorrow :yikes:

Stress, stress, stress, because of his approach to recovery. And that's all it is, an approach. Deep breath!
 
I think that waiting until Dec is a good idea for skating Kathleen! And please keep the snow at 7700 ft! I don't want to see it for a good long while yet!
I hope your OS didn't have any surgery to perform today if he was in the adult beverage line lol!
 
I think I might wait on the skating, too, Kathleen. And, you are wise to re-commission the cane for the snow. I was up at Lassen Nat'l Park (a few hours from home) in early August (good grief!) and although it was 80 degrees, there was still snow at Lake Helen. It hadn't snowed for months and months. My friends and I decided it was funny to picnic next to the Lake on the snow (we had a plastic tarp) and guess who fell? Yep, Ms. Graceful Phroggie. I twisted, so I landed on my behind and I don't think I did the knee any damage, but I was scared. So - keep using that cane when it's icy or mucky. Sounds like fun running into the OS in the adult beverage line - humanizes him, no?
 
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