TKR KMLknee's Second TKR Recovery

@Peaches0000 I'm so so sorry to hear about your husband. I don't have any perfect words to ease your pain. Just know that I am praying for you and your husband. I hope that you find the strength to get through all of this. Lots of love sent your way.
 
KMLknee; hello and welcome; sorry to hear you are having such a rough time. I am 6weeks into my 2nd tkr and this time my recovery is being a lot worse. my right knee is a lot more swollen and also hurts behind my knee. I'm resting, icing, and elevating constantly but the swelling is taking it's time going down. as Bonesmart says; no 2 knees rehab the same even on the same body. hang in there; it will get better. prayers for you for a speedy recovery. Doodlebug
 
KML, I hope you are doing better with your meds and they are helping you through. I also struggled with the pain meds, and ended up going off very early in the game, which just tends to make things even harder. And like you, I cried a lot. It seemed to make me feel better ;) And dealing with two painful knees can’t be easy, so you earned that right. Best wishes as you recover!
 
Good afternoon my total knee friends. Day 3. So far today is a better day. I slept for about 3-4 hours at a time last night. I was able to get up and walk to the bathroom without cursing (well not much)
My right leg really is straight and I can walk with it. Yayyyy!!!
The left leg is requiring it's own kind of attention. I have to pick it up and carry it from position to position, worse than a toddler.
The pain is tolerable... until I move, so I'm moving strategically at this time. Quad sets are easy, no issues there. Leg lifts are good on the right and just well, not happening on the left. That sucker must weigh my whole 160lbs, I'm sure of it. Ankle pumps, check. Heel slides, 2 inches, yep that's good
Ok so not perfect, but a damn site better than yesterday. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. Netflix here I come
 
Good afternoon. I promise, I really do, that I won't give a day to day update on my progress. But I'm so excited!!!
I slept a full 9 hours last night uninterrupted! I took one pain pill and a muscle relaxer before bed and only 3 pain pills total yesterday. I'm not bragging I'm really not. I'm just so happy that this is going so much better than the first one. Healing and blessings to each of you.
 
You will be glad in about 3 months that you did it- lol- honestly, I had to do them as close as possible, I don’t think I could build up the nerve again-
I did them as close together as possible too - on the same day!!!! Both were equally bad with bad arthritis and bone on bone. I have high deductible health insurance, so I had to do both in one calendar year anyway. I’m a teacher and didn’t want to be away from my students for half the school year. And I truly didn’t know any better!!! Believe me, I second guessed my decision to have bilateral TKR several times during the first few weeks, but it was done at that point. Now I’m so glad it’s DONE!!!

Good luck with your second knees @Peaches0000 and @KMLknee !!!!
 
@Peaches0000 sweet lady, you can hi-jack my thread any time you want. I think we all get something out of each other's posts and replies. I'm so glad you are doing well. I have to agree with you that it is hard to buck the "intense therapy" system. Did it that way with the first knee and every day I would come home in pain and by the next morning I was in so much pain and swollen that I couldn't do the most basic exercises. I have no plan on doing that this time. I am good with quad sets, heel slides, leg lifts, short arch quad exercises, riding the bike and they have me do this thing the call a Cha Cha to bring my weight completely through my leg while walking. I'm good with all of that and it's good to have someone to make sure that I'm doing it correctly and making progress. But this time, I'm not doing the leg press machine, the machine that you curl and lift the weight on, and there will be absolutely NO pushing my leg straight or pushing it to bend. I will gently use the strap on my own to hold a stretch but that's it. Torture does not equal progress. I'm living proof of that. Thank you bonesmart for giving me permission to heal at my own pace regardless of what "they" say.
 
Great post KML, you have figured out what works best for Your new knee - I still go to therapy twice a week, when I went for my 12 week check-up, my surgeon ordered 12 more Sessions -LOL, I guess he was not impressed with my ROM , 105 & 110 -he was happy with both knees extension now, but I guess you can’t win them all.
I like seeing all my new friends at PT, and they just let me ride the bike, Do a few exercises, have a long knee massage ( my favorite part) ice both knees & the zapping electrodes feel good for some odd reason.
 
Hi and good afternoon. I just wanted to touch base. Last night's sleep was off and on for 6 hours. I told you that nine hour stretch was a fluke. Lol
PT came this morning. I was able to do 10-15 reps of everything in both knees except short arch quads. I was actually able to lift the 800 lb left leg 10 times for straight leg raises. Therapist and I were both impressed. I hate the way he measures extension so I put no credence in that but was at 94° flexion on left and 112° right. 5 days post op, I'll take it. I'm only taking a half a pain pill q 4 hours. Send to be enough and I'm holding steady at a 3-4 on the pain scale. Still having a hard time getting up from sitting on the couch, toilet, chair etc. Thank God for great arm strength or I'd be stuck. I hope everyone is having a great day. It's nap time for me.
 
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You are doing great- it’s so nice that you are having a much better time this go around- I rode the bike for 15 minutes today at PT and it felt so good, wish I could ride everywhere instead of walking. LOL!
 
Day 5 post op. I don't even know how to explain what I'm feeling today. First I'm kicking myself for doing this again. Of course what's done is done and I can't go back. It had to be done eventually and I'm sure I'll be glad I went ahead with it in about 6 months. Sleep last night was fleeing with several trips to bathroom with diarrhea. I'm scared to stop the collace since I was constipated and had to take milk of magnesia to go in the first place. I don't want that again. I feel like my left knee (newest) is permanently stuck in hyper flexion although I can bend it. If I bend it while standing it buckles. I can still just barely lift it up. Weights just 600lbs instead of 800 now.:snork:
My biggest issue is the right knee. (MUA) it seems like I'm still struggling to hold extension all the way through my stride. It starts to buckle a bit at the mid part of the follow through. I hope that makes sense. I'm doing quad sets on both about 10 times a day 15 reps each. But the right leg is still so weak it can barely hold my weight. I can't step up with either so I'm stuck in the house right now since we live in a second floor apartment. Does anyone have any ideas on how to strengthen this blob and fast? I feel like the left is still trying to do all the work. However, when I stand I can finally feel weight all the way through my right heel. I couldn't before the manipulation. Yes I'm whining and yes it's really early in this process, but I have to be able to function better than this. I'm going to have in home PT tomorrow and Thursday and 3 days next week. But I'm not sure I'm going to be strong enough to do the steps for out patient PT. Any words of advice and encouragement are welcome. Still very little pain with taking only a half a pain pill ( equals 5mg of oxycodone) every 4-6 hours. So it's not all bad. Just feeling discouraged at the moment. I want to be able to go outside and walk but can't get back up the steps. I hope my next update is better. I'm sorry for the daily updates and hope you all don't get tired of hearing about my woes. Love you guys!
 
Whoa! Your on day 5 with two knees that have been through different levels of hell....in my opinion, and I'm doing one at a time, you need rest, relaxation and a good streaming service for at least a week. Your knees are screaming at you too slow down and let them heal a little before PT. PT might help you with super gentle movements and massages but nothing that hurts. Strengthening you blob fast is just not in the cards. Just my opinion, I'm no expert but they are here and will help you out better than I can, I'm just speaking from my previous mistakes!
 
Just wanted to say I hope you have a speedy recovery. Percocet upsets my stomach as well, I would eat a few saltines before I took it and that seemed to help. Prayers that things get easier.
 
You’re doing quads 15 reps ten times a day for each leg? If so you are overdoing it. You can’t rush either of your knees. They are in charge. You need time for your knees to heal. If you had a broken leg would you expect to be exercising already? Each knee had two bones sawed and some hammering to install the prosthesis. The more you try to force your knees to work, the worse you are going to feel right now. Read over the following article.
http://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/activity-progression-for-tkrs.14334/
 
@newlybionic thank you. I'm trying not to do too much. I just need the right one to work. I didn't realize the MUA would allow me down so much.
 
Hoping you can rest, watch Netflix, and give your body time to heal. If I’ve leaned anything during this 11 week journey, it’s to try to be patient, and lower expectations...even though I know it’s hard to do that. Best wishes
 
That is a lot of exercise for this early in recovery. Please try to cut back and elevate/ice and rest more. Give it time to heal before you try to build strength. This is a time for healing and not strength building. Very slowly is best.
 

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