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kneeworn made it to the other side

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Yes the Celebrex helps and I don't get the reflux and heartburn I get when I take Mobic. I just switched just before surgery but don't always take it everyday. I know it works better when you do. It also comes in different strengths.

Donna
LTKR 12/06/2010
 
Donna....you are doing just fine for where you are in recovery. You're not even 2 months out. You have plenty of time to gain more ROM. Please try to relax and just continue with your daily activity and gently stretches. When your knee is ready (and all swelling is gone), you'll get more. If you push too hard, you'll end up getting more swelling and you may even see your numbers go the other direction until the swelling goes down again.

I know you are eager to get there, but this is a time for patience.
 
Thanks Jamie. I'm trying to do more each day as far as activities of daily living. I just worry about it locking up for good and not bending. Ray said the same thing about how far out I am from surgery and urged me to remember that and to continue gentle stretching. He said not to worry about anyone who asks why I can't do more yet. He said they are only asking because they care how I'm doing and don't always understand how hard it is.

He was teasing me today as I exaggerated my steps like the therapists recommended to help me relearn to bend it. He said I looked like Money Python. Not nice but funny. Guess you might as well laugh.

Donna
LTKR 12/06/2010
 
kneeworn said:
I'm still at 105 in PT today. I'm discouraged but the therapist feels the flexion is there when she pushes. When I try it feels like I get to a certain point and it feels like it turns into a rock. Of course it hurts too and she feels I'm guarding. She says I don't need a manipulation. How do I get past the pain to push deeper? I really want to bend it and its frustrating. Yesterday at home I put a hot pack on it before I really pushed. I put it on a stool behind me and tried to push down and hold but it didn't show today.

Donna
LTKR 12/06/2010
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You really have got to get it into your head that this doesn't all happen in a few weeks! Recovery is a long term thing and it could be another 3-4 months before you get your proper ROM. Truly! Your job is to stop beating the heck out of your knee and let it heal. Then you can get going on the exercises.

Believe your PT. She sounds like a sensible girl and she isn't urging you to work harder and punish your knee, is she? She knows what she's talking about. Relax and stop worrying about MUAs. 105 at 7 weeks is great and there is no risk of it. Now relax and just let nature to her thing! Your full ROM will emerge in it's own good time.

It's never too late to get more ROM!
 
Thanks Josephine. My therapists does say I'm doing fine. However she is encouraging me to push the flexion into the pain and hold it. So together yesterday we did some excersizes in a chair where she would hold my foot back as I stood up and then sat and tried to keep my hip down when I sat. When we push past the comfort zone she does not push far.

I get that we are working for a few degrees a week. We really are pushing just a little further. The doctor gave her an order for more aggressive therapy.

Donna
LTKR 12/06/2010
 
One more thing we have begun to work on is steps in PT. My therapists says I have enough flexion for this. Going up takes concentration to bend the knee correctly instead of swinging it around. Going down feels more tight and is scary. I must hold the rails to help lower myself as I don't feel strong enough to do it on my own. I live in a two story home and want to master this because preop my good knee was beginning to complain bitterly due to the strain of going baby steps to take strain off the bad knee. Now trying to do it correctly makes my new knee very sore and it hurts at night. I don't do it foot over foot every time I use my stairs but am trying to add this in more. I don't have two siderails though and only feel safe doing a few of the steps new knee first going down. I have to support my weight at times with my arms to lower myself. I feel unsafe using the cane for the assist going down in this way.

Donna
LTKR 12/06/2010
 
Well, she's giving you good advice. But it's okay for her to push into the pain. You should do it to the point of discomfort only. Otherwise you are overdoing it.
 
Thanks again Josephine. I guess what I was trying to convey earlier is the pushing I am doing with the flexion stretching is what she has me working on at home as part of my therapy. She encourages me to try to push into the flexion into the pain everyday in my excersizes. It just seems I don't seem to make much if any progress on my own and that is what is frustrating to me. When it really gets tight and it is hard to push in to it I don't seem to be able to push as the therapist does. I just want to be able to do what I am advised and I really feel like she is conservative and trying to help me. So I try to do the things that she thinks will help me. I try to be respectful of my bodies signals and pay close attention to the swelling. I do realize this is going to take a while but I feel like when she asks me to do things she would not ask if she did not feel like I was ready. I'm not sure this makes much sense but I'm trying to make progress under guidance and am really trying to be realistic.

I hope you enjoyed your seminar Josephine that you just got back from. I missed seeing your posts while you were away. I bet you learned lots of goodies to share!
 
Donna, don't feel bad about having that death grip on the railing going down stairs. I did that for 6 months or more because I just didn't feel secure enough on steep steps. To this day, I still hold onto a railing going down. It's just safer that way (plus I still have one questionable knee!).

To strengthen those muscles for stairs, you might try going up and down the stairs sideways, one step at a time. Alternate sides so that you work all the muscles...even if you don't have a railing on the other side, you can steady yourself with the wall. Go slow. This exercise works different muscles than going straight up and down.

Then another good exercise is to stand on a step, hold onto the rail, and lower yourself like you're going to step down bending your TKR knee. Stop just before you place your foot on the step and slowly stand back up.

I'm offering these exercises to you as information and an option, but if you do them please be sure that you are not pushing yourself too hard with them or with your therapy. My therapist had me doing these at about a month out, but that was pretty much ALL I was doing for exercise.
 
Thanks Jamie I will try a couple at first and pass it by the therapist tomorrow. Those sounds like reasonable excersizes working all the muscles we have been targeting in my leg lifts both standing and lying down. My therapist and I did talk about practicing using the stairs more. The knee is just so weak from all the years of babying it to keep the pain at bay. Now I am trying to learn to use it and get it stronger and bend all at once. I really feel like I am trying to pace myself even though the last few nights have been quiet uncomfortable with lots of ice and taking my pain meds every five hours. Did I mention not much sleep as a result? I know patience, patience, patience as Jo says and I'm trying. I think when my flexion improves it will not be so scary and I will be able to let gravity ease my down without worrying about being pitched forward.
 
kneeworn said:
When it really gets tight and it is hard to push in to it I don't seem to be able to push as the therapist does.
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Well, you are pushing some and that's all that matters. It really doesn't matter that you can't quite get that bit extra. I really wouldn't worry about it.
kneeworn said:
I hope you enjoyed your seminar Josephine that you just got back from. I missed seeing your posts while you were away. I bet you learned lots of goodies to share!
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Yes I did, thank you for asking. What amazes me most is they spend a lot of time debating stuff like is prosthesis A better than prosthesis B and then summed up with "so do we agree that it's not about the prosthesis, it's about the skill of the surgeon?". I couldn't stop myself shouting out an enthusiastic "YES!" which got quite a laugh from all the delegates and the speakers!
 
Donna - You are a few days ahead of me and since we all heal differently I have to say you just need to persevere. PT started me at a 6" step and within a week I progressed to a 10" step. Up with the new knee down with the unoperated knee to work the quad on the healing leg. I do a couple sets of 10. At home I use the bottom of my basement stairs which is probably a 6 or 7" step and I do the same number of sets. At PT the other day he stretched me really really well in an extended position and while it hurt (I always say when) the last couple of days I have had very good movement with the knee with minimal swelling and minimal pain. I don't know if it's coincidence or just my progress but I am even sleeping better. As for sleeping, last weekend when I changed my sheets I left the covers untucked and stuffed two pillows down to the bottom of the bed which has raised the covers off the mattress allowing me more freedom to move around at night which has made a big difference. It will come. You have to push in PT you just have to know when to say when - that's your call. I do have more stiffness a day or so after that but it almost always results in more movement ultimately. But again, that's how it works for me. Keep up the good hard work.
 
Yesterday I pretty much took a break from excersizes for my knee to allow it to settle down. I only did a couple of stretches. So today in PT I had a great day. Yes great. When I did my heel slides I got 110 then 112 and then 115 on my own without assistance.:th_jumpy: Josephine you are right I was being too hard on my knee again.

My therapist also told me I have been too hard on myself all along. She also discussed my case with one of the other surgeons she knows because she knows I have been concerned about my flexion. He told her he does not do a MUA unless the patient has less than 90. If they 90 or more he lets them work on stretching it out themselves. So I felt much better about all my progress. She agreed my knee tends to stick down and swell and also does not believe in pushing a patient into a lot of pain because it causes regression and problems. She lets the patient help guide the progression.

I feel very fortunate to have her for my therapist. She has been patient with me and gentle all along encouraging me when I needed it.

We did some new machines today. We did leg presses with very light weights not for strength but to help with the flexion. We also did another machine that helped with abduction and strenghtening the leg when I stand on it to do the well leg.

So a good and positive day. :flwr:
 
Great news, Donna!!! Give that therapist a big BoneSmart hug! I'm glad you're feeling better.
 
Well, that's a great ROM for barely 8 weeks! Well done.


However, your therapist was ill-advised to use the term 'stick down' because that's not what is happening. If you can imagine having a plaster cast on your knee - you wouldn't be able to bend it then would you? Well that's what the swelling does. It's not 'stuck', it's just 'splinted'! So when you get rid of the swelling - voilà - out comes all the bend you could want!
[Bonesmart.org] kneeworn made it to the other side

 
Josephine the stick down was my description not hers. It is what it feels like to me. But we were discussing early scar tissue in relation to the hardened area above my knee cap that I feel restricts my movement. Also that kneecap is tighter than my well leg.

Anyway the important thing is with patience and gentleness I'm getting there. I wonder if he got 120 intraoperatively would I ever think that I might get even more in time.

Donna
LTKR 12/6/2010
 
I think it is possible, Donna. But more important than a number is what you will be able to do in terms of activity when you are fully recovered (a year or more from now). If you are able to do all the things you want to, then that number really doesn't mean much. At some point in recovery it is much more important to focus on activity milestones rather than numbers reached.
 
Sounds like you are doing really well, Donna. At first, we can't help but think about our knees all the time. I did. I had to get past the year mark, just to not wake up and think about knees all day long.

Last week, my daughter 'caught' me doing some random household thing, and said, "Mom, I can't believe how you just moved your knees". I wasn't thinking. I don't even recall what I did. I just stopped, and said, "YES, isn't it great what they can do"! LOL, If I could only film myself.


Takes time. And patience. And it will come, much of it on its own.
 
Helen, it's always so great to hear these stories about one of our members going about their lives and then suddenly realizing they are doing something they couldn't do before!!! Thanks for posting your "ah-ha" moment!
 
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