PKR Long Story of my Battle with a Bad Knee

Glad to hear you did ok with your "tuck and roll" maneuver! I often wonder how I'll adapt when the time comes I do stumble... Praying those opportunities are rare!
Sorry to hear about the boat. Next year I have a feeling you'll be on it twice as much as normal season! I was able to make it out to our cabin yesterday just so my husband could mow the lawn there... Oh how I've missed nature. I commiserate with not being able to enjoy what we've worked so hard for... I just keep thinking... Next year!
 
Yes I look forward to actually living life again. At the rate I am getting better it will be many months if ever that I have a fully working pain free knee again.

I think as we get better and less careful a trip and fall becomes more likely. All it takes forgetting about the knee for a split second while you attempt to do something that was formally second nature.

Just remember to tuck and roll and protect the knee at all costs!
 
I have tested kneeling lightly on my knee and it really feels weird. Probably all the numbness and hardware.

The guy at the marina with the bilateral knee replacement said the one thing he can't do is kneel because if feels like pins and needles.

I am wondering if I will ever be able to kneel on my PKR? So many little tasks require one to get on their knees.
 
I found the 2 week xray of my PKR. Comparing it to other xrays I see it online seem the space between the top part and the replace meniscus is very small. Maybe just the angle. I did not take photos of the other x-rays.

The PT at the time showed no concern, not sure if the doctor ever reviewed. Will see actual doctor again on the 29th.

It is amazing to me that that small fix as taken over my life.

Will be 11 full weeks this Thursday. Over the past week I had some pretty good days. I have not reached for the cane in about a week. I now do my PT at home and adjust the amount of stretching and exercise to how I feel, sets and number of reps and sets are not set in stone..

Since I don't push that hard on the bends my knee does not 'kneed' ice afterward everytime. I try to do multiple mini PT stretch sessions through the day to keep the knee loose. I normally ice an hour in the afternoon and at night before bed. 2 days ago I did not need to elevate and ice right before bed which is a first. Baby steps?

I also have been able to sleep on my left side a few times if I can get my knee in just the right position. No luck on my right side for some reason. It seems pressure on sides of knee makes it ache after a short period of time.

I am still very stiff, barely at 120 after some warm up stretching. I would love to see a jump to 125 ROM and less swelling. I would then focus more on building back strength and not worry so much about the peg leg syndrome.

I can go up stairs with some slight pain. I try to limit how many times I use my leg to lift me up the stairs because too many steps seem to aggravate the knee. But I feel I need to do some steps to build some strength.

My knee bends just enough to go down stairs but there is not enough strength in knee yet to do so without hanging on to both arm rails. By the end of the day I normally do the good leg step up and down the stairs like I did week one.

Same question as above: Will I ever be able to kneel on my knee for a short period without it feeling really strange?

Also, does the patch of numbness on the knee ever get feeling back? When my knee was scoped it had some numbness for about a year then went away, but this numbness is at a whole new level.
 

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In spite of the slowness of this recovery, you really are coming along very well and are very sensible about your rehab.

I don’t even try to kneel, I’m sure I can’t do it, but some others eventually can. As always, we are all different.

The numbness does pretty much go away over time. I’m 4+ years out and there’s only a hint of numbness. I don’t remember when it got to this point.
 
Most of the numbness went away for me. It just very gradually reduced over time.
 
Hi beesknee I am coming up to 5 months post op I had the same operation as you I am healing but slowly it’s tough being patient I see my physio every two weeks and she thinks I am doing great. The pain and stiffness I still get is down to my leg instability causing stress on my knee ligaments she explained. More quad strengthening exercises and less walking. I went back to work after 6 weeks which I believe now has slowed my recovery.
 
Hi beesknee I am coming up to 5 months post op I had the same operation as you I am healing but slowly it’s tough being patient I see my physio every two weeks and she thinks I am doing great. The pain and stiffness I still get is down to my leg instability causing stress on my knee ligaments she explained. More quad strengthening exercises and less walking. I went back to work after 6 weeks which I believe now has slowed my recovery.

I do 3 different quad exercises through the day and a hamstring exercise. All isometric exercises. I am so tired of icing and stretching everyday with so little progress. I am used to working through injuries in a few weeks and seeing daily progress.

Did you have an idea pre-surgery that recovery for a partial knee would take so long? I assumed I would be practically normal at 3 months. I can confidently say in another week I will not be much better than today. It seems each week my knee is about 3% better. At this rate I am looking at another 6 months before I feel somewhat normal again. I hope I don't need an MUA, I don't want to go back to laying in bed most of the day icing on pain pills.

Driving with right leg is still limited. I think 30 minutes each way is my limit. I am 6'4" so my gas/break leg has a 90 degree bend and starts to ache after a short while. I wish I could move seat back another 6 inches and it would be much better.

One nice thing is I don't have to rely my wife for every little thing anymore. I can make dinner, bring the garbage cans up and down, clean up the kitchen etc.. However, cutting the grass and blowing the leaves this fall will be impossible. We have a large wooded lot and get about 2 feet of leaves so I normally spend 8 hours a weekend blowing leaves with my industrial leaf blowers in the fall to keep up. Not going to happen this year.
 
Hi beesknee I had no idea it would take so long for recovery. I to thought at 3 months I would be back to 100 percent. But sadly that’s not the case. This forum has been a godsend. I know now it’s a long haul to recovery. When you think about it , it does make sense I have seen footage of a knee replacement and boy that’s some trauma.
 
@beesknee I had my 2nd PKR done July 1st 2020 So I am 1 year ahead of you. As for kneeling I have done it, not painful, just does not feel right. I think you can desensitize yourself over time. Knee pads also help. Recovery does take time, but I would NOT want my old knees back!!!
 
3 month update

I am getting a tiny bit better each week. Doing home PT each day, one complete session and then a few stop and stretches through the day. After going through my stretching and strength exercises, I can get between 125 and 130. But lose ROM shortly after stretching. In the mornings as soon as I get out of bed knee has very little swelling but is very stiff and maybe 90 ROM.

I can go up stairs normally but feel some soreness in knee as I push up each stair, but I feel this is building back some strength. After my home PT session, I can go down stairs but need to hang on to the rails, I feel my knee does not have the strength to safely lower me to the next stair.

I feel I am now at the point I thought I would be at 3 weeks out, not 3 months out. I make a tiny bit of progress each week. My son was just here for two weeks. He said he noticed my improvement from when he arrived to when he left. The gains are so small, it is hard for me to notice.

I am doing iso exercises each day to strengthen leg but hard to add real strength this way. My quad seems to be back working at 100%. 3 weeks ago, I was doing elliptical 5 minutes and treadmill at good walking speed for a quarter mile. After three days of this my knee became irritated so I stopped. Today, I will do 3 minutes on the elliptical as a test and if ok I will up time 30 seconds a day.
I feel I need to begin trying to build strength in both legs because after 3 months of minimum walking and activities they are turning into noodles.

6 weeks ago I bought MSU football tickets. I figured my leg would be able to handle the walking, standing, and sitting involved. My wife and I discussed the other day and we decided it would be best she went with a friend while I stay home convalescing :sad:. We are Alum and my daughter just started at MSU and I was looking forward to seeing her at a tailgate. Another big game at the end of October, maybe I can go then but not buying tickets until much closer.

I gave up so many activities this summer. We planned on taking a Jamaica vacation in November but that is off the table. Maybe next November. At 60 years, it sucks to give up a year of living normally.

I will see actual doctor next week. Last 2 visits I only saw his PA. This time I will make sure he will be there and will wait hours if he is behind. He is chatty so it seems he is always at least and hour behind. The main reason behind this visit is to determine if I need an MUA. Last 2 month visit a month ago I was at 110. Now I am at ~125 after loosened up so I am hoping I dodged that bullet.

Still, I would like to get to at least 135 so I have enough functionality to play tennis (assuming the pain and stiffness goes away one day).

I will give the doctor a piece of my mind about him playing down the recovery time. I am sure he will give me the everyone heals differently spiel. True, but hardly anyone is almost back to normal at 3 weeks as he told me when talking me into this. I watched a PKR video and it is no surprise healing takes this long.
 
Last 2 month visit a month ago I was at 110. Now I am at ~125 after loosened up so I am hoping I dodged that bullet.

Still, I would like to get to at least 135 so I have enough functionality to play tennis (assuming the pain and stiffness goes away one day).

I will give the doctor a piece of my mind about him playing down the recovery time. I am sure he will give me the everyone heals differently spiel. True, but hardly anyone is almost back to normal at 3 weeks as he told me when talking me into this. I watched a PKR video and it is no surprise healing takes this long.
125 at 3 months is awesome progress @beesknee, It took me a year to reach 120 and I'm now ~140, you will get to 135 at least as you continue to heal. 3 weeks to be back to normal? Your OS really is delusional. Sure wish some of these docs had to experiencing their own work.
 
You are doing well, and it sounds as though you are being really sensible with the exercise. Increasing the time on the elliptical by 30 seconds sounds so daft, but that’s exactly how it goes! Everything drags on far more slowly than we ever imagined.
I can empathise totally with your frustration at missing a year of your life, pass 60 years and it hits home that time is limited. I feel too feeble to do what I want for the first time in my older years since having my ops., I have just rescheduled a November diving trip because I don’t feel that I could cope with the journey, let alone the rigours of 4 dives a day for two weeks. On the optimistic side, hopefully we will eventually gain active life that we would never had were it not for our surgery.
Let us know what your surgeon has to say, could do with another laugh!
 
I think your numbers are really good, your 3 months post surgery. You might still have some swelling also, I don't know. Just my opinion, but maybe your just too focused on the "numbers." Instead focus on what you can do - how far you've come. The numbers are just guidelines. How you function in life should be how you evaluate your knee. You will get there, and I agree with you surgeons don't prepare you for a long recovery.
 
125 at 3 months is awesome progress @beesknee, It took me a year to reach 120 and I'm now ~140, you will get to 135 at least as you continue to heal. 3 weeks to be back to normal? Your OS really is delusional. Sure wish some of these docs had to experiencing their own work.

I went in for an evaluation 10 years after the microfracture surgery finally failed and I started getting knee pain when overdoing it. He said micro fracture probably won't work as well a second time. He said I should do a PKR and fix it once and for all.

As I remember, he said recovery would be faster because with micro-fracture I had to wait for scar tissue to form where the cartilage should be which can take several months. He said with PTK, the hole in the cartilage would be instantly fixed and no waiting for micro-fracture - if it works again.

Maybe I heard what I wanted to hear but I had the distinct impression that I would at least be walking around with very minimal pain in 3 -4 weeks and playing tennis in 6 weeks or so.

Someone from the Doctor's office happened to call for a 3 month checkup yesterday ( they had no idea who I was and that I had an appointment next week). I said I was still stiff and sore and working on ROM everyday. She said these surgeries take 6 months to a year to recover from. I know if I heard that before my decision I would have never went through with this, my knee was just not that bad.

Turns out, 3 months in, while I am getting a tiny bit better each week, I am far from taking a proper walk, driving a car without my knee killing me, or sitting in a chair like a normal person.

The wife and I are finally kid free with the last one away at college. Instead of enjoying the freedom to travel sans kids I am pretty much housebound. Even if I could stand the trip somewhere, I have no desire to be icing and elevating on the road.

Our next door neighbors also went kid free at the same time early this month. So far, they have been on 2 long weekend vacations and are heading to the Caribbean for a week in a few days. Everytime I hear about them going somewhere I get mad at myself for agreeing to have this surgery done. Now that I know better, it seems it is best someone with a real bad painful knee.

I just hope I can get to the point where I was pre-surgery one day in the future.
 
I'm still having pain too @beesknee .
Having my knee jammed under a desk 8 hours a day again is awful. My body can't accommodate the stiffness still. A standing desk would do no good as I'd just be sitting back down, icing and elevating.
I'm coming along in my journey but yes, if I had known it'd be a year to feel like my real knee I would have waited. Too many things going on right now I am missing.
I'm telling people at work about it as well because they are not quite believing I needed the time away from a sedentary job for this recovery. They, and the public in general, are sorely misinformed on the true rigors and length of this surgery. I am sorry to say I was too... And I am a nurse!
 
Yep totally agree this recovery is tough i am getting a little better each month. Working full time is really tough i average on bad day a week now. Wednesday was awful pain and stiffness all day but |Friday was great i managed 3 miles at work with minimal pain. It is certainly a roller coaster ride.
 
Had my 3 month 1 week check-up today.

When I went in the patient room and waited I did some quick stretches to get a good ROM. PA came in about 10 after and measured me at 129 ROM she was very happy with my progress since she was the one that measured my ROM 5 weeks ago at 110. Said keep doing what I am doing. She said the doc was finishing up lunch and would be right in.

An hour and 15 minutes later he finally came in, I had been sitting in a chair and stiffening up again. He did a quick measure and was at 120 with no pushing. He was very pleased and said I am on track for 100% recovery. When I asked about him saying 3 or 4 weeks he just brushed it off and said in 6 to 9 months I should be back to normal playing tennis and other activities.

He said keep up the PT stretch exercise I have been doing but do more quad exercises. My legs are getting like noodles and he says the danger is I'll start feeling better and do an activity that my brain remembers I can do but my leg muscles can no longer handle and I could have a set back. So I need to balance stretching and quad exercises while limiting the swelling (good luck to me on that).

We have a multi-gym and he said start doing 5 sets of 10 leg lifts each day at the lowest possible weight to start to build back leg muscles.

I have rock hard bone like bulges at top of inside of knee and at the bottom of knee by the meniscus when knee is bent. He looked a them and the x-rays and they definitely are from swelling compression. He said eventually my knees will look identical.

I can see why doctors think it is such an easy journey. He did the PKR, and then sees me 3 months later the massive pain is mostly gone and I can move around without a cane and have a decent bend. Must be nothing to it in his mind.

Still a long road ahead for me. Each week I seem to get just a little better. Enough weeks go by and I will be back to normal.

I did mention to him that maybe I should have had microfracture again instead of PKR but he said then in 5 to 10 years I would be getting the replacement anyway and now knee is fixed. I guess better to get it done now at 60 rather than 70.
 
Sounds like you had a good review and are doing very well. The size of your knee cap that you mentioned on another post is swelling?
I too kept my knee cap with my PKR. Hearing about the quad muscle weakness was interesting and I think I’ll take a leaf out of your book and concentrate on strengthening my quads more. Glad you are officially doing well!!
 
It is a slow process and my surgeon said the same thing bout quad strength i am doing Physio every day and working as well. It is getting easier but time is the best healer. Last week at work i only had one bad afternoon which is the best i have been since my PKR. Onwards and upwards.
 

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