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TKR looking for help

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As others have said, consider cycling. Depending on your local opportunities and inclinations, there's road biking, cyclocross, mountain biking (xc, fatbike, enduro and downhill). There's even BMX. It's all a blast!
 
I cannot wait to get back on my bike....While I've been recovering, my tires have gone flat. Need to get it serviced and cleaned up anyways.
 
Today was day 2 of physical therapy and it started off well. Had the electrical stimulation along with a massage, felt great...Then the PT ask me to lay on my stomach while he bents my knee towards my back, wowwwww.... that sfuff hurt.. The PT keep telling me to hang in there cause i got to get this leg to bend but my knee was sooo stiff.. All i know is that earlier this morning I was awoken, again, with "night pains" due to my knee. This time was bad and I figured it may have been due to the weather (it was mostly rainy today, so i figuered it was due to the barometric pressure, and yes I do feel it..even before this surgery my knee use to get all stiff at times before bad weather. So that bending exercise really hurt. Afterwards I got on the elliptical bike and was able to do at least 5 minutes, the first revolution was some what difficult due to the my stiff knee but I got into a groove and felt pretty good... I scheduled another appointment for tomorrow but should I have waited a day like 1 day on 1 day off to rest? I really don't want to hamper progress in any way and my knee really didn't feel that bad afterwards except for the stiffness, I'm I rushing things in some sort of subconscious way in order to get back to normal?
 
Ouch! I just cringed. My PT won't let me do any stretching prone on my stomach. She said I wasn't allowed to yet...I was confused by that. Stretching discomfort is okay. If it hurts, it should stop. No one should cause pain.

The more active I am, the rougher the night. Remember stiffness is a form of pain. Sleep is elusive.


LTKR. October 27th 2014

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
jenng2003 said:
Ouch! I just cringed. My PT won't let me do any stretching prone on my stomach. She said I wasn't allowed to yet...I was confused by that. Stretching discomfort is okay. If it hurts, it should stop. No one should cause pain.

The more active I am, the rougher the night. Remember stiffness is a form of pain. Sleep is elusive.


LTKR. October 27th 2014

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
Click to expand...
It seems like we're not to far behind in our survey your 10-27..... mines 10-14.....
Maybe I need to go to your physical therapist....lol..like I wrote that exercise today did hurt..I'm kind of nervous about what tomorrow's PT will bring
 
Take pain meds before pt. It helps. And my pt took time to come around to my philosophy. I had a not nice name for her up until the last week. I still prefer one of the others who doesn't push on me at all, and amazingly gets better results at each session.

I warm up on the bike. I won't do anything else until I get on the bike. I wasn't in top form before surgery, but I had a lot of muscle tone in my legs before surgery, which I didn't lose too much of. It's helped a little in this recovery. I do have a tight hip flexor which is causing me grief and loss of rom. We are working on that but she won't let me do prone exercises (I do it at home since dr said no restrictions). I go three times a week. Each session is about two hours. I know that sounds extreme and others have said to try to cut back, I find it helps me to spend the extra time stretching. I don't rush. If I need to go slow with an exercise, I do. Most days I feel better after pt. Night time is rough, but I'm finding its rough on non-pt days as well.

The dampness kills me, as does the cold weather. I asked the pa yesterday and he said that's normal. I get worse pt results on days like last Wednesday (the snowy day). You are nt alone!


LTKR. October 27th 2014

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
sirj said:
Then the PT ask me to lay on my stomach while he bents my knee towards my back, wowwwww.... that sfuff hurt.. The PT keep telling me to hang in there cause i got to get this leg to bend but my knee was sooo stiff.. All i know is that earlier this morning I was awoken, again, with "night pains" due to my knee. This time was bad and I figured it may have been due to the weather (it was mostly rainy today, so i figuered it was due to the barometric pressure, and yes I do feel it..even before this surgery my knee use to get all stiff at times before bad weather. So that bending exercise really hurt
Click to expand...

You knee pain has nothing to do with the weather. The cause is the way the PT treated it.
Remember this from the BoneSmart mantra?
- if it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physiotherapist (PT) - to do it to you
- if your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again

Treatment like that is not the way to make your knee bend better.

It's time to speak up for your knee and insist that it is not treated like that.
It's your knee and you have the absolute right to say what will, or will not, happen to it.
 
Yeah...it's a long time, but it's because I do pt at my pace. I take breaks as needed. But it's a lot of bending work and stretching. I have hip flexor issues.


LTKR. October 27th 2014

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Ok... had PT yesterday, and I thought I did great. After the electrical stimulation and then the menthol massage the physical therapist had me do some stretching exercises. Each one felt pretty good afterwards I got on the elliptical bike and which I was very happy in myself because I actually was able to ride the bike for a good 5 minutes frontwards and backwards...yeahhhhh... so I felt pretty good. After that he went to go measure my range of motion now the last physical therapist I had, the way they measured my range of motion was by having me sit in the chair and moving my injured leg back as far as I can which measured about 90 to 95 degrees mind you this is only since October 14th that i had my TKR so that's about a month and a half ago. Yesterday the physical therapist had me lay down on my stomach and take my measurements by having me bend my knee back towards my back. I was told that this is a much more accurate measurement because it doesn't involve using the hip which might take place once you're sitting in a chair. So he measured me by what he called "active" and "passive" measurements. The passive measurement was just bending my leg back on my own will in which only scored about a 65â—‹. The aggressive measurement was when he assisted my knee by bending it back gently in which I measured the 85â—‹. Now I know that i shouldnt get caught up in the numbers and the numbers don't matter but it was kinda frustrating.. Wasn't the fact that u was able to ride the bike with little discomfort a sign of my healing?
 
All that measuring is just nuts! All it does is make you worry. I've never heard of having your ROM measured the way your PT did it - although I'm prepared to hear from others about that. Let's see what @Pumpkln has to say.

Yes, you're quite right - if you can ride the bike OK, your ROM is coming along just fine. If you can sit on a chair and pull your foot back so that no-one steps on your toes, your ROM is doing all right. It's function that matters, not numbers.
 
sirj said:
Wasn't the fact that u was able to ride the bike with little discomfort a sign of my healing?
Click to expand...
This is a wonderful sign that you are healing. Some therapists measure in a sitting position, some in supine, both are OK, but you can not compare the numbers from one to the other. For consistency measure it the same way each time, same therapist is best.
The most important thing is your function, which sounds great.
As long as you are slowly feeling better and doing more, you are doing just fine.
I hardly did anything for my ROM except a few Heel slides and how to do them.
Keep doing what ever you are doing, sounds like it is working well.
 
Ok I'm about to hit the 2 month mark on the 14th and I belive I'm doing good but here's my question... at two months shouldn't I or has anyone still NOT been able to walk down the stairs the normal way?... I'm still having to take one step at a time ,is that normal?
 
You are normal, some can go up and down earlier than others, you are doing great. Down is harder, it will take a while before you can go down with alternating steps.
 
sirj said:
. at two months shouldn't I or has anyone still NOT been able to walk down the stairs the normal way?... I'm still having to take one step at a time ,is that normal?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's quite normal. Some people take up to 4 months. It will happen when your knee is ready.
 
sirj said:
Ok I'm about to hit the 2 month mark on the 14th and I belive I'm doing good but here's my question... at two months shouldn't I or has anyone still NOT been able to walk down the stairs the normal way?... I'm still having to take one step at a time ,is that normal?
Click to expand...

I will be 13 weeks tomorrow and I just started going up and down the stairs like a normal person. BUT, here's how that goes: I grip the handrail and the opposite wall for dear life. It does hurt a tiny bit but nowhere near as bad as it did at weeks prior to week 10. Also, when I am feeling lazy, I do the stairs one @ a time, with both feet, before moving on to the next step. It's going to take time...after all, isn't that all we have anyways? Time?
 
I LOVE ALL OF YA'LL FOR YOUR REPLYS BACK.....THANK YOU..... I thought it was just me
 
I just started going down the steps like a "normal person". If you are getting around the bike, it won't be long. It took me a little longer than going up (beyond what my pt said was normal), because my hamstring muscles are so tight and I tend to guard unwillingly. I still have days where I grip that railing for dear life as I'm going down. I also have days where something feels like it is popping inside my knee (os and pt said no worries...most likely fibrous tissue). It doesn't hurt beyond the 30 sec of initial shock. I've been focusing on functionality lately, and it has been working in my favor. I can't get the pt to see the positives in my progress beyond numbers but I don't care anymore.

As for rom, because of my hamstring and hip flexor issues, I'm measured lying flat on my back. First I pull back on my own and then she unloads my hamstrings to see what range I have without them interfering. I can get more rom if I am leaning on my arms. I cannot get rom by sitting in a chair since I am petite. Pt can't get an accurate reading since my hip angle changes now that I pull my knee back behind the chair. She says that it's still 90 degrees but I definitely feel more of a pull, so I know it is stretching it more.

Remember it is a marathon, not a sprint. There are different variations of normal, and with time, we will get there. :-).


LTKR. October 27th 2014

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
sirj said:
ow I know that i shouldnt get caught up in the numbers and the numbers don't matter but it was kinda frustrating.. Wasn't the fact that u was able to ride the bike with little discomfort a sign of my healing?
Click to expand...
You are correct---do not get caught up in the numbers---the PT folks are a quantitative lot---they obsess about the numbers. Be Qualitative---is your quality of life improving? That is what really matters!

Celle said:
Yes, you're quite right - if you can ride the bike OK, your ROM is coming along just fine. If you can sit on a chair and pull your foot back so that no-one steps on your toes, your ROM is doing all right. It's function that matters, not numbers.
Click to expand...
:iagree: It is about what you can do---and what you enjoy---it is not about the numbers. Forget them.

sirj said:
Ok I'm about to hit the 2 month mark on the 14th and I belive I'm doing good but here's my question... at two months shouldn't I or has anyone still NOT been able to walk down the stairs the normal way?... I'm still having to take one step at a time ,is that normal?
Click to expand...
Stairs for me were the last obstacle/hurdle to be cleared. You are going on two months out---it seems like a long enough time, but there is a way to go yet. It took me three months or so to get down the steps like "normal." Again,
[Bonesmart.org] looking for help

Patience, Grasshopper, Patience!!!
 
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