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TKR LTKR recovery going smoothly

@MerlinWizard yes, my PT is pretty confident that I'll regain ROM to at least 120deg, maybe more. It's just slower than he would have liked (me too!). But despite my slow progress, I'm mostly pain-free, and have been able to do stuff this summer like go on small hikes and get out on our boat. I just have to ice and elevate a little more after those days.

My PT did warn me about kneeling even after full recovery. I'm young enough that I'll likely have to have a revision down the road, and kneeling apparently can shorten the life of the hardware. So he said he wouldn't recommend lots of kneeling in my future to preserve my first TKR for as long as possible.
 
I'm almost 8 weeks pre-op, and voluntarily can bend to about 100, with "help" 115. The PT says I'm doing well and is pleased. Just to say, as I've posted on my thread - one day they say you're way behind expectations, then next you're doing great. Who knows? Trust yourself, and the information on this site. What I find is, as the day goes on, and I'm on my legs more and doing "normal" things, by the end of the day my knee is swollen, warm, and demanding ice. Especially at night.
 
GiantFinnegan said:
I'm young enough that I'll likely have to have a revision down the road, and kneeling apparently can shorten the life of the hardware. So he said he wouldn't recommend lots of kneeling in my future to preserve my first TKR for as long as possible.
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It's possible, depends on the implant system your surgeon used.

The technology they've come up with in just the last few years is amazing. My surgeon told me that the likelihood I would need a revision after a successful recovery with the system they used is very slim.

He did warn me about certain things (high impact, etc) that can prematurely wear out the knee but he said if I can avoid some of them long term it's quite possible he's never have to do anything with my knees again.

My attitude today is that if I can get 20 years I will be happy. When I am in my 70's if they need to revision, I am okay with that.
 
GiantFinnegan said:
Also saw my PT right after the surgeon and my flexion is now at 105 and my extension is 0. So ROM finally improving!
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You are making good progress @GiantFinnegan. The "window of opportunity" to regain ROM is a myth plain and simple. You have already reached 0 on your extension and that is usually more difficult that flexion to recover. In a 12-18 month recovery, you are doing just fine at 2 1/2 months.
 
Regarding kneeling, I believe that the current medical consensus is that it is not harmful to the prosthesis and does not shorten its useful life. Kneeling is certainly uncomfortable for most of us. For those who want to be able to kneel but find it uncomfortable, there is a protocol that involves starting out kneeling a few minutes a day on a pillow. Gradually , one increases the firmness of the surface and the duration. As always, check with your OS before proceeding.
 
netrusher said:
Regarding kneeling, I believe that the current medical consensus is that it is not harmful to the prosthesis and does not shorten its useful life. Kneeling is certainly uncomfortable for most of us. For those who want to be able to kneel but find it uncomfortable, there is a protocol that involves starting out kneeling a few minutes a day on a pillow. Gradually , one increases the firmness of the surface and the duration. As always, check with your OS before proceeding.
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I started with the bed which is soft and I kneel on it every night to get into it. I've gone to using knee pads because that's the only way I can handle it for now. I've done it right on hard surfaces but it is pretty uncomfortable.

I don't see how it would wear out what they put in unless you are on your knees 8 hours a day for work. That would wear out your natural knee in time.
 
iI asked my surgeon about this at my six week checkup and he said you can kneel eventually but start out on a pillow, like @netrusher said.

I have one of those firm garden kneeled but I can also get some softer foam from the fabric store when I feel the need to try this.
 
I'll ask again -- maybe I heard "No, never" when he meant "Not yet". But I'm honestly not overly concerned about kneeling. With my horrible knees I haven't been able to kneel for years so I've gotten used to it!
 
I've developed a rather ungraceful "squat" (or I did before surgery), for those times I need to be close to the ground. It depends on a person's occupation how much kneeling needs to be in the repertoire. That being said, when I see someone nimbly kneeling to pick flowers, hug a child, tie one's shoes, I feel "knee envy".
 
GiantFinnegan said:
But I'm honestly not overly concerned about kneeling. With my horrible knees I haven't been able to kneel for years so I've gotten used to it!
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I hadn't been comfortable kneeling on my bad knee for a long time before TKR @GiantFinnegan, but I actually go down on my TKR knee first again now (right side dominant) even though I have no issues with my left knee. We are all different and you have to find what's comfortable for you. But kneeling is certainly not ruled out!
 
I remember it felt really weird to kneel on my new knee for the first couple of years after surgery. I could feel the metal parts and it did not feel like my knee. Now, it's totally fine. My left knee, next on the surgery list, has gotten so bad in the last couple of months that I can't kneel on it without major pain. I bend at the waist for gardening and pulling weeds and probably use my back in ways I shouldn't. :no-fin: Looking forward to two good knees in the near future!
 
A little update from the last week. I've continued to struggle a bit with ROM and have plateaued a bit on what I can do. I'll rest, ice and elevate for a couple of days, feel pretty good, then do a small amount of activity and my knee will get unreasonably angry and my whole leg would feel like it was burning and the top of my foot was going numb. Also the ice was started to make the knee feel worse rather than better. Then, this week my PT suggested it may be the beginnings of neuropathy so we tried the TENS unit, epsom salts baths, no ice, and I got more regular about applying the magnesium gel on my whole leg.

Voila! My knee and leg has been feeling so much better! He also suggested that gabapentin might help, but he was unable to get ahold of my surgeon's office on Friday in time to get a prescription. Hopefully next week I'll get the prescription, but in the meantime I'll continue with the other things and fingers crossed that they will keep helping.
 
Many of us find at a certain point ice may not be necessary. At 3-4 months I was mostly only using ice after a lot of activity.
Let us know what the doctor says.
 
PT said that if it is the nerves and we can get them calmed down, then I could go back to icing. The ice has been so great for most of my recovery - it's only been in the last couple of weeks that I've noticed my leg being more sensitive to it.
 
GiantFinnegan said:
A little update from the last week. I've continued to struggle a bit with ROM and have plateaued a bit on what I can do. I'll rest, ice and elevate for a couple of days, feel pretty good, then do a small amount of activity and my knee will get unreasonably angry and my whole leg would feel like it was burning and the top of my foot was going numb. Also the ice was started to make the knee feel worse rather than better. Then, this week my PT suggested it may be the beginnings of neuropathy so we tried the TENS unit, epsom salts baths, no ice, and I got more regular about applying the magnesium gel on my whole leg.

Voila! My knee and leg has been feeling so much better! He also suggested that gabapentin might help, but he was unable to get ahold of my surgeon's office on Friday in time to get a prescription. Hopefully next week I'll get the prescription, but in the meantime I'll continue with the other things and fingers crossed that they will keep helping.
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I had a prescription for Gabapentin because my knee leg was so sensitive It did help but found I had to take the pill by 6 PM to work by 9-10 bedtime.
 
I've been taking gabapentin since Monday, plus TENS sessions, epsom salts baths and magnesium gel and it's made a pretty big difference. My leg overall feels so much better and my ROM has improved to 114 today (I was stuck at 95 for a while, then got to 105 a week or so ago). I've also been able to do things like go on a couple mile walk without having to have 3 days of recovering from that. It's been so nice to be able to go for a walk and know that I'll have to rest afterwards but that I can go on another walk the next day! Woo hoo!

I'm so grateful to my PT who recognized that I was having an issue with my nerve sensitivity, rather than giving up on me and just saying I needed an MUA.
 
I'm 3.5 months out from my right TKR. I've continued to improve, but improvement started to be more rapid after my PT asked my surgeon to prescribe gabapentin at about week 10. Apparently I had the beginnings of neuropathy developing which was limiting my ROM. Also any activity was really angering my leg and it took days to recover (pain, aching, zingers, quads and calf cramping). Most of that was gone almost immediately after the gaba.

PT discharged me for the right TKR, and now I'm scheduled for the left TKR on November 1st. I'm nervous, but mostly because of the state of our hospitals right now. We have been at capacity or near capacity for weeks. My surgery will be at an outpatient surgery center, not at the hospital, but I worry that if anything were to go wrong during the surgery, there might not be a bed available to me. I'm trying to keep in mind that is a distant possibility, but it's just another worry on top of a pretty major surgery in the first place.

Hopefully things will improve over the next 2 months. I really want to get it done because the left is just as bad as the right knee was, and of course with the U.S. healthcare system I have met my year's out of pocket expenses with the first surgery and will save a lot of $ if I get the left knee done in the same year. I hate that that has to be part of the decision-making.

[mods, can you add Left TKR - November 1, 2021? And change my title to "RTKR improving, looking forward to LTKR"]
 
We all worry about the upcoming surgery. :console2:

Hugs and prayers that all will go as planned. :console2::prayer:
 
So nice to read your posts @GiantFinnegan ..
I too am having my other knee done in November, my first one was in February, so we're pretty close.
I am in pain most of the time now, and am actually looking forward to getting it over with! I miss my active lifestyle so much!
Take care!!
 
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