TKR luvcats recovery box

[dogwalker2]

Nurse pets are truly the best!! I have two nurse dogs and they are brilliant, unconditional love and comfort. Hope you get pain meds sorted soon and agree with afternoon nap, I did 2 hours back in bed every day weeks 1 to 3.

 

[marieltha]

Good morning! (USA, EST). I did want to check in at the end of your first week, but I did it too late. Good intention. Bad example.

I get my best night’s sleep if I do not use the iphone/ipad/go online/ watch tv right before bed—and never ever during the night.

Mea culpa, I did that last night—and went to bed later than usual. Two mea culpas.
I find a routine during recovery is essential, and going to bed earlier than my normal is better for overall stamina.

I ice for 20 minutes when I first go to bed, and I do not want to fall asleep with the ice cuffs on. So I do read from a Kindle paperwhite which does not (supposedly) interfere with your brain’s normal sleep stages. The quality of my sleep seems better if I do this.

Good luck w week 2!

 

[luvcats]

No joy on the pain meds from the surgeons office.

Edited to remove much whinging.

 

[luvcats]

I have a great many bad words to say on the topic of pain meds. Which I will keep to myself.

Deep breath...

Lack of napping is not the lack of trying and resting, I just dont fall asleep. Its always been a problem. My bedroom is lovely and cool and dark. Should be perfect.

Saw the person who sets me up for PT today. If his philosophy is carried through by the people he assigns, it will be a great experience.

Beloved brought me Chipotle for lunch. It was lovely. I froze a lot of food before I went in, but not a lot of variety. I was ready for something fresh and yummy.

 

[Benay]

I like Chipotle Sofritas very much. I have the bowl brown rice, black beans, corn. Love it!

 

[marieltha]

Glad the PT meeting went well.
Sorry the pain meds were not resolved joyfully. The joyful lunch provided by your nice husband could be considered pain relief, though.
PS Have you watched “River” on Netflix? Excellent. Quirky.

 

[Sunnyo]

Glad you are doing well. Hope you get your meds sorted out. I had problems with my meds the first 24 hours. No fun.
It does get better
I'm almost at 5 weeks and looking back it has gone quickly.
Ice and elevate....that will help.

 

[luvcats]

I can tell how much better I'm feeling as stir-crazy has started to set in! I'm not quite focused enough to take up reading, but I should be able to watch some weightier movies. We shall see.

My biggest complaint, aside from the pain med issue, is my leg is swollen. SO SWOLLEN. I know it's normal, but it's very uncomfortable. I think part of it is my normal tendency to swell, combined with healing and a lack of exercise. My body is just aching to get back into the pool to move, and that's just not going to happen for a long while.

I'm currently ensconced in our upstairs. Although I do 'laps' walking up and down the hall, it's just not that much exercise. I've been keeping my leg elevated all the time, but I don't think it's quite high enough. Today I'm going to try the Lounge Dr. pillow again and see if I tolerate it.

 

[lovetocookandsew]

Before you use the Lounge Dr again, read the article I've attached as a reminder. Especially notice the pictures of the correct way to elevate with the LD, as I found on occasion when I was using mine, if I was a bit uncomfortable, it was always because I had moved around on it and was no longer properly positioned. Readjusting it made everything great again.
https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/elevation-the-dos-and-donts.7602/

 

[luvcats]

Thanks for the reminder. I have my lounge doctor properly in place and I seem to be tolerating it as I haven't before.

 

[susie2f]

Hope you’re swelling goes down and you get the right pain meds to help. I know it’s a long recovery and being patient is not strong point for me. Told family about TKR surgeries at reunion, one person had it that I could tell. Many of the family acted like I’ll be back in my feet without pain in no time. I don’t think they have any idea about all that is involved with this recovery. I’m sure they mean well, but clueless.

Hang in there, keep posting. Hopefully I’ll be posting in the recovery side in two weeks,
Hugs, Susie

 

[luvcats]

The Lounge Doctor pillow was just the thing yesterday. Still swollen of course, but the skin is no longer tight and I can move a bit more easily. I'll be back in position most of today.

The home care nurse is coming. She'll remove my dressing and we'll see how things are healing. I just started having a bit of an itch along the incision, so I know it's healing well.

Today I'll finally get the urgently needed refill on my meds. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get in a nap after that. I'm getting about 5 solid hours a night, but mostly because I hoard my meds for nighttime.

I start home PT today. I'm encouraged after a phone chat with the person coming. I mentioned that she'll need to find her own way up the stairs as my husband will be in a meeting. I said that I hadn't been doing stairs since I got home because our stairs are slippery and I wasn't confident. She said that was an excellent call on my part, so she probably has sense. I hope it goes well.

I friend turned me on to the show "Corner Gas" on Prime. It's wonderful. Lots of light, snarky humor set in a small town in Saskatchewan. It's exactly what I need right now for laying around with my foot in the air. If I drift off well, the plots aren't exactly hard to follow.

I also recently enjoyed Sidney White, movie on Netflix. I didn't know it, but it's mostly a remake of Revenge of the Nerds, if the original had had a strong female lead and a more coherent plot. I'd definitely recommend it as fun without too much angst.

 

[luvcats]

2 very busy days.

Yesterday the home care nurse came. Homecare has been such a disappointment to me. I had a lot of it for my surgery and post abscess care over the winter and now. They spend so much time literally ticking boxes on their tablets, I always feel very much unimportant to the process. She removed my dressing, but I had to grab her hand and make her slow down as she tried to rip the skin off along with the adhesive. It cold have gone very badly.

My incision is a work of art. Clean and sharp and healing beautifully. I'm going to have a very minimal scar, not that I cared much about that.

Much later the home PT person came. She was great. Answered questions, gave me good expectations for what outpatient PT will look like, and she showed me a stretch Beloved can help me do to stretch one of the very unhappy muscles in my calf. That made the visit a huge success in my eyes!

I finally got my med refill and with pain managed again I realized I felt pretty good, stable enough to test my showering procedure. I wasn't sure about getting my foot over the edge of the tub, but it turns out I can already bend the new knee more than the original. That was exciting, and everyone knows the first shower after the hospital is divine! It felt great to be really clean.

Today was another busy day. I finally met with my pain specialist, and she had some rather uncomplimentary things to say about the pain management I got from the hospital and surgeon's office. She said they had completely neglected to account for the fact that I've already been on long term opioids and so I was horribly under medicated. I certainly felt under medicated. She has completely revised my medications and she decided that she will manage all the meds for my next surgery. I'm not sure how that works, but they must have a process for that and I'm going in to see her the week before my RTKR in September. That is such a huge relief.

It was my first day to get dressed in actual clothes. I went down our stairs with no trouble since I've been one footing them for years. Its a fair walk to my doctor's office in a giant building so I got some good exercise and that worked out some of the cramps in my thigh.

I spent the rest of the day in my recliner. I'm thinking I should have gone back upstairs because it doesn't elevate my leg as much as the lounge Dr pillow and my leg is painfully swollen. I'll be glad when that phase passes.

Today was such a success I'm going to go to the store with Beloved tomorrow. I'll be riding a courtesy cart, but I will be nice to be out.

 

[Benay]

That's such an interesting update, happy for all your victories!

 

[snowdrop]

Great news about getting your pain meds! It makes all the difference...life is bearable again! It sounds like you are doing very well in these early weeks. Take it slow, elevate, and ice-ice-ice! Each day is a little better!

 

[marieltha]

Wow: Pain meds, showering, stairs, and a great stretch!
If you applied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to your surgery recovery, you’d be approaching
self-actualization.

 

[winemama]

Suggestion for watching. If you have HBO, Gentlemen Jack. Excellent. And if you like British shows. Call the midwife. You have to watch from the beginning so very good
Congratulations on the stairs and pain meds

 

[luvcats]

Question: For those of you who had an 'epic swelling' phase, about how long did it last? I know it's perfectly normal and healthy, but it interferes with my walking practice.

If you have HBO, Gentlemen Jack. Excellent.

I love Gentleman Jack. I'm about half way through what is out I think. For reasons, I can only access it from downstairs, so I'll get to watch more next week. It's utterly brilliant!
For me, British shows tend to be hit or miss, and I didn't get into Call the Midwife the first time I tried it. Maybe I'll start it again and see how I feel about it.

If you applied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to your surgery recovery, you’d be approaching
self-actualization.

ROFL. You forgot the food! I made my own food. And by made I mean I used my phone to order in my favorite kababs and then I took it out of the container and on to a plate. lol Can't have Maslow without food security.


Ice is an interesting thing. I iced almost 24/7 at first, but then it started aggravating my cramped muscles and I just do a little now and then, for about 20 minutes until it starts to not feel good. But this is the second night in a row where I've gone to sleep and woken up in discomfort and gotten an ice pack and gone back to sleep.

My specialist also explained my leg cramps. She pointed out that because of the deformation of the original knee, my muscles didn't engage properly. Now that they do, every single movement is like an intense workout for that muscle. Basically, just existing is hard exercise for a muscle that took about 4 years off. She officially approved an approach that I wanted but my husband wasn't comfortable with. Heat the upper thigh, then ice the knee, alternating. The heat felt amazing yesterday. There will be more in my future today.

 

[sistersinhim]

What a great update! You are doing amazingly well for less than two weeks out! Wow!

Be careful to not let the heat get near your knee. That will cause it to swell even more. Ice reduces inflammation and in turn, swelling. Using the heat on your upper thigh should be OK as long as you don't see increased swelling in your knee.

 

[marieltha]

Great tips for heat & ice!

Now that I have both PKR’s, both legs keep getting straighter and straighter—and so do my always aching feet ( high insteps, super high arches, narrow heels , genetic complicated bunions—tortured by years of toe dancing and marathon running). And my gait keeps getting better.

LOL about the food. I do love to eat....I have sworn off sugar, but but but, I have and recommend Breyer’s Oreo Frozen Dessert made w Almond Milk in the freezer for emergencies. Lower in sugar than real ice cream. ( winemama you are following luvcats, yes?)

Brit/UK TV: Vera, Shetland, Hinterland, Silent Witness,....current favorite is Waking the Dead
These are either Prime or Brit Box through Prime (streams better buying it through Prime on my Apple TV device, 3rd generation rather than direct from BritBox—same price).