TKR Marguette’s Full Recovery

[Celle]

Try to find something that you can do while you're resting, so that you feel you are still doing something.

Try not to think of resting as "lying around, doing nothing." Instead, think of it as working hard, to give your knee the best possible chance of healing well.
In other words, when you are icing and elevating and watching TV, you are not 'lazing around' - you are "engaging in a carefully considered, proactively designed, heuristically programmed, dynamically structured recovery programme".

 

[Marguette]

I've done so much middle of the night knitting in the past few weeks, a good distraction for a short while but does not calm down the body. I never think of it as "doing nothing". Think of it as an electric current going through the body that is intolerable. Agitation of some sort. I don't typically suffer from anxiety so not sure what that is.

 

[ChrissiG]

Could it be your meds Marguette? I came off dihydrocodeine after 2 weeks because it was making me very sick and just not myself and after a few days I started with panic attacks and severe anxiety. I was even readmitted to hospital with breathing difficulties. It took me a little while to realise it was my meds. I am very sensitive to changes in dose stopping/starting etc. After a week or so it eased off but was very unpleasant. I also felt an intense restlessness - which sounds a bit like you are describing. Hopefully it will ease off soon. I’m 6 weeks out and starting to feel human again!

 

[kneeper]

I liked lying down listening to books on tape for resting. Your mind focuses on the book but your body relaxes.

 

[Marguette]

Could it be your meds Marguette? I came off dihydrocodeine after 2 weeks because it was making me very sick and just not myself and after a few days I started with panic attacks and severe anxiety. I was even readmitted to hospital with breathing difficulties. It took me a little while to realise it was my meds. I am very sensitive to changes in dose stopping/starting etc. After a week or so it eased off but was very unpleasant. I also felt an intense restlessness - which sounds a bit like you are describing. Hopefully it will ease off soon. I’m 6 weeks out and starting to feel human again!

haven't been on strong meds for six weeks. only taking Tylenol 500 - 1000 mg at bed time.

 

[Marguette]

I liked lying down listening to books on tape for resting. Your mind focuses on the book but your body relaxes.

tried listening to book, music, meditation, tv, knitting, taking a shower, etc. Nothing works. I generally go like this most of the night and then for no apparent reason, it stops and I fall asleep around 6 a.m. Go figure, just when it's time to get up.

 

[Marguette]

So this is week twelve and I would say that apart from the inability to sleep, the occasional mood shift and moderate pain manageable with tylenol, there is not much going on. I don't feel there is any progress in my ROM but my leg is getting stronger. I'm doing my last PT hydrotherapy tomorrow. More a formality than anything. Back to work on Monday. Except for being tired from lack of sleep, I think it will be ok. I was very encouraged by positive reports from others after 10 months to a year. I've really appreciated all of your support. I'll probably check in next week after a couple of days at work. Have a great week all.

 

[sistersinhim]

not much going on

Not much going on is a really good thing in this recovery! Sleep is off and on for many of us. I have been a fitful sleeper for many years, not just because of the tkr. But, that really made it bad! I blame it on menopause now!

Finishing PT is a huge jump up in your recovery! Now, it on to enjoying your new life given to you by a new knee!

 

[Marguette]

ot much going on is a really good thing in this recovery! Sleep is off and on for many of us. I have been a fitful sleeper for many years, not just because of the tkr. But, that really made it bad! I blame it on menopause now!

A long way from enjoying my new life given by my new knee. Still regretting that decision but still hopeful it can improve.

 

[Marguette]

On the up side, ended PT today and ROM is up to 100/0 at 12 weeks.

 

[sistersinhim]

On the up side, ended PT today and ROM is up to 100/0 at 12 weeks.

Yay! That's a giant step in this recovery! Good for you! Now, to get better sleep.

 

[Marguette]

Just got home from a very short walk almost in trears; not because of pain but because as I tried to walk with a normal gait, the inside of my knee and the inside of my hip (groin area) started to crack with every step. Like cracking your knuckles. Anxiety over the potential long term problems is skyrocketing.

 

[Marguette]

Really bad night. "Good knee" is throbbing with pain, op knee is limiting my life worse than ever, fybro is acting up, depression is setting in. Delema, sell the house, retire from work and risk poverty when the house money runs out. Appologies ~That's my rant for tonight. Not sure if problems are more physical or existential. Maybe both.

 

[Jockette]

Everything seems worse when we are in pain. I’m sorry you’re going through such a tough time.

 

[sistersinhim]

You will get through this. Your knee is in the angry tissue stage. You are starting to feel better, so you try something knew. The knee reacts negatively. Bummer, can't do that yet! Just wait a few weeks and the try it again. This is such a painfully slow recovery. No wonder we want to pull our hair out sometimes! Just remember that it won't be like this all the time. Improvements come every week. They might be tiny, but they are there!

 

[Marguette]

Thank you for your encouragement but here lies the problem...
I'm not trying anything new. In fact, I'm doing less and less, and of course, getting stiffer and stiffer. I'm not doing anything to aggrevate. At 12 - 13 weeks, I expected some improvement in how I felt overall. I'm sure you are right and I am probably just going through a bad phase. It probably didn't help that I had to have this shave biopsy for cancerous cells on my nose. It was the tipping point in impacting my already precarious mood.

 

[Celle]

There are timers when your knee seems to be making no progress at all. It's just marking time, consolidating the progress it has already made.
Right now, it has the added stress of going back to work as well.

Hang in there, because things are gong to get better.

It's just this:

 

[Marguette]

This morning I sat by the river
Soaking in the sounds and the smells
The ripple of water over the stone
The gentle breeze wrestling through the trees
While the sun peered through and sparkles on the water
The geese, the duck, the gulls...
The antics of a raccoon playing in the water
Turning stone upon stone
And for just a little while, life drifted by
For once, without the awareness of this knee
And the awareness that there is so much more to life to be enjoyed.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

 

[Jockette]

That is a beautiful poem.

 

[Marguette]

So for the most part, I have very little swelling except for this one area, on the inside and to the back of my knee, above the bend. It looks like a large growth on the side of my leg. It makes my leg feel deformed, in contrast to other surrounding area which has little swelling. It's an area the size of a large tomatoes. Has anyone else experienced this? Until now, I've just assumed that it was swelling but I'm starting to wonder if it's fluid or something.