TKR Marguette’s Full Recovery

[Mutti3]

@Celle
At the physical therapy facility, the stationary bike did everything. I was referring to a regular macho cheap gym they had sign all over the bikes. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Marguette]

So here is my frustration... not enough hours in a day.
Ice and elevate 40 min 4x per day 4 hr
Walk/ stretch 30 - 40 min after
sitting 40 min 6 hrs
Working sitting down 7 hrs
A day with 10 min breaks
between call except for lunch 7 hrs
Total: 17 hrs. Ah ah... 7 hrs for sleep, chores and everything else. No time to walk between clients. So the goal seem unattainable. Good thing I don't take anything too seriously.

 

[Celle]

Thank you for clarifying, Mutti.

 

[Celle]

@Marguette - I think some of your calculations are a bit incorrect. You can combine the sitting time with the working time, and your walks could be between clients, or just a 5-minute walk around the office. Since you're now at work, you don't need to do any other exercises - work and all its associated activity is your exercise.

Rest, ice and elevate when you can, and for as long as you can.
Come home from work, prepare a simple meal, and then sit down and rest, ice and elevate.
Save any housework and shopping for days when you don't go to work.

 

[Marguette]

Celle
Yes, that is basically what I am doing. My calculations were based on an article I just read "Movie signs" (I think that's what it was called). It said consider 45 min of sitting to be a long time and walk 30 - 40 min after 45 min of inactivity. My work requires me to sit 40 plus minutes every hour on the hour. This is not in my control. So yes, I can walk between sessions 5 min, but not 30 - 40 min as suggested. Besides, I couldn't walk 30 min right now even if I wanted to. After supper, I spend the evening resting, elevating and icing until bed time. Maybe I misunderstood the article. I'll read again

 

[Jockette]

Yes, re-read that article, it says:

“So you need to get up and take a walk about every 30-40 mins, do stretches and simple exercises to get the normal circulation flowing again. “

Not walk FOR 30-40 minutes. Easy misunderstanding.

Here’s the full article again:
https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/pain-movie-sign-in-tkr.19506/

 

[Marguette]

It's all on where you put the emphasis. Lol

 

[Celle]

"about every 30-40 minutes" means you take a walk after that time has passed, not for that time.

If it meant "for that time" it would have said "for 30-40 minutes". I agree it's an easy mistake to make, though.

 

[Josephine]

but not one that can be set to no resistance.

Do you mean no resistance adjustment at all or that it starts at 1?

Since you're now at work, you don't need to do any other exercises - work and all its associated activity is your exercise.

Quite right!

It said consider 45 min of sitting to be a long time and walk 30 - 40 min after 45 min of inactivity.

That means a long time sitting in a movie theatre without moving! You know how easy it is to get engrossed in a movie and loose track of time, not even moving a muscle. I doubt that anywhere you would sit you would be sitting like that!

 

[Jockette]

@Josephine
It’s been months since I looked at these exercise bikes, but I think there was an adjustment setting, but even at the lowest setting, there seemed to be a lot of resistance. I didn’t test it with my legs, I used my hand to move the pedal and it was hard to move. No way was I going to try it with my legs. No one in my community seems to know much about it.

 

[Marguette]

Funny... I was talking with my brother last night and he was telling me about his knee surgery to get a torn ACL repaired. He said he had PT for six months after and went through hell with pain and swelling. Two or three days after stopping PT, the pain and swelling went away and he fully recovered. We both had a good laugh.

 

[Marguette]

So today was my first full day at work. I was able to walk a bit every hour and went for a five min walk on two occasions. Was able to ice and elevate once. Feeling very tired. I could crawl in bed now. Not too much pain but definately some swelling. This is going to be an adjust ment for sure.

 

[Jockette]

But overall you did the best you could! Walking often and icing once. Great job! Hopefully it won’t take too long for your knee to adjust.

 

[Marguette]

Started to take short walks without my cane. Taking pain meds less often at night. Some days I can go up and down stairs slowly and with support but manageable. The biggest concern right now is pain under the knee cap, weakness in the leg and not being able to get in/out of the bath. Coping well with back to work so far. Over all, this week is going well.

 

[SusieShoes]

Yay! You can walk without your cane and you are making progress!

Inactivity, both before and after TKR surgery, leaves the leg muscles weaker than we want them to be, so it can take a bit of work before they get back up to speed. By work I mean everyday work like walking, stairs, and doing daily activities. It took me nearly the full year to get my leg muscles good and strong enough to make stairs easy. All I did was walk and... do stairs. Strength returns quite naturally.

 

[Marguette]

Walking more without my cane and not too much swelling. This humidity his playing havoc with the rest of my body though. If its not one thing, its another. Enjoying a nice Canada Day weekend with family celebration.

 

[Marguette]

So here we are 16 weeks post surgery. It seems that since I stopped exercising at the pool, I have settled into this semi neutral position. I can walk relatively comfortably without my cane, there is some swelling and stiffness which stays about the same all the time. For the most part, I only take a Tylenol once in a while, maybe twice a week. Going up and down stairs is still a challenge and I tend to avoid using my knee normally. Still can't get in and out of the bath. I feel like this is how it's going to be the rest of my life. Nothing has changed in several weeks. All I feel is resignation.

 

[Jockette]

At this point in recovery it does seem to stand still for some of us. But if you look at the year long recovery (give or take) you are still only 16 weeks into 52.

Where you are now is not where you will end up.

 

[mlwreader]

@Marguette I have the same kind of work schedule as you. For example yesterday I had six students, ie., six hours of tutoring. I have approximately 15 minutes between them. Then, last night I had a couple of hours work reviewing homework assignments for today's students, numbering five. It is so hard with this schedule to find time to walk. The best I can seem to do is walk around between students, and then if I have an hour break, lay on my day bed with my legs raised on my Lounge Dr. for 30 minutes. Now I am almost at 10 months out, and I don't suffer swelling from the sitting, but I am definitely stiff when I stand up after sitting for close to an hour. The other thing I identify with that you wrote about is the stairs - I still have a challenge going upstairs from my right knee. I can do it, but it is uncomfortable and I have to assist myself with the railing. It is especially uncomfortable after going for a walk in the neighborhood. But the discomfort is really mild, and I am hoping it will eventually go away. I am going back to CA in September for my year's visit with my OS, so we'll see how things stand then with Ms. Righty. Bottom line, it really is a year long journey, and sometimes longer as @Jockette has experienced. Still, compared to last year at this time, well. . . . really there's no comparison. Hang in there.

 

[KarriB]

It will get better! I made progress well into the second year just living my life and after I began a walking regimen I had phenomenal progress at 3 years! You’re still early in recovery and it will get better.