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TKR Marguette’s Full Recovery

Please don’t be too quick to resign yourself to the way things are right now. There’s mighty healing going on behind the scenes. It just feels like you’re not making progress because the progress isn’t happening in giant steps.

Getting rid of pain and swelling is huge! It leads the way toward all the improvements you want so much to see.
 
:kitty:Marguette,
It can indeed feel like it’s at a standstill. When I fell in 2016 and shattered my elbow and fractured my lower arm, I could not move my fingers when the cast came off ten days later. My arm looked like a prehistoric bone! Doctors thought I had nerve damage and were skeptical about my gaining arm motion back. My PT was an expert in my situation and week by week he hung in there with me. I saw little to no progress but I determined no matter what I would not go backwards and give up nor would it steal my humor or joy. I iced and used the devices they got me and stayed the course. It took 1.5 years and two surgeries plus many finger and arm exercises to finally heal and have my arm doctor declare me “healed” and turn me over to his partner, my knee doctor! I had been scheduled for this TKR but it was cancelled when I damaged my arm. It’s been a 1.5 year wait...

You may see no change for several weeks with your knee. Going up and down stairs can be a long restoration process. With my right TKR I didn’t go down stairs well alternating feet for a long time. With my recent left TKR, my hubby noted things where he saw progress that I didn’t! So I noted those things and rejoiced when he shared them with my doctor.
 
That reminds me of when I broke my elbow 12 years ago. It was a minor break. It took a year to too feel normal again. I had trouble with grasping things, like door knobs, holding dishes that I was washing, hanging clothes on a hanger.

No PT in those days, we got better by doing our Activities of Daily Living!

And it was a minor break. Compared to that, 1 year recovery from all that’s involved in a knee replacement is a bargain!
 
I can understand your thoughts of thinking this will never get better. I experienced that last year with my LTKR and the awful :gaah: clamp like feeling I had and no matter what anyone said I just couldn’t imagine it getting better. Then somewhere between 5-6 months the feeling lessened and after 6 months it was gone. Tightness continued until about 10 months and then that was “suddenly” much better. course now with this second surgery the left tightness has returned BUT what I now know and can believe from my own experience is that things will get better - it just takes TIME and lots of patience:prayer: I know it’s hard to believe but just hang in there:angel:
 
Not posting as often these days as there is nothing new going on and feeling quite depressed, so I don't want to dwell on the negative. Had I known what to expect, I would never have done this. Too late now. All I can do is move forward.
 
What are you able to do at this point? If there’s pain, where is it?
 
I can walk around the block without a cane, about 400 steps, sometimes twice. My hip/ knee cracks unexpectedely but little to no pain. I can go to the pool for 1/2 hour with no pain but suffer the next day and for the next 3 days. When there is pain, which is anytime I try to increase activities, it is in the knee cap area and along the femur, mostly on the inside thigh area above the knee, which is also where I have the most swelling, which seems to never improve.
 
Has our Josephine been consulted or asked about your pain?
 
Yes. Based on her response, I stopped daily excercise at the pool. She recommended I ask my GP for Tramadol but I do not feel I need pain meds. Tylenol seems to be sufficient. It seems to be catch 22... if im active, swelling and pain goes up; if I reduce activity, my leg weakens and movement becomes more difficult.
 
I had my surgery on March 13, 2017, so you are where I was last year. I still had swelling and had to be really careful of my activities at this point.

It was at my mid July appointment that my surgeon pushed my bend to a very painful place and held it there. I told him twice it was too far. He wouldn’t let it down until he reached for his measuring device and measured it. I was so mad. He did this every appointment but this time it hurt even more than the others.

3 days later I went to visit friends for the weekend. I struggled all weekend with their standard height lower toilet. By the time I got home I could hardly bend my knee! It took a month to be able to bend better and then I had another setback due to my son’s wedding, which was 3 days of over activity and a lot of standing over those days. Another month to recover from that.

Some of us just have legs that don’t tolerate activities that exceeds it’s limit.
:console2:
 
My surgeon did not feel the need to see me again after 5 weeks until five year anniversary unless there us a concern. I insisted in a folloew-up at six month, if only to make sure everything is on tract. How are we, as patients, supposed to know what is normal and what isn't. Before the surgery, I asked specific questions about function, depression and meds. His responses were reassuring but not a true representation of what I am going through. I feel he misrepresented the potential for a good recovery. The thought of dealing with this for another six months or more is overwhelming. Not because of the pain or swelling but because of the lack of function. According to the surgeon, my life would be getting back to normal at around three months. I have a few choice words to say about that bunch of bull. I will not be doing this again. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.
 
Marguette said:
How are we, as patients, supposed to know what is normal and what isn't.
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That's what Bonesmart is for! Everyone of us has been through what you are going through. We know it is a long recovery. You're just 3 1/2months out, only 1/4 of the way healed. What you are feeling sounds completely normal. Please be patient and try not to do too much. When you do, your knee gets angry and lets you know that it isn't ready for that yet. Stop doing it now and then try it again in a couple of weeks. The knee should always be in control of what you do and don't do!

Marguette said:
His responses were reassuring but not a true representation of what I am going through. I feel he misrepresented the potential for a good recovery.
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Unfortunately, OSs are famous for not telling it like it is! Mine did tell me that's I'd hate him for 3 to 4 months, so I knew it was going to be rough.
 
MY OS told me the first six weeks would be hell, and after three months, I would be feeling more like myself. I would say the first 10 weeks were hell physically and at 3 1/2 months, it is depression that is taking over, in large part, due to the level of inactivity but also as a result of the surgery itself. Anyways, I feel like I am spending way too much time talking/writing dwelling on/about this. Time to call it a night.
 
From what my surgeon’s office did and did not day, and from what I’d read online about partials, I expected a 2-3 month recovery.

Yes, very unrealistic expectations. I’m glad I found Bonesmart. They answer all my questions and care about me way more than my surgeon ever could!
 
It was a full year before I felt really good. Going back to work helped my depression a bit because I felt isolated during my recovery.
 
Marguette said:
I feel he misrepresented the potential for a good recovery. The thought of dealing with this for another six months or more is overwhelming. Not because of the pain or swelling but because of the lack of function. According to the surgeon, my life would be getting back to normal at around three months.
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I think your surgeon was over-optimistic. This recovery does take a full year and you are not quite a third of the way through that yet.
Give it time. Things are going to get better.

Remember that how you feel right now is not how you're going to feel in 6 months' time. Your knee is healing all the time and your symptoms will gradually subside.
Your knee is not the finished article yet. It's still a work in progress.

I think there's often a conflict between what we expect recovery to be like and the reality of what it's really like - and that causes a lot of heartache.
Where are you in recovery?? (TKR)
 
To add onto Celle’s comment, think of where you were 1 or 2 months ago. You’ve made progress and I’m sure more will come.
 
KerriB.. I was making progress but it seems that for the past three weeks, I'm going backwards. Things I could do with relative ease 3 weeks ago are now difficult to do. As of today, new pain in my femur like I haven't had before. Back on pain meds after being off for 2 weeks. Loosing interest in everything.
 
Sometimes you hit a patch where you seem to be just marking time, or even regressing a little. I don't think that's going to be permanent. I think of it as a time when your knee is taking a pause, to consolidate what it has already achieved, before it moves forward again.

Your knee is still only a cranky toddler. Treat it gently and give it a bit more TLC until it feels a bit better. Make sure you're not asking too much of it now it's having a little tantrum. After a little rest, it may be ready to move forward again.
 
Each day gets a little worse. Today I woke with worst pain my knee, thigh and hip. Even just sitting hurts. Very emotional. Not good!
 
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