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TKR Midwest Girl - Round 2 Recovery

We've just been put in a blizzard warning for Monday 6:00 pm thru Tuesday. 8-12" of snow & 40-50 mph sustain winds. Should be interesting to see what my workplace decides to do for Tuesday.
 
Be careful! We have been having 65 degree days, so all our ice and snow are melted now. It sure was pretty though!
 
15.7" of snow and 4 foot drifts. Snow high enough on the doors I can't get open enough to get out. The guy I use for snow removal can't come because his small snow blower can't tackle this. So someone is coming soon with a skid loader to clean my drive and walk. I have an appt this afternoon with my OS for my 6 wk post op on wrist (and hopefully be rid of this brace) and 3 mo follow-up on knee. This will be the first time he's seen it since incision is healed. His office just called and said he's running late would I like to reschedule for Friday morning. I'd prefer not to. My work place is closed again today and it would just be easier to stick with today. She also said their parking lot hasn't been cleared of snow yet. Fun. We'll see how the afternoon progresses. I may have to reschedule. I'll post later about the OS visit.
 
Thankfully for us, that blizzard missed us---but I can certainly commiserate with you about the snow.

I agree with you---if you can get to the OS's office today, you can move forward with things and not have to take time off of work.

Hopefully, you will not have to reschedule!

We will keep our finger crossed and look forward to what the OS had to say.
 
I did make it to my appointment but was disappointed I didn't get to see my surgeon. He was still in surgery. So I saw a PA. Had X-rays of the knee - all looked good. She looked at my incision and thought it looked good until you got to the bottom where the wound didn't heal. It's just a really wide scar with lots of thick adhesions. She was really impressed with my flexion of 129. My goal is to hit that 130! She said they are happy when people get to 115-120. We talked about a couple of spots I have pain. All normal and will resolve with time.

My wrist - I'm done with the brace. Still having some pain at the area that was fixed and at the base of the thumb joint. She said the pain should resolve but am going to do some pt to strengthen the thumb and some ultrasound should help with the inflammation. She said they can give an injection in the thumb joint that should help but I wanted to wait and gave my surgeon do it. He's really good at it. So I go back in 6 weeks and hopefully I get to see my surgeon!
 
Today is the 3 month anniversary of my LTKA. Everything is going good. Haven't really used any meds except something at bedtime. Today was the start of increasing my work load. I'm now standing for several hours at a time and walking from one end of the building to the other several times a day and my body feels it. I've take. Tylenol several times today and will take something stronger at bedtime. I've been exhausted for about a week now. All I want to do is sleep. I come home from work, eat supper and in bed by 8:00. I sleep restlessly and wake up tired. Hopefully this will end soon.

I had to start PT on my wrist ( that just had surgery 6 weeks ago). It's been disappointing to have that burning in the wrist return as well as hypersensitivity on the incision scar. The OT took a bunch of measurements and it's definitely weaker and some range of motion is lacking. He doesn't think it will take long to get it back to "normal". It would have been nice to have had one surgery that had perfect results from the start. I'm exhausted and it's time for bed!
 
I am sorry you are having problems with your wrist. I did not have surgery, although I did break my wrist. It literally took a year for the pain and tenderness to go away. I kept doing exercises on my own and massaging the scar. You are in my prayers for relief and complete recovery with your wrist.

I cannot imagine working as much as you are with all the walking. Try to rest as much as you can. Are you having much swelling?

Here's hoping your day is peaceful and you have less pain.
 
Last session of PT for my knee was today. Didn't make my goal of 130 degree knee flexion. Got it to 128-129. Which is ok. As my knee and leg strengthens it will get there. I'll definitely miss going to PT.
 
128-129 is so close to 130 that it doesn't matter. Another person measuring, or the same person measuring another time could easily have said it was 130. It's only a number anyway. What you can do with your knee is far more important.
 
@Celle - oh I agree. It was just a goal. I've had little goals, stepping stones throughout this journey. I'm totally happy with the progress of my knee. I need to work on stamina now. Work is wearing me out each day!
 
I'm done with knee PT but am having to do PT for my wrist. What a nice feeling to go into pt wearing jeans and a sweater instead of sweats and a tshirt. Today is a holiday for me so it was nice to dress not in exercise or work clothes. And we have the anticipation of warmer weather this week - 50s & 60s. May have to take walks after work this week.
 
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Here's what I've noticed with my scar. It's very pliable except for the last 3 inches at the bottom. This is the area that had the one spot that wouldn't heal and was being treated by the wound center. That area was never touched or massaged for almost 3 months. I find that area to be thick and not very pliable. The incision line itself isn't thick just all the area around it. As if there is adhesions under and around the incision scar. With my knee the pain that I have that bothers me some is that when I'm walking sometimes I'll get this sharp pain in that area. Moreso slightly to the right of that area. Is it an adhesion and it's pulling and that's what I feel? And it doesn't happen every time I walk. At my last OS appt I asked the PA about the pain (although I didn't correlate it to the scar area) and her response was "well is it the same pain you had before surgery?' Well of course not. And that was the end of that! I see my surgeon (and hopefully I get to see him this time) at the end of March for the 3 month follow up for my wrist and I'll ask him about it. I know the advisors on here say that adhesions rarely happen. but that's what it feels like to me.

As far as my wrist, still doing PT/OT 3x/week. He thinks there is some improvement but I can't see it. I've been discouraged with the results of the surgery. He said what I'm experiencing is pretty normal for this recovery. Although he said he hasn't had a patient with scar hypersensitivity this far out from surgery. It's crazy - I can't stand anything touching it. Long sleeves are the worst. Crazy how much pain comes from a scar that is less than an inch long. But there are so many nerves in your hand. It will get better eventually. Just gotta re-train my brain.
 
I am sorry your wrist is not healing the way you think it should be. I understand. It really took the entire year after my break for mine to stop hurting. I wonder if you could wrap the wrist in the Saran Wrap like we use for our knees to help with the sensitivity? PAs aggravate me to no end sometimes! My OS's PA is really a hard tail (sorry, my husband calls her a more unflattering term like that) about therapy and bending your knee past all tolerable pain. She can be very hard edged in her reponses and would make me feel bad. So, I remembered what my Granny would always tell me when I struggled with someone: "kill them with kindness." I decided to write her a thank you note and thank her for all the care and concern she had shown me during my recovery. The next visit, her attitude was entirely different. Will it work with your snarky PA? Who knows. I do make a point when I make my appointments to tell them I want to see the doctor not the PA. Good luck and I pray you will have a resolution to your pain.
 
I had sent her a thank you note several weeks before that visit, and she even mentioned it in our visit. I think it was just one of those days. We had 16" of snow the day before and they opened the clinic at 1:00 the next day (the day of my appt). I was scheduled to see my surgeon but he was stuck in surgery. She was the only PA or Dr in the clinic that afternoon to handle patients. I just think it was a day. She was pleasant enough, she just didn't answer my questions. Maybe she didn't know the answer. I'm scheduled to see my surgeon on the next visit. But it's on a day that he does surgeries in the morning. So there's always that chance he won't be there. But my appt is at 4:00 so it should be good. This should be my last visit with him. Hopefully for years!

As far as the wrist hypersensitivity to help with that I rub a towel fast up and down my forearm - wrist to elbow. I'll also tap my fingers up and gown the arm. I don't think the Saran Wrap would work for this. I just get busy and forget to do it. With my job I do a lot of tasks that aggravate it but there's no way I can stop doing my job. So we work with it. He assures me it will get better.
 
midwest girl said:
Here's what I've noticed with my scar. It's very pliable except for the last 3 inches at the bottom. This is the area that had the one spot that wouldn't heal and was being treated by the wound center. That area was never touched or massaged for almost 3 months. I find that area to be thick and not very pliable. The incision line itself isn't thick just all the area around it. As if there is adhesions under and around the incision scar.
Click to expand...
I think that area of your scar is just behind the rest of it in healing, because it was possibly more irritated and inflamed. It makes sense that if it was slower to heal it will be slower to loosen up and become smooth and bump-free. There will probably still be more scar tissue there, but it's not the bad sort of scar tissue that is more properly called adhesions. There's no need to mobilise it. Just let it heal in its own time. You'll be surprised how much better it gets as time passes.
 
Left TKA
Pic on the left is 1 week post op. On the right 13 1/2 weeks post op. Not very straight towards the bottom, and a bit of a crater where a fat pad was removed. At the bottom is where the incision took a couple of months to heal closed. Scars are symbols of battles that I have overcome I'm proud of them
 
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