Bilateral TKR My BTKR Journey

[leejaa]

Fantastic for you to have some more freedom. The next 5 days should fly and soon you will click your new knees and be home just like Dorothy with her red shoes.

 

[jetthugger]

Hi Carol, your thread title "Star Date + 26 hours" do I take it you're a Trekkie? Or am I shinning up the wrong tree? Well done on your recovery & two shiny new knees! Just think of all the stuff you will soon be able to do!!! Make sure you get plenty of rest & be gentle with yourself!! LLAP (if you are!)

 

[pegleg]

PLEASE forgive my writing, they still have me on a lot of drugs and my IPAD doesn't understand what I want to type!

I must be OK, I'm still here. Pain isn't too bad, but they haven't removed the femoral blocks yet. Everybody says I'm looking good for some one who just had BTKR. They should have seen me pre-op!


This little note has taken far too long to write. I think I'll quit now.
Carol

Get well soon and dont worry about the typo i cant spell normal

 

[lynard]

Wow! Laps around the gym!! and two new knees..I'm impressed. Take care and don't over do it, ok?

 

[NatureLoverCD]

I'm home, and my daughter took a couple of weeks off of work to help me out. Funny, or maybe not so funny, but I feel more pain now than I did in rehab. I had the first visit from the P.T. today, she reminded me of the mantra, which I have not been following to a "T". Well I'm getting started on it today!

 

[referee54]

I had the first visit from the P.T. today, she reminded me of the mantra, which I have not been following to a "T". Well I'm getting started on it today!

WE all have had these fits of feeling great---perhaps a little too great---and then we do little too much. Take it easy, ice, elevate, and rest often.

 

[jetthugger]

Its great that your home!
Don't worry too much about getting things totally right, just rest, relax, do gentle exercises & follow the mantra & make sure you keep up with your pain meds on time!! Your knees will set the pace for everything for a while!
Let your daughter pamper you & look after you, I'm sure she will relish the opportunity to be 'mom' for a couple of weeks!
Have a great Sunday, hope you are getting some sleep!

 

[NatureLoverCD]

One month! It's been one month since my BTKR. My wonderful daughter has spent all of the time since I left rehab with me. How fortunate I am! This weekend she is in Colorado doing her Roller Derby thing, but will be back on Monday and stay with me through the end of the week. I'm going to miss her company.

We have been out and about, mainly to pick up medications and other stuff, or have dinner with friends. I have been using a cane sporadically in the house, and no cane at all in my bedroom. I can't wait to throw the walker away for good. My brother called me last weekend (he had TKR on one of his legs a couple of years ago) and told me not to call him until I was totally off of the walker. I think I'll wait until Christmas to call just to spite him.

The pain has been tolerable, mainly when I get up or sit down. I haven't had any sleep issues at all. My friends and neighbors have been wonderful. I really can't complain. (Well I can complain: I hate that CPM machine! ) All-in-all, I consider myself very lucky after reading some of the other posts.

 

[nlthomp]

Hi Carol--Just stopping by to tell you how impressed I am! Sounds like your recovery is coming along very well. I'm heading into week 5 and can relate to much of what you have to say. Got rid of my walker last week. Woohoo! Have quite a limp, but I know time is the key factor in our recovery.

Best of luck and please keep us posted

--Nancy

 

[NatureLoverCD]

Five and a half weeks and I just had my final session with my at-home physical therapist. (5/106 left; 6/105 right) I have been switching between the walker and cane for about a week now. We discovered today during P.T. that I can actually get around better without the cane. So I will be working on getting around cane free from now on.
My daughter goes home tomorrow, so I will be on my own. It seems like everything is coming together very nicely. I hope I'm not getting too optimistic too soon.

I wish all of you the best, and as easy a recovery as possible.

 

[bottomshollow]

Carol, what a great report. If you continue to take it slow and easy, not push things, and not overdo too often, I think you will continue to get better and better without any problems. If you do get a little over ethusiastic---there's always the BoneSmart cocktail, ice, elevation, and rest to fall back on for a day or two.

Take care and keep us posted. We care.

 

[NatureLoverCD]

I had my 6-week post-op yesterday. Seems like everything is going fine. I got the go-ahead to drive and return to the pool. You can believe that the first thing I did when I got home from the doctor's appointment yesterday was hop in the car and go somewhere. I feel like a free woman again.

I'm getting around the house mostly on my own, and sometimes with the cane when my legs get tired. I use my cane when I leave home (my security blanket).

I think I'm having some episodes of restless leg syndrome, as my legs seem to want to move every evening at the same time. The medicine for muscle spasms don't help. Any ideas? Whatever it is, it's driving me crazy!

Oh well, that's all for now. Gotta go DRIVE and get my handicap placard.

 

[new knee in June]

Hi Carol,
I just found your thread, you are doing great. Your daughter & friends are Funny story....
my surgery is June 3rd LTKR I asked my daughter (19) for a water the other day, I'm waiting & waiting.
Finally, I say "where's my water". She says I was to late asking for it, because she already got 1 for her.
I never got a water.
I told my husband if I had to depend on my kids I am doomed If you read in the paper someday of a woman
who was found dehydrated & near death, while icing & elevating it's me
The sad part is they are 19-22-24, I'm doomed
Take Care,
Diana

 

[Titianlady]

Cdskinn, are you still taking your pain meds? When I weaned off of my pain meds, one of the side affects was restless legs. My GP told me that is one of the things that happens when we withdraw from narcotic pain meds after using them for longer than a few weeks.
It drove me batty for a while, but it did stop.

Some folks are not bothered by the restless legs, some folks are depending on their systems and how they wean from the meds..

Don't fret dear, it will go away. Heat actually helps!! Take a hot bath or shower or put a warm heating pad on your thighs. Works really well.

 

[NatureLoverCD]

When I weaned off of my pain meds, one of the side affects was restless legs.

Titianlady, I am just about completely off of Percocet. Some nights I take them and some nights I don't. Haven't taken them during the day for about a week. I'm taking Aleve to reduce inflammation during daytime. So maybe that's it. I'll try the heating pad tonight. Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how it goes.

new knee in June: Diana, fortunately my daughter is 27. Shave off a few years and she probably would have said what your daughter said.

 

[Titianlady]

cdskinn Great, let me know how you do. Most surgeons don't tell us that we need to ween ourselves off of strong narcotic meds gradually if we've taken them for a while. Most of us just stop taking them as our pain levels go down by ourselves, but there is a weening schedule in our library section that helps us not go through the little bits of physical withdrawal we might have.

Percocet Is a rapid release form of OxyContin, and can be a stinker to stop abruptly. Some of the other meds like Tramadol, hydrocodone( Vicodin and Norco) don't present as much of the symptom risk, depending on the persons metabolism.

The restless ( or crazy legs as I call it) legs and sleeplessness are a couple of those side affects. If you just stopped taking them altogether during the day, and then just take an occasional one at night without weening off, this stuff can happen. It doesn't happen to everyone, but some folks like us just happen to be a bit sensitive I guess.

The heat does help. You may need to apply the heating pad a couple of times during the night, but after a while, all will be just right as rain.

If you still have issues, please go to the library section of our forum and check out the weening schedule. We try to cover everything there from soup to nuts!!

 

[NatureLoverCD]

@Titianlady; Toni, I tried the heating pad on my legs last night. It didn't seem to help any. As a matter of fact, it seemed to make things worse for me. I was going to try it again tonight, but the RLS did not return. Oh well, maybe tomorrow, but I hope not.

 

[Titianlady]

Well, let's hope that the RLS doen't return. I know it drove me batty for a good 2 weeks when I stopped taking my pain meds.

The heat was suggested to me by my GP. He said it helped a lot of folks, but then again, it may not work for everyone's situation. It helped some for me. It relaxed my muscles down to where I could at least get a little bit of rest.

I'll be praying that the RLS doesn't return and you can get some rest my dear. Hang in there..

( Ah, the joy of recovery....)

 

[NatureLoverCD]

It's been eight+ weeks since my surgery. I don't use any walking aids in the house, and carry my cane to the car when I leave the house. It only leaves the car if a have a lot of walking to do.
I had my second out patient PT yesterday. My PT put me on the bike to warm up. First time on the bike. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to cycle all of the way around, but I did! I iced at PT before leaving. Nothing hurt until this morning. Oh boy, did it hurt! My knee was also nicely swollen. So I iced and elevated, and all is well with the world and my knees now. The funny thing is that I enjoyed the PT session and didn't feel that I was overdoing it. Don't know exactly which part of the PT caused my knees to revolt. So I don't know what not to do next time.
I dusted and vacuumed one room one day last week. Boy did my knees not like that. I guess for now I'll have to dust one day and vacuum another day. I find it hard to make myself take it easy, even knowing that it hasn't been that long since the surgery and is a long time until recovery.

 

[kneeper]

I guess for now I'll have to dust one day and vacuum another day.

Good plan.