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TKR My Journey as of 12/16/13 - Over 1 Year and Still Trying

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I had a great day! I am on a new eating plan, that includes no eating out and I did very well today despite wanting to go to the convenience store for my "sugar fix"! I was on the recumbent bike for 30 minutes, and then I did resistance exercises that do not engage the core! I am hoping the Dr. Releases me on Monday! That will be 10 days since my laparoscopic gall bladder surgery!:happydance: I feel great!
 
Doglover....please don't get too carried away with your activity. The swelling is telling you that you need to still take things easy for now. Quite honestly, you are VERY early in this recovery at only 1 month. And you've started back to work which is an added activity.

I suggest that you not try to reduce your pain meds until you have that swelling and pain under control. Is there some reason you're in such a hurry to do so? Your ROM is good even with the swelling, so there is no reason to push or to have your therapist push you. You're coming along just fine.

I also would caution you about hurrying too fast to a cane or crutches. If you limp at all when using them, it's too soon. I know you want to feel like you're making progress. Hon, YOU ARE!!! Go back and see where you were a week ago....2 weeks ago. This is a time for patience!!!
 
Hi Ellen ... Congratulations on the ROM - 110 is indeed fantastic, and at only 30-odd days out. I dream about getting that far, but at 12 weeks and only 70-75, it seems as far away as it was the day of the op. But that's what it is at the moment, and I need to live with it.

Climbing stairs AND doing forward and back rotations on the bike - you have done beautifully. I wish you continued improvement and that you go from strength and strength.

Take Care ... Ellen:flwrysmile:
 
That's great @RestAssured ! Keep up the 'clean' eating and exercise routine! It's so much easier to eat well when you're in charge of making your own food! Keep up the great work!

Good questions @Jamie ~ not sure I have great answers to them. Regarding the pain meds, I'm mainly trying to taper them off because my OS keeps doing so. Every refill he gives me less and less and I'm afraid that I'm going to get stuck one day soon where I run out and he won't issue another script. My last refill was only for enough pills to get me to my next visit only taking 1 5mg Oxy every 6 hours. As I have been taking 2 oxy every 4 hours, you can see the challenge. I've asked for this last refill before I actually needed it due to the fact that they seem to think that Tylenol will be a good 'filler' when needed. It's not. :-(

As for the cane/crutches, I do still limp when using them. I don't limp when using the walker, but I'm very self conscious about having to use it, so have tried to push myself along to progress and thought that my gait would improve if I switched to a lesser device. Wrong, huh?

I wish I did not have to work. I know the days that I do are too much for me, but there's no way around it as I'm self employed. As a caterer, I fear if I say 'no' to clients, then they will never call me again as they'll just find someone else. I have been leaning on my servers more to work the actual events, but I do all prep work and cooking. That's just how it's always been. :-(

I did not properly prepare for, or even fully understand, just how long and challenging the recovery process would be. My head knows that if I try to push myself, I'm just doing more harm than good, but I guess I don't see any other way as I'm doing this all on my own and feeling hugely sorry for myself more than I would care to admit.

Thank you for your encouraging words. It's nice to hear. I know I'm much better than I was 2 weeks ago. I guess I just feel that the progress I am making just isn't good enough. I'm very hard on myself and am just kinda spinning in circles at the moment trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to be able to do this.

Thank you @NetballKnees ! I am happy with the 110 ROM as I had been at 105 2 weeks ago and then fell back to barely 90 and couldn't make any headway with that. I wish I didn't compare myself to others, but I do and I am far behind everyone else at PT who had surgery the same day that I did. :-( I have a hard time acknowledging my successes and instead seem to wallow in the things that I still can't do. Not my best character trait. Don't worry about your ROM. It will come in time and probably when you least expect it to. And as for the stairs, uhm, I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon ;-)

Everyone on this site is so wonderfully supportive and it's so appreciated! My friends are more than tired of hearing me complain about everything and don't understand why I don't want to go to happy hour or out to dinner or shopping or anything really. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I know that I can't do it right now. They all assume I should be better and pretty much back to normal by now. It's tough for me to admit that I'm not wonder woman and that I'm not back to 'normal' (whatever that is).

I hate that I get into these funks and I'm quite certain that everyone around me hates them too. ;-)
 
Those "funks" are normal! You really aren't doing your knee any favors right now! ROM is not the most important thing in the healing, letting the tissues inside that were cut, moved around and traumatized is! I know, you are one of those "Type A" personalities, who is strong headed and going to push through no matter what!:heehee: You know how I know? Looking at your posts, I could swear they were mine!:rotfl:

Now, what I learned, by accident, and not by anyone drilling it into my thick skull:whistle:, was when we took weekends and went to the cabin, I sat and watched the wildlife, went around the little towns sightseeing and so forth, instead of constantly worrying about my knee, great things started happening. Swelling went down, because it had no access to a gym. My knee felt so much better!

As a caterer, if you have to be there get you a rolling stool that has five legs and will not tip! Please give yourself a break, and before you know it, you too will be one of our great success stories!:happydance: By the way I was 45 when I first had my knees done and wasn't much on walkers either! LOL. But like Jamie said "do what's in the best interest of you! Your friends and family haven't had knee replacements, so there is NO way they understand! We do and we care!:friends:
 
My second TKR was on Dec 10 and for this one I did it right and got a plum colored walker --it's gorgeous and I was quite happy to use it. I have learned to celebrate my knee--I send it positive vibes even when I'm quite sore and think will this never end!
A friend picks me up for coffee on Saturday morning so I get some social interaction. Perhaps going to Happy Hour and having a soft drink or other non-alcoholic treat would be a positive thing to do.
My answer to folks about how I'm doing is-- I'm doing great, it's just a long slow process that takes about a year. In your case having to work on your feet so soon is making things a little more difficult -- I hope that you can come up with ways of managing what you are doing to have a positive impact on your knee.
 
Snazzy walker @Chihuahuan ! ;-) I'm working on the whole 'sending positive vibes' thing to my knee. I love your response to people who ask how you're doing! You have such a wonderful attitude! I was supposed to have a friend come visit today and I was excited to try to take a very short walk outside (I'm afraid to do it on my own in case I trip or get too tired or whatever), but she had to cancel. Boo. I did take my non snazzy walker for a spin around the cul-de-sac on my own anyway though. Our weather is so beautiful here right now (71 and sunny), that I'm getting a serious case of cabin fever. I did manage to drag a chair out into the sun in my backyard today and gingerly walked the 3 steps across the uneven grass to get to it so I could enjoy the warmth and sunshine for a bit! Maybe I'll try for a little outing next week. :martini:

@RestAssured , I actually had to cater a wedding 10 days after my TKR and hadn't told my client about my surgery as I didn't want her to worry about anything going wrong for her daughter's big day. Needless to say, she was quite shocked to see me with my walker and catering staff! I had told her that I would be 'unavailable' the week prior to the wedding, but hadn't told her why. It's like a big lightbulb went off in her head and she shook her finger at me and sent me home. I've never left important functions solely in the hands of my staff before, but I was practically dying after being there for 5 hours, so I went. And all went fabulously. And I paid DEARLY the following week for overdoing it. I am working on perfecting the art of cooking while sitting. It's just kind of annoying having everything take 10 times longer than to do than it should. Oh well, it's only temporary, right? ;-)

I've been taking it easy today and aside from a quick 'run' (ha) to the store and throwing a load of laundry into the wash, have just been icing and elevating. Wish my back would stop acting up, but hopefully that will work itself out in time as well.

I hope everyone is having a terrific day!
 
Did the bike today for 30 minutes, and the elliptical for 20! This was the first day that Abby would let me walk the indoor track, and I zoomed around the track for an hour! Loving life, loving my knees!:happydance:
 
Good for you sticking with your walker if you limp with a different aid. It means you're not ready to make a change quite yet. Please try and remember that your recovery is unique....you can't compare it to anyone. And one HUGE factor is that you are working a demanding job WAY, WAY before most people even think about going back to a DESK job! That has an impact. Of course you might not be as far along as others who are able to spend most of their days resting, icning and elevating like we suggest. While I understand that you must work, you simply cannot beat yourself up if you do that and then have some pain and swelling that others don't have. Your work is a tremendous amount of activity and I frankly think you're pretty amazing to be able to pull it off!!!

I do hope you took the experience to heart where your fabulous staff took over and got the job done for you. I bet they are feeling might proud to have accomplished that and it's cool that you let them do it. Congratulate them profusely and let them do it again!!! This is how good employees learn and grow. Send each one a thank you note and they will respect you forever for the opportunity to help you in this way and the knowledge that you truly appreciated their effort.

It doesn't sound like you've done much communicating with your medical team about your pain levels and the meds they are prescribing and intend to prescribe in the future....bad plan. You need to tell them when the meds aren't working to manage pain at the levels they prescribe. They have many options and can possibly prescribe another medication like Tramadol. Suggest it, even. Especially if the Tylenol isn't working for you yet. You are pretty early in recovery for a switch to Tylenol. What you don't want to do is try to cut back on prescription pain meds when you have pain. If you need one pill every 4 hours and only take it every 6 hours, you won't really get much relief at all and the pills are wasted. You're always chasing your pain. So plan on calling your surgeon or GP soon and talk pain with them.
 
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Keep up the great work @RestAssured !!

@Jamie , thank you SO much for your kind words. They really do mean the world to me. I hate sounding like a martyr, but I've always put others before myself and I carry that over to my catering as well. It's why my clients are so loyal probably. You're right though about trusting my staff to do things on their own and giving up that piece of control. Just because they may not do things my way doesn't mean it's the wrong way. I do hire great people and I forget sometimes that my 'guiding' them so much can be taken as my not trusting them and that couldn't be further from the truth. I've gotten better though about allowing them to just do their thing and actually had 2 events last week that I didn't even go to! I had my staff pick up the food from me (which I will always cook on my own, drat) along with the equipment and some guidelines and sent them on their way to make me proud!

As for communication with my medical team. Huh, how to explain this. It's virtually impossible to get ahold of my OS or his PA or SA. The practice is run like a corporation so you have to go thru 5 zillion channels and when I call in for an rx refill, I talk to person A and explain everything, who relays it to person B, and then someone I've never heard of calls to say that the rx is ready to pick up and it's different from what I thought. When I tell the person who calls about my plight, they inevitably explain it away as Dr's orders. I have a followup with my actual OS a week from Monday so will try my best to stand my ground and hope that he gives me RXs not only for oxy, but also Tramadol as a 'step down' drug and isn't stingy on the amounts. I know doctors need to be careful about over prescribing and he doesn't really know me from Adam, but although I would love to be off all pain meds, that's not my reality right now.

I don't want to get stuck chasing my pain again, so I will absolutely go see my GP if my next visit to my OS isn't fruitful.

Thank you so much for all your wonderful insight and advice. I truly appreciate you, and pretty much everyone on this site more than I can express. You all have been life-savers. xoxo
 
Hi Ellen .. I had a pretty rough week going back to work at 12 weeks and to a desk job. I think you are amazing to be catering at this stage in your recovery. Well done to you. I think you employ great staff because you have the knack of selecting caring workers with a terrific ethic towards their job. Congratulations for being confident enough to let your staff go out without you. Sometimes it is that letting go and trusting that you have trained your staff just right, is the hardest thing to do. With the working you will be doing, your recovery may stall sometimes, but as long as you even it out with resting, elevating, icing, medicating, I am sure you will soon be where you think you should be. Sonja's idea of the five-wheeled stool is a great one. Make it height adjustable to cater for differing size benchtops and you could call yourself the rolling caterer. :snork: (I have quite a visual in my head now of you zipping around various kitchens on your stool).

How wonderful to go out and sit in the sun :SUNsmile:. I would love to do it, but it is so hot over here at the moment that it is much more comfortable to be inside out of the heat. I think you sound as if you are doing well. You sound confident and strong and yes, you may have what you call "funks", but they are normal and sometimes, I think anyway, necessary to help us appreciate the next little forward movement in our recovery.

I hope you have a great week ahead Ellen ... Take Care and be kind to yourself ... Ellen
 
Thanks @NetballKnees . You give me too much credit though. It's not amazing that I'm back working, it's just a necessity. Truth of the matter is that I wish I had another option so I could concentrate solely on my recovery, but that's just not the reality of my life. I love my clients too and hate to let them down when I know that they need me. I am lucky to have a great staff. They know what they're doing and they put up with me! (not always the easiest thing in the world) ;-)

Too funny about me zipping around on the adjustable height stool. Heck, maybe I can find a motorized version and take it on the road! :happydance:

Being from Arizona, I know all about it being too hot to want to step foot outside, so I feel for you. Our summers (especially July & August) are just horrible. It's like getting hit in the face with a wall of pizza oven heat when you step outside.

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead as well Ellen! Thanks for all your kind words and support! ((hugs))
 
@NetballKnees,

We have blazing summers as well, but not as bad as Arizona!
Ellen, I remember one family vacation where we stopped in a small town in Arizona. It was Summer, and so we all decided ice cream would be nice!:loll: It was a soft serve stand and by the time my Dad had it paid for we were already drinking ice milk! I learned one important lesson that day! When I go to Arizona and find a stand like that again, I will ask for a cup!:rotfl:

By the way, I used to use one of those stools I am talking about when teaching 7th grade the last year! In sam's you can find them in the place where they have metal shelves to build etc. it saved my knees and part of my sanity!:rolleyes:
 
Haha, lesson learned on the ice cream! ;) MID August I'd just as soon as sit in ice cream as go outside to get some. Good to know about the stool at Sam's Club, there's one right by my house so may go look this week.

Sadly, today is pretty craptastic and one of my pity party days apparently. I was only able to get a couple hours sleep last night (just CAN'T get comfortable) so finally stopped trying @ 5am. When I got up, my knee felt pretty okay and seemed to have less swelling. The second I took a few steps and walked around though, it blew back up and got very tight and stiff as can be. :-( I had to do a bit of cooking this morning, but was only on my feet for 15-20 minutes but by the time the rice pilaf was done, I was ready to collapse and went back to bed to ice and cry for a while. :boohoo:

I sat on my back patio for a bit and watched my dogs play in the yard, but even that didn't help. I'm just SO tired. Literally and figuratively. I know it's a marathon and not a sprint and I know that I'm SLOWLY improving day by day, but it's hard to stay positive (especially when I'm so busy feeling sorry for myself) :whistle:

I have a pretty rough day ahead of me tomorrow. I cook for a darling older couple (why I was cooking this morning and still have more to do later today) and need to deliver their food tomorrow and they have lots of steps getting to and from their front door. I'm not very good at steps yet and am very nervous about face planting. They are lovely and have offered to carry everything but they're in their 80s and both have horrible knees as well, so I would feel like the world's biggest tool allowing them to do that. I have to devise a way to be able to carry everything in one hand so that I can hold onto the railing with the other. Some sort of a very sturdy bag instead of the cooler that I usually carry. After that I have a doctor's appointment and then straight to PT after that. I'll be gone for 5+ hours (my longest outing yet) and I'm kinda dreading it. I will take a bag of frozen peas in a cooler with me to ice along the way and I have nothing to do tomorrow night or Tuesday, so will plan on doing a lot of nothing but icing and elevating, so hopefully it won't be as bad as I fear.

Really just need for these funks and weepy spells to go away. Oh and having my knee feel awesome wouldn't be too shabby either. :puppysmooze:

I hope everyone is having a great day (or at least a better one than mine)... xoxo
 
All the best on your outing tomorrow. :)
And that is very sweet that you make meals for the elderly! :thumb:
 
thanks 1Elisea. Sadly Chihuahuan, no one is available to help me tomorrow :-(
 
Ellen,
Let the couple help you, it will make them feel good that they can still do something.
By doing everything for them you are training them to have learned helplessness. You have helped them so much by preparing a meal, they will have a nice warm feeling in their heart to be able to help you, that is a wonderful gift you can give them. Tis better to give than receive. Be sure to stick around to see they are safely in their house after climbing all those stairs. Have PT give you a gentle session, and take it easy the rest of the day.
I work with seniors, they are tough as nails, and they have seen it all, they can handle those stairs.
 
Hi Ellen .. I agree with Pumpkin. There should be something light they can each carry for you. If you give them an approximate time of arrival, they might be able to be waiting at the top of the steps, you can hand over some light stuff and you may be able to take everything down in one trip. I am scared of stairs as I don't have any at home and have only had to use stairs twice I think since the op, so this week at work I have started going to the stairwell and walking up one flight and back down. As with everyone, up is fine - down scares me. :yikes: I have done it once today and will do it again before going home. I also put my leg up on the second step and bend into it and then extend to stretch my hamstrings. It will be interesting to see if doing that regularly does anything for me.

I think you are a lovely person to cook for the older couple and to want to do it at the present time.

I am so sorry you had a "craptastic" day. :console2: You sound very much like me today. Second week at work and all I have wanted to do here is cry. I am like you - everyone says "it's a marathon" - in my brain I know that but in my heart of hearts, I don't want it to be that long and I want to be ME again - NOW. Even though my knees weren't good, I could use them and I rode bikes, swam, went to the gym and walked my fur babies - all the things I can't do now. One day ...

All the best for your marathon day Ellen - I will be thinking of you and hoping the day goes much better than anticipated.

Take Care ... :flwrysmile:Ellen
 
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