TKR My Life on the Other Side
- Thread starter ConnieJOS
- Start date
- Status
United States
OP
OP
ConnieJOS
senior
Melvin's six year old granddaughter spent the night with us last night. We took her to the park to play. I walked a paved 1/4 mile path, not steep hills but several small ones. I know many of you have walked much more than that at the stage I'm in, but that was pretty big for me! It's by far the farthest I've walked yet. I could really feel it in my muscles in my hips. At least it's a start!
gr82cu2
post-grad
Good job on the walk! The most I have walked has been at Walmart or Sam's Club, LOL. They streets in our neighborhood are being repaved and with this cooler weather I'm starting to get the itch to try to get out and walk. Hopefully they will be done this next week. I'll have a nice even surface under foot. It's all flat as a pancake though around here so no hills.
gr82cu2
post-grad
Oh how I know you Tennessee'ans love pancakes! When we used to go to the Smokey's there were pancake places everywhere!
marmora
post-grad
Hi Connie @ConnieJOS
Great news that you have a surgery date and not so great news that your insurance cover for PT is coming to an end.
Although, I go to 1-1 PT once per week( insurance will pay 50% for maximum of 7 visits/ year & then I pay full cost) and have Group PT once per week for 5 sessions at hospital where 8 had surgery (€140.00 or $180.00).
I find my at home PT routine to be also very effective, like you it is getting the motivation to do th exercises that is the challenge and not the exercises themselves !
Having a gym in your apartment complex is a bonus, you could incorporate some of your at home exercises with your visit there and then when able progress to some of the machines.
You have been though so much with all your previous surgeries and we will be here to support your with your at home exercise programme.
Take care,
Cathie
Great news that you have a surgery date and not so great news that your insurance cover for PT is coming to an end.
Although, I go to 1-1 PT once per week( insurance will pay 50% for maximum of 7 visits/ year & then I pay full cost) and have Group PT once per week for 5 sessions at hospital where 8 had surgery (€140.00 or $180.00).
I find my at home PT routine to be also very effective, like you it is getting the motivation to do th exercises that is the challenge and not the exercises themselves !
Having a gym in your apartment complex is a bonus, you could incorporate some of your at home exercises with your visit there and then when able progress to some of the machines.
You have been though so much with all your previous surgeries and we will be here to support your with your at home exercise programme.
Take care,
Cathie
OP
OP
ConnieJOS
senior
@gr82cu2 Janet, I'm sure that my little 1/4 mile walk was a good thing, but I paid for it a bit. The tight band feeling was tighter than ever yesterday evening! Yes, we do have pancake houses everywhere and everyone's favorite fundraiser is a pancake breakfast. We must be pancake crazy. 
@marmora Hi Cathie! Thanks so much for your encouragement regarding PT! You are so kind. I like group PT. Wwe had group PT at the hospital twice a day. I didn't think I'd like it, especially that early on. I thought with the surgery that new I'd rather suffer in silence. But I really did enjoy the comraderie (sp?) there. It seems you try harder with others that are in the same boat.
I think I'll try walking a little more on the treadmill down at our gym. It's lower impact than concrete for sure! I have trouble walking also because my non-surgical knee hurts. I'm doing the set of exercises I learned at the hospital and adding ankle weights as they did at PT, but I'd like to get a little cardio and especially get used to walking a little better, so the treadmill may help.
I did ask my doctor about the Voltaren Gel, and he said he's had a lot of good results with it and prescribed it for me. I've used it a couple of times and I think it helped some. I'll know more as I use it more. It may be good for my old knee as well. He said you have to treat it the same as taking oral NSAIDS though because it's absorbed into your pores and does get in your bloodstream.
Happy Sunday!
Connie
@marmora Hi Cathie! Thanks so much for your encouragement regarding PT! You are so kind. I like group PT. Wwe had group PT at the hospital twice a day. I didn't think I'd like it, especially that early on. I thought with the surgery that new I'd rather suffer in silence. But I really did enjoy the comraderie (sp?) there. It seems you try harder with others that are in the same boat.
I think I'll try walking a little more on the treadmill down at our gym. It's lower impact than concrete for sure! I have trouble walking also because my non-surgical knee hurts. I'm doing the set of exercises I learned at the hospital and adding ankle weights as they did at PT, but I'd like to get a little cardio and especially get used to walking a little better, so the treadmill may help.
I did ask my doctor about the Voltaren Gel, and he said he's had a lot of good results with it and prescribed it for me. I've used it a couple of times and I think it helped some. I'll know more as I use it more. It may be good for my old knee as well. He said you have to treat it the same as taking oral NSAIDS though because it's absorbed into your pores and does get in your bloodstream.
Happy Sunday!
Connie
Maeve
senior
Well @ConnieJOS , @marmora, @Jozilla and @gr82cu2 !
I have now found the BEST recovery thread. So love the optimism and grat repartee through these threads! Just what I was looking for.
My LTKR is scheduled for 9 Oct and I can't wait. As you can see by my pre op thread I have had a sudden, rather drastic collapse ...joint has just given up and muscles too. Had a great support network for my THR last year, which went swimmingly so very happy to have lucked onto you post knee ladies! Cheers
Fran
I have now found the BEST recovery thread. So love the optimism and grat repartee through these threads! Just what I was looking for.
My LTKR is scheduled for 9 Oct and I can't wait. As you can see by my pre op thread I have had a sudden, rather drastic collapse ...joint has just given up and muscles too. Had a great support network for my THR last year, which went swimmingly so very happy to have lucked onto you post knee ladies! Cheers
Fran
OP
OP
ConnieJOS
senior
@Maeve Well hello Fran and welcome to my thread! Stop in any time!
You are exactly right, this is a great group of supportive people. It took me a while to figure out how to get connected here, but once I figured out how to find other people's threads, then "watch" the thread, I can now just go straight to a page that shows me all unread posts on my watched threads. Of course, you found me so you probably already know all that.
I see you've had RTHR, and are getting LTKR. Those were my first two surgeries. I hope your other joints are well! I put my surgery off so long that it wore out my other two and ended up having to do them all. I do NOT recommend waiting! If you need it, it's not going to get any better without it.
I'm sure you know there is more to it than the hip. It's not that it's so much more pain, but just a much slower, longer recovery time so it wears on you much more mentally.
Again, thanks for your post, best wishes, and please stay in touch!
Connie
You are exactly right, this is a great group of supportive people. It took me a while to figure out how to get connected here, but once I figured out how to find other people's threads, then "watch" the thread, I can now just go straight to a page that shows me all unread posts on my watched threads. Of course, you found me so you probably already know all that.
I see you've had RTHR, and are getting LTKR. Those were my first two surgeries. I hope your other joints are well! I put my surgery off so long that it wore out my other two and ended up having to do them all. I do NOT recommend waiting! If you need it, it's not going to get any better without it.
I'm sure you know there is more to it than the hip. It's not that it's so much more pain, but just a much slower, longer recovery time so it wears on you much more mentally.
Again, thanks for your post, best wishes, and please stay in touch!
Connie
Maeve
senior
Hi Connie @ConnieJOS ,
I know exactly what you mean by the knock on effect of one bad joint. My hip was a result of congenital dysplasia and over the many years of walking incorrectly, the knee took on a lot of pressure. Although the hip was done last year...very successfully with a new 3cm added leg length and a repositioned femur, it was too late to save the knee!
I know the knee will be a tougher recovery but I am lucky..same great hospital and rehab center...then I'll do 4 weeks day patient hydro/ gym, then 4 weeks physio and finally back to my gym that has a hydro pool and a fantastic exercise physiologist! Well that's the plan! It worked last year for the hip and after 4 months I was fit and ready for an 8 week European trip. Lots of walking..even the Roman Roads at Ostia Antica were doable! We have another big trip planned for May 2015...France, Spain, the UK and Italy ending with a cruise from Barcelona to Venice! Sooo I'm very motivated to get this thing done! It's a major project Lol!
I know exactly what you mean by the knock on effect of one bad joint. My hip was a result of congenital dysplasia and over the many years of walking incorrectly, the knee took on a lot of pressure. Although the hip was done last year...very successfully with a new 3cm added leg length and a repositioned femur, it was too late to save the knee!
I know the knee will be a tougher recovery but I am lucky..same great hospital and rehab center...then I'll do 4 weeks day patient hydro/ gym, then 4 weeks physio and finally back to my gym that has a hydro pool and a fantastic exercise physiologist! Well that's the plan! It worked last year for the hip and after 4 months I was fit and ready for an 8 week European trip. Lots of walking..even the Roman Roads at Ostia Antica were doable! We have another big trip planned for May 2015...France, Spain, the UK and Italy ending with a cruise from Barcelona to Venice! Sooo I'm very motivated to get this thing done! It's a major project Lol!
OP
OP
ConnieJOS
senior
@Maeve Your travel plans are certainly an incentive to conquer this TKR!
My road was similar, but backwards from yours. My left knee went bad first. They told me I needed LTKR about seven years ago and I wasn't ready. Just didn't even consider it. So that knee started leaning inward, putting stress on my right hip. Ended up with my femur pushed up into the hip joint. I had the RTHR first, and it lengthened my leg about one inch! I was hobbling around with one leg longer than the other. I wore a lift in my left shoe until my LTHR where they corrected it. But that whole process took its toll on my other two joints as well.
I don't have nearly the extensive travel plans as you have for after surgery, but I can guarantee you I'll be in some exotic tropical paradise somewhere for a week or so about May 2015! Can't wait!
My road was similar, but backwards from yours. My left knee went bad first. They told me I needed LTKR about seven years ago and I wasn't ready. Just didn't even consider it. So that knee started leaning inward, putting stress on my right hip. Ended up with my femur pushed up into the hip joint. I had the RTHR first, and it lengthened my leg about one inch! I was hobbling around with one leg longer than the other. I wore a lift in my left shoe until my LTHR where they corrected it. But that whole process took its toll on my other two joints as well.
I don't have nearly the extensive travel plans as you have for after surgery, but I can guarantee you I'll be in some exotic tropical paradise somewhere for a week or so about May 2015! Can't wait!
gr82cu2
post-grad
Sorry Connie, when I read your reply to me I HAD to do this. Notice the resemblance?
![[Bonesmart.org] My Life on the Other Side](https://bonesmart.org/forum/attachments/ai59-tinypic-com_o5qrgm-png.45375/ "[Bonesmart.org] My Life on the Other Side")
gr82cu2
post-grad
LOL!!! I have no idea who you tagged, haha! That Janet will be coming in here wondering what the heck is going on.
Minnie's knees
post-grad
@ConnieJOS an exotic tropical paradise after recovery sounds like heaven. We are thinking about a cruise next May to Cozumel or the Bahamas. Not exotic but beautiful beaches which I love.
Glassfish
new member
@ConnieJOS I've been reading your thread and it seems that you are certainly a veteran at joint replacement! Maybe you can help me with some things that I am curious about. My home is a two- story with all bedrooms on the second floor as well as all full baths. I'm just concerned as to how to long it may take me to ambulated the stairs (considering all things move along normally). I hate to rely on others for too long, even my husband! I'm fiercely independent...it comes comes from being a school principal for many years. I think that's one reason why knee is so bad, all that pounding on hard floors all over those big schools for all those years!
I hope you don't mind, but I'll be asking you many questions as we both get closer to our common surgery date
I hope you don't mind, but I'll be asking you many questions as we both get closer to our common surgery date
OP
OP
ConnieJOS
senior
@Glassfish I can't really tell you how you will manage the stairs after surgery. I can only tell you about my experience. Stairs have been the hardest thing for me, but I've had four bad joints for a few years and have avoided stairs like the plague. I am just now getting to where I can do them at seven weeks, but it hurts! If I were you I'd try to at least have a sleeping place downstairs and a sink to wash off at for a few days. I know you will want a shower and you should be able to do the stairs slowly after a few days but I wouldn't want to do the stairs any more than I had to at first. I certainly don't mind you asking all the questions you want! I'll answer the best I can. Nice to "meet" you!
marmora
post-grad
hello Connie @ConnieJOS
Good Morning Ms. Tennessee,
Keep thinking about pancakes since reading the posts above- we make them here in our house on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Called naturally in Ireland "Pancake Tuesday". - very thin ones like creeps and your lemon juice on top and then a sprinkle of sugar.
But, no reason what today can't be Pancake Tuesday ! You're my inspiration for this.
Hope that your gym work is going well and your on count down to your next surgery.
Take care,
Cathie
Good Morning Ms. Tennessee,
Keep thinking about pancakes since reading the posts above- we make them here in our house on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Called naturally in Ireland "Pancake Tuesday". - very thin ones like creeps and your lemon juice on top and then a sprinkle of sugar.
But, no reason what today can't be Pancake Tuesday ! You're my inspiration for this.
Hope that your gym work is going well and your on count down to your next surgery.
Take care,
Cathie
- Status
