Today marks my 10 month kneeversary! My left knee was 10 months today, the right knee is not quite 7 1/2 months and the MUA is 5 months. I wanted to write and encourage those new ones out there that I don’t know. I haven’t really been on since I went back to work full time in Oct.
I don’t even think about my left knee at all. There may be an occasional moment like when I get down on my hands and knees on a hard floor to retrieve something and my right knee remembers because it hurts to be on my knees! My flexion is 135 in the left with 0 ext. My right knee is 131 and 0. I wish and still work on a little more ext on the right to do some of the things I want to do but it is really totally functional.
I no longer have that stiffness that I thought would never go away. I have really 0 pain on the left but have some occasional behind the knee pain on the right. I usually take Tylenol once a day and don’t need anything more for pain. I still have some issues with restless leg at night and take 300 mg of Gabapentin at night for that and it totally helps that. I sleep all night and don’t even get up to go to the bathroom anymore. If you read my thread I thought I would never sleep all night again! I really struggled with sleep. I can lay on either side and don’t need pillows between my knees anymore.
I’m back to hiking on the mountain and the knees are great. There is no more of the knee cap doing pre op spontaneous sub lux and that’s amazing! I’m walking 3-4 miles a day and finally down to a 15 minute mile. I would like to cut that time eventually but really happy with that for now. I haven’t been brave enough to get on my “outside” bike yet but will try it this spring. I had an bike accident before my surgery and still a little nervous about that. I do ride my exercise bike though with no problem but it’s nice and low to the floor!
When I went back to work full time in Oct I was walking so slow. I had always been a fast walker and thought I would never keep up again. I would be following the engineers through the halls of the hospital and really struggling when I came back. I’m back up to normal speed and can walk all over my large hospitals I cover with no problems and I’m not five steps behind them anymore. I also fly and drive a lot with my job and that is going great too. I was careful to stop and get out when I first started back on the road but don’t need to do that now.
I’m able to run after 10 grandkids and my energy is back to normal. I say all this to give you hope. If you read my thread I was so discouraged for so long. I was out of work for 5 months because of staging my knees. I was very fortunate as I had 100% pay for those five months but it seemed to go on forever! I really wondered if I would ever get better. I did have complications with some herniated disks in my back and severe sciatica. Many times my back hurt worse than my knees. I had excellent PT to help with my back and knees and still very faithful with my back exercises to keep that under control.
Take each day at a time and it gets better. Getting my knees done is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I was so unprepared. I thought because I wasn’t really old and was healthy and active it would be no big deal. I was really wrong, lol! Getting your knees done isn’t for sissies! My husband had a left total knee Oct 25 and did well. He did say he really understood how hard it was after going through it himself. 2017 certainly was the year of the knees for me with two knees and a MUA and a husbands knee. It’s all behind me now! Here is to a great recovery for all of you. Thank you to everyone that helped me get through my recovery! I am attaching a picture of fall break with my husband and our 10 grandkids.
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