TKR My Newly Bionic Life

[SusieShoes]

I think you can kiss all thoughts of MUA goodbye. It sounds like you're doing really well, especially given you've returned early to work and are more active than most TKR patients at this stage. Keep listening to your knee and let it dictate for a while longer.

The energy drain really hits hard. Your body continues to direct most of its energy to healing for the first three months, so just kind of ride that wave. When you feel your energy returning (as it will), you'll find that getting back your strength and conditioning isn't too difficult.

 

[kneeper]

Had another PT session today and measured at 93 degrees! I am so stoked, because I am now 100% confident about cancelling the MUA and letting time take its course to increase my ROM.

Awesome particularly given your pre-op bend. Anything more now is gravy!

 

[Jacimarble]

Congratulations CaliCat! I've enjoyed reading your journey. I am 3 1/2 weeks out and hope to be able to think about back to work in a week or two, so I was interested to hear about your progress. I'll work from home at first then go in a couple of days. I'm lucky that work is very accommodating and are willing to make things easy for me!

 

[CaliCat]

Took my new knee for an outing this weekend. I belong to a medieval re-enactment group, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and one of the big "events" was scheduled only a few miles from my house. I did use my tall staff to help steady me around the field, which was fairly level but still basically a mowed pasture - but I was able to traverse the entire perimeter of the field about three times over the course of the day (with lots of sitting quietly in between!) It helped me realize just how much my activities have become restricted over the past few years as my knees got worse, because although I didn't have the stamina to do as much as I would have liked, it was clearly because A) I'm still in recovery and B) my other knee is still not fixed. But I can begin to dream big again!

 

[CaliCat]

Oh, and one more thing - has anyone else experienced weight loss during recovery? I know about the energy drain . . . but I did NOT expect to find that I have lost 15 pounds since I came home from the hospital! Some of it is the fluids that were pumped in during surgery, I know, but even allowing for that I'm still down more than 10 pounds. And it's definitely not due to increased exercise! I'm not unhappy, but does surgery ramp up one's metabolism while the body is repairing the damage?

 

[katchmo]

Three times around , that's fantastic!! I unfortunately did not lose weight the first time around even though my appetite was decreased. I was on Gabapentin , which makes weight loss difficult . I'm not an Gabapentin this time, and I do have decreased appetite but doubt I'll lose much. People from our church have been supplying meals and it's been great, even if I can't eat much.

 

[Jacimarble]

I was surprised that I continued to lose weight after surgery. I had been actively trying to lose weight all year and dropped about 13kgs before surgery. I expected just before and after surgery that I wouldn't lose any as I couldn't exercise much and I have not been watching what I eat at all. However I have still lost another 2kg. Not expecting it to continue as my appetite is returning, and now I'm off 'hard' drugs I can have alcohol again! But it was a pleasant surprise.

 

[NavyGunns]

@CaliCat, while I didn’t lose any weight during recovery (since I’d already lost 30 lbs the previous year, I didn’t need to lose more), I did find that I was eating more than usual and not putting weight on. If you think about the fact that it takes energy to recover from all the trauma done to our knees during surgery, it makes sense.

If losing weight is something you were wanting to achieve anyway, then make sure you monitor your eating habits and weight as you progress so as to not put the weight back on. In the long run, both your knees (and hips) will thank you.

 

[CaliCat]

Oh, I'm definitely trying to lose weight. at my highest I waited almost 375 lb. I'm about 150 lb less now which is why I was finally able to have surgery. But I hadn't expected to continue losing while I was recovering. That was fine, I'm still eating well and sticking with my ketogenic way of life. I just hadn't expected to lose, and certainly not this much! since I still have another 50 pounds or more to go though, this is a nice bonus.

 

[CaliCat]

Hi, all - I'm back after nearly nine months, with a new right knee to match the left one. (My signature will need to be updated to add "right TKR April 27, 2019".) Recovery from the left knee was so fast and easy that I was almost afraid to go through with the right knee, but I couldn't wait any longer as my insurance will change July 1 and my surgeon's clinic isn't covered by the new plan.

Updates: I went back to part-time work around four or five weeks post-op, and full-time work about four weeks after that. I'm a library director, so I'm basically sedentary and I can ice my knees in the office if necessary, which made it somewhat easier. I kept up with my physical therapy till the beginning of October. My PT is wonderful - he By that time I was back at the gym on a regular basis, not doing hard workouts but focusing on strengthening the muscles supporting the knees. A big triumph was discovering that I could do the eliptical - I've never had good enough rotation to be able to do that! Still not able to manage a bicycle, however.

I'm only five days post-surgery, and I'm having some things this time that I didn't have the last about which I could use some advice. The surgery itself went significantly quicker than last time as this knee didn't have quite as much damage as its sibling. The doctor noted that he had to clear out a number of spurs and quite a bit of "gravel" before beginning the actual procedure. However, that only took about half an hour, and last time I was in surgery for a full hour longer than normal, so it was still an overall improvement.

I have my first PT appointment tomorrow morning, with the same therapist who worked with me on #1.

 

[CaliCat]

Oops - hit "post" by accident, I think. That's what I get for writing at this time of night, but the pain meds have really messed up my sleep cycles. More later!

 

[Jockette]

Welcome to Recovery again!

Here’s a refresher of our recovery guidelines. Following these guidelines will help you have a less painful recovery.

Knee Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary
2. Control discomfort:

rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
don't overwork.​

3. Do what you want to do BUT

a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.​

4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these

the BoneSmart view on exercise
BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy​

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

Activity progression for TKRs​

6. Access to these pages on the website

Oral And Intravenous Pain Medications
Wound Closure​

The Recovery articles:
The importance of managing pain after a TKR and the pain chart
Swollen and stiff knee: what causes it?

Energy drain for TKRs
Elevation is the key

Ice to control pain and swelling
Heel slides and how to do them properly

Chart representation of TKR recovery
Healing: how long does it take?

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

There are also some cautionary articles here
Myth busting: no pain, no gain
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in the majority of BoneSmart’s forums, we ask that each member have only One Recovery Thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.

 

[Softtail]

Calicat I am a week ahead of you at this point , and have found out one thing is you can not compare your first surgery with the new one. Many things different for me this time around. Better flexion and extension right out of gate, and a lot sorer quad muscle. Goes to show you that even on our own bodies each leg reacts in its own way to surgery. Hope things progress smoothly. At least there are no more knees to fix for both of us.

 

[CaliCat]

Thanks for the welcome, @Softtail and @Jockette! I've been browsing the threads to see what might be useful info to have. I know there will be many differences between this go-round and the last. I'm just trying to make it as smoothly as possible.