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TKR New Knee Me

I understand!

Stop trying so hard. Relax and let the knee recover. Stop rocking so much. Stretch less often. Your knee is very upset. Also keep in mind, it’s not exercising that gets our range of motion back, it’s Time:

Time to recover.
Time for pain and swelling to settle,
and Time to heal.

Our range of motion is right there all
along just waiting for that to happen.

6 weeks is very early in this recovery. Many of us felt just like you do at 6 weeks. And many of us heard those annoying stories. It’s hard to shut them out. Many many more recoveries are just like yours. Mine certainly was.
 
Thank you Jockette. I had a rough patch mentality and just need to be patient and let the knee lead the way. I'm just concerned about work but won't return till I feel safe. Holiday week coming up and lots of folks on vacation. I'll be one of them. Thank you again.
 
I’m so sorry you have to worry about going back to work. I did not have that worry.

And just to confirm ROM continues to improve, my ROM at 15 months is better than it was at 12 months, and certainly better than it was in the first 5 months.

Why, then, do they pressure us so much and force bend our knee in those first 8-12 weeks. I was so stressed out over my ROM and it not meeting my surgeon’s approval, even up to my 7 month check, even though I read countless times here that it WILL improve even after a year. It’s hard to stand up to a surgeon’s opinion or ignore it, and I didn’t even agree with him!

Relax. Let your body heal. Be kind to it. It’s doing the best it can. But it also needs your help. You can best help it at this stage by resting, icing and elevating, which will give your knee the best condition in which to heal. :console2:
 
Glad you will be off this week. Give that knee some tlc.
 
Lightheaded in morning. Had anyone else experienced this. This is the second time this week it has happened. Only in the a.m. after I take 50 mg tramadol table. I'm gonna stop taking it. I take it 2 - 3 times a day. My pain level has dropped and could see how only taking it at night works. Very unsettling the dizzy, feeling. I hydrate and eat so it must be the meds. I notice it more now that I'm up more during the day as earlier I would take meds and ice, elevate and sleep.
 
I had the same thing! It eventually went away further in my recovery. The body is so fatigued after surgery, that is how my body reacted.
 
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I think Mutti3 is right. You are doing more now, but your body still has that awful energy drain. Listen to it and be very careful that you don't fall! That really angers all those healing soft tissues!
 
Oh, to fall is my worst fear. Yes Mutti3 did say fatigue stays with you a long time. My goodness this recovery is long. This excessive heat in the North East US isn't helping either. I'm not a sitter and being set back is working on me. I'll just continue to do exercises, ice, elevate and rest. Just 6 weeks out need more time to recover.
 
You are less than 1/6 of the way of being healed. If you don't have patience, this recovery will drive you crazy!

I agree with you about this heat. I have a weather station in my backyard for the NWS and my heat index, (feel like temperature), right now is 114*. If I go out, it's only for a couple of minutes! I miss riding my bike!
 
ouch1313 said:
Yes Mutti3 did say fatigue stays with you a long time. My goodness this recovery is long. This excessive heat in the North East US isn't helping either. I'm not a sitter and being set back is working on me. I'll just continue to do exercises, ice, elevate and rest. Just 6 weeks out need more time to recover.
Click to expand...
We said it too, in this article that you were given:
Energy drain for TKRs
Almost all your body's energy is being directed towards healing your knee, so there isn't much energy left for anything else.

At 6 week, you're still very early in this year-long recovery. Start looking for that elusive store of patience now, because you're going to need it.

I know its hard to be relatively inactive if you're used to being busy, so try to find some interesting things that you can do while you're resting.
 
Thank you all for your advise and support. Unless you have been through this procedure I don't think you really understand what is going on. I'm still learning but catching on very fast. Plain and simple, I'm tired and need to sleep to heal. Being reassured that this is normal and will take time is very helpful for me. Thank you all again.
 
With my first TKR, I found the 6-week mark to be a rough time. My knee felt well enough that I felt like I could do some normal things, but every time I did those normal things, I was exhausted afterward and my knee hurt. Even a trip to the grocery store to pick up only a couple of things could be exhausting. It was a frustrating time. We have to be patient...…..and that's so hard for me.
 
Yes! HoneyB, that is exactly how I feel. Just the simplest tasks can put me back down for a nap. Hanging wash, walking dog, going to market, all seem so overwhelming now. Monday I go back to work just for a few hours a day and I'm dreading it. I have to start to try to normalize my life. I'll do what I can do and hope for the best.
 
My office has been in my home for the past 31 years, so I’ve tried to work a little bit all along. However, since my LTKR in February, I still haven’t managed to string together a 40-hour work week. I got close just before my RTKR, but now I’m back down to about 20 - 25 hours per week. Part of that is because I keep my 3-year-old granddaughter from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. two days per week. Before my surgeries, I would work really late on those days to finish up my work hours. These days, I barely work on the days she’s here. On the other days, even though I’m working from my sofa, it’s exhausting and I still have enough brain fog with knee #2, the medicine, and the lack of great sleep that I can only manage the routine parts of my job; nothing creative is happening. I’m an electrical engineer so there are lots of details in my work, and it’s hard for me to concentrate on the details right now. I go to physical therapy and do exercises at home. That also takes up a LOT of time, especially since I’m doing exercises for both legs. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit in sleep, PT, exercises, icing, and 8-hours of work. Good luck to you on going back to work! Thankfully, I’ve worked with the same group of people for 30+ years and they’ve been very understanding of my limitations, but it bothers me that I’m not getting everything done.
 
Is there any way to stretch out your leave time? 6 weeks is so early to return to work after a TKR. Your knee is still working on healing, and all of your reserves are being sent to that location to heal, leaving little for the rest of your body, thus the exhaustion. IMHO, at this point in time you still need to be able to sit, elevate and ice whenever you need to, plus nap whenever your body needs it, and working isn't conducive to that schedule. Therefore working will cause pain and swelling you can't adequately address, and delay your recovery. At 6 weeks you should be taking short trips (15-20 minutes) to the store, or similar, but even then taking a short rest in the process. Going to work is counter-productive, so I really hope you find you can delay that for another 6 weeks.
 
7 weeks post-op and half days back at work, day 2, God help me. I'm exhausted and my knee is really bummed. When does this get better? I do come home and ice, eat, rest, elevate leg, cry with the dog, sleep. Is 12 weeks better? 16 weeks has to be golden. Most of the pain is deep inside the knee now. I can bet without seeing the procedure video I could point to exactly where the most trama to the knee, muscle, bone, tendon, whatever was done. Most swelling is gone or can be controlled with ice, rest and elevation. When out and about town hobbling there is always one or two folks who have had a TKR and give me words of encouragement, "you'll be so glad you had it done" "7 weeks is still early, you're doing fantastic" It's like belonging to a not so underground, secret society. There are more of us out there then you can imagine. I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait for the day when I can not have to walk down the stairs backwards or bogger up my car door getting into it and spying a newbie TKR walking with walker and giving encouragement to them saying "it will get better and you'll be glad you had it done"
 
It truly a journey! When I was 7 weeks, I was asked, aren’t you glad you did it? Answered was a no, not yet.
Now,I feel very blessed to have taken advantage of modern medicine! Walking painfree, regain strength, flexion and a new life! Better days are ahead for you!
 
Mutti3, Thank you for your encouragement. I had no other choice but to have this procedure done. I'm very thankful that this technique was available for relief from the bone on bone pain I was experiencing. I have this new knee now and soon enough I'll be able to enjoy it's full benefits.
 
9 weeks and still struggling. ROM is 115 and 4 degees extension. Back to work half days, walking dog half hour to 45 min. at night using walking poles. Difficulty sleeping at night, pain and morning stiffness. My knee feels like the kitchen junk drawer, the one with all assorted gadgets that always gets stuck when you try to open it. My knee swells often during the day and still have afternoon fatigue. I was hoping to feel better and more comfortable with knee by now but guess I have to wait even longer. I just fall back on thinking that I'm doing something wrong or not doing enough to move the recovery along. I get in my head that this may be it. This is all I will recover. Maybe I just need to nap and relax.
 
Yes, you do need to relax. Your knee is only 2 months old. That's 1/6 of the way of healing that takes at least a year. Your ROM is excellent for 2 months. Sleeping programs is completely normal, unfortunately. The vast majority of us have it. With you being back to work and walking your dog as long as you do, your knee is swelling. That's why it's stiff. Ice and elevate as much as you can. If you need to take a nap, do it! Sleep is an important part of the healing process.
 
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