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TKR New Pain one year post op RTKR?

If your knee is hurting that's a signal from your body. Take a break from PT and see how the knee feels.
 
I have done nothing today but rest. Haven't iced enough because I was too lazy to recharge my ice machine. BUT it seems to have helped.

I was able to get more dilaudid, but my doc is out of the country. The woman in charge of refills called to warn me to space it ou and make it last because the doc who wrote it wasn't comfortable writing it, so he wrote for only a few pills. Funny thing is he wrote it to take 1-2 pills (4mg each) every six hours. My doc wrote 1 pill every 4 hours. I can't imagine 2 pills at once. That would completely knock me out. No worries though as long as I have it for night time, I'll be good. I was making it 6 hours at night on it before. Its just funny all the info says take the meds on schedule, stay on top of the pain etc, etc. But then they get paranoid and think the patient is pill seeking and an addict etc if they follow those instructions.

I am going to go to PT tomorrow. The massaging she did really helped. I want her to show me how to do it so maybe I can do it for myself. I just have to find the strength to be assertive enough to not allow her to do any pushing or bending.
 
It is your knee, not hers. You are paying her, so you are the employer and she's the employee. She has to do what you say. If you say stop and she doesn't, then she is assaulting you. That is against the law. When the home therapist tried to touch and push my leg to bend my knee. I told her politely to not touch me, that I will do it myself. She said she was going to tell on me. Now, how childish is that!? I refused anymore home therapy. The one in the hospital shortly after my surgery tried the same thing and I her no, to not touch me. She tired again and I strongly said "No!" She said she was going to report me as non-compliant. I told her to go ahead. My OS never said a thing about not taking pt. He was happy about my progress. So, all I'm saying is that YOU are in control of your body, NOT pt! Good luck tomorrow.
 
Thanks @Celle i had read that before, but I will read it again right before I go tomorrow.
 
I'm happy to report that I advocated for myself very well this AM. When she asked how I was at the beginning of the appointment I told her "I'm good and the knee feels pretty good. I could barely walk for the rest of the day after last time, so I want to be a little less aggressive this time".
After the nu step, she massaged it and I reiterated, that I would work hard to bend and straingten, but I wanted to do it myself I did not want her pushing on it.
She reminded me of the "short amount of time to achieve range of motion" line that we all know is not correct. I just told her that if we are too rough then I get more swollen and lose range of motion. I'm happy to work hard, but I want to do it. I want to be the one to push. Also told her she could ask the PT that I mostly worked with after my hip that I almost never complain and never say I can't do something. In fact I'm more likely to overdo.

I'm happy with how it went. I was able to get in the house with no problem today. Good thing. Last time I had to lean on my husband the whole way from the car to the house. So, I feel like we reached a happy compromise that I can live with. We'll see how I feel overnight tonight.
 
Well done for stating your conditions to the PT therapist! It's good to do that right from the start, and then everyone knows where they are.
 
I'm proud of you. You did it! You will have much less pain doing it yourself.
 
Great job! Let us know how you feel tonight and tomorrow.
 
I'm swollen and have the jammed knee cap feeling, but not nearly as bad as last time. By this time after the last PT appointment, I was using my walker and could almost not put my heel flat on the ground. Today not only am I still using my cane, I was able to make it up the stairs to take a shower before climbing into bed.
 
It seems that PT is too much right now for your knee. I did PT a month and a half after my infection surgery. My OS ordered no PT until then and when he did write a script it was non aggressive PT, just riding the bike and stretching. Check out @nancyjo , she had her TKR at Mayo and they said no formal PT.
 
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OK, here is the evidence that two days in a row of PT is not a good idea.
The photo on the right is my knee last night as I was getting ready for bed. I went to PT thursday, went up and down the stairs to take a shower thursday night, and went to PT friday. I felt really good after PT on friday and iced a lot the rest of the day.
The photo on the left is today. I spent most of today in bed. No icing because I was too lazy to set up the machine and hubby spent the day in bed sick. I elevated about 2/3 of the time I was in bed.
I probably won't stop PT all together because I don't trust myself to keep moving without it, but I am going to tell my therapist I can't do two days in a row. I will likely cut down to twice a week because she doesn't have any spots available on Weds.

Oh and I think I figured out the "jammed" knee cap feeling. I think it may be what everyone else calls the tight band feeling? Maybe?
 

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Twice a week is plenty for PT. So is once a week.

My surgeon doesn't allow any formal PT at all for the first month after surgery. He says that your knee needs that time, to start on its journey of healing.
After a month, he allows PT, but only once every two weeks. At the PT session, no one pushes on our knees or expects a lot of work. We are just shown a few, new exercises. In between visits, we do a few of those exercises by ourselves, at home.
His patients all do well and he hasn't had to do an MUA to help with ROM for the last 4 years.

It's not exercising that gets you your ROM, it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle and time to heal. Your ROM is there right from the start, just waiting for all that to happen so it can show itself.
 
Yep and wth these pictures I proved it to mysel today
 
Definitely additional swelling in your knee. Take it easy for a few days and see if you can figure out what's specifically causing the swelling. Don't do anything resembling a squat or anything with weights.
 
All it took was 24 hours for the swelling to go down. (The less swollen pic was taken 24 hours after the swollen).
I think I simply overdid by doing PT two days in a row.
 
[Bonesmart.org] New Pain one year post op RTKR?
And more evidence that no pain = more gain.
I am still going to PT< but am doing it gently, don't allow pt to manipulate my knee except to massage the knee cap. Spend most of the rest of my life resting, icing and elevating. Literally spent all day in bed today.
This photo shows the natural bend that I was sitting with while playing on facebook. Husband just came in and realized how much I was bending. Pretty good for not yet 5 weeks.
 
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@OUCH! That's pretty good! I've been thinking a lot the last several days about this site, protocol, PT, etc. I really think the problem is that we look at black and whites. We look at "no pain no gain" and many pin that to therapy/rehab. Then we look at "no pain/more gain" and people associate that with no rehab/therapy. However, there is a grey area......therapy/rehab doesn't have to equate to an angry PT cranking on your knee. It can entail sensible ways to work on ROM and strength.

I have no idea why I happened to post this on your page.....lol. But your ROM does look great. Prayers for a continued good recovery
 
Thanks @mbrown maybe you posted because you are describing exactly what I am trying to do - live in the grey area. So far it seems to be working.
 
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