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TKR Oh Baby feel the (k)need in me - the sequel ..

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[Bonesmart.org] Oh Baby feel the (k)need in me - the sequel ..
 
:goodpost:Sorry things aren't progressing back to where you wish they were fast enough, but just know that you'll get there. Sucks to have a 'do-over', but hopefully things will improve quickly for you! I think your knee just decided that you needed a bit more time being catered to by your husband! The non Mars Bar version. :heehee:
 
Hi @dogwheels. I hope that your day has gone well today and you feel a little better. Just thought I'd pop in cand check see how you are getting on? Love Nana moon 27 x x x
 
Hi @Nana moon 27 - I'm good. In bed now and just about to read a chapter of my book before lights out.
So glad Freddy did the business for you today - but so cross about DogloverX3's OS - what an obnoxious toad!

Today was fairly boring - bit same old, same old ..... doing my bendy exercises and although I don't think there is much development in terms of numbers, it does seem to be moving a bit easier.

Off to hydro again tomorrow afternoon, if they have me doing all lunges and squats again in the pool for the whole session, I think I will go mad!

Hope you get a good night and that you will have a great day tomorrow.
Talk tomorrow
X
 
Hi @Nana moon 27 - thanks for stopping by. Hopefully you will be fast asleep as I write this! I'm just about to turn in for the night. Early hydro appointment in the morning ..... again. Will send you that list of water exercises soon. I had a productive few hours today turning out my summer shoes and assessing for suitability. I then caught up with 'Silk' on iplayer as I missed it on Monday and its a 2 part-er.
Hope your GP appointment goes well tomorrow and glad you had a good day today.
X
 
Just updating this for my own sake as much as anything .... as I have said before, this is a useful way to chart progress ...... or in my case - great progress, setback and then slow climb back again!
It is now just over 2 weeks since out of the blue, my knee refused to bend. In that time I have gone from about 15 degrees to just about 90 degrees. Thankfully I have been fully weightbearing and able to walk unaided throughout this episode. If I'd had to go back to crutches I would still be rocking in a corner and in a total mess.
I have just realised that my thread title is that first anxious plea for help when everything went suddenly wrong, so have changed it back to the original-ish ... so as not to confuse anybody.
Good hydro session on Friday got about 90 degrees in pool ..... better than Wednesday. What I would give to be back with a 3 figure ROM again! Wish as I may, that isn't going to happen anytime soon so I must keep on keeping on! Scar massage advised as looking good but quite tight, so have started doing that. Went out on Mothers Day with permission(!) and walked around a craft shop for 40 mins. Scared that everything will go wrong again but although a bit tired afterwards - no dire effects, and it was great to feel a bit more normal again.
Back to physio today (Monday) with a different PT as mine has gone on holiday. She said what had happened to me was awful and that I had really been through it - but very occasionally these things just happen. BUT WHY ME????
Then she said that on bending, my scar looks very tight - so she massaged that really really really firmly ............... owwww owwwww and more owwwww! Then very firm massage along the front of my shin bone, more ouch!
I then had a lesson on fascia and how it tightens up and has a memory ....... I just hope that mine remembers that it could do all this before and starts responding!
Everyone (OS and PTs) are still in the dark over what exactly caused this setback and therefore are a bit cagey as they do not want to stress the knee too quickly, in case it starts to protest and seizes up again. I am happy to go along with this as I am scared witless that there will be a repeat occurrence - but at the same time soooo impatient to get back to where I was before.
So more bending, a little strengthening, a bit of comfortable pedalling, a little bit of walking and 2 more sessions of hydrotherapy this week
Please please let this week get me bending a bit more ...... I so want to start regaining lost time, move on from what I was doing 6 weeks ago and am having to repeat all over again, and feel that I am actually getting somewhere.
I realise that last sentence sounded really self-pitying, but truly I am OK - just a bit cheesed off, bored and a tiny bit apprehensive.
 
I hope everything works out for you. Im sure they will. As if you havent been patient enough. Sounds like you are getting your flexion back . It must have been frightening to go back to 15 degrees. However now your almost at 100. That is great. Im scratching my head wondering what went wrong . Its not as if you were doing a activity and than BOOM ! I believe you woke up and the knee was not cooperating. Im I correct ?. That is puzzling. I set myself back almost 2 weeks back by going to my jobsite and chat with all my co workers. Well that took longer than I anticipated and really set myself back 4 days. Even my therapist asked what I did. He fired up the tens unit and iced and that really helped. I ended buying one on amazon. In fact it helps with extension, when it zaps your quad. You hold the quad muscle for 8 seconds, some what hard. Than release. It worked for me and is not for everyone . Some people dont like the feeling of getting zapped. My GF uses it on her back with good results . Well be patient and im sure everthing will work out .
 
Hi @icep707 - lovely to hear from you and thanks for stopping by and your words of support.
I am trying hard to be patient and accepting this for what it is, but now and again it comes back and bites and I get really cheesed off .... Due to the state my knee was in after years of problems, I had to work really hard to get the ROM I had post surgery. Extension and strength have never been a problem thankfully. But hearing from the PT yesterday that this second recovery will be just like immediately post op, slowly building the ROM in flexion all over again, makes me want to tear my hair out.
Fortunately I am one of life's upbeat people, positive and logical - so I know that I have no option but to ride this and get on with it. However there is a tiny bit of my head that says, what if I get the ROM back and it all goes wrong again? Every so often I see myself on an endless loop of recovery and loss.
Everyone says what happened is a bit of a one-off. When it happened I had only just had a glowing report from my OS 5 days earlier, I'd been fine all day and late afternoon sat on the bed with my legs straight out and my computer in my lap. Went to do a few heel slides before I got up and the knee would not bend. No pain, no visual clues and no loss of weight bearing. My OS's best guess is a soft tissue injury and significant bleed that pooled at the back of my knee, causing everything else to tighten and seize up.
Oh well - it is what it is, and I just have to get on with it.
Hope all is going well with you and you enjoy the time left before you return to work.
Take care
X
 
@dogwheels So sorry about your setback. How confusing and discouraging at the same time but you have such a great attitude that I know you'll come back stronger. ~Joy


Sent from my iPad using BoneSmart
LTKR 1/28/14
 
Hi @dogwheels, I hope you are having a good day and that your hydro session went well yesterday. I had my 2nd (& final) hydro session yesterday, and she seemed to be following the order that your PT uses, I couldn't remember any from my first session, but having read through your list (thank you again, it's great) I recognised most of them. I find the one that bends the knee backwards using an armband on the foot is a particularly good one, it was really stretching my scar, so hopefully it was improving things.
I have only had three days at home this week, so I haven't been to the gym, but I have used my static bike and did the Pilates class, as well as all the heel slides and lunges, I don't want to be stuck at 100. My OS said it was 110 when he saw me at 6 weeks, but it was just by looking, I don think it really has decreased and I believe the PT more on this one, I think he was just talking it up so he appears to have done a good job.
I've just managed to drive an hour round the M25 to see my grandson, and an hour back again, so that is progress. My dear husband sat in the car with me, just in case my knee wasn't up to it. He had his own things to do today really, but decided he would come with me - I said I could manage but he didn't believe me, still, it was nice for him to see little one as well. We will be looking after him for four days when we get back from Anglesey, I can't wait.
Take care, and fingers crossed that your knee continues to improve properly this time, xx
 
Hi anyone reading ...... as ever many thanks for your interest and support in the continuing saga of my **** knee!
This time last week I was telling you how at PT I had some very firm massage on my achy shin bone and my tight scar. Well the massage on the shin bone was magic - it has hardly hurt since and the residual bruise discoloration there, has all but gone. I have continued to firmly massage the scar daily and it is looking really good and much less tight when trying to bend.
2 hydrotherapy sessions worked their usual magic and improved bending considerably. ROM was eyeballed at over 90 degrees. Despite walking up the steps of the pool perfectly normally - PT only wants me to climb stairs at home in the normal way, once each day to avoid weight loading the knee. Lots more baby bending on my part, and have been doing lunges on stairs as recommended by @Foxmyster1967 and @icep707 - thanks guys!
Today's physio shows that I have added 10 degrees to ROM since last week, so - as all results are a bit relative - I reckon I am currently at about 95 degrees. The rest of the session was interesting and confusing at the same time - as the physio voiced some thoughts that I have had, but not mentioned ..... Namely, the pain I have when I reach the furthest bend I can achieve, is in exactly the same place as my old large curved arthrotomy scar. She wondered if there is residual memory that has been 'activated' by the TKR surgery/thickened scar tissue/old tendon wear?
The lower inner thigh part of my hamstring was very tight and massage extremely painful! Evidently there is a large hard ridge of muscle - along with a swollen patch behind my knee. Obviously this tightened hamstring is not helping with my bending - and not bending is not stretching the hamstring :umm:. Almost 30 years of having a knee with a compromised bend has probably resulted in shortened and tight hamstrings - and would also explain the ease I experienced in achieving good extension and a straight leg so quickly post op! PT thinks it's possible that the swollen patch at the still-bruised back of my knee may be the remnants of the bleed that is breaking up as I am moving the joint more.

And so I move into another week, progressing slowly to where I was 3.5 weeks ago ....... but looking on the bright side .....at least I am progressing!

[Bonesmart.org] Oh Baby feel the (k)need in me - the sequel ..


Chris X
 
Hi @dogwheels your doing great soon be climbing on that boat! Every week your getting better that's the main thing, I was doing well had root canal done all good,then yesterday fell down the stairs, I slid down trying to avoid my son's dog,slid down on my back and feeling very stiff and sore,fortunately knees seem O.K think I was very lucky could have been much worse it did scare me a bit need to be more careful.So pleased your improving keep it up Terri x
 
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