Become an Insider

TKR On the other side of surgery

I'm glad to see you are feeling a bit more positive. Boy I'd be ticked off too with threats of mua, and consequences based on some arbitrary numbers. Keep standing your ground. I'd agree with some others, take a week off pt and see how you do on your own, just living and using your knee in normal every day activities.
 
Clara, encouraging to hear that your ROM increased during a week of no PT. So did you do any exercises like heal slides while at the beach? Perhaps the beach helped, maybe I should talk my husband into it, lol. True I can always go back to PT after taking a break.

question: is tightness considered swelling? I ask because sometimes it does not look horribly swollen but when I stand or walk that is when it feels like it. I just dont want to confuse swollen and tightness.
 
Swollenness causes tightness. They are very closely related. My leg didn't look that swollen but I could feel the tightness when I walked or bent it. I judge how swollen it is by how it feels when I step out of the bathtub shower in the morning. I think you deserve a PT break after all you have gone through.
 
While your knee may not look swollen from the outside, it can be swollen inside. The soft tissue can be swollen, leaving no room for your knee to bend. Take a few days and do nothing but ice, elevate, walk around the house, chances are you'll feel less tightness in that knee.
 
Thank you @Floridagal and @KarriB , my next PT appts are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week. Perhaps I just go Thursday as that will give me a week to elevate and ice. While I am resting should I even attempt doing heel slides at home or simply rest?
 
I have the tightness too. Especially after sitting!elevating for a few hours, first getting up is very tight. Gets a bit better after a few steps
 
Heel slides are fine, but don't use a device to pull your foot backward, just slide your foot yourself and only do a few a day. Definitely give yourself a week, but if you go back to aggressive therapy you may go backwards, so be careful. Your pt doesn't sound like he's going to change the way he works on you. We don't buy the first pair of shoes we try on, we shop around to find the best product, so do the same for your knee. While you're resting/elevating, research other pt groups if you feel you need to go to PT. Call the offices and ask if they give non-aggressive pt, but lots of people do just fine with no pt at all. You are after all just a month out, I gained ROM months to a year after my TKR.

Ice, elevate, rest as if it's your job. Try toes above the nose a few times a day.
 
thecoll said:
my next PT appts are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week. Perhaps I just go Thursday as that will give me a week to elevate and ice. While I am resting should I even attempt doing heel slides at home or simply rest?
Click to expand...
Spend the week resting, elevating and icing, and take walks around the house.
PT three times a week is too much. It's better to cut it back to once or twice a week.

My surgeon does not allow any PT at all for the first month after a TKR. He says that your knee needs that time, to start its recovery journey.
After that month, he allows one PT visit every two weeks. At that visit, we are shown a few exercises, to do at home. Nobody forces our knees or gets focused on measuring the degree of bend. Nothing hurts.

All his patients do well and he hasn't had to do a manipulation to help with ROM for almost 4 years.

After my last TKR, I did no PT at all - the knee works perfectly, with full extension and a bend of over 125 degrees.
 
I had a restful day. Just rest, elevated and iced. Sat in the shower pointing the shower head on my knee letting warm water hit it. Actually felt really good and not tight when i got out. Can heat be used around the incision sight? Took couple laps around the kitchen. My husband said no home exercises today but tomorrow we will do a few gentle heel slides and then ice and elevate rest of the time. Trying the less is better approach. Sometimes after icing it feels more swollen, odd.
 
The warm water is good for a little while, but heat on the incision area while,it may feel a bit looser it will promote swelling. My first PTs put heat on my 2 week knee and then weights on top. I'm guessing they were trying to get my extension to 0. Now I'm a negative extension.
 
The warm water is good for a little while, but heat on the incision area while,it may feel a bit looser it will promote swelling. My first PTs put heat on my 2 week knee and then weights on top. I'm guessing they were trying to get my extension to 0. Now I'm a negative extension.
 
@thecoll. My PT sometimes puts heat on my quad muscle or calf to loosen up but we don't place right on incision or joint - too swollen. Under leg sometimes helps too.


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
I will try heat just not on the joint or incision. I can not imagine putting weights on my new knee to get extension, sounds painful. I am taking it easy again today, just ice/elevate to reduce swelling and maybe later some gentle heal slides. Since my steri strips have been on for 2 weeks I have been pulling a couple off each day after showering. Surprised at how well they are still stuck on. I am canceling my PT for Tuesday and will go Thursday as that will be a week of the less is better approach. My sister stopped by the house this morning with my 1 year old nephew who is so stinking cute. It help lift my spirits.
 
ya those strips are really glued on tight. They actually ran like a tube of glue stuff on the sides of my incision to help the strips stay on even more. Two weeks yours are on huh? ughh, Glad you are trying the less is more for now. Are you still sleeping with ice? Im thinking of trying to sleep without it tonight. I have not been icing during the day and it feels ok. I just find now by mid afternoon I get like comatose tired and nod out in my chair on and off which is unusual for me
 
@thecoll doesn't it just burst your bubble and deflate your spirits to hear talk about a MUA, like so many of the rest of us I think you will be just fine cutting back and will find peace within yourself.
I think by listening and working so hard in the beginning to achieve those magical numbers I've done more harm then good, my ROM for a bit didn't move at all, and I now have a spot in my incision that hasn't healed and need to see a wound care specialist, that thought of bending a hose full of fluid is what I think of now, how something like that can't bend well, if anything by forcing it, it may rupture or in my case open up.
Do what you can and follow your own instincts. I am feeling the best that I've felt over all just the past few weeks with working things my way, went back to work and it's tuckers me out, but overall I am recovering. P/T at this point has been cancelled it was actually becoming easier for me, but they don't want me to continue to do extra bending of my knee at this pt. ( what a dbl standard, was ok until now this open area on my knee won't close up) I am fine with this tho getting a good workout from just daily living.
 
zzevi said:
wound care specialist
Click to expand...
I am sorry you have to deal with this. let me just offer my 2 cents on this. All wound care docs are NOT the same. I dealt with infection with a hip replacement in 2014 and the first wound care and the first infection disease docs I saw I did not like at all, their office procedures, their staff and just the whole experience. Once I found and ID and even more important, a Wound doc that I felt good about, it was so much better. It was still a year long nightmare for me, but I loved the wound care doc and his staff, they made me as comfortable as possible and were always available to call for questions and problems. I really hope you can get this sorted out as quickly as possible. I feel for you and totally understand what you are going thru
 
@dianehelen Yes 2 weeks the strips are on. I was told they would fall off on their own. Then in PT this week the therapist said they should of fallen off by now. So I talked to the OS nurse and he said yeah they should of come off by now and I can remove them. Yes i still use the ice machine at night, not sure if it is my "blankie" at this time but thought about stopping it. So you stopped using ice all together during the day? You must not have much swelling or tightness. Do you still elevate on pillows during the day?
@zzevi yes it totally deflated my spirits when they talk about MUA. Just by cutting back the past 2 days I have more peace. Agreed with the double standard. My ROM will get there in my knees own time. No more stressing about it, plus my husband is tired of me being down and frustrated.
 
I elevate on and off during the day, (on meaning up on my pillow stack, off just having it up on the recliner with no pillow stack) just because it feels better. My new pain tho is from those top 2 really dug in stitches they had to excavate outta my let. feels like a sore, not terrible but annoying. I have not iced today and dont really have much swelling, at least that is noticeable. My leg is still tight and after sitting a while the first few steps are stiff and tight. I too dont know if I should try overnight without ice, it does seem like a "blankie" thing, and once im in bed, im there for the night and dont have to think about unwrapping and re wrapping it. Thats at least a small part of why im not icing during the day. but also I guess Im not needing it. who the heck knows sometimes. I am getting a little cabin fevered tho, and go back and forth in my head about wanting to get out, but worried about not having my leg up. It just becomes a game of mental ping pong.
 
[Bonesmart.org] On the other side of surgery


I use Edens Garden, this is probably comparable to what you use, I love their oils and they are high quality and much more affordable, I have a very substantial collection, this really works for me!!
 
Thank you Clara!! I like that Edens Garden is 100% pure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Members online

Total: 929 (members: 1, guests: 928)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom