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TKR On the other side of surgery

Oh Im so happy to see this. She sounds very encouraging, Id get her every time. Its amazing the range of therapists you have had. I wish there was some consistency to them. But you seem pretty ok with it all now. Have a nice restful weekend of elevation and gentle bending. Did she give you the one of sitting on either an office chair, or some regular chair and just edging forward , using the upper thigh muscles to sorta bend the lower half of the leg? My home pt guy told me that one, and it seemed to help more than just trying to directly bend the knee.

Im glad you are feeling better and not obsessing over numbers. Good Job JOY! :)
 
Sunday funday! Woke up this morning and did the usually let the dogs out to potty, fed them, started the coffee and put away the clean dishes. Then to the chair for ice and elevation. Couple hours later I hung my leg off the side of the bed to work on bending as PT showed me. I love the stretch it gives in the front of quad. Then I colored my grey roots and showered. Back to recliner for ice and elevation. Around 1pm my husband helped me with a version of heel slides. I sat on the edge of my garden tub letting the leg hang (i have very short legs) and my husband gently pushed my leg back for me. I told him when to stop and we would hold it for 20 seconds. It actually felt good for once, of course there was a little swelling afterwards but ice and elevation in the recliner took place. I threw a pork butt in the crock pot and made Carnitas for dinner. Never made it before but saw it on Pintrest and was very tasty. Now to relax and elevate the rest of the evening as I have PT in the morning. Hope everyone had a great weekend.
 
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Sounds like you had a very good day!! YAY!! So happy for you...Its GOTTA be all uphill from here!
 
What a wonderful day you have had! It is so encouraging to experience just a taste of what it will eventually be like!
 
So glad you are recovering so nicely Colleen! I know what you're talking about when you say the stretching actually feels good. I still experience that when I bend my knee back- it's crazy, but the stretch continues to feel good when I do that! My Audrey worried so much about me during my recovery that now I'll put my knee down off the side of the recliner just to feel the good stretch and she'll come over, pick my let up and put it back on the reclined part of my chair, lol! No need trying to explain to her it feels good- she knows better, or so she thinks! Here I am 4.5 months out and doing really well and she wants me to obey the BoneSmart mantras, haha!

Glad you're doing well girl-!!
 
Good Luck in PT today Colleen!! :)


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Sounds like some great days, and good stretches! Glad you have such a wonderful pt.
 
So after being so up beat yesterday it all came crashing down thanks to PT today. Had a therapist that lectured me AGAIN about needing to have ROM at 90 by this Friday or the Dr will need to do MUA. When measured today it was only at 73. Still having large amount of tightness and same two areas she really massaged. I am soon to be 6 weeks out and she is right my ROM should be better by now. I am beyond frustrated and this afternoon went mentally to a dark place. Tonight my husband helped with heel slides. I will refuse a MUA but tired of not making ROM gains!!
@dianehelen the Carnitas turned out so yummy. they make a great taco. At least I can get something right.
When I elevate using 3 pillows staked I have pain radiating down the shin thru the knee then into the thigh. Crazy question...could this be the swelling coming down out if the leg or perhaps just the leg to high? When I am not up and moving around I sit with leg elevated, could I be doing this to much? Should I sit with it reclined on recliner without pillows or sit with it just hanging down which seems to cause tightness after 20 or so minutes. I appreciate any thoughts or advice.
 
ughhh @thecoll I can feel your frustration. Cant you get the same therapist each time? it almost seem counterproductive to work with so many different ones? I dont know what to tell you with the elevation, maybe one of the nurses will come along and offer ideas. I would just ask for the therapist who was not into lecturing. As for MUA I would refuse it too. Maybe stop formal measuring and just keep letting it heal? I really dont know, I just hate to see you so down.

Im glad the carnitas was good tho. I LOVE that and always order it when we go to our fave Mexican place.

thecoll said:
pain radiating down the shin thru the knee then into the thigh
Click to expand...

and what is up with these seemingly unconnected random annoying pains? Im struggling with those too, even when the knee feels fair to ok, this pain in the back of my leg, and down to my knee is just maddening..

Just a great big UGHHHHH
 
In my opinion and it's just a thought, you are doing too much PT, three times a week, sometimes two days in a row, your knee stays swollen, then even if you skip a couple of sessions when you go back the swelling gets bad again, why don't you consider stopping PT altogether and letting your knee heal an the swelling go down ,it seems that what you are doing now,PT, is not working, what do you have to loose??? Look up @Suz recovery thread, she was threatened with an MUA, she stopped PT, did her own thing and got her ROM back.

I know that we have been brainwashed that no pain no gain, but this is not the case with TKR, if you read the threads of those that over do it with aggressive PT, they taken longer to recover.

I hope I don't upset you, that is not my intention, I just feel you deserve a successful recovery :flwrysmile:
 
I totally agree with Clara Colleen, too much PT. It became pretty simple to me. If it takes 2-5 days to recover from 1hr of PT, as was true in my case, something is WRONG!

I honestly just stopped worrying about it. Enjoyed being the rebel that ignored all of the- 'you better be working that knee 'through' the pain if you want it to recover properly'.

As Josephine eloquently puts it... RUBBISH! And she's right! I enjoyed skipping PT so much- and I was rewarded big time in the end!

Our knees know how to heal themselves if we'll just let go and let them at it-!
 
Yanno, @uva55 , Clara makes a great point. I just reread @Suz recovery and it was very similar. Maybe give up pt for a while, or go once a week and request one of the less critical therapists.
 
I really think it's still pretty early in the game, you're just a day over 5 weeks. I agree that so many different therapists can be difficult as each has their own agenda. Are you doing heel slides like in the link below? I think I may have said this is how my OS wanted me to do heel slides. He showed me by just pushing my foot about an inch or two. Heel slides should be done on your own power, not with pushing or pulling. Originally my pt wanted me to use a sheet or towel under my foot to push and pull the knee back and forth. My revision doc believed this method caused some damage and swelling to my soft tissue and did not want me to continue this practice.

It can take more than a week to recover from an aggressive therapy session, especially when they're 2 days in a row. It took a few weeks for my swelling to go down. I didn't bend my knee for a month and can ride a bike, go up/down stairs (with my TKR), swim laps. Two years after the TKR/infection I realized I could squat in the water. Try following the activity progression chart instead of therapy and see how it goes for a few weeks.

https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/heel-slides-and-how-to-do-them-properly.26903/
 
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I wouldn't let the knee/leg just hang down as that will cause swelling immediately at your stage. If I was you I'd continue to ice, elevate walk around the house and do heel slides on your own. In fact that's what I did 5 weeks after surgery.
 
I tried rehabbing after a TKR two extremely different ways. The first time I did every exercise I was given. If they said do it twice I did it four. I was determined that I could get my knee back in shape but pushing through pain. My PT and OS were both telling me that's what I had to do. What I got from that was extreme pain. Poor range of motion. And then I started to feel depressed because I thought I was a failure. Instead of getting better I got worse.

The second time I had found this forum. It seemed very counterintuitive to me that the best way to rehab my knee from a TKR is to NOT exercise. I don't mean just sitting around doing nothing but just walking where and when I need to. I spent a lot of my early days with my knee elevated and with ice on it except to use the bathroom or to grab something to drink. I still ice whenever my knee swells and some days over night. I also took my pain meds for as long as I HAD pain. Eventually I missed some doses because I slept through them.

I would strongly suggest that you give this a try. You have nothing to lose. You are not doing well with what you're doing currently. I'm sure if you do give it a week or two you will start to see some improvement . I'm just offering you this info from one who has been where you are. If your knee is stiff it is swollen and it will not bend. Just like a hose full of water.

When elevating your foot should be higher than your knee and your knee higher than your hip. Your knee should have a slight bend to it. If you try to keep it straight that can cause you to have pain.
 
While I was still in hospital, PT showed me lunges and "gentle" squats to do, in addition to MANY other exercises several times a day. I managed not to laugh in their faces and continue to do heel slides and quad sets primarily and when I can, and just rest, ice, and elevate the rest of the time. Squats the day after major surgery? I think they were on crack!!

Jen
 
I'm sure they must have been. After my revision a PT threatened me with a MUA within the first 24 hours. I wasn't as polite as you. I did laugh out loud.
 
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