TKR One year later and all is well

[Minstrel]

@flyaway79

Hello again! Good to know I'm not alone in this. It was a week ago that I started driving again, and last night i realized how. because of that, I'm not out walking as much. That will change starting today . . . as soon as I go and pick up a few groceries.

I have an invitation to go kayaking on Monday for the first time this season, and I really want to go . . . but first I need to be able to bend my knee enough to get in and out without capsizing! Kayaking would be so perfect an activity for me since I would be moving - man, do I miss moving! Got on the scale yesterday and I am ashamed to have gained some weight - you know all that comfort food to make up for what I was going through. No more!

Outside the sun is shining and the temperatures are climbing and I NEED to be able to partake in my favourite summertime activities! Not to mention that there is this little underlying fear of my next visit with my surgeon on June 6. I want ROM for me, not to make anybody else look good!

 

[flyaway79]

I haven't tried the driving thing yet. Haven't really needed to because my husband has been driving me when needed. Although I may try this weekend only because I want to get a pedicure and want to get there on my own!!

I am looking forward to getting outside more and just living again!

 

[Minstrel]

Feeling Stuck . . . Again

Seems that no matter how often I read about paience with respect to gaining ROM, I still fall back into a bit of a 'funk' when I consider how my progress seems to have stalled. My funcional abilities have not improved in a couple of weeks and I am not happy with the lack of progress.

Today I am 11 weeks post-op and I waffle between "give yourself a break, it has only been 11 weeks" and "for God's sake, it's been 11 weeks; get on with it!" . . . and it's mostly the latter. I am tired of the cane or the crutch. I am tired of not being able to descend stairs properly. I want to ride my bike. I want to go for a hike for a couple of hours, not just a walk for a couple of minutes.

I have read the comments about how ROM continues to improve for months. I have also read the posts from members who are way ahead of me in their progress and I'm wondering why I can't be more like them. I have not been measured for several weeks, but just by looking at my best bend, I'm not much past 90 degrees - not good enough!

I'm also seeing my surgeon again in 2 weeks and I'm feeling scared (again) about what he might have to say. I still struggle with exercising vs rest/icing/elevation; I'm feeling like the kid at school who gets caught not having done the homework.

Whereas I thought i was at peace with the Bonesmart approach, I also thought that I would be further along in my recovery by now. So, 4 weeks ago it was easier to 'let go' and allow ROM to improve with time. Now it's a lot harder to accept that because I just don't feel like there has been any progress in the past month.

I'm frustrated . . . and I'm disappointed . . . and, I guess, I'm wondering when my knee will bend like I need it to. I did not put myself through this ordeal to have less flexion than I had before the surgery.

 

[Celle]

I'm going to say exactly what you probably expected - it's only been 11 weeks, out of a recovery that takes a full year. Your knee is still a work in progress. How it is now is not how it is going to end up.

It's normal for progress to plateau for a while. It's not stalling. Your knee is consolidating the progress it has already made. I know it's hard, but dig deep into your store of patience.

"Patience, Grasshopper!"

Just to see if I can reassure you, this is what one of our members wrote about the slow development of her ROM. (Thank you, @Campervan ) As you can see, her flexion continued to improve for a long time.
"I had a slow recovery. Here's my flex measurements at various points:
92 - 8 weeks post op
105 - 10 weeks
107 - 5 months
110 - 6 months
112 - 7 months
116 - 9 months
119 - 11 months
118 - 1 yr
120 - 1yr 2 months
125 - 1 yr 8 months"

 

[DebM]

That's is such a helpful table for us 'slow recoverers to see!

 

[Lilli215]

@Minstrel if it's of any help at week 12 I was fairly fed up, wasn't where I expected to be albeit my ROM was fine. I couldn't walk any distance outside even with the cane and I was still getting a lot of aches and swelling by end of the day! At week 13 I made a trip to the theatre in the city with friends, this entailed walking much further than I had previously, boy did I suffer, knee up like a balloon! However since then (and I've no idea if it was coincidental) my knee has turned a huge corner, I can now walk for about half a mile without cane, this week I've been gardening although without kneeling and today I'm going to help hubby paint the outside of his man shed, my knee still swells lightly at the end of the day but the aching has stopped. I've read that walking is good for the knee after week 12 and I'm sure that's what made the difference with me. Hang on in there it will get better, and yes it used to annoy me when I was told that but it's true.

 

[DebM]

@Lilli215 i can vouch for that. Since starting work again 3 weeks ago. (A very busy delivery driver) my knee has improved more in the last week or two than previously when I wasn't doing a lot.
@Minstrel i certainly know where you are coming from as this was me up to 2 weeks ago. Now I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel and becoming glad I had my knees done. It is such a long frustrating journey though! You will turn the corner soon I am sure!

 

[Lilli215]

Got half the man shed done (and it's a big shed) and the knee is holding up fine, heading out this afternoon to do other half. @Minstrel if you had said to me a month ago that I would be able to do what I'm doing today I would've laughed out loud!

 

[Lilli215]

Should also have mentioned that although I can do so much more now I still can't go up a flight of stairs foot over foot and can't walk the dog on the beach yet as it hurts just in case anyone thinks I'm getting cocky about my recovery!

 

[flyaway79]

Once again you could be speaking for me!! I'm two weeks behind you. It is good to know that you and others feel the same way. I wasn't patient going into this and this by far has been the most trying 9 weeks in my life!! I had a partial 6 years ago and it was nothing like this full revision has been. At this point I was starting to get ready to go back to work in a few weeks last time and this time - no way!

It's great to hear others say the 12-14 week mark is a pivotal time. I'm going to try and look forward to that time rather than dwell on these trying times.

 

[sistersinhim]

I hate to keep bringing up that P word...patience, that's what this recovery takes. And no two knees are the same, so don't compare your knee with someone else's. It takes at least a year and even then some of us aren't all the way healed. It depends on your body and what was done inside that knee. I'll be a year out in less than two weeks, but since my fall on it, it's obviously not healed all the way yet. I'm not worried, just disappointed. Please give yourself time and quit worrying so much!

 

[Celle]

I'd like to remind all of you that 3 months post-op is only a quarter of the way to full recovery. Whether you like it or not, your knee is going to take a full year before it is 100% recovered. It sets its own recovery timetable and I'm afraid you can't speed it up. Some knees take even longer.

If you can be patient now, it will be a big investment in a good recovery.

Your knee is still la "work in progress" Where it is now is not where it is going to end up.

 

[DebM]

I think our intellectual brain understands this @Celle but when you are living it on a day to day basis when the improvements are very slow and we often go back two steps we lose sight of the big picture. It's easy to get despondent and frustrated. I know I have on many occasions.

 

[Cybil62]

Having patience is really hard! I don't think most of us realized the extent of recovery after TKR, I know I didn't! I am almost at 10 weeks and my ROM is still at 90 but I have finally came to terms with that. I am following the bonesmart way and I see little improvements everyday. Hang in there, you will get through this! Positive thoughts sent your way

 

[flyaway79]

I think our intellectual brain understands this @Celle but when you are living it on a day to day basis when the improvements are very slow and we often go back two steps we lose sight of the big picture. It's easy to get despondent and frustrated. I know I have on many occasions.

@DebM Well put!!

 

[KarriB]

Well, now you all can spread the word! Lots of people in your age group will be having TKRs in the coming years. Make sure they are prepared. I was lucky as my OS warned me 12 weeks off work and a year to feel normal.

 

[Minstrel]

It wasn't until I joined this forum that I learned that it takes a full year to recover from TKR. It would not have affected my decision to proceed because my crooked leg was taking its toll on my quality of life. When I was 18 my torn cartilage was totally removed from my knee joint as a result of a sports injury. Over the course of the ensuing 40+ years, my leg had been getting more and more crooked. As it was, i probably should have had my knee replaced several years ago.

Being patient with the pace of my recovery would be so much easier if I was stuck at 110 or 115 degrees of flexion. But I was measured at barely 80 over 5 weeks ago and I can see that I'm barely at 90. And by the end of some days, as I climb a step at a time up the stairs to my bed, hanging on to the banister every foot fall, my knee is not bending at a right angle.

This morning I participated in my first aquatics fitness class with the hope that bending my knee while not having to bear my weight might help. No such luck . . . and this evening I'm limping badly. To top it off, there does not seem to be any appreciable reduction in the swelling of my knee.

I was feeling so hopeful when I could finally drive, but that is now old news. I would feel so much better if I could do anything I could not do 3 weeks ago. I feel like I'm regressing. I want to move . . . really move. I miss physical activity.

 

[KarriB]

While it seems easier in water, water provides a natural resistance, similar to bands or weights. So you probably worked your knee much harder in the water. Resistance or weights shouldn't be used before 3 months post op.

 

[Celle]

@Minstrel you're not regressing. You are just following a slow and steady path to recovery. A ROM of 80 a few weeks ago and now a ROM of 90 is progress.

It's normal for your knee to not do as well by the evening - it's tired by then. For months, I would start limping in the evening, even though I could walk normally during most of the day. That's what fatigue does to you and your knee.

I think the aquatics fitness class was too much for your knee at this stage and that is why you're limping and probably a bit more swollen than usual. You can't exercise your knee into improving, and too much exercise will increase swelling, which slows down your progress.

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.

Recovery from a knee replacement is a huge test of patience - I know; I've done it three times - so dig deep and try to find something you can do productively while you are resting, icing and elevating that knee.
You're not lying around, doing nothing, while you're elevating and icing - you're working hard at giving your knee the best possible conditions to make a good recovery.

 

[sistersinhim]

Please don't be so hard on yourself. This recovery is so slow and sometimes we take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. There is no way you can make the knee heal any quicker than it wants to, but you can slow it down by doing too much too soon. But, the outcome is worth the wait!