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Bilateral PKR One Year Update

After 1.5 miles of walking I get sooooo bored so I haven't progressed much beyond that distance at one time. I'm able to go over 10K steps what with the 1.5 M walk and shopping, ADL and such but I want to expand my walking distances. I guess I need to find a more interesting podcast.
I'm trying to get in shape for my London trip and believe me, London is more interesting to walk around than Barrington, RI.
 
I lived on podcasts when I was recovering and later as I was becoming more active again. What do you think about starting a thread in the Social Room to share our favorite podcasts? We have threads for books and films and television shows. It's nice to have that info all in one thread.

Sent from my SM-S327VL using Tapatalk
 
I posted this on another thread:

"I had as close to a "normal" day today then I've had in almost a year. I'm 11.5 weeks out from my bilateral TKR and began to feel that I would never get to this point. But it suddenly happened, without me even being that aware of it. The whole family took my dog Bashi for a 1.5 mile walk this morning. Then, since the sun was shining for the first time since forever, I decided I was going to garden. Went to Home Depot and Walmart and loaded my little car with garden soil and plants. Got home and, with the help of my son in law, refilled the garden boxes with soil and then 4 yr old grand daughter and I planted the boxes. And then I came inside and made Sunday roast dinner!
This was the most amazing day ever. It's what happens to everyone, everyday, when they have 2 good knees.

I think sometimes we forget how "normal" people actually live their lives."

I'm just wondering what the heck happened today. I felt darn near normal. I could feel Righty but I just ignored it. I'm now in bed and haven't felt the need to grab for the Tylenol or anything stronger. Well, we did have wine with dinner so Tylenol would be the strongest thing I would take and checked FitBit and I have 17,500 steps??????

I haven't had my thread title changed in a bit but if an Admin person reads this could they change it to "I Think I Can See The Finish Line"?

 
Wow. That is amazing. Good for you! More days like that for sure!

When you travel this summer, won’t your walking be more in spurts? London has so much to see, but you’ll be doing walking and stopping a lot. And every time I’ve been in London in the summer, it’s been freakin’ hot. Drink lots of water!

I love living over here, but Northern Europe, when it gets hot, can be awful. Not a lot of a/c.

I’ve been listening to audio books, should look at pod casts myself.
 
Wow, SherrieT! You are incredible and you've done all this with two new good knees! I'm a plant addict (okay, I admit it but I don't think there's a rehab place for it) and it sounds like you may be that way too. The screened porch is full of plants that need to be planted. It poured here yesterday so maybe I can get some done today. You are taking many more steps than I am and it sounds like you aren't having any side effects from it. Way to go, girl. London, here you come!
 
Way to go, Sherrie! You are so going to enjoy bringing in Spring on two new knees. One thing to keep in mind is you will have days like this (and increasing more and more of them) and you will have... days not like this. Days where your knee(s) ache, maybe one, maybe the other, and maybe both. It could happen because you overdid the activity (which is easy to do on those days where all seems healed and normal). It could be for no discernible reason.

But the best thing is that these “off” days will resolve quicker now! A day of rest, elevating and icing, and the soreness will retreat. Maybe just overnight will do it. You’ll just go back and forth a bit for a little longer. Recovery is still going on for full year out. You’re doing great, though! Really, you’re ahead to the curve and it’s a boost to see you enjoying your new knees.

And London will be amazing!
 
@Eeek thank you! My vacation is Oct 26 - Nov 19th. I went in July/Aug of last year and I was lucky as there were very few days when I felt like it was really too hot. And it seemed like I was walking all the time. If not on the streets then around all the museums and galleries. Hopefully this time the amount of time I spend in one place won't be determined by if there is some place I can sit and rest knees! And of course the podcast I am listening to the most now is BritishHistoryPodcast.com. :heehee:

@SusieShoes - I did have a bit of a restless night but not as bad as I was worried it would be. I'm at my work desk/recliner with Righty in it's cushion and iced nicely.

@MSgirl - Spring planting season hit me big time yesterday. It felt like the day before giving birth when suddenly you get hit with a bunch of energy and start "nesting" like crazy. Only instead of nesting I was buying plants and soil, and planting.

When I told my oldest daughter about the day I had she said "you're ready for those Hello Dolly tickets!"
I originally had tickets to see Hello Dolly on Broadway for my birthday Feb 18th. Course I got the ticket before getting a surgery date of Feb 1st. When I got the ticket I was worried that a 3 hour train trip, cab ride to theatre, play and then reverse the whole trip was going to be really rough on my pre op knees. Once I got my surgery date I just went ahead and returned the ticket. But I think she's right. Bette Midler comes back into the role mid-July and I'm going to try to get in and see her before show closes on Aug 25 so it gives my knees even more time to heal.
 
Gosh @SherrieT you are doing great girl! Did you really walk 17,000 steps in one day? You are my hero - lol. I don't know if its the altitude or what but I just can't seem to walk farther than 1.5 miles ever. Not comparing, just thinking about the difference. Keep posting - you are motivating me. . . .
 
I hope you get to see Bette Miller in the role. I have friends who adored it!

Will you be just in London, or travel around a bit. I have a friend from the US i travel to Great Britain with every couple of years. we take two weeks and visit gardens, old houses and so forth. Though we usually go late summer. Next year for me, perhaps.

You probably know this, but if many of the places you visit are National Trust properties, you can join the National Trust as a US resident and gain free admission for a minimal membership cost. I think it’s called the Royal Oak society. I belong to the Italian National Trust - they have reciprocal agreements with Great Britain and Scotland.

Ooops. Sorry....not knee related. Well, you’ll enjoy this so much more with two new knees.
 
I'm finding that if I get too comfortable in my recliner/office I really pay for it later. I get so stiff that, if I'm having a really busy work day, that I just don't have to time to "unlock" my knees.

I'm thinking I may need to move back to my regular work desk so that the pain of sitting upright will force me to move more during the day.

Kind of funny. Earlier in my recovery it hurt when I moved too much and now I'm in the opposite condition
 
SherrieT said:
I'm thinking I may need to move back to my regular work desk so that the pain of sitting upright will force me to move more during the day.
Click to expand...

@SherrieT When I was tutoring starting last December through Feb., I found that I just couldn't sit at my desk. My knees would swell up and hurt badly. I'd be ok for the first hour or two in the morning, and I'd always get up and walk around when finished with a student. But I couldn't sustain sitting at the desk, because my knees started to hurt so much that it was keeping me up at night. And this was at three months through five months.

I wound up making a change long about the first week in January. I rigged it up so I was sitting on the couch with my legs elevated, and I used a tv tray for my laptop so I could Skype with the students. What a difference that made. I still got up and walked around between students, and was pretty stiff for the first couple of seconds, but no more problems at night.

Could you set the alarm on your phone to remind you to move? Like we were told to do for taking our meds in the beginning so the pain wouldn't take over? You may do well at your desk, but you are still pretty early in recovery. Let us know how it goes.
 
My office has been in my home for 31 years. I've been working from the sofa since my LTKR (February 19). I moved to my office for the first time this morning. I lasted at my desk for about 15 minutes before I started looking for something to prop my leg on. After trying unsuccessfully for about 2 hours to make my leg comfortable, I migrated back to the sofa.
 
SherrieT said:
Kind of funny. Earlier in my recovery it hurt when I moved too much and now I'm in the opposite condition
Click to expand...
That's so true. When I laid up with my foot/ankle breaks and unable to walk, my knee objected big time. It wanted to be used! Once it gets mobile, it likes to stay that way!
 
12 weeks post-op today and today I knelt on the couch. Little grand kiddies were on couch looking out the window at the new flowers and I was right next to them. I was careful not to lean back too far and our couch cushions are soft but I did it! I probably could have done it before now but just had a bit of a block about it.
I moved back to my desk this morning also and so far so good. My stationary bike is right behind me. I've jumped on it for a few minutes and then back to the desk and that helps so much. I've also got a file box under desk that I've put my legs on. I tried one of those under desk hammocks but it doesn't attach to my desk correctly.

Happy Healing everyone!
 
I wanna recovery like SherrieT! Not fair. I guess age makes no difference. Sherri, you’ve been blessed big time.
I’m so happy for you! Thanks for sharing your story. :thankyou:
 
@Needhope It looks like you've had a lot more issues and procedures done on your knees than I have plus your only a couple of weeks out from your LTKR and HEY I'm only 63!!!

Plus it is only recently that I've really been able to start functioning "almost" normal. And that is a BIG almost. I'm still almost constantly aware of my knees.
 
SherrieT said:
I probably could have done it before now but just had a bit of a block about it.
Click to expand...

I knelt down to tie a shoe the other day. :egypdance: Didn't plan it, just did it. Probably could have done it sooner, but... hey, I'll take it! I think with these new knees we sometimes do think too much. That's a good thing, because we undoubtedly headed off some really bad ideas. :snork: Later on, though, our knees let us know when they're ready to show off. It's the fun part of recovery!

Congrats on the kneeling!
 
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