Slowly slowly I'm noticing the tissues stretching so I can bend my knees a little more each day. I've found myself absent-mindedly going for more bend in the evening and nighttime while reading or playing on the phone.
My left leg, particularly the left calf is smaller than my right side due to months of compensating for an all but destroyed left side cartilage. So I'm trying to make putting weight on the left side or leading with the left side a habit again. Sometimes it feels just like it used to with pain shooting around in the joint. I'm hoping that is temporary. I'm not expecting perfection, but maybe I'm expecting too much improvement?
Tried going downstairs front ways and it was not very fun. Felt something kind of catching on the right side, like a tendon getting caught or something. Yeesh. I keep trying gingerly to move about naturally, but if I run into a weird roadblock like that I back off fast.
Sometimes it feels like the cement is coming away from my bone a little bit if I move wrong. Probably this is in my head. I'd imagine I'd be in constant excruciating pain if that were the case. How does the cement work in a wet environment?
The skin on my right knee (a little on my left) is all peely and flaky. My hypothesis is that this is due to the extended dramatic swelling after surgery. I feel little itches here and there.
The outside of both knees are completely numb. This creeps me out and is worrisome. The PA told me this would go away. I sure hope so.
I'm at a funny stage where it can be easy to forget my ROM limitations. The other day I tried to get into my bed from the other side. It is very cluttered over there with all kinds of invalid's trappings; a wastebasket, papers, coin collecting supplies, etc. It was a tight pivot and then required more flexion than my left knee was ready for. As I came down, it was too late to undo gravity and rewind the tape. It hurt so bad I yelled out and just sat there stunned, hugging my knee almost crying. The pain was gone in less than 2 minutes.
I can finally sleep on my side again as of two nights ago. This is magical for me. I have to arrange my legs very carefully, liberally stack pillows between my knees and try to remember that I can't move in the same way yet. But it's worked pretty well. Being a side sleeper, I've been in a kind of hell having to sleep on my back every night. So this is something to celebrate.
Definitely still need the raised toilet seats, though I'm getting up with more leg muscles and less arm muscles. I don't use the walker anymore. I haven't used the ice machines in three days. I keep thinking I'll need them and hubby keeps offering to fill them, but I just haven't needed more than elevation.
The raggedy steri strips and bits of exposed incision are so gross. I wish I could just spackle over them with something from the hardware store.
I can't bear weight for long, but I am noticing that I'm able to go longer before I have to elevate.
Yesterday, my husband walked with me to the end of our street and back. My hamstrings are actually sore today from that tiny walk! My neighbor texted me that night to tell me I'd been spotted by her husband and he said I looked good. I texted back, "Dang! I was trying to hide because my knees look so gross and I'm still walking like I pooped my pants."
I feel like the rest of me is falling out of shape while I'm trying to recover my knees. That's kind of frustrating because I was in such good shape before surgery. I was doing really big hills on the bike. I'm not sure I'll be able to push that hard again. Not sure if that will be ok for the prosthetics.
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With this being my second TKR, I should have known better!
and all the work ahead, I'm glad I took this route.
