Bilateral TKR Oregon Mom's recovery journey

I think you are doing GREAT! Re pain... Since all my PT visits are video visits, they cant hurt me Although no one has suggested "pushing through the pain", I was started on day one with both strengthening (mild) and ROM exercises multiple times a day. So here is my standard: a little whimper now and then is OK, an OUCH is to be avoided.

" superficial fascia breaking up". I have had a little of that too and wondered what it was.

Hang in there.
 
Spoke with my surgeon today. I'm so grateful to have a laid back yet knowledgeable surgeon. He told me that "at this early stage" I'm doing really well. I asked about the urgency of the magic 6 week mark. He told me that 6 weeks is too early to tell, and he really addresses progress or lack of at the 3 month mark.
Of course, BoneSmart had all the answers and information right here. But it is very nice to hear these same reassurances from my surgeon.
I've tried not to use the fact that I had a bilateral to feel extra sorry for myself or get extra considerations. But today it just became a little clearer that yes, a BTKR is a very big deal. And trying to reach certain milestones that a patient with only one knee can just isn't reasonable. My pain is increased. My mobility is extra compromised. I just hadn't respected the severity of the BTKR and given myself a little more room to recover.
I'm going to enjoy and favor this time when I feel confident and peaceful, and I'll scroll back to this entry the next time I get discouraged.
I feel so blessed to have this surgeon. He really is right in line with the things I've read here. The nurses and PAs are just static to me and I'm not going to listen to anymore advice to push through pain or stress out that I can't get a certain degree of flexion by a certain calendar day.
 
Yesterday was my last day with oxycodone and wow... I understand why there is so much drama around opiates. Wow.
I started with 10mg every 6 hours, then 5mg after two weeks. I felt better and stronger, so I reduced to 2.5mg last week and that's when the body rebelled. My body had become somewhat dependent and titrating down from just 5mg to 2.5 caused very unpleasant withdrawal. I had mild tremors, lethargy, chills, sweats and persistent flu-like symptoms. Not fun. Then the cycle restarted when I went from 2.5 to zero.
I needed that medication to get through a horrendous post-surgery chapter. So no regrets.
But wow, if I had a reaction like that with only 5mg, I can only imagine how awful it is for people who become dependent on a higher dosage. That was rough. I actually did toy with the thought of just taking a little more to ease the withdrawal but didn't. I wanted that stuff out of my body and gone.
Having gone through this experience, I think now that it would've been helpful to have a much clearer pain management plan and very compassionate and present medication monitoring by a Pain Specialist instead of having to argue with nurses on the phone and endure lectures about opiates.
I can see where, if just a couple moving parts in this system were tweaked, the whole dealing with opiates thing would have been a lot easier.
Despite the side effects and challenging titration, I am very very glad I was able to use oxycodone as a tool in my pain toolbox. It really helped.
 
I drove for the first time day before yesterday. A trip to take my son to the playground and then to the vegetable stand. I felt a little talking in my right knee... The next day I drove my son to the playground again and I could tell that something was different. I had to sit on a bench with my right leg awkwardly elevated. And then yesterday... Pain and lots of it. And inflammation. My right knee is 2-3 times worse than my left now. Constant pain.
I could feel tiny micro movements in there as I operated the gas and brake with my right foot.
And here I am, in bed most of the day.
:boohoo:
 
Sorry your knee is acting up, such a bummer. Hope now that you were off it today, it will start feeling better. You are icing, right? I still like to do three 45 minutes of icing per day and I am almost 2 months out. I also ice all night. Today I’m only getting 2 icing sessions done. I was on the go pretty much all day today. Shopping and cleaning our BnB, I logged more than 4.5 miles. That’s the most I’ve walked, since the TKR in August. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, I may be sorry.

l‘m with you about getting the oxycodone out of our bodies. I started weaning off from oxycodone as soon as I left the hospital. I don’t like how it makes me feel, never mind how it constipates me. I took a lot more extra strength Tylenol then I did oxycodone. Best wishes for some pain free days!
 
Your knee apparently is telling you it’s not ready to drive. Take a few days to ice and elevate. Then you can try again. Maybe one day and then wait a day until you try again. If that doesn’t work give yourself a few days off before you try again.
 
@_Annie_ Thank you so much! I am amazed at all the things people are getting done. Cleaning out a B&B at 8 weeks? Wow.
I'll try to take your advice and ice more. I have definitely been icing a lot less. Honestly these machines and the pads and the velcro straps and the whole business is getting on my nerves. But for sure pain is much more annoying! :ice:
 
@newlybionic Thank you! I had no idea I'd get that kind of reaction from just pushing pedals, but I guess it makes sense. I'm kind of scared to try that again for a while... This is getting more challenging... I might have to go read the Post Op Blues section again.
My son is 7 almost 8 and it's breaking my heart that I can't do normal mom things with him. The holidays are coming and I can't decorate the house. I think this would be so much easier without a young kid in the house. Add to that no school to help balance things. What a year. :boohoo:
 
So discouraging!
It can be really hard to stay positive sometimes.
Went to see the PA yesterday to check my incision. It looked uneven, but she said that it is ok and is healing fine.
She commented on how well my legs were bending while I was sitting on the table and asked about my ROM. I had ordered a goniometer for myself and I told her I'd measured 110° on the right and 100° on the left. She replied "Oh, you measured yourself," in a tone that sounded mildly dismissive. She asked what my ROM had been previously, and I told her I could easily pull both heels right to my butt. Then her eyes got big and with some urgency, she told me that I really needed to bump up my PT and get to pushing my knees soon before I hit that dreaded 6 week mark. I'm at 4 weeks now. She suggested I ask for in-person PT so the therapist could force my knee ROM. She told me it is painful, but that often its easier for us to have someone else push us than to do it ourselves.
You can't have the same Physician's Assistant as I do cause you are in Oregon! I went yesterday to get the staples out of my second knee. I had 2 knees done but 3 months apart. The PA congratulated me on "working so much harder on this one since I'm gaining ROM faster." I told her that I hadn't worked any harder and was going to tell her my 2 theories as to why it is coming faster (the gentler PT I switched to or just this knee is different) but she insisted I had learned from the first one that I needed to work harder. What reason would I have to lie to her? I'm glad to hear your surgeon is more reasonable.
 
@Oregon mom , wonder how you are this morning?
Don’t be discouraged about decorating for Christmas. You might be surprised how much better you are by December. I don’t think I did any damage to my knee with my 4+miles yesterday. I am at least 1.5 months ahead of you. So don’t be discouraged, you are barely 2 weeks out. Give yourself some time, elevate and ice every chance you get and I think you will be surprised how much that help with swelling and pain.
 
I have found that if, after I have a really bad day+night, giving myself the next day off --no PT--works for me. I don't have any problem the following day getting back into the exercises and even sort of look forward to them and that rested feeling is very nice. We all need a break now and then.
 
You had your knee replaced so you could do things with your son but you have to be kind to yourself and give it time to recover. You will get there and you are with him and that is precious. Time and patience will get you there.

Driving has us moving our leg and knee in different motions and can take time to be comfortable.

If you do not like the ice machine you can always get some large ice gel packs and use those on your knee - just make sure you have some material between your knee and the ice. Even frozen peas would work but a nice large gel ice pack is easier to refreeze.
 
Hi Oregon Mom, always good to read your threads. I celebrated my 4 month anniversary of rtkr by driving for the first time. Then capped it off by...wait for it...going all the way around forward on recumbent bike at home. Not easy but then hey, this is the year of living dangerously.
I have been thinking that those of us who did COVID tkrs will be able to look back and reflect on the strength and resilience we grew this year. It is possible we will look upon this as one of those ‘if I got thru that ...then I can get thru this” experiences. I am trying to say every morning;
You know “this could be the best day ever”. Look up Annie LaMotts YouTube TED talk for a lift.
 
It's been 6 weeks now. Left knee is progressing incrementally and that is encouraging. But the right seems to be in an awful holding pattern. Something feels off. When I try to use it, it is as if it becomes reinjured and the cycle of of pain, swelling, clunking, buckling, icing, elevating begins all over again. I can't seem to get any traction on healing for the right knee and it's very discouraging.
PA says xrays look perfect, check back in 4 weeks.
I understand very well this takes time, but I'm not experiencing any progress on the right side and it's concerning. Still have a couple deep scabs on incision, whereas the left side is all healed up and looks normal.
 
I have been thinking that those of us who did COVID tkrs will be able to look back and reflect on the strength and resilience we grew this year. It is possible we will look upon this as one of those ‘if I got thru that ...then I can get thru this” experiences. I am trying to say every morning;
You know “this could be the best day ever”.
:puppysmooze:
 
Hi @Oregon mom
I’m almost 17 weeks post op now. My right knee has really lagged behind my left knee as well. I had bad hamstring issues in the right leg. Didn’t have that problem in the left leg. It is getting better and is painful way less often, but some nights, I still sleep with the heating pad behind the right knee and hamstring. Since I went back to work and have been doing way more sitting, I feel like the extension in the right leg has regressed. I focus every single day on stretching the right leg out multiple times a day to work on the extension. Otherwise I limp pretty badly. Flexion is improving in both knees - still a little better on the left than the right. On the other hand, the left knee is much much tighter across the front of the knee cap than the right knee. That’s kind of strange, but maybe it’s due to all the extra attention I give my right leg.
 
My right knee has really lagged behind my left knee as well.
Mrs. Ciz, which knee was the "good" knee before your surgery? Of course, they were both bad, but was one a little better than the other?
My right knee was more functional than the left, to the point where my lower leg muscles are noticeably larger on the right from all the compensation for the obliterated left side.
Sometimes I wonder if the additional soft tissues are causing our contributing to my problem. Or is there a bone chip in there? Do I have tendinitis?
My left side seems to be celebrating the new prosthesis, though I won't lie, recovery is a beast. But it is actively participating in recovery.
My right side feels like it get reinjured every time I try to walk just a bit.
It sounds like even though you are still tending to your right side and hamstring, you are making progress. And that is fantastic! I bet everyone at work has just been in awe of you coming back with two new knees!
 
Ha! This week at work I got the following two comments: 1) When are you going back to the doctor? You’re just not getting any better. We’re going to need a doctor’s note for you to stay in the first floor cafeteria (my temp classroom vs my 3rd floor classroom) any longer. 2) You walked better before your surgery. (Granted I was having a particularly bad day that day).

I injured my right knee 3 years before I injured my left knee (torn medial meniscus in both). By the time I had surgery, I felt like my left leg was the strongest, but my surgeon said my right knee was better than my left. They were both bone on bone and full of arthritis
 
Hi
It's very interesting and helpful to read all your posts. I joined the forum yesterday- had Bilateral TKR August 17th and have lots of problems with Right leg and none with left. I'd had menesectomy surgery on right leg some years ago and muscles seemed to have shortened and leg turned out a little before TKR I think it is the muscles that are making me feel unstable. At 3 weeks I tried a new exercise and had to be carried out to A and E - the worst pain and then great swelling of leg- that improved after about 2-3 weeks and have been building up muscle strength since then but still feel very unstable! Leg doesn't give way now but bends unpleasantly at times! My GP made me re start Codeine Phosphate at night as I wasn't sleeping at all but I am trying not to take it every night as leaves me shaky the next day.It has made me feel a little better to see so many of the things I am experiencing mentioned here Very glad to have found you all!!
 

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