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TKR Over doing or not doing enough?

I had my 3-month post op today (I am actually 14 weeks out), and I am a bit discouraged. It seems I have some IT band issues. I really am doing well overall. In fact my PA said I'm on the A team, but I cannot walk down stairs without severe pain. I can walk over a mile, swim laps for 30 minutes, and bike for 16 miles, but I cannot get down a flight of stairs without 8 on the pain scale. So I'm opting to go back to my PT for a couple of sessions. She was working on my IT band before I left PT at 8 weeks. But since I've been gone, it's worsened over the past couple of weeks. So my husband is at the gym tonight and I'm being a couch potato, watching TV.

I also started back to curling Friday night, delivering with the stick, not in the deep lunge position. The delivery part was easy, but sweeping was not. I'm not that tall at 5'4" and at first I was practically jogging down the ice after the rock. Halfway through the two-hour match, I realized I just needed to take longer strides and walk fast, which helped.

I guess to sum it up, I thought I'd be much further along than I am at 14 weeks. Looks like I still have a lot of recovery ahead of me.
 
Sounds like you are very far along at just 14 weeks! My IT band gave me fits until I started doing the IT band exercises in the bonesmart library, rolling a rolling pin down my thigh, and pretty much giving it complete rest for a while. All good now. I don't do stairs well because I can not bring myself to believe that my right knee is not going to hurt. Every time I step up with it I am surprised not to feel pain. Not sure how long before I will believe in it.
 
I think @Kansas Teacher had some type of massage for her IT issues. My RTKR is my work horse and how I go down stairs. You are doing great on all other fronts. You shame my measly 5 miles a day! Good job!
 
Good report! Stairs will come - eventually! My OS said when you go downstairs, the knee takes on 15x the bodys weight in stress. Im not willing to chance it yet! I'm happy to go up like an adult!
 
@Thesoutherncook I think I will have to revert to going down stairs one leg at a time for a while. Everywhere I go there are stairs. There are 17 stairs just to get in and out of the house. There are 22 stairs to get to the women's locker room at the gym, then 17 stairs to get to the pool. Then I have to repeat all of these steps to go home. I so want to do stairs without pain normally. Do you do step ups for strengthening? Maybe I should go back to that once my IT band settles down.
 
@KarriB Six miles is great. I was riding 12 miles the weekend before my surgery, so I think I had a headstart. You have been through a lot! As to your pending surgery, I totally understand your apprehension. On the table before being rolled into the OR, I was trying to convince my OS why I didn't need a TKR. All he did was smile. And off I went.

@Mzladydeb I too put on a brave face. The other night I started crying and told my husband that I was putting on a brave face and that I really didn't much like going through this long, drawn out recovery. He always says the same thing when I'm having one of my mini meltdowns: You had a choice between two not so great options, pain that would continue to get worse, or pain and recovery toward a better future—not much of an option. Good luck with your upcoming TKR.
 
That IT band can be a sticky wicket! I am almost at 6 months and mine is pretty good now but, if I do the wrong thing, it will flare up again. I did have therapeutic massage which hurt at the time, but helped it relax. I also got a foam roller and used that a lot myself along with lots of IT band stretches throughout the day. Don't wait until it hurts to stretch -- do it regularly throughout the day to prevent it from hurting! For awhile, I kind of babied the knee on stairs because it made it flare up and was very cautious on any other activity. If I could tell it was tightening up, I discontinued the activity until it started to heal.

It does get better. Hang in there.

Roxie
 
Mzladydeb said:
I just want to thank everyone for their comments. Also, I had a conversation with my DH and opened up to him on
how I was feeling. He came with me to see my doctor and I'm having surgery on my left knee, Nov. 17th. Theyare doing a TKR on it. I discovered something about myself from this: I thought my family should know my feelings without having to tell them how I felt. But, if I'm always putting on a smile and saying everything is ok, then I can't expect them to read my mind and know my true feelings.
So, again thank you for letting me vent that day, and since that day my DH has become more aware of how I'm feeling and sometimes without my having to tell him, he can tell when I'm in a lot of pain. :friends:
Click to expand...
I think you meant to post this in your thread. https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/help-what-would-you-do.33011/#post-836615
 
I feel for you and the stairs. We have a 3 level house but I can chose NOT to go up or down. I'm still going down like a toddler. My 21 mon old grandson and I will race at Thanksgiving! :walking:
 
Wow that is a lot of stairs. Foam roll that ITB sucker every single day.

One trick if the foam roller hurts too much is to put it on the bed and foam roll on the bed. That gives it a little softer area and you still get the benefit of foam rolling. And then when you're ready you can foam from the floor.

Good luck. My ITB also needs a lot of work.


TKR 08/26/15

Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
@ironclm good tip on the foam roller. Thanks. They really hurt. I have also reverted to going down the stairs one leg at a time. I think I have just been doing too many stairs and I forgot one of the Mantras: If it hurts don't do it. It hurt but I kept doing it. Good news is biking doesn't hurt at all!
 
Well, I went back to PT today, and received both good news and not-so-good news. The good news is my therapist, the same one I saw right after TKR, said my ROM was fantastic 131-0 (before doing any warm-ups). My hamstrings and quads are also good, my alignment is perfect, and my hip ROM is also fine.

However, when I was lying on my right side on the table with my TKR leg raised up from the side, she asked me to resist while she pushed down. I could not resist at all. She just pushed the leg right down. I could resist on the other side. And my strength on all of the other resistance exercises was fine. I think, but I am not 100 percent clear on this now as I am writing, part of the weakness on my TKR side is due to muscle atrophy (and I have been really active), part to a complaining IT band, and not enough core strength. She said this can combine to put additional stress on my knee when walking downstairs normally. I think some of this was probably going on prior to surgery as well.

She also did some light massage today. I really like this therapist. She is very gentle and really listens. She sent me away with two exercises to do every other day while I am on vacation. I follow-up with her in mid-November when I return. She said our goal is to get me walking down stairs normally by Christmas.

I am 15.5 weeks post-op, and while I am doing really well, I thought by this time in recovery I would be doing even better than I am. She is confident the stairs will come in time. When I can descend stairs with no pain, I am really going to celebrate!
 
I love your PT. And I think the good news you received really outweighs the not-ultimately-so-very-bad news.

I think it's common among all of us TKRs to favor our bad leg in the months and years before the surgery. I know I did. I'm still a little weaker in my operated leg than the non-operated leg. It sounds like your PT's plan is realistic and that the goal of walking normally downstairs by Christmas is quite doable.
 
@Wanttobebiking we are knee buddies!! I am just starting to walk down a couple of steps normally. I can't do it all the time but I just do the bottom 2 or so. I hang onto both handrails. I haven't been able to walk down steps in years so it's going to take time. I'm sure if I tried to resist on the side of my leg I wouldn't be able to do it either. I would think it probably has to do from atrophy that comes from not having lateral movement after surgery and even possibly before. For all the other exercises the knee and leg are straight forward and back.
 
@newlybionic When was your surgery?

I walked around one of our city's many lakes tonight with a friend of 39 years. We talked about this new issue of mine and the more I think about it the more I think that the muscle atrophy was caused by my knock knee. That muscle just never had to work hard. I walked about 2.5 miles with no problem tonight. This stair issue is really frustrating:bawl:
 
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