Andor
junior member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2024
- Messages
- 20
- Age
- 65
- Gender
- Female
- Country
United Kingdom
1yr post surgery today.
Functionally my left knee is way better than it was pre-op so I’m grateful for that. It still has a way to go before I can walk without thought but it’s still improving, and the flexion/extension is plenty good enough for most of my activities and is also still improving I think. Haven’t ridden my bike outside yet, but trying to slowly increase the time on the indoor bike. Have got up to about 10mins but sometimes pay the price. I’m hopeful that I’ll get there in the end.
Pain wise it’s not been so successful. Pain in the soft tissues around the knee as pretty much as bad as it was before the surgery, though I no longer wake suddenly in the night with stabbing pains in my knee. Mostly I can manage with 4x a day paracetamol and the occasional ibuprofen (heartburn permitting) but some days resort to co-codamol. I guess I’m just one of the 20% that still have pain post TKR.
Saw my surgeon yesterday and was discharged. I’m happy with him- he’s been very helpful and understanding and did a good job. X-rays look good but we noted that now have a leg length discrepancy because of the arthritis and slight flexion deformity in my right knee- my operated left knee is perfectly straight. This causes my pelvis to be wonky so may be contributing to my pain, tight ITB and lateral calf muscles. Nothing to be done except heel lifts for my shoes snd physio/stretching. A TKR on that side may or may not fix the problem (he seemed to think not). Not rushing into any surgery on my right knee until, as he put it “you can’t stand it any more”. It’s been a pretty difficult and traumatic year, even though things have gone pretty much as well as they could so I’m not keen to repeat it anytime soon.
It’s disappointing- I’d hoped for a better outcome pain wise- but it is what it is.
I’ll keep moving and hope things gradually sort themselves out- lots of stories here of people improving during the second year
Functionally my left knee is way better than it was pre-op so I’m grateful for that. It still has a way to go before I can walk without thought but it’s still improving, and the flexion/extension is plenty good enough for most of my activities and is also still improving I think. Haven’t ridden my bike outside yet, but trying to slowly increase the time on the indoor bike. Have got up to about 10mins but sometimes pay the price. I’m hopeful that I’ll get there in the end.
Pain wise it’s not been so successful. Pain in the soft tissues around the knee as pretty much as bad as it was before the surgery, though I no longer wake suddenly in the night with stabbing pains in my knee. Mostly I can manage with 4x a day paracetamol and the occasional ibuprofen (heartburn permitting) but some days resort to co-codamol. I guess I’m just one of the 20% that still have pain post TKR.
Saw my surgeon yesterday and was discharged. I’m happy with him- he’s been very helpful and understanding and did a good job. X-rays look good but we noted that now have a leg length discrepancy because of the arthritis and slight flexion deformity in my right knee- my operated left knee is perfectly straight. This causes my pelvis to be wonky so may be contributing to my pain, tight ITB and lateral calf muscles. Nothing to be done except heel lifts for my shoes snd physio/stretching. A TKR on that side may or may not fix the problem (he seemed to think not). Not rushing into any surgery on my right knee until, as he put it “you can’t stand it any more”. It’s been a pretty difficult and traumatic year, even though things have gone pretty much as well as they could so I’m not keen to repeat it anytime soon.
It’s disappointing- I’d hoped for a better outcome pain wise- but it is what it is.
I’ll keep moving and hope things gradually sort themselves out- lots of stories here of people improving during the second year
