TKR Panammaniac’s Recovery Thread

I managed to get a full mile walk in today. My wife was with me and watching to make sure I used proper gait mechanics the entire time. We had been taking nightly walks in the days leading up to my surgery, and in the final few days I struggled to make it around the block. I’d always have a catch somewhere en route and end up limping home in excruciating pain. Today, no catches and no pain. I just have to walk slowly and deliberately so that I use proper gait, and also I still have a little bit of stiffness and swelling. Major progress!
 
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Here is what it looks like at just a few days over 6 weeks. My wife and I are both amazed at how small the scar is at this point. My OS has already joked that “I won’t have anything exciting to show my friends when shorts season returns.
 
@sistersinhim A lot of reviews I read of my OS said that she really minimizes scars. I don’t know how she does it. Must be some special skill she has. It’s pretty remarkable that it is so unnoticeable at 6 weeks.
 
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A lot of reviews I read of my OS said that she really minimizes scars. I don’t know how she does it. Must be some special skill she has. It’s pretty remarkable that it is so unnoticeable at 6 weeks.
I agree. The proof is in the photo!
 
I’m starting to get a few zingers, just over the past couple days. Nothing too bad - it’s usually just 3 or 4 pulses and it’s gone in a minute or two, but when they hit they definitely get my attention! I know it’s just a perfectly normal sign of healing. Everything else is still going quite well.
 
Sometimes my zingers would be so severe that my leg would actually jump. Now, that hurt! I hope yours stays mild and do not interrupt your sleep.
 
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Zingers sometimes pulled bad words from my lips :heehee: but I was happy about the reconnecting nerves.
 
Wishing everyone on Bonesmart a very Happy Thanksgiving! At just over 7 weeks, I am very thankful for my new knee and that I’m finally able to walk without pain, albeit for short distances. I know some of us struggle with recovery more than others. While I have done well with mine, I have my challenging times as well. Some days are definitely better than others. I hope that all of you have very successful recoveries and are eventually able to look past the tough times and be thankful you had this procedure!
 
Happy Thanksgiving, panammaniac! I’m thankful that your recovery has gone so well! And thankful that mine is heading in the right direction! And for you and all our BoneSmart friends :)
 
Busy holiday weekend so far. On Thursday we did a little bit of window shopping at Downtown Disney for a couple hours, then went out to a restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner. It’s just three of us and my wife doesn’t like turkey, so we don’t cook our Thanksgiving dinner at home. My Fitbit says I walked a little over 4 miles on Thursday. Yesterday I got back into my home woodshop for the first time in over 6 months. Nothing major but I had a small project to work on. I was on my feet out there for about 2 hours. Just before that, my daughter and I had to make a run to Home Depot to buy the wood for the project. Later in the afternoon I had my PT appointment, and my PT decided it was time to go to every 2 week sessions instead of weekly. I walked over 4 miles yesterday as well according to my tracker. The amazing thing is after a couple days in a row of significantly higher activity than I’ve had in a long time, I’m not noticeably sore or swollen.
 
How wonderfully you are doing in this recovery!
 
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Yesterday was my 2 month mark. Everything is still progressing nicely. I’d say I’m still far from full recovery, but back to at least some semblance of normal. I’ve had a few 10,000 step days over the last week. Some of that included doing some work in my home woodshop, so a couple hours at a time on my feet. I do still get pretty tired. I also noticed that if I have a couple of 10,000:step days in a row the knee gets pretty tight and swells just a little bit. Right now it seems to be a matter of finding just the right balance of activity, pushing things slightly to build up the strength but not so much that it causes an “off day.” Yesterday was what I’d call an off day. I was a lot stiffer than I had been and moving noticeably slower, but not in pain by any means.

We have some rain coming in tomorrow. The last time we had rainy weather I definitely felt it. It will be interesting to see how I do tomorrow.

The nice thing for me is that being self-employed, I can come and go from work whenever I need to. My routine since going back has been coming home for an extended lunch, taking a short walk, and having a 20-30 minute icing and relaxation session before going back for a couple hours. I think that routine has helped a lot.
 
Right now it seems to be a matter of finding just the right balance of activity, pushing things slightly to build up the strength but not so much that it causes an “off day.”
Yes, so true. This is the reason I liked following the Activity Progression guidelines as it assured me I was sufficiently active without overdoing it.

The energy drain (tiredness) is normal as our body uses energy for healing first not leaving an abundance for the rest of the activities of daily living. It's great you are self employed and have the freedom to come and go and take extended lunch breaks if you're feeling the need. Your recovery is coming along nicely.
Stay warm and dry in the rain and have a great rest of the week!
 
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Yes, so true. This is the reason I liked following the Activity Progression guidelines as it assured me I was sufficiently active without overdoing it.

That's where it got challenging for me early on, and remains challenging. I was way ahead of the activity progression pretty much from day one. By week 2 I was doing things around week 6 of the activity progression. I'm at 8 weeks now but I returned to work at 6 weeks. I know not everyone can do that though. Not everybody has a job where you can be mostly sedentary, or take extended lunches if you need to. I can be here or not be here and I consider that a luxury for this recovery. Right now it's an ideal world. Go to work in the morning, take a 2-hour lunch to eat, take a short walk, ice, rest, and sometimes nap if I need to, then go back for another hour or two to finish up my day. Being so far ahead I still want to push myself a little bit because I'm far from fully recovered, so it usually results in pushing for a few days followed by being stiff and sore for a day or two.
 

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