Hi
@Lizzie Pearson - sounds as though you had a good day! I particularly loved the description of your clothing choices
. I used to do the same thing .......... the worse the outfit, the more likely a friend would drop in unexpected!
Sorry I said 'Hello' and then dashed off, but I was en route to the second trip to IKEA in 2 days. A circuit of IKEA is a workout in itself.
On the crutch debate - I had a zimmer (no wheels) for the first 48 hours in hospital. Home with 2 crutches and a warning not to even attempt to 'fly solo'. Once I could go round the block with 2 crutches, I reduced to doing it with just the one. (BTW I hated just one crutch I felt very uncomfortable and lopsided). If my memory serves me correctly at about 5 weeks my physio told me to ditch the crutch, as evidently I was 'flapping it around like a handbag and not using it'. I was told that it was important to get the gait right, before losing the aids.
Thankfully, I was able to leg lift quite soon - but when I had my first op in my 20's I had big problems. We solved it similarly to the way David suggested. The physio helped me raise the leg and then lessened her support until I was holding it there on my own. She then told me to lower it by a few inches, then raise it by a few, and kept doing this - all the time her hands there ready to take the weight of my leg. When my muscles were giving out, I started to wobble and she helped me lower my leg slowly to the bed again. Soon I could lift easily on my own.
It is my experience since having the replacement, that you are not told in advance quite how long and involved recovery can be. I was told I would need an early TKR when I was in my late 20's - and I have 'made do' ever since, with things slowly getting worse and worse. My surgeon has been treating me for some time and knew the chequered history of my knee - but even he didn't say anything pre-op about slower recovery or limitations. It was only after the op that he said I had to take things 'slowly and gently' and not rush things or overdo. That it would take at least a year to recover. That 120 degrees ROM would be a good result for me, given the state of my knee pre-op (no kicking
my rear with my heels!) My physio then told me that previous trauma often caused more difficult recoveries than arthritis alone - and my recovery had not been expected to be straightforward.
Personally I would have preferred to have known all this beforehand, so my expectations were not as high or as great - but then that's me and I realise that everyone is different.
I have told several folk on here that I did my exercises 'little and often' by associating them with certain things. Eg Each time I sat on the loo I tried to bend my knee as far back as I could; when I passed the stairs I did a few lunges; waiting for the kettle to boil I balanced on one leg, stood storklike and bent the TKR raising my ankle as far as I could; in the morning and last thing at night, I'd sit on husband's desk and dangling my legs, try to bend the TKR as far backwards underneath as possible (OS's favourite bending exercise). I would do heel slides all the time the adverts were on TV. Before getting out of bed in the morning I would do 10 heel slides and 10 hamstring curls (I still do this). It worked for me, and didn't mean dedicated sessions of multiple exercises and multiple reps.
Soon you will start to notice little things that are easier to do, every day in every way you will get better and better, you will start to do things without thinking and then think .......... I wonder if I could do -------? You try and you will find that you can!
Take care
XX
PS - BTW - I have Devon affection by proxy. My daughter did her first and second degree at Exeter Uni - she loves Devon with a passion!
United Kingdom
