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TKR Poetry Chef's Epic Recovery

A few questions if I May. Today was day 7 right leg and day 5 for the left. I have been following the mantras, ice, elevate, meds on schedule. My left calf feels very tight, especially moving from seated to standing. Both legs actually. Please tell me what I can do to loosen them up.

Home PT begins tomorrow. What is appropriate for our initial conversation regarding gentle therapy?

I am not napping during the day and sleeping soundly at night. At what point do I begin to taper off my pain meds?

I am bored out of my mind. Three days and nights in the recliner are pure torture. :bored:
 
Would Carlos or your mom do gentle (very gentle) massage of your calves, going nowhere near your knee, just gently moving up the legs? That might help your calves feel better. The tightness is probably due to swelling and the muscles adapting to working with the new knees. My lower legs were quite swollen for about two weeks. They also looked monstrously bruised. :scaredycat:

For the conversation with PT, ask the therapist first what his or her plans are for you. That will give you a feel for what kind of therapist you’re dealing with. Next, you can moderate that plan by discussing your thoughts on therapy. How the therapist reacts will tell you how much input you will be “allowed.” Many therapists are happy to work with a proactive client. Others get grumpy if not in charge.

Above all insist on gentle exercises and NO manhandling of your knees. So many people come to us after a PT forced (maybe still forces) their knee, causing pain and swelling. They don’t “need” to see how far they can force your knee to bend or extend. They really don’t. The PT’s job is to help you gently bend or stretch your own knee.

Lecture over. :wave:

Let’s hope you keep sleeping so well! You don’t stop your pain meds, though, until you don’t need them. I’m pretty sure you still need something to help with the pain. One reliable sign you can stop pain meds is when you forget to take them. (Not because you slept through and missed a pill, that’s different.) Forgetting your pain meds is a sign you can move to something less powerful. Some taper them off early because of problems like nausea, but if you’re not having problems, stick with the program.

Three days and nights and you’re getting cabin fever? :unsure: I hope you recover quickly, because this might be a long winter! For what it’s worth, things are less tedious if you can move between nests and not live in just one. Nights in bed, days in the recliner, maybe a little time out on the porch... that kind of thing. You will become more mobile soon, another week or so, and that should help. Take a little walk here and there if you can do so easily. After another week, maybe a short drive in the car (Mr. Shoes did that for me in week 3 and it felt wonderful). Little victories are great for relieving boredom.
 
Thank you SusieShoes. I am so accustomed to being on the go that being not on the go is a foreign land. I shouldn't have been so quick to claim myself an excellent night sleeper. Last night I watched Nurse Jackie at 4 am. I should also not drink Starbucks at night. Lesson learned.

I still have loads of pain and am holding to a tight med schedule. Gosh, from lowering the recliner to fully standing is quite painful. I do not have a single bruise. My surgeon draws 2 oz.of blood, mixes it with some sort of gel, spins it to separate the plasma from the red blood cells, combines that with an antibiotic and places this gel mixture around the implant and in the wound before gluing shut. This supposedly has a good deal to do with his very low infection rate (one half of one percent) as well as minimal bruising and scarring.

A short drive next week would be lovely. Now to make my way slowly to the bathroom. Ugh.
 
I have a conformis knee too. Isn't that interesting about the gel and antibiotic? I've never heard that one before. I think i got a dose of oral antibiotics prior to surgery.

I also had zero bruising. I wonder if it has anything to do with the custom implant in the hands of a good surgeon or if it just luck of the draw? My doctor said about half his patients ended up with little to no bruising when I asked. Thats probably a lot better than average.
 
I know. It is the strangest thing isn't it? Not one bruise to my legs. My arms from the iv's are a whole other matter.

Home PT just left. She was quite helpful adjusting my walker so I would not bend over when walking. She is also working on my gait. Nothing too terrible at all. I am sufficiently iced and elevated. She admonished me to make sure to stick to my medication schedule and to do gentle stretches to loosen my tightened muscles. Looking forward to dinner and a restful night.
 
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@Jajakio, can you recall at what point you felt you turned the corner in recovery? The nurse practitioner who assists my surgeon stated that her patients say in 7 days but that may be a little optimistic according to my knees. Did it take 3-4 weeks to get past this painful achy stage? Or longer perhaps?
 
Not to discourage you, but I think only the few who experience an amazing recovery turn a corner in 7 days.

At the 2 week point I finally felt like putting some makeup on to go to my PT appointment which was immediately followed by my 2 week check up and I was so excited to get my stitches out.

However, I continued to drag from lack of energy and swelling for quite a while after that. I dont remember exact times, just that it was a while.

I was 5 weeks at Easter and we weren’t going to see family so we went out to dinner to a restaurant with some friends. We had a lengthy wait (even though we made reservations) and even though I brought a small stool to put my foot up on, it was not high enough and I was out for a couple of hours and by the time I got home not only was my knee swollen but also my calf and ankle.

You will hear the professionals tell you all sorts of things. I don’t know where they get some of the things they say, as you will find when you read other posts.
I now only trust the info I read here on Bonesmart, even more than my surgeon.

Hang in there. :console2:
 
I think for me it was between 2 to 3 weeks. My sister had this surgery two years before I did and she told me I'd be sorry I had it done for the first two weeks and then it gets better. I don't think it was that bad but it was pretty rough in the beginning, how long you stay on hard pain medication varies a lot. I think I was on Percocet full time for 2 weeks then started tapering down and slowly replacing it with tylenol and i think I was completely off it by 4 weeks. I know some people stay on a lot longer and maybe a bilateral is different. I'm not trying g to tell anyone else when to come off. But i will tell you in just the brief time I was on it and tapering off , it was horrible coming off it. I was down to 2 pills a day only a night some nights one pill and went all day without and felt fine. When I stopped completely , I didn't sleep for a week and really craved the Percocet for about 3 days. I was shocked at how bad I felt! It wasn't surgery pain , just sick and headachey and shakey. That part only lasted a few days but the moral of the story is cut back even slower that that when you are ready.
 
What I mean by turning the corner is that the awful surgical pain tapers off. There are a bunch of corners you will turn; the first time you sleep a full night, transitioning from a walker to a cane, making a brief trip to the grocery or a restaurant, being able to walk without limping, waking up and realizing you are not in pain, being able to walk a few blocks without pain, being able to sleep on your side. My doctor told me it would take 5 or 6 weeks to be able to get around as well as I did before the surgery( very poorly and limpingly), 12 weeks to get back to near normal activity level and maybe 6 months to get as good as i was going to get. Thats based on me and the conformis knee and i have to say hes been about right so far. Im sure other people may be different.
 
@Jajakio, Somewhere I read that I would hate my surgeon for the first two weeks. Today marks one week for my left knee and 9 days for my right. While this is incredibly difficult, it is so good to not have that horrible bone on bone pain. That pain left me crying at the end of a busy work day. At least now every day is getting better and I am so thankful that I will have a more fulfilling life going forward.

I had my first pt yesterday. I can tell I will need to keep the brakes pumped there. I was hurting a bit last night and called to cancel my appointment for today. I decided I really do not need to do pt 3 straight days to get caught up. They will be back tomorrow and I will be ready to apply the brakes when necessary. I fortunately have a good pt person who is willing to work within my tolerance.
 
I did not have home PT. I went to out patient PT two days after surgery. (I came home the day after surgery.) Ridiculous. I wish I’d found Bonesmart then and knew I didn’t have to do that.
Just getting in the car was very painful. Then I had to do it again to come home.
 
In home physical therapy just left. My second session. At first I found him a bit condescending and annoying. I actually thought if he was within reach I could quite possibly throat punch him. I will say that he gave good information but the whole "there's always more" comment on several occasions caused my blood pressure to rise. Lord, please give me patience to get through this without being arrested for assault. :holysheep:I
 
I have developed an extreme dislike for physical therapists since my replacement. :arrow:
 
PoetryChef said:
I will say that he gave good information but the whole "there's always more" comment on several occasions caused my blood pressure to rise. Lord, please give me patience to get through this without being arrested for assault.
Click to expand...
You always have the option of telling him not to come:
Saying no to therapy - am I allowed to?
CONSENT: what it means and how it can be used

Remember, you're the boss in this situation. Other people can advise, but you have the right to choose whether or not to accept that advice.
You are in charge of your knee, so speak up to keep it happy.
 
I didn't have PT come and I did fine.
 
PoetryChef in my estimation as a pre op kneedist and for what it is worth, I suggest that you do not punch that Bloke up the throat as I have noticed that they are adverse to that sort of thing and it might backfire on you.Perhaps if you just tried to trip him up you could claim it was down to his clumsiness.. Just a thought.. Great stuff that you are progressing keep up the informative posts..
 
No throat punches allowed! I was ready to do so today if pt hurt me, thankfully he did not. All he did was evals and there will be another person for pt. We shall see.

How are you feeling?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi, @SpaceGirl,
Pretty tired today as I was unable to go back to sleep after waking up at 3am to take meds. Today has been restful though. I am consistently surrounded by people and have yet to nap during the day.
I am beginning to get function back in my legs. I have begun to get a bit of control over my legs again as far as lifting or moving from side to side. I was able to use the tub transfer bench this afternoon and took a long overdue shower. The warm water felt like medicine to sore muscles. My PT person called today to set an appointment for tomorrow. I told her that I am not at all interested in anything that is going to make me swell up and be in pain for three days. I am going to get a catnap. So sleepy.

How are you feeling?
 
Tomorrow marks two weeks for the right knee and 12 days for the left. I have been mostly hanging out watching Nurse Jackie on Netflix. I think I just started season 6. Whew! These knees!!

Yesterday my PT removed my bandages. I honestly felt nauseous seeing the incisions. I was told to take a photo of them each day so that I can compare. It's amazing how much healing has occurred on the right leg which had the surgery two days before the left.

I am walking around OK still with the walker. I feel most comfortable using it but I have patches on my hands that are irritated as a result.

PT is back Tomorrow. We will work on steps. I have yet to leave the house since Sunday a week ago. Getting a little stir crazy.
 
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