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TKR PolarBear60's Stryker Triathalon Journey (Left)

I am so glad you write these posts - it helps for those of us coming up and we will remember that any accomplishment is good!! Your knee looks great!!
 
I am telling you, going to work all day takes much less energy that what you are up to! Hope you can dial it down a bit and rest more, so you don't feel the drain. Laundromat... shudder!
 
@JennyLynne , retirement isn't for the faint of heart. I don't know how I had time to work.

@MidwestTKR I hope they get that disability worked out quickly. The doctor should be the determining factor, not the PT.

The gait exercises involved exaggerated stepping over small cones. One iteration felt like that exercise you see football players doing through the tires (but much slower). In fact, the PT confirmed it was the baby version of that.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
I'd give retirement a shot if I could!! :heehee: My problem is that I am an accountant - and I worry that I will run out of money when I am old. We have long lives in our family and there is no way what I have saved will last me long enough so I work..... I am saving for my grandkid's colleges too!! We have a savings plan for the one we have now and plan to set up a CHET account for each one (as they are born). Plus I just got my Master's Degree 2 1/2 years ago so I have to get my money's worth of that!! I don't have time to do the things you are doing @PolarBear60 - I wish I did. I used to love to garden and putz around the yard. Now I am lucky if I get the indoors clean - dusting is probably the one thing that lags WAY behind.......
 
Not really related to this forum, but I've scheduled surgery on my left hand for carpal tunnel release on July 16 (so we'll be surgery buddies, @iivesfam5 , just not the same surgery).

As for retirement, I'm still paying in to my Roth, and I'm planning for it and Social Security to help with the erosion in value of my military retirement. So far that's on track. Finances have worked out far better than I could have anticipated in my mid-twenties when I began the plan that got me to where I am today. It helps that my second (current) husband put together a pretty good retirement situation as well. He has a to do list that will require him to live well into a second century, and I'm trying to keep up.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
That is GREAT!! Enjoy yourselves!! Wait for your big paw!!! LOL - I had that about a year and 1/2 ago!!
 
It's my left hand, and I'm left handed. At least my right hand is behaving for the last couple of years. Like my OS said today, "Then we'll not speak of it!"
 
Oh lord. I have not Scheadule mine yet. But lord know I need it. I break all dishes. It's annoying.

Wish ya best. Yes I know that the stiffness gets old. I am so over it. Wish that it was all healed and was back on track to normal life.


FaithMitchmommy
PKR December.1,2014
TKREV MARCH.2,2015
 
Jean,

I was wondering if you still use a cane when you are outside your home. Do you have some difficulty or pain when you get up from a sitting to standing position? Are you able to climb stairs normally yet? Do you still have hypersensitivity on the outside of your knee? I still struggle with these symptoms as well as intermittent pain and since we are both at the 9 week post-op period, I was wondering....
 
Hi sorry to but in. I don't use one but I do take crouched with me incase I get tiered. And I keep Walker by bed night due to stiffness. And well I get scared.


FaithMitchmommy
PKR December.1,2014
TKREV MARCH.2,2015
 
@MidwestTKR , I take my cane when I go out. Where I'm going and what I'm doing determines whether it stays in the truck or not. Here are some examples:

Walk into the physical therapy: No cane.
Walk into my primary care clinic: No cane.
Walk into the VA Hospital: Cane (Parking is a bear, and it's a big place)
Tuesday, after an appointment at the VA and PT, I had to go to Walmart to do some shopping. I took my cane and rode an electric cart through the store to get what I needed.
Today, after PT, I had to go to Walmart. I took my cane in and walked behind a cart to do my shopping (felt pretty good), but I hadn't had a strenuous day leading up to it.

So, you see, it's situational for the cane. I will sometimes use the cane walking around the yard. It all depends upon how I feel at the time. I have seven steps leading into the house that do not have a handrail, so sometimes the cane is just for that.

Yes, I have a reasonable amount of difficulty standing from a straight-back chair without arms and from our upstairs toilet that doesn't have a riser (I grab the door frame and the shower frame to pull myself up). I've been working on this in PT, and pain has reduced from a solid 5-6 to a solid 3-4.

I can climb stairs normally when I am not in a hurry and when I can support myself with both hands. I can descend the same way. If I have something in my hands or I'm in a hurry, I revert to some other method of climbing stairs, usually one at a time toddler style. At first, I was loading small things -- water bottle, Kindle, iPad, other little stuff into a small backpack to go downstairs in the morning and up at night. Now, it's hit or miss whether I do that or not.

The outside of my knee is a dead zone. I have no feeling there yet. Probably a good thing, because yesterday I managed to rake a fingernail over it. I didn't feel it on the knee, but I felt it on the fingernail side and pulled a bit of skin out from under my nail. I think that would have stung if I could have felt it. I'm treating with Neosporin.

My big issues, such as they are, are rising from a chair/lower toilet seat, climbing stairs, and, to a lesser extent, monitoring my gait to make sure I keep it even, mostly due to my non-op knee pain.

It sounds like we're in a similar place in our recovery, not only time-wise but ability-wise.
 
Angel1978 said:
Hi sorry to but in. I don't use one but I do take crouched with me incase I get tiered. And I keep Walker by bed night due to stiffness. And well I get scared.
Click to expand...

Angel, I used the walker and finally a footed cane at night long after I stopped using it during the day. My reasoning was that I might not be as alert at night, and I didn't want to risk a fall. You are wise to use the walker or cane as long as you need to. And, yes, that early morning stiffness is the reason I still keep the footed cane within reach of the bed -- just in case.
 
I can't use a cane. I've try the single leg ones and the 3 leg things at bottom. It's weird to me and I just don't like it lol.


The am stiffness is the worst. And it does scare me. But I try to be as easy as I can. I don't want to wake my hub. And I can't use the potty in room as noise awake him.


I just wish that all the stiffness and pain would go away. But as I am reading it's going be long time. Ugh
Xxxx to ya.


FaithMitchmommy
PKR December.1,2014
TKREV MARCH.2,2015
 
Crutches, cane, walker. Whatever inspires the most confidence and works for you. The other problem with the cane is the carpal tunnel acts up when I use it.
 
Stamina is returning! I was able to trim eleven bushes and mow the lawn (riding mower) today. Now I'm sitting in my recliner, but I didn't fall into it gasping.

Ten weeks on Tuesday. More and more I'm feeling my right (non-replaced) knee is hindering me, and my left (TKR) knee is setting me free!


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
Brilliant! That's great to hear. You've done so well. Do you know when you'll have the right one done?
 
Hi @Raffs I plan to do it in early April. The absolute soonest I could do with my schedule is November, but it's easier if I can wear shorts to all my appointments, so April is good for that here in Texas. I also use the winter months to do a lot of outdoor work in preparation for the following summer. In Texas, that works.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
I hear you. Once my first knee started feeling good I realized how bad the "good" knee was, I was looking forward to the second tkr.
 
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