OK, amazingly smart, and supportive people, three and a half months post TKR and two months post-MUA, and I am at 130 flex and 0 extension! It was hard not to "push," but
letting the knee heal and the swelling go down was the trick. Now, I am cautiously continuing to enforce the flex and doing my strength work.
Thank you all so much for helping me get through this. I'll let you know when I ski this winter.
This is great to read! I’m curious if you recall early days how much flexion you had, eg post op day 2, 5, week, etc?. I’m an active person and hope to ski again soon but it has been a rough couple of days with a knee that doesn’t want to bend at all (maybe 30 degrees). Formerly very flexible, knee-to-bum. There is lots of “don’t worry, it will come” info here (I’ve read all the stickies) but so far I haven’t come across anything that reassures me that almost no bend POD3 is ok. I’m warm, swollen and painful (obviously inflamed as expected), but no fever and no calf tenderness. I just hope I’m not brewing an infection. My incision is covered by a bandage but no excess drainage or shadowing as far as I can tell.
Oh my - I could do a full squat (sit on my haunches) pre-surgery, but just couldn't take the bone-on-bone pain when skiing or hiking. I always knew it was just a question of "when" I would do the TKR and this past winter sealed the deal.
Anyway, I could bend to 60 degrees after surgery - but that quickly (within three days) dropped to 30 as I started to work on it; the swelling just shut me down. And that swelling was excruciating every time I stood up.
I was hearing two messages one was, "just work through it" and another was, "let the knee heal" from the trauma it just went through. It didn't make sense to me how you could "work through" swelling that constrained the joint from moving so then all I could do was respect my knee and give it the space to heal and the swelling to reduce.
As the swelling went down, the knee started moving. Now, that being said, at six weeks, I wasn't getting past 90 degrees, so I decided to do an MUA, and the surgeon could push through and get me to 140 under anesthesia. I went through the healing/swelling cycle again, but then once the swelling started to reduce, the flexion really took off and continues to improve. I don't know if the decision to do the MUA was right, but it appears to have worked for me.
A few basic things I learned....
1) At a minimum, do 40 minutes when you put "ice on" - DO NOT fall into the 20-minute on/off cycle.
2) Ice is your best friend!! Even today, when I sit down to watch TV or read, I put ice on my knee.
3) Elevate means up over your heart - I would lay on the floor and put my leg up the wall.
4) You are your own best advocate. PT SHOULD NOT HURT! It can be uncomfortable, but it should not hurt.
5) If it makes your knee swell, slow your roll!
6) Don't let the PT or OS dismiss your voice.
7) Don't panic... the recovery takes longer than we want and can be depressing.
Also, I found a ton of comfort in this TKR PT specialist's YouTube videos.
Good luck!! You got this.
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