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TKR Put the right knee in...and then the left.

You are in that stage that you're feeling better, but still not well enough to venture out alone. Give it another week and your confidence will be much better, as will your energy.
 
Thanks @sistersinhim. I actually think I am well enough to venture out alone (PT thinks so and she's walked with me a couple of times)--just skittish. Confidence needs to catch up with desire. I did go as far as the mailbox at the end of the driveway today, which felt fine.
 
I'm the opposite of Becky (so far) in that my second knee was less involved surgically and the recovery has been, well...I don't want to say easier, but kind of easier. My quad was dead, dead, dead on my left. It was almost two months before I could reliably do a seated leg extension on that side. Almost a month before I could do a straight leg lift, an inch off the table. I needed e-stim to wake up the muscle. This leg, I had quad control the day of surgery. So I'm already able to lift the leg into bed without an assist, slide it off the side of the bed without worrying about Gravity yanking it down painfully... stuff like that.

All that said,mentally the 2nd surgery has been harder. I've had more blues, more frustration with being helpless, snapping more at my family, I'm just over "recovery".

But at 2w, I'm over here buying myslef a bike and thinking ahead to getting my life back in order, no more surgery looming over me menacingly. So there's that. And once I get these kids back in school, I'm looking forward to working on my phase back to work plan.
 
@Jennszoo Thank you for your perspective. I've had a fairly easy time with the first knee and the second one is in better shape going into the surgery so I'm hopeful about the physical part, but I do expect that the emotional piece will be much harder the second time around, especially since I'm single and many of the folks who supported me in the first surgery will be away in August or coping with out of town visitors. But as you say, it's over and done.
 
I think your PA is trying to prepare you to expect that your second knee may be a different experience from your first one. Unfortunately, nobody has any idea if that experience will be similar, better, or worse. My OS warned me not to expect the same. In my case, it was mostly better, but, of course, that's not indicator of any value to you.

The emotional aspect was different for me the second time in that I didn't have the horrific brain fog of the first surgery. The first time he used a spinal, and the second time he used a nerve block.
 
Gertie, today you are skittish, tomorrow you may be bold....funny how that works.:wink: Today you are questioning the timing of your second knee, tomorrow you probably won't.

Today, I'd like to pull the covers over my head and wake-up *cured* in a month. Tomorrow, I'll probably want to go bungee jumping.

Hang in there and hang with us!:happydance:
 
Give it a week and I bet you feel much less skittish. :ok: The first month is the roughest for most of us, and you're still in that with this knee. Though you won't just wake up one day with a cured knee (i also wish this would happen), you will soon have a day where you think, "Huh. It's feeling better!" And you'll feel much more confident about that betterness. :loveshwr:
 
@Pheebs52 You are so right! Yesterday felt like a step forward--felt OK walking around inside mostly without the cane--in fact, the cane felt like a nuisance--mood was improved--next surgery seemed like a fine idea. Today, a bit more soreness and some fatigue (thought I slept OK but maybe not) and doubts creep in. So I'll just ride along with it and not make any decisions yet.
 
@SusieShoes Patience is required, yes? Not my strength! The PT has also said Wait until next week--you'll notice a difference. Hmm...hope so! A friend suggested going out to lunch today and I said maybe not--seems too soon, given how the knee feels today, to sit in a restaurant (and the one she suggested has uncomfortable chairs) with knee down for an hour.
 
I scheduled both of mine at the same time. So there was less opportunity for me to back out after I went through it once. It was already on the books.
 
@Jennszoo Yep--did the same thing! I'm scheduled for August 2, preop blood work orders arrived in the mail, preop surgeon's appt scheduled, all getting real.
 
I think you made a good decision to not go to lunch today. It's really early in your recovery and you probably would have been miserable and even more so tonight and tomorrow.

I hate that P word, too. I want to be healed right now! I want to do the things I need to and want to do, now. But, blessings will come as we wait and let our bodies heal. It can not be forced.
 
@sistersinhim Two friends came by and we ate lunch on my porch (me on the daybed with my leg up) then went for a walk down the block before the storms moved in. Perfect solution.
 
Perfect solution, gertie!

Do storms hurt your new knee? They did mine for about 6 months. Now, it's just my old knee and my injury that storms hurt.
 
sistersinhim said:
Do storms hurt your new knee?
Click to expand...
It's been stormy and humid all week--I think the humidity gets to the knee more than the storms though--all my joints feel a little swollen (just like my front door!). I live in a river valley so the humidity can be intense.
 
Congratulations on going out to the mailbox. You're right that you will gain confidence. Once you "break the ice" so to speak, on an activity it really makes you feel recovery is happening. And lunch on the porch sounds nice!
 
I had my first experience of truly forgetting the cane. I've been walking around the house some without the cane but it's always been a deliberate decision to leave it behind. This evening, I was sitting on the porch having just finished supper and reached for the cane to go back to the kitchen and couldn't find it. So I got up and sure enough there it was, still propped against the counter in the kitchen where I'd been doing meal prep. So a small step forward.

I'm approaching the 4 week point and still in and out of a slump. I looked again at my hip recovery record and was in a similar emotional place at 4 weeks but then started driving and began to feel much perkier. So, we'll see what the coming week brings. As of now, I'm putting plans in place for the next surgery but am really not looking forward to it.

On the plus side (along with forgetting the cane) the sun is out finally after a couple of chilly dreary days.
 
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