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referee54 said:
I certainly understand your frustration---but I am sure that you will reach your destination of being fully recovered!
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Honestly, at this point, I'm not as frustrated as I was. I do long to be able to go for walks again with my dogs and ride my bike. omg I want to ride my bike sooooo bad. And I'm pretty tired of the pain. But I'm not nearly as frustrated as I was before I stopped going to physical therapy :D

Celle said:
I'm sorry your surgeon believes that "no pain,no gain" fallacy.
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I'm just glad I don't have to go back to see him again until December! So that's a plus! :D
 
I haven't posted any updates in a while. For that, I apologize.

I'm still struggling with the numbness of my left foot, although there are days here and there that the numbness seems to be not happening. And then I go to bed, try to get comfortable, and the numbness returns. It's frustrating. The neurologist never sent the test results to my ortho and now can't find them at all. Not happy about that.

I'm still unable to bend my knee more than 90 degrees. In 2 more days, I'll be exactly 4 months post-op. I'm feeling so discouraged. I'm able to carefully walk around the house without the use of my cane/crutch but make sure to use it when I leave the house (which is rare these days).

I started bawling like crazy the day before yesterday because I want so bad to be able to walk my dogs, to ride my bike, even go sit at the side of the lake and spend the entire day fishing.
 
Hi April, We had our surgeries the same day. We can't do everything we'd like to, but we are making progress. I have 2 beagles & we used to go for long walks. Now my husband and I go together, he takes the younger dog(6 yrs), I take the older one(11yrs). Daisy & I just go around the block, my husband Bill and " Buddy" take off on their own after that. I want so much to be able to go with them, Daisy probably does too !! I try to remember that there are people in wheelchairs who are much worse off than I am, this will get better with time. I know it's hard to keep doing the exercises, Iceing, elevating, not sleeping well, medication, but this will all help us get stronger again. We all have days when it just gets to us, just don't stay on that place. I took s folding chair out & put it on my porch so I could be outside in the sun St least. Neighbors probably thought it was s little odd, but it helped. So!etimes a good cry is necessary to get some of the frustrations out. Hope you feel better soon.
 
@AprilM
I'm sorry you're having a slow recovery, but you do seem to still be making progress, even though it's slower that most people's.

I'm quite sure in my own mind that all the aggressive treatment your knee received in the early days, from those "no pain, no gain" therapists, set up an inflammation that has slowed down your recovery.
Time is on your side, though, because it takes at least a year to achieve full recovery and your ROM (Range of Motion) can continue to improve for all that time, or even longer.

If you think of this recovery as a race, it's more like a marathon than a sprint, so endurance and patience are important. I know this is a great trial of patience for you, but I think you're going to get there in the end.

Keep doing what you can, taking that walk to the end of your driveway and back, resting, icing and elevating, so that you give your knee the best possible chance to recover.

Hugs to you :friends: and my admiration for your perseverance.
 
As of last night (April 22, 2016), I can finally lift my leg off the bed while keeping it straight! My ROM still is at 90* though. I'm almost 5 months post-op.
 
Have you had a recent x ray? I suffered almost 6 months like this and finally got an x ray which shows my patella has slipped. I see someone new next week. I am convinced that this was done by an aggressive PT who was really pushing my knee to bend - I even had a plus 110 bend at that time 3 weeks out. He had no need to push it so hard and I have suffered terrible pain since that time. I did not go back to them. I had come off most of the pain meds before this visit.
 
Hi April, sorry your recovery is going slowly. How is your pain level? When will you be seeing your surgeon again? This whole process takes so long and can be so frustrating !!! With my first TKR I asked to see my surgeon because of leg/ back pains. He sent me for an MRI, turned out it was all just from the healing process. I felt better just knowing there wasn't anything wrong.

Good that you were able to lift your leg off the bed☺ Try to focus on those small improvements that you notice, it means there is a light at the end of this darn tunnel. Please keep us posted about how you're doing. This is tough, but we will get through it with support from each other.
 
Well, I'm almost 5 months post-op. I just phoned the ortho's office this morning and got an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. The nerve issue is not getting better but is, in fact, getting worse. My left foot is no longer just numb and tingling but actually hurting. Stood in the shower last night and could barely put weight on that foot because it hurt so bad. My ROM is also not improving no matter how much I push myself or how much I let it rest. I had done the surgery in the middle of the winter so as to not screw up my entire summer but it's starting to feel like my summer is indeed going to be ruined by this stupid knee garbage. I wish I would never have done this. I really, REALLY wish I would never have done this.
 
I'm sorry to hear that things are getting worse. :console2:
Do let us know what your surgeon says.

It could be worthwhile to ask for a second opinion, from a surgeon who is not connected in any way with your current surgeon - not professionally or socially. Someone looking at your knee with fresh eyes might suggest a solution to your problems.
 
I wish getting a second opinion was an option. My ortho is half an hour away (one way) and it pains me, greatly, to sit in the vehicle for that long. The next nearest ortho is over an hour away (one way) and I wouldn't be able to sit in the vehicle that long at all :/ This is all so frustrating. I will not be having my right knee done, ever, even though it's trashed worse than my left knee was.
 
I understand how much you are hurting and how frustrated you must be. I do agree, though, with Celle---if you could bear the pain for a bit, a second opinion would allow you to perhaps objectively get the answers that you really need.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that you are still having problems with your knee. After 5 months I bit the bullet and made an appointment with an OS an hour away because I was still having problems with my original TKR last summer. I wrapped my left knee in ice and drove the hour. He took Xrays and did an examination. I found out then that the original OS did a poor job with the my surgery and I needed a revision. I was so upset but gathered up the courage to have it done by the new OS and I couldn't be happier. Before surgery I could only bend my knee to about 95. At 5 weeks post op this time I was at 115! Did I enjoy the drive? No way! It was a real hassle but I needed the answers. All the original OS had been saying to me was that everything was fine and to go back to PT and I knew that wasn't the answer for me thanks to my friends here. I'm 6 weeks out now and have been walking without a cane in my house for two weeks. I only needed a walker for one week! Don't give up hope.
 
Just got home from my appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. We FINALLY got to go over the results from when he sent me to the neurologist. The nerve problem in my foot... is because of my BACK! This sucks so much. I have to go for MORE physical therapy specifically for my back :/

The rest of the issues... he said "just work through the pain" so I guess I'm not going to have much choice but try to figure out how to make it to Grand Junction without wanting to die cause of the pain :( I don't want this anymore! I should never have done this! I just... wanted to be able to go hiking without pain. And I feel like this is going to be yet another summer with my son wasted because of me :(

I'm ready to give up...
 
All I can say is don't give up. I know it's hard. I've been there. It's unfortunate that when we feel the most down that we can't count on the doctors to help us. Give the other OS office a call and ask if he does revisions you can always have another doctor at least give you a second opinion. Take a cooler with ice packs in it. Sit in the back of your car and ice your knee before the drive back home. You still might be able to do some hiking this summer.
 
It's so hard to try to make myself continue thinking positive when I'm in so much pain. I'm used to being in pain cause I've had chronic pain for well over half my life but this... this is insane. I have a HIGH pain tolerance but this... I cry more often than not because it hurts so much.

A friend of mine recommended her ortho in Grand Junction to me so I'm going to call them tomorrow to see if I can set up my own appointment or if I need my primary doc to refer me. I went ahead and printed out their new patient packet from their website to fill out and have ready either way.

At this point, I don't even care about the hiking. I just want to be able to walk down the driveway to check my own mail! *cries*
 
A friend of mine recommended these two ortho docs to me:
1 - https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/surgeons/1427097005
2 - https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/surgeons/1982651634
They're the ones that did her knee replacement and she said she's had zero issues at all. But upon looking at more of the doctors listed, this one appeals greatly to mehttps://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/surgeons/1689666083

My question is this... Do I go with the doctors my friend has experience with (which is how I ended up choosing my original doc in the first place)? Or do I pick a doc based on the stats? Help!
 
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