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TKR Rodney's TKR recovery

My old natural knee doesn't even bend that much!
 
Wow! You've done amazing thus far into your recovery!! Way to go, I hope you continue to improve and blow us away!
 
Thanks, everyone.

I also have a bike in the living room (yes, it's a bit crowded right now). It's HUGE, but it was also free. I use it each day for a SHORT session, only a minute or two, and VERY slowly, just enough to get the knee moving.

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A nice piece of news from the sidelines. Because of my job (Senior CareGiver), I'm in the 1B category for a Covid vaccination. I had the opportunity to get one in January, but the uncertainty of possibly needing a second shot right about the surgery date put me off.

Early this week, my local Kaiser Permanente clinic offered me one, and now that all I have to deal with is recovery, I snapped it up. They got back to a couple of days later to say that I'll be getting the Johnson & Johnson one, just one dose! I get the shot tomorrow.

When the stars align, ......
 
I just got my J&J shot done yesterday, one and done! I am a substitute teacher so I was in 1B here in my state. I feel pretty good other than tired and a sore arm. Hope your side effects if any are limited!
 
I noticed your name is Aussie Rodney. You can't be living in Australia and getting the Johnson vaccine as we don't have it here. In fact very few Australians are in a hurry to get vaccinated as we only have a few cases in quarantine.
 
@Goma G'day fellow Aussie, and a very observant one. If you have a few hours to spare, you can find the full story here:

Fiddaman Australia & America – The online home of Rodney and Julie Fiddaman

www.fiddaman.info www.fiddaman.info

I first came to the US in 2003 to work on a joint project between The Boeing Company, The Australian Defence Dept and Boeing Australia (my employer), with with second wife and step-son. I lost my wife to a brain aneurysm, started hanging out with the Admin person when she returned from Active Duty with the Air National Guard, and we were married in Vegas on the day before I returned. It took several months to get her legally into Australia and we lived in Canberra for several years. Eventually, she said, "I wanna go home!", and I arrived here in 2015.

I've had numerous job along the way, both temporary and permanent. The best one was as the Seattle Area support person for a Post Tensioning company in Portland - lots of autonomy and an opportunity to expand the role into something no-one even dreamed it could be. My most recent is as a CareGiver, based in Everett WA., which has given me the chance to "Pay it back". There is nothing so challenging, satisfying and awe-inspiring as being up close and personal with a client, and I treasure every moment. I am currently on leave, until I can take my weight plus someone else's.
 
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Week 5, Saturday Mar 13 - We now return to our regular programming.

I might be doing really well with ROM etc, but the pain is unrelenting. Yes, I know, preaching to the converted. In the background, it's about 3. Walking, from 2 to 6. Resting and/or icing, about 5. Lifting onto the elevation pillow, up to 8.

Showing some shape.
[Bonesmart.org] Rodney's TKR recovery
 
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Just curious are you icing pretty often and staying on top of meds? I know you ride your bike a bit each day, but how much other stuff are you doing? I iced near around the clock with my ice machine and really only stuck to adl things because I am a slacker lol but if your pain is high often, may be you're doing a little too much?
 
Hard to tell. My "unrelenting" comment was more along the lines of "it's always there" rather than "it's too much to handle". That level 1 just pisses me off after a while.

During the day, I am religiously adhering to the 4-hour schedule, 8-12-4-8. Overnight, it's a bit hit & miss, and I'm starting to consciously back off overnight. I'm also aware that I only have a 2 week supply at the current rate of 2 Hydrocodone per 4 hours, so at some point I have to back it off to 1 or end up in a fight with my insurance.

General daily guidelines:
  • If the pain nags me enough, I lie down and ice it, or go for a walk, or maybe both.
  • If the knee feels like it's jamming up too much, I go for a walk. Probably once around the apartment block U-shape, approx 100 yards.
  • If I feel tired, I take a nap. Generally will ice for that too. Might remove the ice & go back to sleep.
  • As much as possible, I use the frame when walking. Sometimes inside the apartment, it's easier to just walk. When I do that, I try to stand fully upright and focus ahead with head held high, just as if I was walking anywhere else.
  • When I use the frame, my gait is definitely MUCH better, I walk faster and more smoothly.
  • At this stage, the bike is 1-2 minutes a day, as I build up very slowly.
  • My "PT" is to work the full ROM several times, work the ankles, maybe lift the leg. And walk. Nothing structured. I don't have any more PT appointments.
  • My diet is surprisingly good. I eat a lot of yogurt parfaits - yogurt, fresh fruit (order online), sometimes add in a small amount of granola, sometimes throw in some broken up pieces of chocolate. Julie has found that the supermarkets tend to stock up on Fridays for the weekend, so she shops on Friday and usually doesn't run into the out-of-stock issue, which means I have a ton of fresh stuff that needs to be eaten quickly, before it goes off..
I am also working on a background condition that I tend to forget things, or have a temporary mental blank. "Where are the towels?" "Up there in the end drawer, where they have been since we moved in." "Oh, yeah." That wasn't helped by the major post-op confusion, which was spread across about 2 weeks. Julie is threatening to ask my PCP put me on an anti-depressant. But now that the sun is shining, .....

So now you know most of my dirty little secrets! :)
 
Cannot believe that ROM! It’s incredible.....and it doesn’t hurt to do that? I think the last time I had that ROM I was 5 years old!
 
SpaceGirl said:
I just got my J&J shot done yesterday, one and done! I am a substitute teacher so I was in 1B here in my state. I feel pretty good other than tired and a sore arm. Hope your side effects if any are limited!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the "hope". No effects at all.
[Bonesmart.org] Rodney's TKR recovery


It was quite funny actually. After all the jabs I've had in the past, going right back to Primary School for Chicken Pox?, Small Pox?, Flu Shot?. Help me out here @Goma. Really , it was just another shot, and didn't need all the blah blah.
 
Woohoo! Julie suggested that we could put the pillows down the other end of the bed and that maybe I could rig up my elevation pillows against the bed head. So far so good. I'll report back in the morning. The thing that looks like a tiger is just a pillowcase, and the urinal got moved into a less precarious position, where I wouldn't kick it getting out of bed .
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Nearly 6 weeks, update.

Several day ago, I went to one of my workplaces (a funeral home would you believe?), did too much generally and lifted too many heavy things. The end result was that I slipped back about 1-2 weeks in my recovery - more pain than I'm used to, exhausted and grumpy.
Lesson learned! Don't put too much into one day.

The blanket on the bed is HUGE, which means there are plenty of bits to jam into the places where I need to be warm, although the knee still stays outside in the cold to get a partial icing effect. It works, but I am still not able to sleep soundly, still not sure why.

Does anyone have any thoughts on "knee in" or "knee out"?

I have been cautiously dabbling with the idea that I can slowly reduce my pain meds. My current schedule is 2 x Hydromorphone every 4 hours, which for me means 8,12, 4, 8 & maybe 1-2 overnight. Reducing to 1 for just one of those times 2 day ago was disastrous - I was almost screaming and almost in tears. Icing. Resting. Walking. Nothing helped. What did help was realizing that I was painkiller-deficient and popping one more.
Lesson learned: it's too soon to wean.
 
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@AussieRodney When you start forgetting doses is the sign you can begin to reduce your pain medication. It's usually the midday dose. For now, keep taking the meds. You need them to increase your mobility.

Sleep problems are just a part of this recovery I am afraid. Don't fight it - nap during the day if you can. Read this article again Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?
 
@Jaycey Glad you mentioned constipation.

My trick has been: Every time I take 2 pain pills, I also take 2 Stool Softeners. It takes a few days to establish the rhythm bur after that it's smooth .....
 
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