Become an Insider

TKR ROUND 2: MotownGirl made it to the other side

Status
Not open for further replies.
@kneeper - The pain has decreased most of the day unless I am too active, go up and down the stairs too many times, am overzealous at PT, or find myself standing for too long. The pain now is discomfort and sometimes aching, but no stabbing pain.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Tomorrow marks Week 7 Post Op: I am posting today because we are leaving in a little bit for a 1,400 mile car ride to my home state (can you guess?). We are spreading the ride out over 3 days. We shall see how this goes!

The last few days around here have been rather hectic & chaotic. We have two home for sale. One of them has showings almost every day & that is a sight to be seen! Us jumping around trying to get the dogs & their beds out of the house, making the home look like no one lives here, and other crazy stuff to try to entice a buyer. The other one, I just took off the market because some people came to me and asked if they could rent it from me instead. Considering that I am leaving town for a month and they have longtime stable employment with the County? Sure! But meeting with the new tenants, getting them squared away and approved by the Homeowner's Association has taken a toll on me. For the first time in a L O N G time I snapped and barked at my husband - losing my temper because my pain was high from standing or sitting too long dealing with the houses, realtors, etc.... :censored: I've apologized to him and he says he understands and can see the discomfort in my face. I told him we just need to hurry up and leave so the chaos stays here. I look forward to being incommunicado for a few days in the car.
In addition to being only 7 weeks out from a total knee replacement, I have come down with the same stupid upper respiratory illness my son and husband have. Unlike them, I went to the doctor and was tested for the flu - thankfully that was negative but that's how lousy I feel. Watery eyes, congestion, headache, overall feeling of "blah - don't talk to me". (Ring, Ring, Ring. Oh, that's the realtor saying they want to show the house. :dead:)

I have finished my PT and last saw my surgeon on Friday. I asked for another RX for PT in Michigan in case I regress and need to stretch my limbs out. You never know, I might not need it, but it's nice to have it.

@RoyGardiner @Jamie Is anyone else finding the BoneSmart website difficult lately? I can log on okay, but the pages take forever to load and sometimes they don't load at all. They keep me at the main page and I have to refresh to try to get it to load.

Best regards,
Robyn
 
Good morning Robyn,
Hopefully, your home will sell while you're on vacation.
The foliage should be beautiful right now. Good timing!
Have a great vacation and get some quality R&R!
Happy Trails To You!
Karen
 
No, things are working fine for me and we've had no reports of problems other than yours. Maybe your internet provider is having issues. Have you cleared your cookies and cache?
 
@Jamie - No, I haven't but I will. Thanks for the ideas!

Post Op Week 7: We made it 1,400 miles to Michigan over three full days of driving. We stopped many, many times to stretch and walk a bit and let our dogs get some exercise, too. In spite of everything, I was so stiff every night when we got to the hotel. In fact, as the day wore on, I could barely get out of the truck to walk. I would have to walk about 100 steps before things loosened up. I iced and elevated each night but by the 3rd day, my ROM straightening my leg had declined. I am now working on stretching my hamstrings and keeping my leg straight.
 
I'm not surprised, but I'm glad to hear you're trying your best to do stretches and (hopefully) allowing time for resting/icing during the days and at night. You'll make it through the trip I'm sure, but you may find it's less comfortable than you had hoped. Give yourself as much "me time" as possible and enjoy your visit. Do try and plan for a big break from activity once you get back home to give your body time to catch back up with recovery. You'll get back to where you were.
 
Hey, Mo, I've been thinking about you and wondered how you made out on your trip.

I flew to Florida on Saturday. It was a perfect flight, I iced, walked around the plane, and had wheelchair rides to the gates. Saturday night had a mean old swollen and painful knee.

I am not quite back to normal on Wednesday.

We bow to THE KNEE.
 
Hey Robyn,
Glad to hear you made it ok. How was the foliage? I bet the dogs are loving the cool weather!
Get some good R&R and keep us posted.
Karen
 
Even getting out to stretch I'm sure having your leg down so much did a number on it. I'd say you're doing the right thing by stretching --also ice and elevate a lot. Hope it's a good trip for you.
 
@kneeper @kaw205 @Jamie @Jane B - The foliage is stunning, the air temp crisp, and my sinuses are clear! LOL! (I have allergies year-round in FL because nothing dies). Our dogs are so happy! My normally stoic German Shepherd actually has a skip to his step and a smile on his face. The Golden Retriever is thrilled too, but happiest when we are outside with him. He is a people dog. Jane, where in FL are you? Did I read somewhere you are in Boca? Boca Raton or Boca Grande?
Yesterday was another 5 hour drive across the state of Michigan but I am on my own terms now for the next 28 days. The drive over was brutal because we had been go-go-go since we left FL last Sunday. Thankfully my dear husband is doing all the lifting, caring for the dogs, grocery shopping, etc...I plan on laying low the next few days to get my knee to settle down. Unfortunately, the home we rented doesn't have the most comfortable couch but I don't care...I will lay in bed and ice and elevate until the cows come home if I have to! :)
I woke up this morning to tightness in my calves. They felt "short" when I stood up and walked. Who knows what the heck that means.
I desperately need my other knee done. Like I just said on someone else's thread, my husband compared the swelling on both knees last night and pronounced them the same - NOT GOOD. I tried to kneel on the "good" knee while we were driving to reach into the back of the SUV to grab something - "no, no, no, my knee screamed". It hates me, it really does.
YES - We BOW TO THE KNEE(s).

Happy Sunday!

Robyn
 
We are in Sarasota, Robyn.

I've had back of calf and thigh pain, too. I found icing on the back helps, a little. I would imagine it's muscles adapting to the New Knee. I work on my extension often, and I wonder if that's what's going on. It's nice that they ache in the middle of the night...

Glad you are enjoying yourself. My dachshunds are thrilled to be here, even thought they have a doggie door to our back yard in New England. They run in and out and chase geckos. It's chilly, though, 50 degrees this morning. I had a golden, who loved the snow. She used to take naps outside on a snowbank.
 
Hi Robyn,
Well, it's a cool crisp morning in Fl!
It was in the high 40's when I got up. Now low 60's.
Ahhhhhhhh...This is our reward for sweating through the summer!
The dogs are frisky. Seamus is busy looking for mischief.
Take it easy and enjoy your vacation.
I'll be heading to Pa for Thanksgiving.
Take care,
Karen
 
9 Weeks Post-Op: This is definitely a slow recovery and I absolutely dread having my other knee done. Initially, I asked my surgeon to do them both @ the same time but he refused. While in the hospital and suffering so terribly, I thanked him for having the foresight to not have done them both and he agreed. NOW, I wish I HAD done the 2nd one @ the same time so I NEVER, EVER, have to go through this pain again.

So, where am I at in my recovery? I still get stiff if I sit for longer than a few minutes, I get stiff if I have to stand for longer than a few minutes, and I still get stiff if I lay on my side with my knees bent, and if I lay on my back with my knees straight! Yes, like @Jane B. says - we BOW to the knee. It is in charge.

I sometimes do the stairs like I am supposed to, like a normal person with good knees, but a lot of the time I catch myself doing it like a toddler - you know, one foot on the step and then the 2nd one meets the same step, and so-on. When I try to go down or up like a normal person, I have a pain on the outside of my surgical knee that I think is the muscle healing that was cut. What else could it be? The joint feels solid.

Remember that weird quarter-sized bruise on the side of my knee near the surgical scar that I posted about a few threads back? It's still there, still tender, but not as tender as it was. My OS's P.A. said it is mostly likely a dissolvable stitch from when they re-sewed the muscle they cut perpendicular to my surgical scar. Josephine had said the same thing. Hopefully, it will get on with its business and dissolve soon!

I have noticed that I walk like a normal person mostly, except when I am tired. For example, if we are in a restaurant, and I get up from the table to go to the ladies room, I am very stiff when I first get up from the table. But I stand for a minute and "get situated" and then I can walk to the restroom without a limp. By the time I get there, the stiffness is gone, thankfully.

I have discovered the benefits of using Ibuprofen on a schedule instead of painkillers. Miraculously, the ibuprofen is reducing my inflammation enough to be comfortable. At night, I wake up with pain and take a Nucynta 50mg. which seems to settle me back down. Last night, however, I woke up to a sharp stabbing pain in my other knee. It felt like someone was stabbing me on the inside area with an ice pick. What the heck? Seriously, it hates me. I laid there and suffered for a while before I thought "this is ridiculous!" I took a Percocet and, after about 45 minutes, it calmed down and I was able to go back to sleep.

Oh and one more thing - I am about SICK TO DEATH of seats AND toilet seats that are lower than my knees. I am 5'10" and to have to haul my big butt in and out of these seats is killing me! Can't we have bar stools everywhere?Okay, LOL! That's my rant for the week.

Hope this week finds you well and pain free!

Best regards,

Robyn
 
Oh Robyn, I could echo every single word you wrote only I'm 5'8", not 5'10" :) I thought the folks doing both knees must be insane and now, like you, I wish I would have. My OS won't do both at the same time either but there are those that do and to think this ALL could be 15 weeks in the rear view mirror is frustrating to think about. Tomorrow I'll be entering week 2 on #2 and I'm soooo over this. This one is worse than the last which doesn't make it any easier, that's for sure. Hopefully your 2nd will go easier. The stabbing with an ice pick when your knees are together when sleeping happened to me all the time before I had my first done. Since then I can't sleep on my side but I would assume it is gone now. It better be!
 
I'm right with you, Mo! You said it perfectly.

I wake up at night now that I don't take narcotics every four hours. (Thank you knee.) One night I woke up and had my usual back of the calf and thigh muscle aches and said sleepily, "I didn't have this pain with the last one." NO! There was no last one, this is your first one! Must have been wishful thinking.

My friend in Cali who had such a good experience (one of the miracle people) with his first knee was sick to his stomach the entire day before surgery on his second.

But it is better than a month ago, Mo. I find just doing an errand restores my feeling of normalcy. And I'm doing very small projects in our house. No big gardening jobs yet, which I prefer.

I've read what you are going through, Janet. Sorry that you've had such an ordeal and hope things are better.
 
Well, I'm with you on the toilet situation. I'm also 5'10" and I've even been in handicap bathrooms which have grab bars but a really low toilet. What's up with that??
And the pain upon standing and then waiting for the knee is something I'm hoping to get rid of after my TKR.
I have to use a walker to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
My OS is doing a research study on recovery with the ConforMIS system. Maybe you should participate.
Hope your vacation is going well. It looks like there may be some snow heading your way.
It's been cool and rainy here...
Well, here's hoping things get better for you really soon!
Karen
 
@kaw205 @Jane B. @gr82cu2 Yes! What is up with handicap toilet stalls having the typical low seats???? We need those grab bars! Karen, I am more than willing to participate in a study on the ConforMIS. Glad to be of assistance. You have my private contact info that you can share.

Jane, I envy your friend. So stinking lucky!

Janet, I read almost every page of your recovery thread- from the horrors of knee #1 all the way through to knee 2, and I have to tell you, you are the bravest person I know. I thought my hospital experience was crappy being hot and under-medicated and all, but yours takes the cake! And then to read that your round 2 was even worse???? Those threads are the stuff nightmares are made of. We have to tread carefully because Kaw205 is having her first one done in January.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Corganics CBD
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Staff online

Members online

Total: 852 (members: 5, guests: 847)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom