MUA Rubber band feeling'

[newlybionic]

You have moderate swelling so you need to ice and elevate more than you have been doing. Up until should be doing it 45 to 60 minutes for 4 or more times a day.

 

[Josephine]

2-4 times per day on average for 20-30 mins

You accomplish little or nothing in 20 minutes. Ice for at least 40-60mins and more than 4 times a day.

Try to walk outside as well for half mile

That's far too much. Did you read the recovery articles someone left you earlier in this thread? One of them is about activity progression. I suggest you go read it.

8 as of today I'm down to one session of exercise that take about 45 mins to complete. I don't have numbers associated with the exercise.
9 3 times a week for around 60 to 75 mins
If you need exercise names I could call you.

I already said I needed that. But you know what, and I'm really sorry if this appears rude, but if you cannot be bothered to write down this information then I must assume you don't have that much of a problem so I cannot be bothered to answer you.

 

[Pontoon]

Tight rubber band clamp feeling still exists 100% of my waking moments. I'm doing all the elevation and icing , of course when I'm elevated my knee feels great. Once I stand back up its back to being a clamp around my knee. It's a horrible tight feeling and makes it difficult to walk very far. Any suggestions?

 

[Pontoon]

My pt routine at home is once a day consists of
Supine heel slide with strap 10 hold for 10
Supine quad set. 10/10/
Small range leg raise 30
Side lying hip abduction 30
Seated long arc quad 30
Seated knee flexion 30
Standing heal raise 30
Standard for raise 30/
Gastric stretch 5 hold 20
Seated hamstring 5 hold 20
Seated knee flexion 5/20


PT office. I don't have exact names
Stretching
Big ball against wall crunch. 30
Seated long arc quad ,,30 straight and sideways
Leg raise on bed with small ball straight and sideways
Standing leg curls
Sometimes we do the stairs
Occasionally other excercise are thrown in

 

[little red canoe]

OK over 200 reps with the injured knee. Some of those don't involve the knee( the lateral movements). Do you do those with the other leg too?

My PT made me do whatever I did with the injured leg with the good leg. I have been off PT for over a month. Some of the exercises that I was doing seemed pointless. My quads fire fine. I do push off my mattress with the back of the knee a few times in the am to stretch out.. ( I am not quite fully extended when I get up as I tend to sleep with over 90 degrees flexion)

I haven't iced in a week or elevated ( I am sure I have once or twice), but I don't do all that.. Just the stairs and getting down to mop the floor and rummage in the closet and get off the low toilet..All the usual everyday stuff. Just a little sore tightness of one inch diameter on the outside of the knee totally ignorable. No meds for a week either.

I would expect at this time of your recovery you'd just want to get along with your life too. So do it.. hang the PT as its not doing you a favor and do what you want to do. It will take some time to get off the icing and elevation routine which is most important to you now.

Did you do all those targeted exercises prior to surgery? And pray tell what is a gastric stretch.. My stomach is already too large.. did you mean gastrocnemius stretch ( the muscle in the back of the leg.. I stretch that too both sides as it feels....so....good)

Rubber band feeling is swelling. When your leg is elevated the fluid drains toward your core. When you stand up of course it resettles in the knee. Gravity always wins.

Swelling indicates injury. And sometimes you can't tell it is there other than the tight feeling. I am no ortho nurse but a retired prehospital care provider and had my fill of anatomy and physiology

I just think you are doing too much. Enjoy your daily walks and maybe get a stationary bike. I got mine so I would not turn into a total couch potato and find that I really really like it.. Its good for my knee ( at low resistance. I am just starting to put more resistance on it) and now its good for my heart too.

 

[Pontoon]

Little red canoe@

What about in the morning after sleeping all night, when I'm laying flat for eight hours immediately upon getting out of bed the clamp comes right back?

A couple of the excercise was because I ended up with VA pinched nerve in my back.

 

[Celle]

@Pontoon - you are doing far too many exercises. No wonder you have problems with tightness and swelling.
Cut them right back and only do a few (very few) of these:
Heel slides and how to do them properly
[URL='https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/extension-how-to-estimate-it-and-ways-to-improve-it.9529/']Extension: how to estimate it and ways to improve it[/URL]
At the moment, only do one of the exercises for extension, and only once a day.

Never use bands to pull your knee, and stop using the ball against the wall.

You have a knee that is wounded and needs to heal. You're not training it for the Olympics.

It's not exercising that gets you your ROM, it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle and time to heal. Your ROM is there right from the start, just waiting for all that to happen, so it can show itself.
Do all you can to reduce the swelling, with lots of - rest, elevate, ice

ROM can continue to increase for at least a year after a TKR. There's no need to rush, no window of opportunity.
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR

As for that tight band, did you read the article left for you?
"Tight band" feeling across the front of my knee

 

[KarriB]

Yes, make a concerted effort to stop all those reps. My goodness, that must take half a day to accomplish! Please take a look at the activity progression chart also. You are doing waaaaayyyyy too much with a new knee.

https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/activity-progression-for-tkrs.14334/

 

[little red canoe]

Little red canoe@

What about in the morning after sleeping all night, when I'm laying flat for eight hours immediately upon getting out of bed the clamp comes right back?

A couple of the excercise was because I ended up with VA pinched nerve in my back.

Ok understand the reasoning for the extra exercises. But do you sleep with your foot elevated? I never was able to.
If its not elevated the swelling will stay.. its not as bad as keeping your foot flat on the floor for hours which alllows gravity to have a field day but I don't think being horizontal dissipates swelling as effectively as much as elevation.

But still over weeks that band feeling ( and I did have it for a while) did lessen on arising each morning.. Not measurably day to day but groups of days.

I'm betting that with ice, elevation and lessening of that much activity will banish the band pretty quickly.

 

[Pontoon]

I was able to sleep with my leg on a king size pillow last night and actually was in the same position all night. Doing so also helped the discomfort in my tail bone area. I had emailed my Dr and he wants me to come in today for a recheck if not tomorrow. I'm just waiting on my appointment time. I plan to talk about discontinue PT and move to water arobics instead.

 

[little red canoe]

I just overdid it. Put quite a bit of resistance on my stationary bike.. Now I set myself back a few days. I can tell when there is internal swelling as the joint feels loose and unstable and a little band feeling on half the front. I was thinking pool too but water has incredible resistance and maybe I am not ready
Pontoon glad you were able to sleep with pillow. Any improvement this AM?

 

[Pontoon]

What's the difference between flexion and ROM in simple terms. Anyone who has the answer can respond

 

[Jamie]

Flexion is the bending motion your knee makes. ROM or Range of Motion is the entire range of motion from complete bend to full straightening.

But many times you will see people refer to their ROM as just the bend they can achieve. We don't try to correct that because we know what they mean.

 

[Celle]

I plan to talk about discontinue PT and move to water aerobics instead.

Before you move to water exercises, give that knee at least a month without any exercise at all, apart from daily living. Exercises in water will overwork your knee just as much as exercises on land.

It's all too easy to overdo the exercise when you're in the water, because the water supports most of your weight and you don't start to feel tired, until you get out. You sure can feel it then!

 

[Pontoon]

OK. I have my 12 week check up with my orthopedic Dr on 1/9. I will discuss therapy with him at that time. My only real concern is the severe banding clamping around my entire knee that never gets any better. He put me on an anti inflammatory meds today so hopefully that will help the healing process.

 

[KarriB]

Have you seen this link?

https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/tight-band-feeling-across-the-front-of-my-knee.11734/

 

[Pontoon]

Yes thanks I have seen this link and sounds exactly what I have going on. I'm just hoping to start seeing some improvement.

 

[KarriB]

Josephine just posted somewhere about a device she bought. If I can find it I'll point you in that direction.

 

[little red canoe]

It might have been the Wahl spot massager. The battery powered one is not carried in the States. She got it off Amazon.uk. Amazon.com has nothing like it except the Homedics which I bought last night.. I am still stretching on stairs for more ROM gently. It might be all in my head but I think the massager works.. I seemed to get lower...

 

[gazelle7777]

I'm nine weeks post TKR and suffering from a severe banding feeling around my whole knee. So bad it impacts my ability to walk far or even normal. Is this a normal feeling to have?

@Pontoon It will go away. I had the same issues and questions the first few months after my bilateral total knee replacement. It goes away after several months.