Become an Insider

Bilateral TKR Scheduled February 2016

Hang in there! I am fortunate in that my husband and I are both retired. It was difficult for me, too, to be housebound the first few weeks. I am still not sleeping more than one and one-half to two hours at a time because of having to get up and pee. Frustrating. Some nights were difficult because of pain, also. I have only been on once daily Mobic ( anti-inflammatory) and Tylenol since I came home from the hospital due to breathing problems caused by Percocet and Tramadol. OS does not believe in Tylenol with Codeine, the only pain reliever that I can tolerate, for post surgical pain, and my regular doctor would not intervene, so the patient went without. Waiting for results of a urinalysis. I will begin week 12 tomorrow, and I have seen a big jump in my mobility in the last couple of weeks. I really haven't had much pain for about three weeks. Hopefully, now that Spring is here, you can get out on the deck to get some fresh air and sunshine to help lift your spirits! It does get better for us bilaterals. We just have to have more patience. ;-)
 
Thanks @Pumpkln I am at the beginning. It's a long road. I will check out the social rooms.

@GratefulNana That's awful you got caught in the meds war and left without. Glad you are now getting less pain. Can't wait for me to get there. Yes I have to get up in the night to go to the bathroom too. My meds really take it out of me, I get oxycodone and tylenol.

The next week is going to remain chilly here so no going out on the deck yet for me. I will have to find the patience to get through this. I did it before with a foot operation in 2005 for 12 weeks so I can do it again.
:yes!:
 
You'll get there. It does seem like such a very long time for recovery. I used the games in the social room in the middle of the nights when I couldn't sleep. There is always someone on this forum to talk to.
 
Hello Kaykay,

I so hear you. I posted today about my blues and frustration! In a way it is a good sign. Our main body is getting better and we have more energy and want to do something else than take care of the "leg" and sleep.

Tomorrow I plan on cleaning my filing cabinet, well a drawer...anyway whatever I can do!

I too have these sharp weird zings in the leg. I see it as a good sing of healing.

We will get through this! In a few weeks this will all be a thing of the past!
 
I was just catching up on your thread @KayeKaye . Sounds like last week was rough but you're doing a bit better now.
 
Day 35
Thanks @Creation yes it would be nice to do something other than care about legs all day and night. Did you get your file cabinet done? @kneeper thanks it is getting better, just the sleeping is annoying me so much right now.

Still battling sleep at night. It seems to be better during the day, I can keep busy one way or another but when it comes time for bed I toss and turn and cry for hours till I am exhausted and finally sleep. Even taking my oxycodone doesn't put me sleep at bedtime. I don't mind so much but my poor husband gets driven out to the other room by my antics. Now that he is back at work he needs his sleep, but he does most of his sleeping when he gets home from work in front of the tv haha. He has been so nice, he makes his breakfast and coffee and makes mine too then leaves it in the microwave for when I get up. Then he chops up a salad for me for lunch and leaves it in the fridge for lunch.

Yesterday I made it to the kitchen for a bit and put away the dishes in the dishwasher. Then I sliced up zucchini brushed with olive oil and baked them into chips to have with tuna, olive, cream cheese spread. They sure do get small, about 1" round, but they are good.

I had too many visitors yesterday, even sitting in my chair doing nothing it still exhausted me just to keep up with all the conversations and stay alert. Today I have nothing planned, will do some walking and arm exercises. I am able to walk a bit without the walker. Actually it seems better to not hang onto the walker, I am stooping over the walker too much and not standing tall. PT said it would happen like this where I would step without the walker more and more.
 
Wishing you :sleep:. I could at least sleep for a couple of hours at a crack. Probably got about 5 hours a night and then some naps.
 
Day 36

PT at 9 am at my home. All went well, nothing too taxing. Then about an hour after she left total exhaustion set in and I went to bed. Have felt exhausted all day and it near 8 pm now. Never had it hit me so hard. Didn't even do much, but I guess it was enough to tire me out. I am getting stronger so that's good. She is coming Friday at 9 am again, guess that day will be a wipe out. Then the next week twice and she will be done. Then they want me to go to out patient therapy. I just don't know if I care. I know I can't drive and I don't have anyone to drive me there so not much hope for that. I am at 90 ROM now, and she said the doctor would like me at 115 or more. Just what do I need with more therapy? Maybe it will get easier the more I do? I just don't know.
 
Your ROM is 90 now and that's OK. There's no need to rush to increase ROM, because it can continue to improve for a year, or even longer.

Whether to go to outside PT or not is a choice you can make. Maybe wait until you can drive, and then decide? Meanwhile, you will get along fine, just doing gentle exercise at home. Walk around a little bit and try some of the exercises in the articles below- not too many and don't do them all at once. Just choose one or two from each article and do them. You don't need to do them all.
Heel slides and how to do them
Extension: exercises for improvement
 
@Celle Thanks, I am so glad to read this. I am so sore today and we did hardly anything. I just don't want to do this anymore. I was feeling pretty good and then this hits. ugh. I will keep up with the heel glides. My extensions I am doing and I have perfect numbers on that. They started the towel under my ankles first thing at the hospital after the operation and I have kept that up. I think I will be happy with 90 for now, and wait till I can drive. By that time maybe I can do water therapy, which is what I am looking forward to, but will be gentle with that too.

These PT people really don't believe that ROM can improve after their "window of opportunity". It's too bad they don't have to keep up with research but instead just keep doing the same old wrong things decade after decade.
 
Inflammation is often the cause of lower ROM . During my 1st TKR I was doing physio and following all those advices and my ROM was not moving. i had a lot of inflammation and pain.
This time around, I try to control inflammation by not getting my knee upset. No hard muscle exercises, only stretches. I do my stretches when my knee is at its best during the day, that is low inflammation.
1st thing in the morning, my knee is at its best, so I do 3-5 repeats of heal slides until there is no more extra bend left. I hold each for 45-60 seconds.
I repeat this a few times during the day, after icing and that my leg has been up for 30-60 minutes. I get much better results. Of course after my stretch exercises, I ice and elevate again. I do heal slides when I sit at the table to eat my meal.

I find I have less pain, less inflammation and more progression this time by doing this.

At 4 weeks, my muscles are doing good just on their own. I can lift my leg over the shower stalle edge, I can swing up my leg from the ground onto my bed without aid and I started this week to stretch my knee using my stationary bike, pedalling backwards and stopping when I feel the uncomfortable spot.

No physio! Just stretches....I get way better results!
 
Sounds great @Creation . Sounds like a good plan for the second time around.

The PT I am doing in-home never seems hard and I can do it all with no pain, until a few hours later. I have to just stop this. They want to come tomorrow but I just don't want all day Friday and Saturday to be full of pain recovering. This is insane. I am still sore now and it's near 5 pm. That's 2 days shot as far as I am concerned. And still so many uninformed people call and wish me well and tell me DO ALL THE EXERCISES -like they know. Oh brother.

So I just cancelled tomorrows PT. I told her I was nauseous and just sick, which is really the truth. So much pain makes me just nauseous. It just makes me crazy. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow. Makes me so mad when I think of how great I was doing and feeling before PT.
 
You're doing just fine, so don't listen to the people who tell you what to do - nobody really understands what it's like until they've had a knee replacement themselves. Take recovery at a pace that keeps your knees happy.
 
You made a wise decision to let yourself and your knee rest. One thing I learned is that you should never be in such pain after physio. This is a symptom of having done too much.
Keep elevating, icing and rest this is the only way to get your knee back in the comfortable zone!
 
Day 38

I am still recovering from my PT on day 36. Slept well with only one oxycodone so that surprised me. This morning at 8 am had some tylenol and fell asleep again till noon! Still tired. My hips hurt more than anything else. I remember the PT saying she was stretching my hips when holding my leg. Who knew it would wipe me out like this when it didn't hurt at all at the time. It hurts to sit and to walk. The only comfortable position is laying flat down. Hope this resolves soon.
 
Make sure you tell your PT how your hips are hurting, and ask her not to do that particular exercise again.
 
Hopefully having a weekend "off" will make you more comfortable. Easy does it with lots of icing, elevating and rest. Embrace the naps. I did. :)
 
Day 39

5 pm finally feeling better. Had an ok night sleeping. I can't believe it took from Wednesday to Saturday to feel half way better from my Wed am PT session. Wow.
 
Hi @KayeKaye
I feel the same way about my PT this week. We changed my routine to strengthen my quads and hamstrings and I have been so sore from Thursday am through today. You have some company.
 
Day 41

PT this morning. I explained that I slept day and night in pain since our last Wednesday PT and said I just can't see that as being any good for me. She agreed, tested my walk and stability and called it good. So the next one will be her supervisor discharging me. I think it will be for the better. The doctor from Mayo called today and he was pleasant so that was good too. I don't have to go back to them until the middle of May.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Staff online

Members online

Total: 670 (members: 1, guests: 669)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom