TKR School bus driver back to work

Grandma Moses

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Had TKR on November 18, 2020. I went back to work on Jan 8th, 2021. As a school bus driver, I have driven for 25 years. I am experiencing pain/discomfort in right thigh, my new knee side. Wondering if it’s because of the rural roads I drive on, I have a stationary seat, no air ride seat, so there is a lot of bumps. Just curious if this is going to disrupt healing? No other complaints other than not sleeping. Doc said that is the last thing to return. Hoping it will soon. Any other school bus drivers on here?
 
Hi and Welcome!

I am not a bus driver, but my leg was unhappy when I started back driving, and I didn’t drive until I was 11 weeks, and I’d “only” had a partial, and it was my left leg! It didn’t seem to like the vibrations of the car, which was a Matrix.

Is your bus a standard or an automatic? I can’t imagine driving it so early in your recovery. Be sure to rest a lot when you are home, your job is all the PT that you need. If you continue doing a list of exexcises, it may prove to be too much for your newly healing knee and cause you additional pain.

I will leave you our Recovery Guidelines. Each article is short but very informative. Following these guidelines will help you have a less painful recovery.

Knee Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary
2. Control discomfort:
rest
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)​

3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you​
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.​


4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

6. Access to these pages on the website

The Recovery articles:
The importance of managing pain after a TKR and the pain chart
Swollen and stiff knee: what causes it?
Energy drain for TKRs
Elevation is the key
Ice to control pain and swelling
Heel slides and how to do them properly
Chart representation of TKR recovery
Healing: how long does it take?

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

There are also some cautionary articles here
Myth busting: no pain, no gain
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in the majority of BoneSmart’s forums, we ask that each member have only One Recovery Thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.
 
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Hello @Grandma Moses- and :welome:

I'm really not surprised that you're experiencing some discomfort while driving the school bus. You were probably a bit ambitious to go back to work at only 7+ weeks after this major surgery, and driving a heavy bus is asking rather a lot of a newly-replaced knee.

Add to that an unpadded seat, bumpy roads, a bus full of noisy children, and that your right leg is the one doing most of the work. Ouch!!

We usually recommend taking about 12 weeks and then doing a Phased return to work

However, what's done is done and I understand the economic necessity of having to work again.
So, let's see if we can make things bit more comfortable for you.

First, can you buy (or do you have) a foam cushion that will help to soften the bumps at least a little bit?

Second, is the height of the driving seat adjustable? If so, try lowering it a little.
When my knee replacements were new, I found that it hurt if the chair was just a bit too high, as that placed pressure on the back of my thigh, which then transferred to the knee joint itself. Sitting on a slightly lower seat improved matters a lot.

Third, if you do a morning and an afternoon run, do you have time off in between? If so, spend as much of that time as you can resting, icing and elevating your knee. Stop going to PT - your job and your everyday activities are plenty of exercise for your knee.

Most people experience an increase in pain and swelling when they go back to work and that's why you do have to make sure you spend plenty of time resting, icing and elevating.

While going back to work a bit early will upset your knee a bit, as long as you can compensate for that, it shouldn't do any permanent harm to your knee. It might slow down recovery a bit, but recovery normally takes a full year anyway, so there's no need to rush.

Your surgeon is right - sleep disturbance is one of the last things to go. I think it was about 6 months before my sleep pattern returned to something like normal.

I also found that the Energy drain for TKRs took ages to go away. It was several months before I stopped needing a nap in the middle of the afternoon.
 
I'm kind of amazed, as others that your back to work so quickly. Good for you. What hasn't been mentioned is getting into and out of the bus. That could also be causing some pain. Please be cautious with your baby knee.

We're all different and heal differently, with my last revision it was 3 months before I drove. And I'm the only driver in the house. But I made it work.
 
Just chiming in to support the prior posts. Driving can definitely be a challenge to your thigh for a while. I only did short trips at 7 weeks.
 

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