Second TKR Scheduled, 1st Progressing

[Motherofmany]

Hi everyone,

I made progress today during pt with the ROM in my RTKR. My therapist was able to identify and work out the soft tissue swelling area in the calf that was keeping me from increasing my ROM past 90. After the painful yet productive massage, I was able to get on the stationary bike and pedal all the way around repeatedly. First time I even tried that particular bike and even was able to lower the seat and pedal for more that 5 minutes. :thmb:

Also went to my OS today and he was pleased with my progress. Said it will just take me longer due to my presurgery limitations. Wants me to continue with the aquatic aerobics and pt for the right knee and strengthening the left quads. Scheduled my LTKR for Tuesday, September 1st. Just 4 weeks to go and then I'll be on my way to living painfree once again. :pray:

This process has been a struggle and never thought I would look forward to having it done again...but pain can be pretty persuasive. In order to walk, I have to wear my brace to stabilize the left leg. Otherwise the knee slips and slides and grinds and feels like it's splintering. Of course the xrays show increasing bone spurs, so that may be what is happening.

Actually the surgery coordinator originally said, 'How about the 11th?' I said 'Sept 11th?' She replied, 'No, August 11th.' :shk: 'Next Tuesday??? No, I don't think that would do since I'm still in pt'. Fortunately Dr. K agreed I needed to wait at least 4 weeks. We both want the right knee to be as ready as possible. Don't want to regress because I was over anxious. Now I pray I can handle the pain until then.

Will be working extra hard to be ready. No more overindulging in the baked goods or ice cream. I need to take some more weight off and continue strengthening both legs. At least this time I know what to expect and am familiar with what needs to be done. Thanks to you all, I have learned much and am more prepared.

The only regret I have is I won't be able to take my daughter Sara to the airport for the trip to Ireland on Sept. 7th. Figured it best to have the surgery behind me, so she won't worry while she's away. Rick will be able to take off the day of my surgery, the day I come home and the first 2 weeks I am home while Sara is in Ireland. He will be taking her to the airport with the missions team. We have put back some money to allow him to take off time unpaid since he has already used all his paid leave for his gall bladder surgery and my RTKR. God is faithfull to provide!

 

[Texas]

Hey Rose I am so happy you are getting great ROM now....You really deserve it. Well atleast with this next one you will know what to expect. I hope it is better this time. Im glad your husband will be with you again. Yes I believe God does provide because I dont know how we have made it this far. Im sure your daughter understands and knows what your going for here...She will be fine...She has been TAUGHT well.............Well you know we will be here for you as always.....Cant get away that fast....My prayers will be with you and your family and you daughter on her trip......Hang in there you have a great support system and you know thats a big part of recovery......Good luck to ya....

 

[Judles]

That's such great progvress, Rose! I'm so happy for you! Think positive and everything will fall into place beautifully! You'll see!!! . Keep up the great work! I know how hard you're working at your recovery!!!

 

[Oldie]

Hi Rose, so happy you are doing so good. So you will be exsactly one week after my LTKR . I am looking forward to it and feel more confident this time at least we know what to expect. My RTKR is doing just fine even though I did have some swelling and pain this last week-end figured it out was from using Hot Tub for too long. The heat did not agree with me. Well good luck.

 

[calling_all_angels]

Rose,
So you will have your LTKR on the 1st of Sept. I can only guess all you feel you must get done before that date. It will be here before you know it. And it sounds like your right knee is starting to improve on its bend. So happy for you Rose. And I will be praying that everything goes smooth for you and your family. You deserve a little smooth sailing.

 

[loggon]

Rose
So glad to hear you have the date for the LTKR. Of course you will have all our prayers and thoughts.

You will do great and I hope it goes so much better that the other.

Good luck

 

[Motherofmany]

Hi everyone,

Wednesday was a busy day with pt, pool time and deep tissue massage. I felt great afterwards, but a little sore that night after church. So I felt I could add in one more thing the next day...How wrong I was!!!!!

Overdone again!!! :evil: Yesterday, I knew better, but when I got a distress call from a pregnant single mom (struggling with a nasty custody battle) that needed help, I went. Spent time helping her get things straightened out (cleaning, moving furniture out) then brought her and children back to my home. She wanted to take her children to VBS too. From there had to meet blacksmith at barn to trim and shoe 4 horses (planned for over a week). Hayed the horses while I was there waiting, iced knees while sitting in chair. Came home took Sara to her job, back home to shower. Loaded up all children, took Rachel to horse camp at barn where she is teaching and 10 others to VBS. 2 hours later, stopped at grocery store to pick up quick food for children to eat since we missed the cookout because I had to shower. Took them home, switched cars since van was low on gas then went to pick up teens, with 2 boys. Took teens and boys home then picked up Single Mom and her little boys from my house and took them home (round trip 1 hour). By the time I got home it had been 12 hours since I had left that morning and needed help getting out of car and walking up stairs. I was hurting, exhausted :yn: and swollen!!!!

Did I know better, YES!!! Did that stop me, NO!!! Why I operate on overdrive??? Needless to say this morning I was useless and had to cancel pt. Spent most of the day icing and elevating. Had to be a body in the front seat (Sara has permit) so the horses got fed this morning, but I didn't move from that seat. Then we had a flat tire and had to stop to get it fixed. Did get out there, so they could plug the tire once the nail was removed. Used crutches to walk today everywhere.

Don't know if I can make it until my LTKR. It is totally unstable and useless. Even with the brace and crutches it is giving me a fit! Went to the pool tonight for a little while to see if it would help loosen up the stiffness. Knees felt funny in the pool, but they did loosen up some. Glad I was able to go. Came home and went back to bed with ice and elevating. Get so tired of this whole process. Can't wait for it to all be over.....25 days to go till LTKR.

When I got another phone call this morning, I said NO, I can't come but I will get someone else to help and pay for their gas. Someday I will learn to say no and recognize my boundaries before I end up back in bed hurting and swollen. Hope that day is soon. In the meantime, I will continue to serve my family joyfully and balance all that is mine the best I can.

Hope you all have a less busy life and are enjoying your new knees without all this mess.

 

[Clunker]

Hi Rose!!

 

[Motherofmany]

Hi Mark,

Love the idea of cash for Clunker!!! Got a good laugh while I was laid up in bed today. Received any money yet???

 

[Clunker]

Nothing,,none,,big ZERO,,,lol

But I am not giving up,,I am thinking maybe tomorrow??:pzld:

Nice to hear from you Rose,hope all is well:D

 

[Motherofmany]

Hi everyone,

I have good news and bad news. First the good news....yesterday I was finally able to get 96 degrees in flexion! :wahey:After being stuck in the 70s for so long, I am finally feeling a little more limber. I've put in a lot of time focusing on increasing my ROM and have managed to get 20 degrees more this past month. Oh course I am still trying to get more...will be happy with 110 like Dr. K was able to get during MUA. Know it's possible and maybe more, so I'm still working hard. Able to pedal all the way around on the bike for 10 minutes at a time. Boy that feels great! The aquatic aerobics are easier to do and not so stiff. Also limping isn't too bad, just a few steps after I've been sitting for a while then back to normal gait.

Now for the bad news. The meniscus I tore in the left knee at 4 weeks post op has decided to tear some more. During my final standing exercises in pt this morning I was doing lunges on the bars with steps. My PT Allison was encouraging me to get more stretch in the left calf, suddenly, I had a catch in my left foot and went to stand. When I put my left foot down, the left knee buckled and I fell against the bars. Thank goodness for the bars, otherwise I would have been a heap on the ground. She immediately wanted to know what just happened. I told her and she and the other PT that was talking to us rushed to get me seated and ice applied. I had to call Rick and Nicholas to come and get me as driving wasn't going to be an option. They brought my crutches and I crutched out, promising to call Dr. K. I told her I had already been through this and knew he would say ice, elevate and ibuprophen. I was right. Dr. K said normally he would scope it, but since my surgery is less than 3 weeks, he said to sit tight and be wise. I asked about pt on Friday and he told me to make that decision on Friday morning. He knows I will be careful and told me he was proud of my hard work and good results.

So here I sit, propped on pillows typing this, trying not to complain. I have so much to accomplish before surgery, but trying not to focus on what I'm not able to do. Guess Kim and Nancy and a few others can relate. At least I won't have to worry about the meniscus after my surgery. I also told my PT "Good thing these bionic knees don't crumble like that". Soon it will all be over. Rick was saying in 3 months, this will all be behind us and I'll be a new woman with 'good' knees. I know my family was disheartened with this latest injury. I really did nothing more than take a step and snap, there it went. That's how unstable my knee is, considering I had my brace on and good support shoes too. So now I will have a total knee stabilizer to try to keep it in place and no more tearing. It burns even with the ice. Any weight on the leg and I can feel and hear the bones crunching. Dr. K said I may have some bone shards loose in there, but he will take care of all that in surgery. Just hope I can be good until then. :whis:

Hope everyone else is doing better. Jo, don't wait too long on that left knee of yours. It doesn't hold too much longer before it starts shredding and ouch!!!!

Blessings,

 

[Josephine]

Just what I was thinking as I was reading your post, Rose! You poor thing. As if your plate isn't full enough already!

 

[Jamie]

Rose, you are so logical in the face of all this. I'm afraid I would be a basket case!!! Just please take care of yourself....okay? I care about you!!!!

 

[Oldie]

Rose, was so happy for you that your ROM was improving. And now feel so sorry about problem with left knee. You poor thing, seems you are really not haven any luck with it. Well just 3 weeks and you will be on way to painfree life. I am scheduled for my LTKR in two weeks, one week before you, and I also had my RTKR one week before you. My left knee was actually the bad knee on xray, bone on bone, and had bothered me off and on for about 10 yrs, but then my right knee started being very painful constantly, had very bad arthritis on it so OS decided to take care of it first. Now that I am more active and using left knee more, it has become more painful so in two weeks it will be gone. Take Care, will be praying for you.

 

[Linda2]

I'm so sorry you are having to go through this. You might still work on your flexion by doing heel slides any other thing you can do without depending on your soon-to-be-fixed knee. If you have one of those floor pedaler things you might be able to do it with one foot--wouldn't be easy, though. At least you will be looking forward to the 25th!

 

[Motherofmany]

Thanks Jo, Jamie, Lou and Linda,

Today, I am just resting. Oh course I already did 45 minutes of water aerobics then was 40 minutes into pt when the snap occured, so I did enough today. I do have a stretch strap that I can use to do my exercises and am able to do most of the ones from pt at home, so I hopefully won't get behind. The sad part is I will not be able to do water aerobics for a little while.

I am being very sensitive to what this knee wants. I certainly don't want to risk any further injury that might impead the surgery on 9/1.

 

[Motherofmany]

Rose, was so happy for you that your ROM was improving. And now feel so sorry about problem with left knee. You poor thing, seems you are really not haven any luck with it. Well just 3 weeks and you will be on way to painfree life. I am scheduled for my LTKR in two weeks, one week before you, and I also had my RTKR one week before you. My left knee was actually the bad knee on xray, bone on bone, and had bothered me off and on for about 10 yrs, but then my right knee started being very painful constantly, had very bad arthritis on it so OS decided to take care of it first. Now that I am more active and using left knee more, it has become more painful so in two weeks it will be gone. Take Care, will be praying for you.

Lou,

It sounds like I'm in good company then. Hope things go well for your next surgery. At least we know what to expect and have some experience this time, so maybe things will go smoother and recover quicker. :D

Like you my left knee has been the worse one for a long time. If not for the injury to the right one in Feb., it probably would have been the first. Have been biding my time to get the right one working enough to have it done. Thought it would hold out, guess I was wrong.

 

[brs0660]

Oh Rose!!!

Have you been praying for patience again...you know better. :hehe:

Serious sorry to hear that Mr Lefty is acting. You have had your share of challenges. September is coming very quickly. You have worked hard for that ROM...do what you can do...heel slides are good. Leg lifts to keep those quads strong.

When you have you surgery, insist they do PT on both legs!:thmb:

 

[Texas]

Rose dont do pt. You can make it up . I wouldnt do anymore damage. Really you need to sit and take care of yourself....You are..ah ah listen... yes you are going and going........Take care of yourself thats what you tell me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sure hope the ice and things work. Geez I wish he could push that surgery up for you. I guess there's no chance of that......You are going to be walking somewhere without a bar and fall dont do it.......Im so sorry you are always in my prayers you know that....Please take care your my bud I dont want ya hurt....;(...xo

 

[JudyS]

Rose what a time you have had. Sorry that left knee just could not hold on a little longer. A few more weeks now. I'm praying for you.
judy