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Bilateral TKR Second Year Progress

I’m sorry you had all those issues early on. But not being in a pool didn’t hurt you! Now is probably a much better time to try it.

I am not a fan of water. Once I’m cooled off, I’m done. I was not happy when my surgeon prescribed pool therapy. I dreaded going. Just trying to get into my one piece bathing suit at 4 weeks was quite the challenge. I’m glad it was warm enough to put it on at home and just wear it and my cover up to the YMCA where the pool therapy was.

I had to walk through the locker room to get to the pool and it brought back bad memories of a gym class locker room in jr high school.
 
Jockette said:
Just trying to get into my one piece bathing suit at 4 weeks was quite the challenge. I’m glad it was warm enough to put it on at home and just wear it and my cover up to the YMCA where the pool therapy was.
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I have a two piece, but its an LL Bean model that is shorts and a looseish fitting tank top. So no skin showing at all midriff and the shorts are boy cut shorts. I have found that LL Bean suits last a long time - my last one I had for several years and used it 2 - 3 times a weeks for water aerobics. I went to an all girls high school and since it was run by the nuns, trust me, no one was getting naked to change for gym class. - lol
 
The first time I got in the pool at 12 weeks I did 20 minutes just walking frontways, backwards, and sideways. I was very stiff and sore the next day. But pretty quickly I was able to work up to half an hour and add some stretching with no problem. I haven't been in a few weeks because we were on a trip but I imagine I could go longer now. Last time I even did some flutter kicks hanging onto a paddle board, which really worked my quads.
 
Just checking in to say I've been very busy with work, and will be for the next five weeks. My knees are feeling great! I am noticing much less numbness on the surface of both knees, and the stiffness upon rising in the morning is still there but much reduced. Righty is still not happy about going upstairs foot over foot, but I am feeling confident that this will work itself out. So overall just wanted to report that at a little over nine months out I think about my knees less and less as each week goes by. And its heaven. And I still sleep with a pillow between my knees, so I'm guessing that's not going to change much going forward.

And last, would someone change the title to my thread to something like "making good progress". I don't want to put the number of months post op in the title any more because I keep having to change it when a new month comes along. Thank you very much.
 
I've changed your thread title, @mlwreader.
It's a good idea now to have a title that won't need changing.
 
Hi there, long time no see! :wave:

Good to hear from you and hear that you are doing so well! Wow, you think about your knees less and less. That’s where we all want to be.

Are you going in your pool? How are those granddaughters?
 
Thank you @Celle

@Jockette - I am so busy with work I don't have time to do much at all. However, it will all be over in five weeks, and I am ready for a break! So no pool yet, although I thoroughly enjoy seeing the kids have fun out there from my office window.

My grand girls are great! And my San Diego son and two of his kids are coming for a long week-end next week-end. We are all so excited. I had to reschedule three days worth of students, but oh well. :) So I may get in the pool next week-end.

I know what you mean about thinking less and less about the knees. I remember reading others talking about that phenomenon, and feeling so jealous. And now its happening to me.

How are you doing Jockette? How is that bowling score coming along? Sewing? Any fun trips coming up this summer? How is your knee feeling?

Big hugs.
 
It's good to hear from you @mlwreader. Your posts always make me feel hopeful that I'll get to the end of this journey some day soon. I can't wait to get out of bed without my first thought being of knees.
 
@mlwreader - good to hear from you. I'm not quite to the point of thinking much less but I think differently about the knees. They don't hold me back from doing what I want but I do sometimes have to change how I do things.

Are you finding that you can do more than what you thought you could but, because we had problems for years, we actually forget to do things how "normal" people do? Mostly it's "Oh, I can bend my knees and do that!". Less bending at the waist :heehee:

Have fun with your San Diego family. They will probably be amazed at how wonderful you are doing!!!
 
Sitting at the dermatologist's office last evening - there was a little club of us patients who had been squeezed in. Mine was to check a funny spot on my leg which turned out to be nothing too much and was zapped with the dermozapper thingy to freeze it off. The other patient was a lady on a cane with her hubby, who was set to have hip replacement on Monday. She had a funny thingy she wanted checked on her skin before the surgery. She was so nervous about her hip replacement surgery, the anesthetic, all of it. I so related to her, as I was in her shoes last year waiting for knee surgery. She could hardly walk on that hip, and had to heavily rely on her cane. I am thinking of her tonight and wishing her a peaceful week-end as she waits for her Monday surgery.

I am coming up on 10 months in another week or so. Last year at this time I was in so much daily pain, so crippled on my walker, and so housebound. Unsure how it all would play out, I had met my 2d opinion OS and liked him so much I decided to switch to him and have both knees done at once. It was so scary to think of maybe being crippled for the rest of my life if things didn't go well. And the letting go of the first OS was even scary , because as much as I wasn't satisfied with his care, he was the devil I knew. And there was comfort in that.

Today I am doing really well. I still get twinges in the muscles and tendons of the knees, and even wake up sometimes at night with pain. But it quickly subsides when I change position. I am currently forced to sleep on a slant pillow due to a silent reflux problem, and that causes me to get into some weird positions at times, which affects the knees.

I was telling the hip lady yesterday how successful I thought my surgery had been, and I was happily talking about being able to walk and go to the grocery store, and get in and out of the car, and I'm not sure she was convinced of how great my life was. I guess it might seem pretty tame, but there is so much pleasure in the independence and lightness of spirit of being able to move around freely under my own steam.

I see lots of new bs members on the site, and I feel so welcoming towards all of them. There is so much strength, comfort and support to be had in this place.

Much love to all.
 
I was reading journal entries from last year from the two months leading up to my surgery last September. Today I read what I wrote about how difficult taking a shower was, because it was so hard to stand for the length of time it took for the shower, and then drying my hair, etc. Such a simple part of daily life that became such an ordeal because of pain. And the time involved was almost doubled because I had to rest periodically during the process.

Now, this year, ten months after surgery, I don't even think about it. I just take a shower. And dry my hair. No big deal.

I wish there was some way to hold onto the wonder I felt when some of these life tasks became so much easier after surgery. But I guess that's just the way it is with human nature, that we get used to things and forget some of the struggles.
 
I love this post. :goodpost:That wonder will linger in sneak attack moments. Yesterday I ran up the stairs. I just wanted to get up and back down before my old, crippled dog could follow me. Simple as that. So I ran up the stairs, grabbed what I wanted, and ran back down. And stopped at the bottom of the stairs in wonder at what I had done.

It wasn’t in any way an impressive feat, but before surgery it could not have happened. Physically could not have happened. The running or the stairs.

We will take things for granted. It’s what humans do. If something is good and consistent we tend to make it our norm, and we take norms as our due. Because of where we’ve been, though, we will occasionally recall how abnormal our lives once were. And we will wonder at the miracle that gave us back this new norm.
 
@beachy
You will! Nine months since surgery,I can do most everything. Actually being pain free gives me energy! Next year this time you will notice the difference!
 
Thanks Mutti3! Because I ain’t getting any younger LOL! I want/need to be as active as I was!
 
For over 25 years I had to go down stairs backwards because the pain in my knee was so bad. My OS told me years ago that it was less painful that way and he was right! Now, even people at church marvel at my going down them normally! What a blessing!
 
When my friends joke about how we're all falling apart, I just say that I think we are so very, very lucky to live in a time that our bad parts can be replaced and we can get healthy again. I'll always be grateful to the folks who created and perfected artificial joints and to our doctors who went to school for years to be there when we needed them.
 
My paternal grandmother who died in the early 1950's suffered from arthritis in her hips. She was very limited in what she could do and where she could go. She walked with two canes. She and my Aunt Ang lived together in their brownstone in Brooklyn, and it was very difficult for my grandmother to get up and down the stairs to and from the house. Today she would have had hip replacement surgery and joined something like silver sneakers no doubt. She was a very sharp lady, but I imagine in quite a bit of pain most of the time. I was quite young when she died, but I still remember her.
 
It’s sad to remember that older generation and how they suffered. My paternal grandfather had badly bowed, painful knees. I only remember him that way, as barely able to walk, lurching from side to side. He never had any option for his pain and disability. :sad:

It makes me smile to think of your grandmother joining Silver Sneakers. It’s a hopeful image. We truly live in a wonderful age. Who knows what awaits future generations, but we already have it so much better than our ancestors did!
 
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