Guest viewing is limited

TKR SeptemberZen's Bionic Journey

Status
Not open for further replies.
Good to hear from you SZ...I think you have all good plans...Im with you on the not used to depending on others....but sometimes we just have to, we have no choice....hang in there!
 
SeptemberZen said:
This way, I get practice going to work in the mornings
Click to expand...
Jolly good idea! I suggest you read this as well as it contains all the peripheral stuff involved with returning to work that we often never think about Phased return to work.

And that wasn't 'minimal' PT - it was ZERO PT. Not even so much as a single heel slide!!
 
SeptemberZen, we could be twins! I dont wait well either and lack of control can drive me right up the wall! Your plan sounds good, both for the practice this weekend and for your return to work in May (I also love having at least one contingency plan! I can't pack light to save my soul.). I will need to return to work about the same time.
Good luck tomorrow!
 
Some good advice for you zen I really have no doubt you will be ok its a confidence thing also as you have always beeb strong and a doo er then we get hit with this recovery thing which suddenky means we have to accept help. It sort of puts a chink in our armour. But you are still the same person as before just actually the word ow is so less in your vocabulary. Go girl

Legin THR Sep 14
 
You guys are really good for what ails me! :-)
I've had a very hard time shaking off this mood of being alternately cranky and weepy but (with help from you guys), I'm giving myself permission to not be Miss Mary Sunshine right now and acknowledge what I've *temporarily* lost. I miss my autonomy, I miss my independence, I miss sex (yeah, I said it!), and I'm boooored to stupefaction!

Got up this morning and BOTH my knees felt like they were on FIRE. Argh. I think I must have let my legs fall into some weird position while sleeping and both the non-op knee and the bionic knee were complaining!

But this too shall pass. Besides getting back to work, I've got some other irons in the fire for when I'm a little more ambulatory.
Again, thanks to all! :wave:
 
Well, I have those morning funny knee position issues. I found a knee pillow with a strap to attach it to my operative knee leg. It is memory foam, and it basically gets in the way when my knee wants to bump something or my other leg gets up against it. It is allowing me to make it all night. https://www.activeforever.com/sleep-buddy-knee-pillow

Not sure how to help you on the sex issue. I'm a guy, I have started back by week three. I was just worried the narcotics would affect my enjoying it, but they didn't. I'd recommend you and your companion try some positions that let you either be on your side or even cradled. I'm not trying to be lude, just making some recommendations. I know it helped my well being a lot when I was able to again. If I have broken any forum rules, I'll take the slap and you can delete this post. Here is a link that might help: broken link removed: https://www.recoversex.com/total-knee-replacement/sexual-relations-after-total-knee-replacement


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Can't imagine that we would be banned from discussing sex as it relates to our recovery! We're all adults here and sex is just another human function that has been affected by our surgery, isn't it? If we can talk about poop, we can talk about sex. :)

So --here's my report: I didn't go to my mother's after all. As I am often reminded, our recovery is not linear: I have been experiencing a little more soreness than I had been and in addition, my incision feels very tender lately. I'm guessing that my cutting back on the Percocet has caused me to feel more pain during the day and I gotta say, this hasn't been easy at all. I take Advil or Tylenol occasionally during the day, as I said before, but it only takes the edge off -- the soreness is still there on a low level. Additionally, my lower back and hips are feeling slightly achy lately, and I'm guessing that has to do with both mild arthritis in my joints and my gait which is still slightly off. I just didn't have the confidence that I could make it that far but the news is not all bad:

I didn't go to my mother's because I didn't know if I could make it as stiff and achy as I was but I did go to the bank and to the store by myself which is more than I have done in the past two months. I live in a garden apartment complex and my apartment is in the middle of it so it's a little bit of a hike to get to the front and out to the street, but I did it. I wanted to go to the ATM and the bank is around the corner, about halfway down the block. There's a furniture store on the corner with big display windows so I was able to watch my gait as I walked and I'm happy to say that it's pretty good. I still drag my foot a tiny bit but it's getting more natural than it was before. As I previously reported, when I go to Target or the supermarket, I throw my cane into a shopping cart, use the cart for stability and make myself walk slowly heel-to-toe so that I lose the habit of swinging a stiff leg. I guess I'm getting there.

After I left the bank, I walked about a half block to a little cafe to get some chocolate chip cookies to munch on after lunch. I just got back home and I have to say: it was tiring and I am a little achy, but I DID IT. Yay, me.
 
Well done on your trip to the bank!

As they say, "Good things take time"- but you're getting there.
 
Way to go, getting out, freedom, doing things closer to normal, all good for us.

Well I hope what I sent helped. My greatest fear when I was able to start back was not being able to get some parts of me to function as they should. My wife was happy that they did. It was good all around, helped me feel more normal also.

On the tenderness of the incision, I rub mine lightly and keep it moist with ointment. When I ice I try to kneed it more like bread, helps to loosen the scar tissue. The napersen I take during the day is an anti inflammatory as well as pain reliever. I have a gate in my walk also, I kind of kick out when I walk to move it right. I still have weakness in the front of my knee, few nerves and muscles that are still not as awake as they should be.

Glad you are doing better. You are working it out with patience and that's a good thing. I did a long church today, so I took my ice and kept my knee in the ice most of the service. Went to eat a meal afterwards and I just felt worn out, so I told the wife and we left. Now I'm just plain tired. Knee is still popping and making snap sounds. Hope these tendons and muscles will tighten up soon. Take it slow and easy.


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Great report SZ....sounds like you have turned a corner in the independence and normality stakes. Well done. And remember that expending all that energy means you can have cookies guilt free...LOL
Just really pleased that you are gaining confidence and venturing out. Can't offer anything on the pain except to do what I did a couple of weeks ago and increase meds...take more Tylenol (within the dosage limits) and see if that helps
Really happy for you SZ. Big hug, Maggie x
 
Thanks, you guys!

@wberry - Yep, that link you posted was great! I think I stumbled on that before but I hadn't bookmarked it. :-) And my quads also are not quite as strong as they need to be. I have occasional knee buckling when my quads are a couple of seconds too slow to fire when I take a step. Luckily the cane catches me when that happens so I haven't fallen...but I wonder, down the road when I'm off the cane, will that continue to happen? Hope not; maybe that explains why some of us fall when we walk with no assistive devices many months after surgery? Hmmm. Hopefully, the quads get stronger and learn to better coordinate with the new bionic parts?. By the way, my bionics make clunking sounds. A little disconcerting, but I'm getting used to it.

@Maggie94 - I think you're right as far as increasing the OTC meds. I've read where many people take larger doses of acetaminophen in combination with NSAIDS like naproxen or ibuprofen when transitioning off of Percocet. This has been a real education for someone who wouldn't even take an aspirin unless she really needed it prior to all this! I was taking Celebrex when I left the hospital and I still have some but they make me a little loopy so I stopped taking them.
Hugs right back atcha!
 
Zen, I can promise you that your quads will strengthen in time. You won't have those feelings of buckling forever. You're still early in the recovery process. Most people don't really begin to feel normal again until about 6 months out. And it can be a year or more before you really get to a point where your new knee is not on your mind first thing when you wake up. It's a process. And you're really doing just great for 2 1/2 months out.
 
Thanks so much, Jamie! Really needed to hear that.
What a journey this has been! No one who knows me would describe me as "whiney" or "weak" but that's exactly how I'd been feeling in recent weeks. Let me say again: I don't know how I'd be getting through this without this forum! :flwrysmile:
 
Yay SZ! congrats on getting out and about...I know that had to be soo good for the soul! Its good to be tired after an outing like that and good that you were able to rest afterwards...Keep up the good work and hope you had a wonderful Easter!
 
Yaaaaay really doing well the strength of mind is returning with the physical.

Legin THR Sep 14
 
Hi SZ, I haven't stopped by your thread lately due to the business (busy-ness) of life. I tried to catch up a bit, forgive me if this has already been suggested, but maybe you can use a pill splitter to chop your percocets in half and even in quarters. Then, in a situation where you would normally take one percocet try taking half instead, until you're down to quarter tabs. I've used this tactic successfully in the past while tapering certain meds. If your percocet tabs have a "line" down the center (mine did) splitting is perfectly acceptable, by the way. I hope this helps.

Re: quad weakness and "buckling": When I was about where you are now in recovery my quad was buckling frequently and unexpectedly. This will get better, I promise! I deferred my return to work by almost a month because of the buckling issue, and the extra time off really helped. Strengthening that quad is very, very difficult at first but you will absolutely get there. Also, keep doing your extension stretches because getting fully straight aids proper quad function.

Also, I couldn't take Celebrex or Ibuprofen but I do very well on a daily low-dose of a prescription NSAID called Meloxicam. It's something to consider if otc Ibuprofen doesn't work for you.

Take care!
 
I'm with everyone on the buckling. It does get better but mine occasionally still does it at 5 months. I expect it will go one day or I'll just forget to notice that it's not happening any more.
 
No buckling here yet, but the clunking is there. I think I read somewhere that the tendons and muscles will eventually tighten up and it will decrease. I just wish mine wouldn't swell up at night, always have to hit the ice and elevate every morning.


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
I noticed some buckling sensation (backwards) at first, but as my quad strength improves, it happens less frequently. I am still using a walker outside of my home though. It just feels more stable & secure.
@wberry - my swelling goes down overnight but increases during the day - at its worst just before bedtime. Funny how all our bodies react differently!


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Members online

Total: 814 (members: 1, guests: 813)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom