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PKR Seven Weeks Post Op

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tomorrow i will be seven week post op!!! i am doing well but sometimes i overdo it and pay the price.......i am wondering what most of the bonesmarties do for exercises at this point in the game. i still do the PT exercises at least once per day. then i try to walk for a half an hour, or ride a recumbent bike or swim. yesterday i rode the recumbent bike for a half an hour and the rest of the day was on my feet preparing a big family meal. i felt great all day and have been pretty much off the pain meds. this morning, i woke to a very swollen knee. it's hard to know sometimes when i have overdone it until the next day......then the knee lets me know. i definitely didn't over exercise but was just on my feet a lot......so i will spend more time with ice and elevation today. it just seems like i am doing really well and then........boom...........some days i can do a round of PT, swam, and the bike with no problems. my knee seems to have a mind of it's own!!! :groan:
 
Sounds familiar . A good day followed by feeling that someone had hit me with a brick! Patience, I'm afraid.......
 
Kimbocats said, "....the rest of the day was on my feet preparing a big family meal."

That is the answer in part--being up on your feet for three or four or more hours--will almost always result in a swollen angry knee this early in recovery. This is basically a 12 month recovery--you are not quite 2 months post op which is about 1/6th of the way through---with most of it yet to go. So no matter how good you may be feeling at any given time, if you overdo even just a bit, the KNEE makes you pay.

It's really a matter of pacing---if you're up on your feet for a couple of hours----then you need to elevate and ice for at least an hour after that. Activities need to be interspersed with rest, elevation and icing. Somehow standing just exerts more pressure on the knees than bicycling, swimming, and a PT session. And often we are doing much more than we realize because we do not count normal everyday activities like getting up and getting dressed, trips here and there around the house, out to the mailbox, etc.

Just living is a form of PT---so if you're up and pretty active at home and doing the PT exercises, riding your bike, and swimming, you are getting plenty of exercise for right now. When your knee stops swelling for any and all of this, you might then think about strength exercises if that is important to you or you really feel you need it. Depends on how athletic you want to be.
 
ahhhhhh!!!! pacing..........that's exactly what i didn't do yesterday. there is so much left to figure out on my own since my PT was cut off at 4 weeks. and it's so true about not counting all the stuff we do all day in living a life..........yeah, I forgot that I also washed and changed sheets for two beds........yikes.....it all adds up!!! thanks for the response...it makes great sense........on another tangent, i just read that i am supposed to have kept my same thread but i didn't do that..........how do i merge this with my other threads?
 
Members can't merge threads---but I can do it for you. I will put both together under the title of your first thread. If you should want a new title, if you will tag me with what you want, I will change that for you. You tag by putting an @ in front of my user name bottomshollow.
 
bottomshollow said:
Members can't merge threads---but I can do it for you. I will put both together under the title of your first thread. If you should want a new title, if you will tag me with what you want, I will change that for you. You tag by putting an @ in front of my user name bottomshollow.
Click to expand...
bottomshollow.......can you change it to "seven weeks post op"
 
I can relate, Kimbocats! I overdid it on Saturday(shopping and such). Boy did my knee tell me about it yesterday!! Today was still hard especially at PT. Good thing my PT girl is kind and gentile:)
 
Hi everyone,
I have reading all of your posts. I had a Partial Knee Replacement 5 weeks ago tomorrow. I have not had any pain, mostly just stiff. My OS puts it down to my fitness, but having said that, I am champing at the bit to get started again. However I will not see him for the 6 week check until next week. By the way I am a 65 female, and prior to the op walked in excess of 21 kilometres a day.
I think I have been lucky my GP said that I am a freak or my OS is one hell of a surgeon!
 
At seven weeks I do one of the following every day........1 mile walk, 45 minutes swim, 1/2 hour recumbent bike........I always do at least one set of PT exercises (stretches) that last about 40 minutes per day........I follow up with icing and elevating. However, everyone is different and should go at their own pace. What is harder for me is standing for long periods......I don't know why.....It's great that you haven't had any pain!!! I did have to get the OK from my surgeon to go in the water! He OK it at four weeks and I am loving it. I am hoping to get back into yoga!!! Best of luck to you!
 
Wow! Compared to you two, I am not that good even at 12 weeks (hence my slight depression). Congratulations to you both. You are doing great! Me, on the other hand.....oh well :(
 
oh ljm........everyone is different.......and believe you me, i still have days where i hurt and feel like i have overdone it.........i have had lots of pain and had difficulty with pain management issues........i go back to week at nine weeks so when i start crying cause i can't handle it, i will call on you.........hang in there.......it is hard but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.......remember the tortoise and the hare............you will get there..............:flwrysmile:
 
Thanks for your encouragement. I did a brisk (for me) 10 minutes on the treadmill this morn. Now I'm sore. I'll keep it up every day. Boy...the things they don't tell you ahead of time!!!
 
no kidding.......!!!!! most of the bonesmarties have advised me over and over again to ice and elevate afterward.......do you have access to a swimming pool or an exercise bike...........those are non weight bearing exercises that really seem to make movement easier for me........especially swimming........i go to the YMCA and use the jacuzzi afterward and my knee never hurts afterward........i can tell on the bike that sometimes it's too much.........walking, i always have to ice big time afterward.......when do you go back to work laurie?
 
oh, one more thing from my previous post.......maybe don't worry about brisk..........i do everything slowly with care........just getting the movement is great.........i still can't walk very fast.....however, in my humble opinion.......going fast is highly overrated.........i don't even do freeways........:wink:
 
I go back to work on Sept. 4 and I do have to do a lot of walking, getting up and down and standing. I don't have an exercise bike or access to a pool. I did notice at PT that the bike was very good for the movement. I could join a gym or the Y, but I know me, and I know that I wouldn't be really good about going regularly. I would start out really good and then I'd get lazy (personality flaw, I guess). No wonder you're doing so well. Good for you!
By the way, did your surgeon tell you that partials like we got, only last about 10-12 years? (a bit less than TKR) We're both pretty young. I don't even want to think about it.
 
i haven't joined the Y yet because I want to see if I will be able to go after school........so i pay 10 bucks a pop to use the pool......if it works out after school starts, i will join.......my OS is from UCSD here in San Diego.......he is supposed to be one of the best and he has hopes for 20 years since i don't run.......if you can afford an exercise bike, get one for your house.....i started using it months before the surgery and i use it almost everyday.......even my 90 year old dad in law that we take care of gets on.........and my husband too........you can adjust the settings and take it easy.......i got cut off of PT at four weeks so I am sorta creating my own exercise program......and of course letting my cranky, sometimes insubordinate, knee be the boss.....
 
I'll check out my local Y and see if I can pay as I go. We have a very small home with no basement, so I don't know where Id' put it. Maybe if we got rid of the treadmill, but I hate to do that.
What brand (model) replacement did you get? I got a Zimmer. My doc is supposed to be one of the best here in the Phila area associated with the Rothman Institue. Perhaps my model lasts differently than yours. I'm not a runner or any other kind of athlete, so hopefully I'll get longer out of it.
 
e have a pro form.......kinda spendy but it's great!!! i don't know what model and make i have..........how funny, like car parts.......i have felt that i was kinda snow jobbed in terms of recovery and pain so he might be a little overly optimistic about the longevity of this knee!!! nothing would surprise me.......i met someone who did my mammogram who had a TKR by the same OS as me..........she could not return to work for three months and was in tremendous pain.......we are all different in our recoveries..........and that is why i appreciate hearing from people like you so when i am having a bad time i know i am not alone.......i am terrified to return to work.........and everyone on here has warned me that it's too soon but working in special ed in a school district with a budget crisis.......well........i can't leave those kids to fend for themselves with a sub.........yikes..........where's the win/win here.........??? i love philly.......i toured through there as a musician in the early nineties.......4th street......cheesesteaks......yummm
 
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