TKR Smarttoys recovery

[jarabas]

Beautiful! Go Buddy. He looks so focused and happy.
I wish you all many years of successful agility together.
What a great gift you are giving him, yourself and your daughter-working with a dog is one of the joys of life.

 

[smarttoys]

Thank you @jarabas I never had any action pictures before so it was great to see his focus and expressive face. It's not something I can always see when I'm running him around the course.

My knee seems to be a little stiff and sore today from my trip over a small frozen snow bank yesterday. I plan on taking it as easy as possible for a couple days to get back on track. It helps that we have a cold spell here so I won't be tempted to get out and do things. Yesterday was only a high of 5 degrees and overnight was -13 degrees.

 

[Celle]

My knee seems to be a little stiff and sore today from my trip over a small frozen snow bank yesterday. I plan on taking it as easy as possible for a couple days to get back on track.

That's the idea! Rest, ice, and elevate.
I'm sorry your knee i still hurting, but glad you didn't do any serious damage.

 

[Timetolive]

John, I hope your knee is feeling better. Loved the pictures of Buddy.

 

[smarttoys]

Thanks Janis

I might as well give my 8 week update. As I mentioned before I tripped yesterday and aggravated my left knee a little. It feels a little sore today so I iced and elevated quite a bit. I decided to go to the gym to do some exercise bike, elliptical and upper body. I was able to move the bike seat down three notches from where I originally started making full revolutions to work on flexion so I'm happy about that. Tomorrow I plan on doing as little as possible to rest a bit more. Buddy on the other hand seems ready to go. He's probably wondering when we will get to do agility again.

I plan on returning to work part time at 10 weeks. I was originally going to wait until 12 weeks but my manager is anxious to get me back. There's a lot of work to get done before spring and he gets nervous. I should be ok since I was on my feet a lot last weekend and felt pretty good except for the tripping part.

 

[Timetolive]

Do you have a job that you are on your feet most of the day? Will your boss be ok with part time until YOU can manage full time? I have been working a day a week. I sit at a desk and it kills my knee having it bent. I elevate it on a box, but that gets tiresome too. Good luck. Hope you get to rest tomorrow.

 

[smarttoys]

I am on my feet all day at my job. A lot of standing, walking, moving, bending, kneeling, etc. I did have them order me a couple high adjustable chairs on wheels for my work areas so I can sit and rest as needed while I am recovering. The owner wants me to take off as much time as I think I need before coming back to work. Half days are expected for awhile. I made everyone at work aware of that before my surgery. It's just that the manager of my department gets nervous this time of year and there is a lot of work waiting for me.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

 

[kneeper]

Half days might be ok. And even better would be 1/2 days with one day off in the week to rest in between. Maybe see if you could do M, T, Thurs, Friday at least to start.

Good for you for having them get you those adjustable chairs. Just be careful since they're on wheels--you don't want them scooting away from you.

 

[Timetolive]

Funny Kneeper mentioned the chairs sliding out from under you. The first day I was at work, I went to get up out of the chair, and it rolled backwards with me. It was almost a catastrophe, but it backed into the wall thankfully. I am more careful now to have it against something when getting up. Those mats under office chairs are slick!

 

[smarttoys]

I will probably take a day off in the middle of the week to start. I told the owner when I plan on coming back. She knows that it will be a gradual return. I've been working for her for 24 years. She knows I will do my best as soon as I'm able and she doesn't want to slow my recovery.

I agree about the chairs on wheels. I almost lost it a few times on chairs like that before my surgery. I'll be extra careful.

 

[newlybionic]

So true about those rolling chairs! I almost wound up on my bottom several times!! I also have been taking off on Wednesdays to break up my week. It helps to know you will have a break.

 

[smarttoys]

I tried a little jogging at the gym today. I slowly went a couple lengths of the basketball court to see how it felt. It was fine other than I don't know if I trust any real running on the leg for quite a while. I don't plan on running for exercise just for when I want to play with my kids and dogs. I would feel much better if I could lose about 25 lbs or so. Ideally I should be around 190 lbs but I weigh about 225 right now. I better get busy losing weight so my knee lasts as long as possible.

 

[jarabas]

 

[Timetolive]

Good for you and jogging! John, you are really do well in your recovery. Losing weight is hard work and I have complete confidence that you will achieve your goal.

 

[newlybionic]

 

[kneeper]

Great that the knee did ok on the (literal) trial run. Though you're right that it's probably a good idea to wait on the jogging.

 

[smarttoys]

Here's my 9 week update. I don't have much new to report except for my knee feels a little more normal every day. I've increased my cardio to 40 minutes a day, 20 minutes bicycle and 20 minutes elliptical. Sometimes I will do a few minutes of something else like a stair stepper type machine that has a more fluid movement than a normal stair stepper. More like climbing a hill than climbing steps. I continue to work on flexion mostly at the gym 4 to 5 days a week by lowering the exercise bicycle seat when one seat level gets easier. For example I started at seat level 18 when I first started making full revolutions at around 4 weeks I think. Now I am down to seat level 14 and that was fairly comfortable today. I can't go much lower because I have fairly long legs and if I go any lower I'm worried that my knees will hit the front of the machine. They are pretty close now. I also do a few stretches during the day at home whenever I think of it.

I am starting to do more throughout the day and I usually pay for it with more swelling but it goes away pretty fast if I elevate for awhile. I sometimes find myself walking very fast and even running a little when getting in from the cold after being outside for awhile. I try to remind myself to slow down.

I can do stairs normally. Going up stairs was pretty easy early on. Going down stairs takes a couple steps to get my muscles used to it, then the rest of the steps are fine.

I am starting to slack on the icing. I may only ice once or twice during the day. It's been cold here lately so the idea of icing doesn't sit well with me. I usually take time to ice after the gym though.

I had some pitting edema on the lower part of my knee for the first 4 to 6 weeks. That is gone now. Now my swelling is the normal soft squishy type.

I started having trouble sleeping at around 4-6 weeks. I've been sleeping well for the last couple weeks since I started taking gabapentin. My current pre bedtime combo for sleeping through the night is Saran wrap on the knee, 300mg gabapentin, 50mg benadryl, and 10mg melatonin. I may drop some of that soon to see if my sleep pattern is back to normal.

Today I plan on taking my dog out to do some agility training and do some shopping for my wife's birthday that is coming up. I hope everyone has a pain free day.

 

[Timetolive]

John, that is wonderful!! I am so happy for your progress. Shopping for the wife - a good thing! Enjoy your time with Buddy.

 

[smarttoys]

Here's my 10 week update. I had an uneventful week so there's not much to report. I've been able to lower the gym exercise bicycle seat another notch this week to work on flexion. I return to work part time tomorrow so we will see how that goes. It's an active job so I will have to take the time to sit down if I need to. Not so much to rest but to keep my stiffness and swelling under control. I'm ok if I keep moving but I tend to stiffen up standing in one place for an extended period. Overall my knee seems to be doing fine. I have been taking acetaminophen for pain if I overdo things for the day and I plan on taking some at work for awhile. Otherwise I don't take anything for pain. I was a little too active over the weekend so I took it easy today and skipped the gym. My kids had no school so I spent most of the day with them. We ran a few errands, went out to eat, and then stopped at a bike shop.

I had planned on getting my 10 year old a new bike in the spring but we were driving by a bike shop and decided to stop in today. They had an extra, extra small frame adult bicycle that fit her well so we traded in her old bike and got the new one. She should be able to ride this one for many years. She rode it around the driveway quite a bit this afternoon until it started snowing. I have my eye on a new bike also but I think I will wait until it's closer to spring. I might just put a few dollars down to hold it for me.

 

[Timetolive]

Good luck at work John. It sounds like you have a good plan in place. What a nice day you had with your children. Did your wife have a nice birthday? It is good to get back to a normal life isn't it? I look forward to it.