PKR son of textbook perfect recovery; this time I really mean it.
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TexasTee
post-grad
Ha! My Mr Tee is similar (snicker, sadly, no mohawk!) he advises me gently then manfully refrains from saying I told you so, just the look.
At any rate - yes, indeed - I'm only hopeful about the partial vrs full in that I'm told it's more likely that I'd have full range of motion after (or close, anyway) and yours seems to line up with that. I'm a lifelong dancer and yogi and really want to be able to keep that, if possible.
Sawed, screwed together bones and fake joints ain't ever going to feel pretty and I "pity the fool" that say's only a partial on a bad day. I might offer them a partial lobotomy as well!!
Hmmm, wonder if netfix streams the A team?! LOL
At any rate - yes, indeed - I'm only hopeful about the partial vrs full in that I'm told it's more likely that I'd have full range of motion after (or close, anyway) and yours seems to line up with that. I'm a lifelong dancer and yogi and really want to be able to keep that, if possible.
Sawed, screwed together bones and fake joints ain't ever going to feel pretty and I "pity the fool" that say's only a partial on a bad day. I might offer them a partial lobotomy as well!!
Hmmm, wonder if netfix streams the A team?! LOL
@TexasTee Love that! There's a whole list of unpleasant things one could wish on others with the 'partial' qualifier.
I do tend to agree that the partial has helped my ROM. Now that both knees are done, I hope to be able to get back to some yoga and regain the balance and strength, as well as the flexibility I had as recently as my mid 50s. Old age is really going to suck if I can't get in and out of a bathtub. (I've taken exactly one tub bath since my first knee w's done and had a heck of a time figuring out how to extricate myself.)
Re old, bad TV shows. EVERYTHING is on Youtube. Its been my constant source of mindless entertainment through 2 joint replacements and a bust ankle, all within 10 months. (We don't have a TV.)
I do tend to agree that the partial has helped my ROM. Now that both knees are done, I hope to be able to get back to some yoga and regain the balance and strength, as well as the flexibility I had as recently as my mid 50s. Old age is really going to suck if I can't get in and out of a bathtub. (I've taken exactly one tub bath since my first knee w's done and had a heck of a time figuring out how to extricate myself.)
Re old, bad TV shows. EVERYTHING is on Youtube. Its been my constant source of mindless entertainment through 2 joint replacements and a bust ankle, all within 10 months. (We don't have a TV.)
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Just curious what does having 130 degrees of flexion have to do with driving? Unless your car requires that much ROM. I would be more interested in your reaction time, and can you slam on the brakes in an emergency situation.
Good luck, and I am sure you will be driving today!
@Pumpkln
It has nothing at all to do with my ability to drive, any more than my having him as therapist has that much to do with how well I'm doing. Its how we goof off during sessions, and his way of telling me to slow down when I get uppity. He'll set me an impossible goal (like 130 degrees of flexion) or ask me if i'm ready to get on the leg press machine. (I'm not!)
He allowed yesterday that he might reconsider my appointment times for next week later on this week. Mr Jeano can't bring me before 4pm. If my appointment time is any earlier it'll mean I'm doing the driving. I told the therapist no need to juggle the schedule because even though i'd prefer mornings (the cooling pacs are a lot colder, for one thing) I can also bring myself that late if I'm driving. So the compromise, until we're both sure of my ability to drive, is we'll leave the appointments where they are, and he'll see if he can hide an ice pack in a different freezer where it'll stay cold until I need it.
It has nothing at all to do with my ability to drive, any more than my having him as therapist has that much to do with how well I'm doing. Its how we goof off during sessions, and his way of telling me to slow down when I get uppity. He'll set me an impossible goal (like 130 degrees of flexion) or ask me if i'm ready to get on the leg press machine. (I'm not!)
He allowed yesterday that he might reconsider my appointment times for next week later on this week. Mr Jeano can't bring me before 4pm. If my appointment time is any earlier it'll mean I'm doing the driving. I told the therapist no need to juggle the schedule because even though i'd prefer mornings (the cooling pacs are a lot colder, for one thing) I can also bring myself that late if I'm driving. So the compromise, until we're both sure of my ability to drive, is we'll leave the appointments where they are, and he'll see if he can hide an ice pack in a different freezer where it'll stay cold until I need it.
Here's something amusing, to me anyway. Woke real early. Way too early. Too early to take any Tylenol, since I'd taken the 8 hour stuff at 9 pm. Got back in bed to wait til 5am, put the ice wrap on, even though at this point its at best a cool water wrap. Mr Jeano was up but hadn't left for work. I didn't want to get up and be my own Ice Sherpa, since Mr Jeano would Take Charge and make himself late to work. I was comfortable enough to lay low for 45 minutes or so. I was dimly aware of his leaving the house and then fell sound asleep until after 630. Ok, now I need to get up, get dogs out, make coffee, get dressed, do the Ice Sherpa thing, get chickens out, make the bed, set up the daytime nest, plunk myself down to drink coffee and ice and elevate. About 9 AM it was time to refill coffee cup and think about getting breakfast, at which point I realize I never took my Tylenol.
So, yeah, i'd say pain is well managed at this point. Best of all, I can take the extra strength (as opposed to the 8hour extended release stuff) at 9AM and again at 3 and be better covered for PT at 4PM.
So, yeah, i'd say pain is well managed at this point. Best of all, I can take the extra strength (as opposed to the 8hour extended release stuff) at 9AM and again at 3 and be better covered for PT at 4PM.
TexasTee
post-grad
@jeano - it's amazing how quickly you're pain is under control - very lucky for you since you seem to be the champ of needing new joints!
I have a TV but really don't watch much so I've just been collecting all the "you must watch" series from friends and adding them to the list of what to do while doing nothing for a month or more in spring!
I have a TV but really don't watch much so I've just been collecting all the "you must watch" series from friends and adding them to the list of what to do while doing nothing for a month or more in spring!
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I try to ask myself this question, Do I need to ice and elevate, or do I need Dilaudid? For me the only drawbacks to Tylenol are that it really does not seem to be effective in doses lower than 1000mg and it usually wears off in five hours. Since the limit before you run the risk of toxicity is 4000mg a day, the math tells me I'm either going to be over the line or have some hours when I'm hurting. This is why I like to mix the extended release with the extra strength. I tend to use the extra strength during the day and work the doses around when I'm apt to be icing less and on my feet more. I try very hard to not get up against that 4gms in 24 hours limit because i'd like my liver to be able to take the other things I throw at it for a few more decades.
When my pain has been bad-wish I've supplemented some NSAIDs, but they aren't good for my blood pressure and after years of taking them they are starting to give me some GI distress.
I feel guilty whenever I read a post where someone is in serious pain and can't get their OS or GP to help. Here I sit with a nightstand full of goodies I'm not using.
When my pain has been bad-wish I've supplemented some NSAIDs, but they aren't good for my blood pressure and after years of taking them they are starting to give me some GI distress.
I feel guilty whenever I read a post where someone is in serious pain and can't get their OS or GP to help. Here I sit with a nightstand full of goodies I'm not using.
Yesterday at PT I did my routine as usual and when I got about 2/3 done my therapist beckoned me over to the parallel bars, told me to put my cane down, and to walk back and forth while he watched. So I walked, then I vogue walked a little, then I threw in a grapevine. He said, "you're not using the cane at all at home, are you?" well, no, not really, except for some mornings until the knee warms up, and I do try to remember to grab it when I leave the house. I said, "does this mean I can stop pretending to use it here?" and he said that yes, I could, adding that he has learned to pick his battles with me and wasn't going to make an issue of the cane. Then he said, "you are going to do things your own way, and I have to admit that for you, your way is usually right." I told him I'd been abusing my body for going on 61 years and had a pretty good idea of what it could do and how much it could take.
So things seem to have come full circle from my very first post here last year, when the same therapist grudgingly allowed me to graduate from the walker to the cane, with the now infamous line, "You are having a Textbook-Perfect Recovery from partial knee replacement , Don't Mess It Up!"
A new and unexpected phenomenon: knee got Too Cold this morning, I don't recall it ever happening before. Almost Cold Enough, sure, but never TOO cold. Must be some new nerves waking up. I added an extra layer of cloth between me and the icing cuff and may well have to ice intermittently while elevating. Weird. The knee is certainly generating less heat than it was, and our scorching hot late summer temperatures have moderated at last. Highs this week will only be in the low 90s and we have turned the AC off and opened the windows. I think i'll tell the Ice Sherpa he doesn't have to pick up another bag until tomorrow.
So things seem to have come full circle from my very first post here last year, when the same therapist grudgingly allowed me to graduate from the walker to the cane, with the now infamous line, "You are having a Textbook-Perfect Recovery from partial knee replacement , Don't Mess It Up!"
A new and unexpected phenomenon: knee got Too Cold this morning, I don't recall it ever happening before. Almost Cold Enough, sure, but never TOO cold. Must be some new nerves waking up. I added an extra layer of cloth between me and the icing cuff and may well have to ice intermittently while elevating. Weird. The knee is certainly generating less heat than it was, and our scorching hot late summer temperatures have moderated at last. Highs this week will only be in the low 90s and we have turned the AC off and opened the windows. I think i'll tell the Ice Sherpa he doesn't have to pick up another bag until tomorrow.
TexasTee
post-grad
@jeano - congrats for officially getting to lose your cane and another text book recovery. Question - regarding the tylenol - did it work for you before surgery?
In my current situation - none of them Aleve, advil, tylenol work for the bone pain so I just don't take any of them and deal with it but I'm hoping that the after surgery pain that they will be more useful. Tramadol does work and I take it on occassion when it's heinous but mostly just stop doing whatever I was doing to make it hurt like that in the first place, ya know, like standing up and crazy stuff like that.
In my current situation - none of them Aleve, advil, tylenol work for the bone pain so I just don't take any of them and deal with it but I'm hoping that the after surgery pain that they will be more useful. Tramadol does work and I take it on occassion when it's heinous but mostly just stop doing whatever I was doing to make it hurt like that in the first place, ya know, like standing up and crazy stuff like that.
@TexasTee y'know, no, Tylenol was pretty worthless for bone on bone pain. I maxed out on a heavy duty NSAID years ago and it stopped working. For years I didn't 'believe' in Tylenol as an effective analgesic.
Last fall, right before the first knee was done, I was wearing unloader braces on both legs and went to the North Carolina state fair while on vacation with my 2 best girlfriends. One friend offered me vicodin and I got thru the day somehow, and we walked for MILES. After the first knee I had a lifetime supply of Lortab, and this summer I eventually started taking them for my right knee, usually in half-tab increments along with enough Tylenol to ensure the effective 1000mg. That made the bone on bone pain endurable. Mind you, I only took a couple of days worth in the immediate aftermath of my ankle fracture. I was leery of becoming dependent on them in the run up to the second knee, since I anticipated my easily managed pain the first time might have been a fluke.
It is hard to explain the difference between post op pain and chronic bone on bone, but you will understand when you get your new knee. And its a fact that for me plain Tylenol is working better a couple of weeks post op than lortab did a couple of weeks pre op. Naturally this is effected also by other factors like rest, ice, elevation, none of which I made time to do while getting ready for surgery.
Last fall, right before the first knee was done, I was wearing unloader braces on both legs and went to the North Carolina state fair while on vacation with my 2 best girlfriends. One friend offered me vicodin and I got thru the day somehow, and we walked for MILES. After the first knee I had a lifetime supply of Lortab, and this summer I eventually started taking them for my right knee, usually in half-tab increments along with enough Tylenol to ensure the effective 1000mg. That made the bone on bone pain endurable. Mind you, I only took a couple of days worth in the immediate aftermath of my ankle fracture. I was leery of becoming dependent on them in the run up to the second knee, since I anticipated my easily managed pain the first time might have been a fluke.
It is hard to explain the difference between post op pain and chronic bone on bone, but you will understand when you get your new knee. And its a fact that for me plain Tylenol is working better a couple of weeks post op than lortab did a couple of weeks pre op. Naturally this is effected also by other factors like rest, ice, elevation, none of which I made time to do while getting ready for surgery.
@TexasTee
Just remember, your mileage may vary, and be SURE you know what you are taking.. Take those narcs for the first few days, and only try Tylenol to see if it works if you are SURE you'll be okay for a few hours without going back to whatever was prescribed.
First go around for me, I had to do all those calculations to make sure I wasn't going to exceed the 4gm limit, since the lortab has Tylenol in it. You could be risking harm to your liver if, say, you took 1000mg Tylenol and decided an hour later you really need two Lortab (also containing 1000mg). This time, I was in the clear since I could jump right back to the morphine or dilaudid if the Tylenol didn't work so well, since there's no Tylenol in them.
A big motivator for me as regards avoiding narcotics has to do with constipation. If you can take that stuff and still poop, more power to you. The way we take or rather don't take our prescribed narcotics in this household is shameful but we'll be fixed for years if Armageddon happens.
Just remember, your mileage may vary, and be SURE you know what you are taking.. Take those narcs for the first few days, and only try Tylenol to see if it works if you are SURE you'll be okay for a few hours without going back to whatever was prescribed.
First go around for me, I had to do all those calculations to make sure I wasn't going to exceed the 4gm limit, since the lortab has Tylenol in it. You could be risking harm to your liver if, say, you took 1000mg Tylenol and decided an hour later you really need two Lortab (also containing 1000mg). This time, I was in the clear since I could jump right back to the morphine or dilaudid if the Tylenol didn't work so well, since there's no Tylenol in them.
A big motivator for me as regards avoiding narcotics has to do with constipation. If you can take that stuff and still poop, more power to you. The way we take or rather don't take our prescribed narcotics in this household is shameful but we'll be fixed for years if Armageddon happens.
TexasTee
post-grad
Thanks @jeano - I'm hoping to mimic your recovery - pain wise - but won't count on it. I was with a friend thru her ankle replacement surgery and was the one in charge of making sure she didn't exceed the tylenol limit - it does get quite complex when it's so often added. I also saw her get behind the pain and it wasn't pretty. I'll be good, for a while, anyway!
@TexasTee if I am up and doing and cannot ice and elevate, I start thinking about lortab. If I am able to ice and elevate, AND have sufficient Tylenol on board, I am not aware of pain severe enough to warrant a narcotic. It seems pretty clear to me what's best for me, so as much as possible I arrange my life so I'm not far from my stack of pillows and my polar care cube.
I would love it if more people did have experiences like mine. The night I spent with only intermittent relief from pain with morphine was pretty bad. I cannot imagine what it would be like to experience that for days and weeks.
I would love it if more people did have experiences like mine. The night I spent with only intermittent relief from pain with morphine was pretty bad. I cannot imagine what it would be like to experience that for days and weeks.
icep707
post-grad
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Hey Jeano, just checking in on you. Sounds like you are doing excellantly. Best wishes, Iceman
@icep707 @tiredwife
Doing great, resting up for PT this afternoon. Icing, elevating, enjoying the NFL meltdown on sports radio. Trying to ignore the dust bunnies. They are turning into Flemish Giant rabbits as I type. When I stoop and pick one up to put it in the trash I think about at least going over the floors with the dust mop. Then I lie down until the impulse goes away. I have no ambition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_Giant#mediaviewer/File:Runt_and_Paxie.jpg
Doing great, resting up for PT this afternoon. Icing, elevating, enjoying the NFL meltdown on sports radio. Trying to ignore the dust bunnies. They are turning into Flemish Giant rabbits as I type. When I stoop and pick one up to put it in the trash I think about at least going over the floors with the dust mop. Then I lie down until the impulse goes away. I have no ambition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_Giant#mediaviewer/File:Runt_and_Paxie.jpg
tiredwife
alpha
@jeano I will match you giant dust bunny for giant dust bunny! Mine are mixed with cat hair from our 4 house cats. I haven't been cleaning much since hubby has been home. If I try to do something, he thinks he needs to do something too. To keep him from overdoing it, I have to not do anything much. He is feeling good today, so I told him he could clean the kitchen (but I will do the floor) and I will do the rest of the house.
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