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TKR Staying Positive

Some good news today, fluid aspirated from knee looks pretty good, no bacteria on gram stain, white blood count low, now just wait for culture( up to 3 weeks). ? For anyone, can low grade infection be painless? I really have little pain, maybe a bit achy at end of day. Seems like most with any kind of infection have pain? My main issue is stiffness/ poor flex which maybe I can live with. I would not like to have revision to end up in same place esp if stiff knee plus painful!! My mind is on the hamster wheel, but at least I slept pretty well and didn’t hear the wheel squeaking last night also UTI symptoms much better today, so an up spiral with the ice cream van in sight.
 
Oldped said:
My main issue is stiffness/ poor flex which maybe I can live with.
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I definitely still had this at your stage of healing. My recovery took way longer than some others. After a tough first year, I had a lot of improvement in all areas, in my second year, as my whole leg continued to relax and heal. Four month post op is “only” 1/3 of the way healed, in this year long recovery. I think too many medical teams truly don’t realize how long this recovery can be. I, myself, didn’t even realize how long it could take. I had a partial and was led to believe it would be a quick recovery. It wasn’t.
 
Thank you for your encouragement @Jockette , what would I do without my fellow travelers on this crazy knee journey. Friends and family may be sympathetic and helpful. But you all really know how it is. My husband did give me some insight today.He’s had some serious heart issues/ stent/, spinal stenosis limits his walking and he had a bout of necrotizing fasciitis resulting in a softball chunk of his thigh being removed. He said he just had to surrender and leave it in the hands of a higher power when it happened. So I’m trying to do that and be grateful for whatever I can.Thank you to all my Bonesmart friends new and old And May the ice cream van bring us a special treat!
 
Knee replacement can be a long journey and many of us are not prepared for how long and slow healing can be. Yes, some are back to “normal” in just a few months, but they are the amazing recoveries that in reality are few and far between. I worried quite a bit about how long my recovery was taking. I realized way too late that I had very unrealistic expectations, and I’ve read many threads here that say the same.
 
I was blessed to have joined Bonesmart 6 months before my TKR. Having read tons of recovery threads, I knew it wouldn't be an easy street to recover from, but having that realistic view was quite helpful. If the OSs gave us the truth about recovery, many people would probably choose not to have it done. Maybe that's why they don't tell us. I believe if we knew what to expect there would be far less fear that something was wrong when, really, the vast majority of our members' recoveries are normal.
 
@WFD Im back to pick your brain after mulling over your helpful post. Was your knee always painful after your surgeries or did it go away? I count myself lucky I have stiffness but only occasionally a little achy pain I can walk/ sit/ stand pretty comfortably for a while- I can do things around the house for 2- 3 hrs without a break. I thought some more about inflammation, I had COVID 3 weeks prior to surgery which causes a diffuse micro vasculitis, so maybe a driver for fibrosis? I did take paxlovid , wasn’t very I’ll. Looking back I maybe should have waited longer for surgery. I wish you peace on your journey, hope for a positive outcome.
 
Oldped said:
away? I count myself lucky I have stiffness but only occasionally a little achy pain I can walk/ sit/ stand pretty comfortably for a while- I can do things around the house for 2- 3 hrs without a break. I
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Being able to do household tasks for 2-3 hours sounds pretty good to me. What exactly makes you think there is a problem?
 
My flexion is only about 45-50, so trouble driving, walk with stiff gait , trouble sitting at events like movies, ball games, etc. Fortunately my extension is ok. But long term lack of flexion will maybe cause problems with lower back, hip, ankle etc.
 
Oldped said:
@WFD Im back to pick your brain after mulling over your helpful post. Was your knee always painful after your surgeries or did it go away?
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Hi @Oldped , it varied, but generally remained stiff and painful due to the scar tissue pulling on the soft tissues. Also as you mentioned, the limited range of motion while walking pulled on my pelvis and made my lower back sore. I had different ranges of motion after different surgeries resulting in varying levels of discomfort.

After one surgery I had only about 50 degrees of rom and it was pretty uncomfortable. After a different surgery I was for a time around 85-90 degrees and I could walk pretty normally and probably would have had little discomfort except (while I didn’t know it at the time) the infection was coming on strong and creating swelling and pain.

One thing that helped me a lot when I had only 50 degrees of rom was to stretch my quads as much as I could. This is difficult to do with a stiff knee using conventional stretches so I had to invent my own.

The stretch that worked well for me went like this - I would perform a cobra stretch on the floor in the usual way except I put my feet up on a couch so my knees were bent at about a 40 degrees angle. This created a stretch in my quads. By moving closer to the couch I could shift the stretch closer to my knees and by moving away the couch I could shift the stretch higher in my quads, all done without having to bend the knees too much. I posted a picture earlier in my thread, I’ll see if I can find it and link to it from here.

Hope this helps a little.
 
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@Oldped pleased you had some good news back, it's so hard to digest everything and then try to make out what's what. You do incredibly well to do 2 to 3 hours around the house with a break. I will be 11 weeks tomorrow and need a break after 20 minutes. The flexion issue is a real nuisance, I am now at 70 and can't see an improvement very soon. Swelling not so bad but still proving a problem with exercises. See my surgeon this coming Friday, will let you know. I know you have a lot to think about, but in between picture the spring coming, feel the warmth of the sun, the birds will be chirping and the ice cream van is not far away. We will get there, albeit a bumpy ride. Sending hugs, wishes and the biggest ice cream ever xx:martini:
 
@Oldped
I'm about 2 weeks ahead of you and I can't do 2 hours of housework without taking breaks for at least 20 minutes, so feel proud of you for pushing on.
My lower back and hips hurt in the morning and wakes me up with the pain. I do have arthritis in my hips but never as bad as now. I'm pretty sure that the way I'm walking is throwing my alignment out of whack. Hoping when I get more normal, my hips/back won't hurt as much in the morning.
I just got in my car today to see if I could comfortably drive. Much harder getting in and out on the driver's side since it's my left knee. Wednesday we need to take one vehicle to the shop and I need to go pick up DH. It's about a 20 minute drive, so hoping my leg will hold out.
@Andypandy
My flexion is about the same. I'm taking it easy this week after I made a mistake and hurt myself. Swelling is back and need to elevate/ice more. I'm trying to come to grips with possibly never having much more flexion. But today was gorgeous and we managed to have our coffee on the patio so a good day even tho I was hurting.
 
@westiemom , I’m 2 weeks ahead of you, not doing so well this week. On meds for UTI, really bothering my stomach. On the couch with ice on knee, heating pad on stomach. 50 here with sun ,walked a bit on deck. Call in to Dr for different meds that will be easier on my finicky stomach. Very tired of this all
 
@Oldped - sorry to hear about your UTI and antibiotic woes. That's just adding insult to injury now. Sometimes it seems like our bodies hate us, doesn't it?
I hurt my knee badly the other day so mostly just elevating and icing. DH is being a tyrant about me NOT doing stuff around the house, but somethings only a woman can see to get done :heehee: He's very good about doing things I tell him to do, but sometimes it's easier just to do it myself instead of explaining it. Maybe I'm just picky.
We got to have our afternoon coffee outside yesterday till it clouded up and got windy. If the wind drops some today we will be able to do the same. It's 66 on the south side of the house where one patio with a roof is. That's my highlight of the day - afternoon coffee outside in the sunshine. We always stop whatever we're doing at 3 pm to have coffee and a cookie and just talk for about 45 minutes or so. This has been our habit since he retired 5 years ago.
I'm hoping you find a new med that is nice to your stomach. This TKR journey is enough hardness on our bodies and minds. :console2:
 
@westiemom , thanks for your concern. New med seems a bit better but I think 3 antibiotics in a row are making my stomach unhappy, just hope I get rid of this infection. I don’t have much appetite but eat a little to take meds, have lost a couple more pounds but I wouldn’t recommend this diet! Warmer here too but in 40’swih sun. I’ll keep plugging along, hope you’re slowly getting better too
 
I guess sometimes the best we can is plug along. Taking advantage of the sunny days cause it's gonna get cold again and I'll feel stuck inside. Yeah, that's not a good way to lose weight. I've lost about 7 pounds since surgery but will be gaining that back since I'm not cooking my chicken breast and salads every night for dinner. Guess once I can actually walk again for long distances, I'll be losing it again.
 
westiemom said:
DH is being a tyrant about me NOT doing stuff around the house, but somethings only a woman can see to get done :heehee: He's very good about doing things I tell him to do, but sometimes it's easier just to do it myself instead of explaining
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I used to be picky about housework but you really do have to let go and drop your standards for a few months at least. If it really bothers you then can you consider getting a cleaning agency in to do an occasional deep clean?
I am trying to declutter and simplify things to make cleaning easier as I get older.
The dust really doesn't matter that much in the great scheme of getting better.
I am now focusing on getting back to long haul travel and housework is not my top priority.
Enjoy the sun and the outside!
 
We have 7 little dogs in the house so a housekeeper is really out of the question, even if I could find a meth-free one. Dust doesn't bother me in the least - it's more like seeing clean clothes hanging in the laundry room and not taking it to the closet, loading the dishwasher, putting stuff in the fridge. I have routines of that kind of stuff. I'm just being a crab, I think.
 
Oldped said:
but I think 3 antibiotics in a row are making my stomach unhappy, just hope I get rid of this infection. I don’t have much appetite but eat a little to take meds
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If you keep getting UTIs have you tried D-mannose? I have a congenital kidney abnormality - so am prone to infection. It definitely helped me. It sounds a bit alternative but it is in the UK NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guidance - although it says the evidence is limited. The D- isomer passes through the gut into the bladder and E-coli bacteria latch on to it and are excreted. It only works for E-coli but that's the commonest.
I don't take it now, because I got the new UTI vaccine ( Uromune) last year - but it definitely seemed to work for me and had none of the nasty side effects of antibiotics.
 
Unfortunately this is just for one UTI, klebsiella which d- mannose doesn’t work. First drug only partially sensitive, 2nd drug wrecked my stomach, couldn’t keep it down, now on drug 3 but stomach still upset. I’ve read about the vaccine, great idea, not yet available in US.
 
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