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Stiff and swollen after 11 weeks??

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hess

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Apr 15, 2008
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Hi everyone,

I really think I might need your input here. I'm 11 weeks out, and I am really fighting what I think might be an excessive amount of swelling and stiffness. I'm not sure if it is normal, but when I take my daily walk, which is only about 1 mile, or do anything that seems to be fairly normal, I feel it getting stiff and swollen. It might just be something that will go away in time, but I wanted to check with you to see.
I'm not doing outpatient PT anymore, and I try to work it on my own, but I'm not feeling very successful, and I'm getting frustrated! I try to ride my recumbant bike to loosen it up, and this might work for a little while, but then it goes right back to being stiff and swollen. My ROM has gone down. I was at 120, and I think I'm at about 110 now, and no matter how hard I try, it just doesn't seem to want to move! I've also lost extension, I ws ast 0, now I'm at 3, and no matter what I do, I can't sem to get it straighter!
I try to blame it on the fact that I have 3 young children, and I am constantly on the go, but maybe this isn't normal. I have problems getting out of the car because I feel it getting stiff.
I find myself wanting to take pain meds, and I'm not sure if I should be over them by now, or what. I take 800 mg of ibuprofen at a time, and I might do this 2-3 times a day in lue of pain meds. I have real problems with it at night.
I'm sorry, my post is getting a little lengthy, but I am really worried about my progress.
How does it sound to you?

Thanks for your help,
Hess
 
Hess, I think everything you've reported is fairly normal for the 11 week mark. I am still getting a lot of pain and swelling with my knee that was replaced the same day as yours and I ice everyday. My first knee, replaced last fall, took a full 5 months before the daily pain and swelling subsided and I would forget about the replacement. It still gives me pain at times.

I can't explain your loss of ROM. Is someone measuring this for you or are you just thinking that it's gotten worse? I know I've done this to myself in the past just to find out later that it's not really any worse but about the same or even better. It seems at this point in time we are telling ourselves we should be all back to normal and it just isn't so. It does take longer then 11 weeks even if others are "thinking" you are/should be fully recovered. We've still got a ways to go in the recovery. Hang in there. Just remember that it's a year mark we are looking for so 11 weeks is a drop in the bucket on the road to recovery.

What's killing me is going down steps. I can go down step over step while hanging on but it ain't very pretty. How is that for you?

Oh, and yes, I still take Vicodin quite a bit but not necessarily everyday. Karen
 
I had a bilateral and my left leg was stiff for almost four months---then, almost overnight, it went away.

I would wake up and it would feel great---but by the time I got to school, and after a long day on my feet, it would be sstiff. Then, in late March, it seemed to clear up almost over night.

TSC
 
I think you're overdoing it a little. It's easy to think that because you get a reduction here and there you must do more more often whilst the opposite is true. Do more but do it lest frequently! In other words, quality more than quantity!
 
Hess,
I am 10.5 wks and you just describe my situation exactly. So I guess this is normal and we are going to have to be patient and wait for it to get better.

Karen,
I'm with you on the steps I can go up them but I can't go down them without hanging on to the rail or take them 1 at a time. One thing I did notice is that I think it is going to hurt and I protect myself by doing that but if I take it slow I can go down but it is a little more painful than going up but it feels like it is good ROM stretching.

Sue
 
Fols, you have to be patient. We all had tolearn that patience was a virtue and could not be purchased at the local Wally-Mart. The surgery was the easy part; the recovery---the rehab and such---takes a long, long time.

Tim C.
 
Yeah but I think it was on sale in Kmart. Kidding Ref. Baseball over? Or are you doing some fall ball?
He's right about the time. 2 steps forward one step back. One day my swelling is gone and the next I have alien leg again. Yes usually when I do more physical activity. It still hurts getting up & down from sit and I think the infamous IT band is acting up in one leg. But thank God, the pain is nothing like before, I can walk and look pretty good at it and will continue to get even better. I can stand for 20 minutes as opposed to 2 or less. At 5 months my scars still itch sometimes, I get stabbing pains as nerves reconnect and I feel like living again. I know they say at least 1 year for a full recovery, but I can only imagine what it'll be like at the 2-3 year mark.
 
You folks gotta remember how much stuff was done to you. They cut you open, sawed off some stuff, glued, screwed, and pounded stuff, and move ligaments and muscles around to do so; they then sewed yo back up. Then you did a lot of bed rest and tried to be as active as possible---but honestly, your muscles started to atrophy.

Now you are working parts of your body that are brand new, and other parts of your body are saying, "Wow, this is good!"---and others (very close to them) are saying, "Whoa, there, slow down!"

I rode tht rollercoaster for five months---20 weeks---and I still had a very slight limp when I walked out on the baseball field to umpire my first game.

81 games later things are pretty much back to normal--but I hafta tell you, I still glad a tad sore every now and then.

When I was going through outpatient PT I was concerned, but the PT's were not. They said, more or less, "All in due time---the only thing normal about this surgery/recovery is that nothing is normal." I had to learn that if they were not concerned, why should I be?

Trust us. please---we learned this too---that it will take much longer than you would like to get back to where you would like to be. You will get there, I know---but it is not necessarily on your schedule...I learned that; others have learned that,too. It takes time.

Peace,

Tim C.
 
Tim, My first knee was replaced Oct 1 and it still gets stiff and sore. I think it will take more then a full year to recover. I still have a lot of pain going up and down stairs and getting up from a chair. Do you have that problem Tim? I think that should have stopped by now. I have no pain when just walking.
 
AS you folks all know, I work part-time for a produce farm.On Sundays I drive a truck and run an open-air market in one of Cleveland's suburbs. anyway. I climb up and down into and out of the truck for a while, and then sell a tremendous amount of produce, and turn around, load everything into the truck (more climbing) and drive home. Last night, going down the basement steps, I was a little sore---but I was fine this AM and rode my bike to school (yes, today was the first day.)

So, I guess you can be a little sore for a while. While talking to a mother of one of my former students, I asked how her knee replacemnt was going----she had one done almost a year ahead of me. She said from time to time steps still are a little bit "interesting", as she put it.

Tim C.
 
But my 11 month old knee ALWAYS hurts when I go up or down, especially down. My surgeon did tell me that I would have less then optimal recovery because of the shape of this knee going into it and I think this is what he meant. I'll have to investigate further with him in a couple of weeks when I see him. I know there is a lot of scar tissue in there because I can feel some of it. That might be the issue.
 
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