TKR sugarjo TKR May 6

Sounds like you're doing really well! :thumb: Lots of my pain was in the form of stiffness. I knew this because pain meds (or tylenol) helped relieve it.
It's very much up to you what your balance of lying around and walking around is. For me at week 4 I was mostly lying around with my leg elevated, but taking a very short walk outside just about every day and puttering around the house getting very simple meals.
 
@kneeper Thank you for that. I just read someone's story about walking unaided by day 3, sleeping on their side, and going to the grocery store at within 2 weeks... ugh deflating to read but good for them. I still have a great deal of stiffness which gets way worse after I do my stretches. I have been very minimal in my PT "exercises" will do them as long as there is no pain. I try to spread them out through the day but have to do alot of selfcare get water, cook, change ice etc. so extremely stiff by day's end. I still have a large pocket of swelling sitting on the top of my knee. Looks like a baseball and is about as hard as one too lol. Weird. My PT was concerned and it is not going down too fast. They put me on Cipro but the surgeon was not concerned. I had a lot of discomfort last night and nausea - back to week 2. I've decided I am over doing it during the day so focusing on your advice to do alot of lying around with leg elevated with continued "puttering". Looking forward to side sleeping again.
 
Definitely count the self care time on your feet as part of your activity/exercise when you think about how much you're doing. What I did was try to break things up over the day. So if I had lunch I'd either use paper plate or leave the plate on the counter. Next time I got up I'd put it in the dishwasher. That kind of thing. Ice and elevate like it's your job--and actually it is right now. :yes:
 
So in to week 6 and feeling like a sloth of healing!! :heehee: Had my follow up on June 6 and my Dr said I was on track ... see you in 4 months. So I guess I'm good.

Still have quite a bit of bruising and swelling at 2 spots directly on my knee cap. Which makes sense now that I've had the follow up because the Dr explained the pulling of the skin and the cutting but seems a bit excessive to me now that I am 5 weeks out.

My Dr used dissolving stitches and I found out at the post op I have a second cut and set of stitches on the inside part of my knee! Well that explains a lot about what has been going on there. Those stitches do not dissolve until around 8 weeks.... wish I had known this right after the surgery. X-rays were interesting and found out I have part of my own knee cap left. This made me ridiculously happy for some reason and I then discovered that I hold feelings of anger about having gotten the knee replacement done... or having to have had it done which I will have to process.

Very frustrated at what I see as my lack of progress but in reality it gets a bit stronger every day. There has as of yet been no corner turning for me, just slow steady progress.

Got a prescription for physical therapy and have found a place that sounds like it will be a good fit for me. I am electing to do PT because I don't have a lot of time off from work left and the leg is obviously quite weak. I feel that from information I have from Bonesmart I will be very in control of the process.

Love my surgeon, he has a very slow steady approach to healing, no pushing. Was at 105 flexion cold at the Dr visit. I'd like to get to 135 to 150 - but the Dr says not over 115 --- ??? too much wear on the new joint over time.

Also added back in some Tramadol at night to help sleep was just using Tylenol and Advil every day when I went back along with Gabapentin at night. He suggested more Tramadol for daily pain management which would help at night and guess what... he was right.

So OK a bit of Tramadol still and now using Celebrex instead of Advil, as he says it will be better with the PT. We shall see. My scar is looking good at the lower part but on the upper part it's been very red and irritated. Not sure how to make it happy. Vitamin E oil has helped a lot in the lower area as well as massage but wondering if that is also irritating the top part? Any suggestions?

Also going to look at ideas on leg propping/icing when seated. The back of my leg starts to hurt in this position... too straight??
 
Read your thread, you're doing great! Happy to see, hasn't been easy but looks like you're right on track. Yay!
 
I am electing to do PT because I don't have a lot of time off from work left and the leg is obviously quite weak.
PT is OK, as long as you don't overwork at it.
But no amount of PT is going to make your knee heal faster, or strengthen faster. Your knee needs time to heal, before you start stressing it with strengthening exercises and trying to do strengthening too early could well slow down your recovery.
Your knee will gradually get stronger, just with daily use, and strengthening exercises shouldn't start until about 3 months post-op.

My scar is looking good at the lower part but on the upper part it's been very red and irritated. Not sure how to make it happy. Vitamin E oil has helped a lot in the lower area as well as massage but wondering if that is also irritating the top part? Any suggestions?
It's only been about 5 weeks since you had the surgery. It might be better if you just leave your scar alone. As you say, massaging it may just be irritating it. There's still a lot of healing going on beneath the surface, so let Nature get on with her job of healing.


By the way, I've edited your post and broken it up into paragraphs. That makes it so much easier to read, so do you think you could do that in future, please?
 
In my 10th week post OP and my PTs and massage therapy friends seem concerned but somewhat pretending not to be. Not sure what to think. Today hit 115 degrees bend and 0 degrees straighten but there's really been very little progress in the last 3 weeks. As of today, I am able to ride a bike without hitching the hip or flexing the foot which is an improvement. However, my PT gal who is doing a really great job working with me, said today she'd like me to make another appointment with my doctor.

I still have alot of stiffness at the top of the knee and can't walk without a significant limp which seems to worry her. There is still a lump of swelling on the top of the knee with some discoloration. The quad is not "firing" and not rebuilding. The joint itself has good movement but the muscles seem to be contracting and not releasing - causing pain and the awkward gait. The PT thinks maybe a steroid shot would be helpful and is worried about the "window of opportunity" closing by the end of this month.

I know I have been behind the "average" recovery. The leg and particularly the knee has had alot of trauma through the years. Just wondering when I should start to get concerned about all this. I seem to be improving quite slowly but even slower over the past few weeks.

Any words of advice?
 
Here's an article for you to read-or read again if you've read it and forgotten. https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/myth-busting-window-of-opportunity-in-tkr.6895/

115 at 10 weeks is nothing to sneeze at-I wish I had that much today, let alone at 10 weeks! I don't know why you think you're behind in anything. First, every recovery proceeds at a different pace, second, I think you're doing quite well. My suggestion is to dump Debbie-Downer the PT and go forward on your own with normal daily activities. It wouldn't hurt to mention the lump to your OS, but otherwise you really are doing fine. You are only 10 weeks into a 52-ish week recovery. Cut your knee some slack, ignore the expectations of others and just be patient. Where you are today is not where you'll be in a few months, so have patience (I know I already said that but it bears repeating!) and give your knee the time it needs to recover before thinking it's not progressing. Look where you were at one day, one week and so on and you'll see progress. But saying you've not progressed in three weeks is not a good measurement as this recovery is a marathon, not a sprint.
 
@lovetocookandsew Ok thank you for the reminder!! I've read and re-read this stuff but people keep getting in my head. Then I hear lots of stories and see others who seem to be doing so much in a much shorter time. I've keep mostly keeping the faith at slow and steady! Thanks again!
 
I agree that you are doing really well for 115 at 10 weeks. I also agree that you can stop PT. You already have made great progress and your therapist is putting doubts in your mind. That's not good. Most OS will not do a MUA after the patient reaches 90 degrees bend. Your 115 is way above that.

I am going to tag @Josephine, our forum director and nurse to address your question about a steroid shot.
 
In my 10th week post OP and my PTs and massage therapy friends seem concerned but somewhat pretending not to be. Not sure what to think. Today hit 115 degrees bend and 0 degrees straighten but there's really been very little progress in the last 3 weeks

I know I have been behind the "average" recovery. The leg and particularly the knee has had a lot of trauma through the years. Just wondering when I should start to get concerned about all this. I seem to be improving quite slowly but even slower over the past few weeks.
There's no reason at all to be concerned. Your PT and massage therapists have an agenda that demands quick results, but that doesn't mean it's right. Getting good numbers fast just makes them look good. It's not what's right for your knee and they're wrong to worry you.

Please get rid of the idea that you're having a slow recovery, because you're not. 115/0 at 10 weeks post-op is excellent. If anything, it's better than average.
You have at least a full year in which your ROM will continue to increase. There's no need at all to rush.
Where are you in recovery?? (TKR)

It's perfectly normal to have a plateau where you seem to be making little progress. I think of it as a time when your knee is consolidating the progress it's already made, before moving ahead again.
From now on, progress will be slower. You'll measure it in weeks, not days. That's normal, too.

This is a year-long recovery and nothing can change that, no matter how much you want to progress faster. Your knee has had a major, traumatic operation, one from which it can't bounce back in just a few weeks.

While you may think of recovery as a straight line of forward progress, it's actually more like a roller coaster ride, with ups and downs, or two steps forward and one step back, like this:
Recovery chart drawn.jpg
 
Then I hear lots of stories and see others who seem to be doing so much in a much shorter time.
Oh the old "next-door- neighbour's brother's sister" gambit! Pay no attention to such tales and they rarely have any truth to them. Just before I had my first knee done, I was told by a friend that his next-door-neighbour had his knee done and 3 weeks later was up on his roof repairing tiles! Much later I managed to engage this man in conversation and asked him about his knee. He told me he just had an arthroscopy!
 
I remember going in to PT and seeing a "little old lady" who was "ahead" of me. It bummed me out for a bit. But I got there. It's not a contest. :heehee:
 

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