Bilateral TKR SusieShoes' New Knees

[nensi]

It really is so encouraging to read your posts SusieShoes, hoping so much to follow in your footsteps (cringing from the pun, but not enough to delete it [emoji13])
Now I'm going to wind back to your week 2 and compare notes!


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum

 

[kmak81230]

Of course you are a writer . . .I always love your update posts Susie, and especially this one. I look forward to reaching cruising altitude and think I am getting closer. Still a bit of turbulence for me on some days and I have to keep my seatbelt on so that I don't overdo it - as I am prone to do. I can picture your walks around a lovely neighborhood with birds chirping and beautiful gardens to look at. It's nice to start to feel more normal and not so much like a patient. Enjoy those new, almost pain free, knees - you worked hard to get to this place.

 

[Pheebs52]

Susie, what a fabulous analogy! I just love the concept of an interlude versus some sort of Limbo, lol. It's amazing what reframing can do, isn't it?

Wow, you walk 2 miles every day? That's truly impressive! I am a bit of a turtle in the walking department for a couple of reasons, mostly due to neighborhood topography. It's essential that I drive somewhere like a park before I can have an enjoyable walk on relatively flat terrain. I envy all of you that can just walk right out the door for a nice stroll. When we move into our next home, you can bet it will be a very flat, very walkable neighborhood.

Please explain "cheesy puffs." I like them already without knowing what they are!

 

[SusieShoes]

Glad you like the analogy. It's an apt one. I carried on a long distance romance with Mr. Shoes for several years that involved flying back and forth every other weekend between Milwaukee and Philadelphia, so I'm quite familiar with that in-between phase of travel. You know you're going to get there--the plane is in the air and for the most part you're pretty sure you're not going to crash, but... you're not there yet. You anticipate getting there, but all you can do is thumb your magazine or play a game or talk to your neighbor (thank goodness here on BS, people actually want to listen). The plane is doing what it's supposed to do, it's flying... and the knees are healing. Oddly enough, we (our minds, at least) are simply along for the ride. We want to get there, but can't, and won't, until our knees get there.

I wish I had a faster plane, er... knees.

 

[SusieShoes]

@Pheebs52, cheesy puffs are cheap junk food. Little round balls of some common carbohydrate covered with cheese-flavored chemicals. Totally lowbrow and endlessly tasty. The family loves them. They turn your fingers and mouth orange.

ETA: I should mention I also make delicious, oven-baked cheese-filled puffs from a recipe I learned in Bolivia. I made them once for the family. They prefer the store-bought cheesy puffs.

 

[Pheebs52]

Seriously, where's the Concorde when we need it? I get antsy on a plane at about the 3 hour point. At 4 hours, I just want to open the windows. At 5 hours, well,... I need a tranquilizer. Sooo, perhaps I should think of my "Interlude" as a cruise rather than a plane since I find boating to be the ultimate in relaxation. And, with boating, it's all about the journey, not the destination.

 

[Pheebs52]

Oh, are they cheetos then, or something served hot? Hubby would love them and he can get away with eting stuff like that. They'd hafta be an occasional treat for me since carbs=fat on this old bod!

 

[SusieShoes]

I'm diabetic, therefore the fresh fruit. Cherries. Watermelon. I love this time of year.:smile2: But I sneak in some cheese puffs. The ones I make lovingly by hand are hot and nourishing, but store-bought ones are indeed like Cheetos, though round and more air than anything else. If heated they might collapse, and probably would become inedible. I might just heat some to find out. I'm getting a little stir-crazy anyway.

And yes, a cruise is a more restful analogy. Nothing beats time out on the water.

 

[sistersinhim]

sometimes I fall into a kind of shuffle--just like before surgery. It happens when I look at the ground and automatically I start to walk with shorter steps. Looking at the ground is protective of me. My new knees are still fresh in my mind; I want to protect them, do nothing that will "damage" them or cause me to fall. With my arthritic knees, it was that I didn't want to make any step that would hurt. Changes in elevation, for example, were painful. So looking at the ground became a habit accompanied by short, cautious steps.

Susie, remember what happened to me. I, too, always watched where I put my feet, because of pain and a fall hazard, before my tkr. I was trying to develop the habit, with my wonderful new knee, to walk with my head up and back straight. That's when I stepped into a hole and had this injury. I suggest you frequently look down when you're walking to see any obstacles in the way. We are too old to be falling!

 

[Pheebs52]

Did they collapse? LOL!

 

[Pheebs52]

Susie, I vote for your homemade version of Chessy Puffs since they aren't vinyl.

 

[Pheebs52]

@sistersinhim, yours is certainly a cautionary tale!

 

[knit2tog]

I love reading your weekly updates. You definitely have a way with words. I look forward to being fully at cruising altitude.

 

[IowaNana]

@SusieShoes - What a great analogy and so true! I have to remind myself that this is a journey and, as much as I would like it, it's not the red-eye flight where I sleep, wake up, and am at the final destination!

@SusieShoes & @Phees52 - I love cheese puffs! We can't have them in the house because I will eat them all!


Sent from my iPad using BoneSmart Forum

 

[Arttie]

So getting your surgery date is a visa to a new adventure. I've decided to title my recovery thread in November "The Voyage of Discovery" and the first knee is Lewis. Later, if or when, the other one can be Clark ( right now it feels like it might be good for a couple of years)

 

[dvannie]

Love reading your updates! I agree about cruising at week 6. I've told my husband to mark week 6 as the week to remind me of when I have to do the other knee!

 

[Pheebs52]

@Arttie, brilliant names for a smashing adventure!

 

[SusieShoes]

Lewis and Clark... perfect knee-names. And it truly is a voyage of discovery!

 

[SusieShoes]

Week 9: Quads

Yesterday, I think, someone asked me in a post on another thread about my quads, and how long did it take them to fire. I wanted to answer, but when I went to look for the thread, I had forgotten which one the question was in and couldn't find it again. Maybe I imagined it? That would be just like me, but I think it actually got asked somewhere... so on the chance the person who asked is reading this thread, I will answer here.

My quads fired from the start. A few hours after surgery, my OS popped into my room and, among other questions, asked me to lift my legs. I complied. It hurt, make no mistake, but I lifted each leg a few inches. OS beamed like a proud parent.

Later that night, for the PT guy, Lefty didn't want to lift. "But it lifted earlier!" I protested. Remembering what I'd read here on BS, I figured I was joining the No Quad Squad.

The next morning, Lefty lifted like a champ... but Righty didn't want to make the effort. Go figure. But by that evening, Righty and Lefty both were showing off the quads.

One reason nurses and therapists were so ready to say how "well" I was doing was that I could, from about the second day, lift my own legs into and out of bed. I liked help getting them out, because gravity is a witch and it hurt if they fell too quickly to the floor, but getting my legs into bed was easy. A little pain, yes... difficult, no. So it turns out I was among those TKR patients blessed with Quads That Work.

When people talk about their reluctant quads, I have nothing. I experienced neither the frustration nor found a solution. If I thought I knew anything about why my quads worked post-op, I would say something, but I don't know why they did that. Was it the exercises I performed so religiously, even with Lefty, who did not move like a normal knee? Was it because I eat yogurt every day for breakfast and had good levels of calcium? No one knows.

I'm happy my quads have been cooperative. In general, I've had excellent luck with my knees. I wish I had more to offer... but I don't. From reading so many recovery journeys here on BoneSmart, though, I know that All Quads Ultimately Awaken. AQUA.

 

[Pheebs52]

From a member of the "No Quad Squad," best laugh of the day, Susie! Thanks for that, especially since I just came back from PT! Perhaps I should say I'm a former member of the NQS, but I actually don't know if my entire quad has come alive. Clearly, some, or most of it is, but it's sure taken it's time. And no, it hasn't been sweet.

I'm not 100% certain, but I *think* the lack or presence of Quad Action is a bona fide, medical mystery. I had strong legs and was fairly active until my torn meniscus incident, so I don't think it's an issue of fitness. For instance, I used to swim 20 laps, 3x a week, walk the dogs every day, mow my large, hill of a lawn, shovel snow without difficulty, and used my elliptical trainer 2-3x a week. I need to lose about 20 pounds, but at 5'5' and 165 pounds, I'm overweight but not obese.

No one in the medical profession has been able to provide me with a satisfactory answer yet. I think the question is right up there with "Why is each knee surgery different, even on the same body?" or "Why did my leg get so swollen, but some have almost no visible swelling?" Or, "Why do some have 90 degrees flexion upon discharge from hospital and others have 30 degrees?" I always want to know the "whys," ...why is that? LOL.

"Humming, "Tell Me Why," by Neil Young.