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Bilateral TKR SusieShoes' New Knees

getting back to walking dogs: i've been walking liam more lately (after his backyard freedom run) to help hubby out as he's been so busy. i'm feeling a little proud of myself (thanks to our trainer that we had back in november) because i can now walk liam safely as opposed to prior to training when he walked me. i have him walking at my pace right by my side and i pay close attention to any distractions, such as people, other dogs, bunnies, etc. i'm using 2 training collars, (one of which is a backup and i haven't actually had to deploy) which are controversial to those that don't understand them, and they work without having to make a lot of corrections. it's important to keep our dogs under control when we're walking them, especially with having knee replacements. should i get dragged or on the other end of a lunging dog, it wouldn't take much to cause injury. liam loves his walks even though he's on a leash.
 
Dogs can be dangerous to knees in lots of ways. Cate was a younger poodle (she's a standard and weighs 40 pounds) when she doomed my left knee. You see, I'm big on training my dogs and Mr. Shoes... well, he's not exactly a reinforcer. He thinks when Cate spins and twirls in pursuit of treats that it's just adorable. It wasn't so adorable one day 10 years ago when Cate was so focused on getting him to give her a treat that she spun and twirled all 40 pounds of her into my knee. Lefty hyperextended and blew up. That was three weeks before our wedding and I limped down the aisle.

I have enormous respect for dogs, both the pluses and the minuses. We're thinking of getting another pup now that I can deal with house training one. I said I'd only do it if I can fully train the dog to be a good citizen, including not spinning and twirling for treats. As it is, whenever Mr. Shoes is near where the treats are kept, I beat a retreat. No way am I putting my knees at risk of him and that dervish of a dog. :catdance: I know that's a cat, but that's what she looks like when doing it.

Still, I love the old girl. She's sleeping right now beside the bed as I ice and elevate. No sweeter dog on the planet. As long as Mr. Shoes is at work and nowhere near the treat stash, I'm perfectly safe. :puppysmooze:
 
Break dancing pets! Usually our cat keeps the crazy outside, but when she has a nutty inside--watch out!
 
haha Susie ~ we still have lots of work to do, especially when someone comes to the door and liam looks like that break dancing cat lol. no treat would stop him at that point. i've had to use the lazy way and grab him (after running around circles after him) and put him in his crate. they are a lot of work but worth it. cate sounds like a sweetheart ~ i love senior dogs.:puppysmooze:
 
Susie, I've always been a sticker for training our dogs. We are dogless for the first time in many years. The old sheltie my kids grew up with died at the age of 18 several months back. I knew I was going to have my kneee done so I've waited until I feel well enough to start over. My adult daughter and her boyfriend have a wild Australian Shepherd mix who is 80 pounds or so and jumps up a lot. She asked if I would keep him while they went out of town for the weekend and I had to tell her no. I'm less than a month out after surgery and I'm terrified that untrained moose will knock me over. Any dog I ever owned was trained not to jump by time he was 6 months old. Freckles is just over a year old and has no manners. I could teach him if I felt sturdier but it reminds me of when our kids were small. I would teach Hero, the sheltie, not to jump but the kids would coax him to jump up on them behind my back. That dog was smart enough to know who he could get away with jumping on and who he could not. I'm looking forward to starting over with a new dog in a few months.
 
Yes, dogs are much too unpredictable around our baby knees. We are a dog less family with 80% of us yearning for one...right DH is the holdout. At this point our 2 kitties have been excellent nurses and have been pretty respectful of jumping up on my legs.
And I am pretty sure that if I had to I would just step on a tail if I had to, if avoiding it would mean a twisted knee or (shuddering) a fall.
Btw I love the breakdancing image for your pups!


Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
 
Week 11: Clunking Along

Other Smarties have written about their clunks, but I haven't done so until now. Mostly I figured a little clunk came along with the hardware. Even my original knees before replacement made sounds no knee should ever make. You know, the grind... the groan... the creak... the crepitus. The latter sounds like Rice Crispies. Snap. Crackle. Pop. The snaps were especially disconcerting. I imagined bits of bone breaking off. But whatever was happening in those old arthritic knees (Lefty especially) was nasty and loud.

My right knee developed its clunk first, several weeks ago. The sound played hide and seek initially, popping up at odd intervals, mostly while walking. Sometimes it wasn't even there for the entire walk. I remember the first appearance, while I was still using a cane, and thinking, "Well. So that's what people mean." As "sounds" go, it really wasn't one. It was more of a perception of something clunking... but it was definitely a soft, gentle clunk on every step. I decided I could get used to it. The old arthritis pain was so much worse that this happy little clunk was welcome.

Righty's clunk began to disappear about two weeks ago. I haven't heard it in close to a week. I think it appeared when Righty's swelling subsided--and now that Righty's soft tissues have tightened up and the muscles gotten exercised back into shape, maybe the clunk won't be back very often. Time will tell.

Today on my morning walk, I felt/heard a now familiar sound. Lefty was clunking. A quiet, non-intrusive clunk with every step. I laughed out loud. "Hi there. Nice to hear you've decided to join in." Righty was being silent.

Upon having a TKR, we and our baby knees become something new. We become intimate and insightful. Our bodies "learn" to accommodate the mechanical implant and communicate to us a myriad of sensations and signals we must learn to interpret. What helps, what hurts... what works, what doesn't. We alone have access to this information. Everyone else, even our OS, is observing external cues. We are internal. We "hear" our knees.

Hearing Lefty clunk this morning made me happy. Maybe it won't make me happy if Lefty is still clunking three months or a year from now. At this moment, however, I'm surmising Lefty's swelling is going down and the implant is free to voice itself. I expect that voice will be muffled someday when the soft tissues heal and close in, and stronger muscles brace the joint. Time will tell.

For now, I'm good with the clunk.
 
That's how I feel about the clunk, more of a feeling than a noise. I half expected to sound like the Tin Woodman...
 
Think of it as animating inanimate objects, the bits and pieces that have been added to the body. :cheers2:
 
That post on clunking knees is the kind of thing makes it worthwhile reading theses forums. Real insightful descriptions of our issues. Thanks. It helps us all know what we might expect and reassures us we are coming along normally. No one else but those of us who have gone through it could appreciate fully.
 
Great essay Susie with views that reflect own. I've never actually heard a clunk, but in the first few weeks post-op, I felt some sort of mechanical flip-flopping particularly when trying to arrange myself in bed. These days, I may feel it upon occasion, but it's rare. What isn't rare is the crepitus in my Righty and that's a sound and sensation I can actually hear; ugh! Give me the mechanical clunk any day; it's not scary to me, probably because I expected it. On the other hand, the crepitus in Righty is very scary, especially for one who has had a torn meniscus. I literally stop in my tracks when I hear and feel that gruesome, OA *pop*!
 
On dogs: I haven't tried walking my little beasties as yet. I'm afraid....very afraid. Small dogs have a way of getting in between the feet and that leads to tripping, a place I don't want to go. I've had two close calls in the house already and both set me back a few days because the TKR quad is what *saved* me from completing the fall. The quad's reaction led to instant stiffening, so, not exactly a desirable outcome for me. When I do finally get my courage up to walk a dog, my first choice would be my Pug, Nemo, because he matches my pace and is almost always a gentlemen on the leash. I'm afraid 12 pound Pheebs, the Silky Terrier, is much more of a wild thing. She has, pre-tkr, dragged me down the street upon seeing....*something*....it could be anything. . A man with a hat, another dog, a cat :yikes:, a bunny or a falling leaf. Yep, she's unpredictable and basically unresponsive to every known method of training. At the age of 13, I don't think she will change; just a hunch. :nah:
 
What wonderful writing, Susie, your week 11 Clunking Along! We really do listen to our knees, sounds others usually can't hear. I look forward to hearing a clunk if that's what I get, instead of all the crepitus!
 
Susie ~ thanks for your endearing "clunking along" description. i feel a little left out because i haven't heard or felt mine yet although my physiotherapist (melissa) has been ecstatic "feeling" the clunk when working with my knee. i wonder if it has anything to do with the amount of swelling as you suggested "i think it appeared when righty's swelling subsided"?

@Jajakio ~ who knows, you might be very well recovered in a few months (or more) to take on the training of a new pup. as you know, easier when they are puppies. it took us a year to find a trainer we trusted that a friend recommended ~ wish we had started sooner (other than what we tried on our own which was limited).
 
Thanks for your post Susie -- I'll look forward to embracing my inner clunkiness when it comes.
 
I wonder if different models of implants have a different clunk factor? I doubt it, but I suppose it's a possibility? We have a form of bowling in New England called Candlepin, where the bowling balls are very small, about the size of a baseball. During the first 4-6 weeks, when I clunked in bed every time I moved, I envisioned my clunks as a little bowling ball rolling around in there and my muscles and ligaments were the *pins*, lol. I would try to visualize a straight shot down the lane and equate that to healing. Goofy, I know, but it did make me smile sometimes. Just not at 3 A.M. for bathroom and stiffness wake-up calls!
 
Darned if I know what causes the clunk. Could be so many things, not all of them positive, so I just focus on the positive possibilities. It gives me warm fuzzies to know others find my thoughts worth reading. :roseshwr:

@Pheebs52, I don't miss my old crepitus at all. It was a source of terror. :yikes:

@liam2015 and @Jajakio, I feel up to training a pup. I grew up watching and helping Mom train dogs, and can do a fair job of it. Cate is beautifully behaved, welcome everywhere and a favorite with our bank and several other local institutions, including one elder aunt's senior residence, which forbids most pets but makes an exception for Cate because in 13 years she's never caused a single problem. Her only failure is due entirely to Mr. Shoes (including his family) and those darn treats. :sigh: I want to train him, sometimes.
 
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Hahaha, Susie, let's face it, *dog* training really is a misnomer. It's definitely the humans that need to be trained. :snork:
 
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