Bilateral TKR SusieShoes' New Knees

[VW54]

Funny but not really: reading about zingers and am experiencing them and now too as I write despite having ice pack on the knee.
I would describe them as jagged electric shocks, or as if someone were pulling out a fine barbed wire across but under my knee, just under the surface ( where it is normally numb)
Another sensation or perhaps this is a zinger too? is as if someone was sticking in 10 or more needles along a (jagged) line at one time and repeating it up to 20 times in a row at different rythms.

 

[kmak81230]

A couple of my friends granted me the nickname "sister paranoia" as I tend to have overly exaggerated worries about everything. I think that if I had not found BS to learn about zingers (I have not had the pleasure yet), wobbles (had lots early on, then none, reappeared this past week), clicking (appeared in the past week), and nonlinear recovery I'd be freaking out, thinking the implant was not right, I'll never be right, yada yada yada. Thanks to the experiences of everyone on here I've learned to not sweat the small stuff - at least as it relates to my knee.

 

[Fire wolf]

downstairs to go on our woodsy walk, my knee did 'The Wobble." It's not enough of a movement to cause complete collapse, it's just a momentary glitch

Sorry @SusieShoes, wasn't sure where the best spot to put this was, as it does refer to @Pheebs52 "wobble" that others have experienced, but since you were discussing the odd things that your knees do in that fantastic update, I am just going with it. My knee has had the wobble as described above since I was a kid. It would come and go for no apparent reason, and I never gave it much thought. My mother just started to refer to it as a "dipsy do", as I would dip with knee while walking. I had the same thing happen with Spence, but I was hoping that with Bionic Spence it would go away. So saddened to hear that it may not.

I do love your Pinocchio analogy, and I talk to Spence as well. I thought everyone named and talked to their new parts!

 

[SusieShoes]

Haven't met the wobble yet, though just wait... might happen yet. Not everyone gets every manifestation, and some go away and some never do. So who knows? You may yet cease to have the old dipsy-do.

I think naming the knees is fun and lots of us do it. My mom and sister never did, but my family is the definition of puritanical and unromantic. They only name people and animals, never things. My husband's family... the opposite. They name everything. They call my knees Pancho and Cisco, but never agree on which one is which. They just like saying, "Oh, Cees-co!"

 

[Celle]

The wobble should go away, as all your muscles regain their normal strength. There's no mechanical reason why it should ever be permanent.

The zingers are indeed little electric shocks, sent out by the endings of the nerves that were unavoidably cut during surgery. The nerves are trying to re-connect, or to find slightly different pathways.

 

[KarriB]

And people tend to experience zingers at different times during recovery, just another way that every recovery, every knee is different. I can see how it would be even more surprising while walking. I do love remembering how my students laughed, except the one sitting on the floor close to my leg.

 

[Fire wolf]

Am I the only one concerned that @VW54 knows what fine barbed wire being pulled across any part of her body feels like?!

 

[Jennszoo]

I had the wobble a lot on my left knee bc the quad was so weakened. The right knee has not really wobbled more than 2-3 times. So far. Who knows what these knees have planned yet!

 

[sistersinhim]

Even now, about once a week I have minor zingers. Just enough to let me know there is something going on inside my knee. Most of the time it's in the numb area that the zingers hit. As for wobble, mine is the opposite. Since my fall my knee what to go too far back, extend too much. So much time is needed to heal these things! But, no more arthritis pain makes it all worthwhile!

 

[Polkadot]

@SusieShoes, I love Pancho and Cees-co! I'm afraid I come from a Puritannical and unromantic family--I never thought to name my knee. Is there hope for me? Maybe mine will be Rosebud, because I can say, "Bud" for short. As in, "Hey. Bud, will you quit with the zingers already?!?"

I used to get zinger-like sparks that started at my knee and went up my IT band. They could stop me in my tracks for a couple of beats. Like @Fire wolf, I was hoping they'd be a thing of the past once I had my knee replaced. Oh, well. These current iterations are funnier. My leg--I mean Bud--acts like she has a mind of her own when they happen!

 

[sandi4213]

Chiming in on the "zingers", every time I get one now, I think "Yeah, Healing!" I like to visualize those little nerves reconnecting.

 

[SusieShoes]

Just a minor bit of forward progress this weekend: I blew off ice packs for Family Saturday! Perhaps I've been overly cautious and self-protective, but I've been trundling my ice packs in a cooler on away visits for our big family get-togethers. I would elevate and ice a couple times, and recently at least once, during the visit. This weekend, I figured I might not need them. I don't ice quite as often at home anymore. So I left the ice packs behind.

And the knees did not swell and the world did not end. I did elevate once, just in case (and because they were playing a game that didn't require me to make the number of players). It was a good time to rest and relax.

The ride home was comfy. Though the knees were a little tight that night, and the next day, they recovered quickly with return to my regular schedule. So the verdict is in... no need for ice packs on Family Saturdays. Or most days. I have done very well the past couple of weeks icing only in the mornings following my walk, and at night right before bed. I've found that icing right before bed makes for comfy sleep-ready knees.

 

[Fire wolf]

That is absolutely fantastic news! Funny, it seems like in the beginning many of us, I know I did, anyway, couldn't wait for the day that we could finally be rid of things like assistive devices, ice, extra pillows, etc., but the further out we get the more reluctant we get to actually get rid of the stuff. So bravo to you!

 

[mechellec]

Good job on the not needing ice packs Susie! I keep them in the freezer at work and haven't had to use them in a while but it's nice knowing they are there just in case. I love that you have Family Saturday. We have lots of family gatherings with my big kids coming home with their spouses to hang out with the rest of us and those are my very favorite times


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[Pheebs52]

I'm having a great laugh tonight reading how many here *talk* to their knees, which, IMO, is ever so much better than the knees *talking* to us. As such, I've decided to finally hang a name on mine. She will be "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine," courtesy of an old tune from 1967 by Country Joe and the Fish. This way, when I finally relent to having Number Two done, who I'm certain will be ever so much better behaved, (how could she not be?) I can call her "Sweet Loretta," courtesy of The Beatles.

 

[SusieShoes]

What's best for me, when it happens, is the "I don't need that anymore" moment when the light bulb goes on. Forgetting painkillers, because you don't need them. Forgetting to go down the stairs two feet to a step, because I don't need to... I can go down foot over foot like before the arthritis destroyed my knees. Forgetting the walker, the cane, the ice packs. When you no longer need them, they drift to the background.

What I never forget is that this recovery is difficult and takes a long time. It's important to look back and say, "Wow. That was a long road." Looking forward then doesn't seem bad at all. Today is a much better starting point than I was at all those months ago.

 

[SusieShoes]

Laughing with you, @Pheebs52. Love your knee names! My family gets on my case for not being more creative with mine. I pointed out that when I named them, I was not in a creative place. I name characters, not knees. Characters do what I tell (or coerce) them to do. Knees... don't.

 

[Thesoutherncook]

My first TKR is "Buddy" as in "Ok, Buddy, get moving! " My Grand Darling, Emmie, named #2 Emm-a-knee. And its been a darling, just like her!

 

[SusieShoes]

That is so cute! It sounds a little like enemy, but Emm-a-knee is adorable and your knee clearly agrees, Helen!

 

[Fire wolf]

Not to go off topic here, but I think Abbott and Costello would be great names, especially for those who need both done!
I am grateful that I only destroyed one of my knees, as the thought of doing this again, well....... just ugh!