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Bilateral TKR SusieShoes' New Knees

@dogluvr - I thought I was the only one with mysterious tooth pain - it's been going on a year and I had my surgery right in the middle of it. It's still going on and the dentist can find nothing. The primary says I have sinus drip but no infection, but of course since I still have knee pain 8 months post op, my worry gene is working overtime. I think most of us have heard so much about the danger of the knee attracting infection after surgery, that natural born worriers like me get a little paranoid about it. My dentist provides an envelope containing the antibiotics at each appointment to be kept for the next appointment. It's interesting how each OS has a different opinion on how long to take antibiotics. Mine says for the rest of my life, but told me that some say for only a year.
 
I also had tooth pain before surgery and worried about infection. X rays neg. He adjusted my bite. No help. I switched to a toothpaste for sensitive teeth. After a few days all pain gone. I hear the enamel can get porous over the years, and this fills the holes. No more pain. Worked for me.
 
@phrog and @Kayaknlady , so glad to see that I'm not alone in the tooth pain and worrying! My twin sister who has not had her knees done thinks I am freaking out over nothing! I tell her I have not gone through all of this to get my knees back just to have problems with them because of some tooth pain that could possibly be an infection, so I need to get it checked out. I also had my bite adjusted, and thought that did the trick, but the pain came back. I may try the sensitive toothpaste! @phrog , did your doctor recommend anything for the sinus drip? Have either of you girls had a bad or off taste along with the tooth pain ? @SusieShoes , my doctor does recommend anabiotic's before dental or other procedures. I have a recheck in February, so I will need to ask him then how long I need to continue doing so. I haven't had to jog or dodge anything yet! Thank you all for your responses!
 
Look at you with those fab new knees! Gosh I can only hope one day when I get on the floor I can get back up! Right now it is horrible, I don't even try to get down there, if I do, I have to use a pillow under the one knee and have someone help me up too.

I am not much of a high risk person, I love the beaches, visiting new towns etc. I completely feel you on the sentiments on skipping things like sky diving LOL
 
Six Months: Traipsing

I've wondered if I would ever be able to go up and down the stairs like I used to do back when... oh, when I had children at home. Or even several years ago when I would take the stairs on cruise ships rather than wait for crowded elevators. I sorta kinda remember doing things like that.

Today I took a day off writing and reorganized the clutter that our house, like most houses, built up through neglect. There were also cold weather jackets upstairs that needed moving to the downstairs coat closet and summer jackets that had to go up. That kind of thing. Which meant... stairs.

I've been ABLE to walk up and down my stairs foot over foot for months. My leg muscles were weak, though, from almost a year of going up and down using only my better knee for the lifting and bracing. One. Step. Both feet. Next. Step. It was painful. After I got my knees replaced, I was thrilled to do steps like normal. Normal, yes, but still a little awkward and slow. Stairs took a long time to reach the "do it without thinking about it" stage.

Today I caught myself--arms laden with summer jackets--at the top of the stairs and realized I had gone up them without having thought about it. I had just DONE IT. Just like that.

To most people, this would not sound like something worth talking about. But friends here will understand.

I walked up the stairs without even thinking about it! :yes!::happydance::dancy::egypdance:

Going down the stairs has been easier for me from the start. Down stepping, too, is feeling more and more natural every day. What all this means is my legs are getting stronger. Walking longer distances, going up and down the stairs more often, doing all my getting off sofa and chairs and toilets without using hands, making a point of getting out of the car the way I used to as a younger woman--not by putting both legs out first and getting out that way--is all paying off.

It takes time for muscles weakened from disuse to build back up again. Some people use gyms to do the building. I used what was at hand. One way or another, our leg muscles come back if we use them. :loveshwr:

Still working on kneeling, though. :wink:
 
Susie, you have always been and still are a super woman! Go girl!
 
Awesome, Susie, simply awesome!! Stairs are a huge issue. I think you are right that our leg muscle strength will come back whatever our chosen path is in building it back up.

I love it when occasionally I don't notice my knee. I'm not there yet on most activities, but sometimes after a couple days of rest, I'll realize I haven't noticed my leg for an hour or more, whether sitting or walking. Sounds all too brief, but it makes we want to dance a jig (but then I WOULD notice my leg!:heehee:).

I'm told the kneeling will come. It's not painful for me to get down now - but I can't do it without a pillow to cushion the my weight on the knee. And except for the occasional need to go foraging into an under the bed box, I don't see a lot of reason to attempt it.
 
Well done Susie! You are getting stronger every week - doing it your way! So awesome to be doing things without noticing - yesterday I caught myself bounding down the stairs - well maybe not bounding but going down very fast without thinking about it. I thought "cool!" Here's to an almost normal knee! :cheers:
 
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Susieshoes, what genre do you write? Oh, boy! I cannot wait to go up and down stairs free from pain. You continue to inspire.
 
Way to go, @SusieShoes! I enjoy thinking about you doing all that organizing and closet-cleaning; you are a good example that I'm not going to follow--for now. I'm dying, however, for the ease on the stairs to come! I'm still doing them with effort, and I only had one TKR.

Good thing there aren't that many things for which we must kneel! If you really want to clean your baseboards, for example, I hear they've invented some long-handled gizmo for that. :loll:
 
@PoetryChef, I write steamy romances and epic high fantasy. Some have non-traditional pairings. :scaredycat:

@Polkadot, I don’t need kneeling for housework. :loll: Mr. Shoes would concur I have never used my knees for doing floors. Neither do I need it for church. However... I’m very fond of kneeling for a certain position in my repetoire of connubial bliss, if you get my drift. :wink:
 
Oh, my. Recovery reading material for sure. Silly me! I was planning to reread a bit of Janet Evanovich.
 
@SusieShoes Looking forward to hearing how swimming goes for you. Crawl? Breast stroke? Side stroke? I'm hoping that swimming can be my winter exercise come January.
 
I've always been a crawl kind of lap swimmer, though I liked and used all strokes. I've heard/read that the frog kick used for the breast stroke is the worst (angles of stress) for new knees, and the scissor kick not much better, so I'm planning to use a float board to work on my flutter kick first. Crawl, it is.
Though I love to walk, I hope to use swimming as my winter exercise if things get icy. :snow dig:
 
Hooray, hooray for walking, stair climbing, jogging and kneeling. And with two knees no less. Hip! Hip! I'm sure you'll shine at swimming too. I've always loved side stroke and swimming on my back and I can attest that for me, at 8 months with weak quads, the frog kick and scissor kick are less comfortable after surgery that just a plain old kick. Even the plain old kick is a problem if I do more than swim a couple of widths of the pool. But- being in the pool is heavenly. Hope you get there soon!
 
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