TKR Suz's Recovery Journey

[hikergirl]

Suz-I really love reading your posts. Our surgeries were done just several days apart and it's nice to share the journey of your recovery. I was another who did not properly educate myself on what to expect after surgery. I will be 6 weeks post op this Monday and am still really struggling with being exhausted. I know it is still considered early days, but I was really in good shape prior to the surgery and thought I would recover so much faster. Reading the posts of you and others helps so much and I also love hearing about your farm life. Just wanted to say thanks for all your shares

 

[kneeper]

Just catching up on your thread @Suz Sounds like you overdid it big time with the jam making. Try to elevate and ice the heck out of that knee. I know for my 2nd knee my PT used a GameReady ice machine with compression and it helped get that swelling down measureably over the course of a few weeks. And I iced a lot at home. If swelling is your problem, you should see some gains in bend if you give the knee a break and are religious with the icing.

I like that your doc apologized for the med mixup and is keeping a close eye on you.

 

[Suz]

Hi Lynn @LFitz, Kim @lovetocookandsew, @Creek lady & Marian @newlybionic! What a nice surprise to find your messages this morning! The Father's Day festivities have kept me off of the computer for the past few days!

I'm getting along really good. Still no pain walking on my new knee but I have sore leg muscles from moving around after being a 'recliner potato' for 6wks, as a dear friend put it to me recently!

Today marks 7wks for me and 6wks for you Lynn! I am so thankful to have turned the first big corner out of the placement of the new knee pain! I hope you have or will soon! Now my focus is keeping myself rested in order to manage this swelling better!

Now that I've seen that I 'can' do my cherished kitchen hobbies again I've resolved myself to light activities with the hope this ROM will soon return. At any rate, I'm patient and happy I can get around without my cane now! And I'm not thinking much at all about the next appt. with my surgeon on the 28th. I'll deal with it on the 28th, haha!

Thanks so much for stopping by sweet bonesmart friends of mine!

 

[tjcteacher]

Great to hear that things are good!

 

[Suz]

Just thought I would give a little 'shout-out' to those going through the early days of your TKR recovery. When I was at 2wks out from surgery, I thought I would never find my way to normalcy again. Those days seem to linger on & on and all I could hope for was encouraging posts here on bonesmart to assure me I would survive this. My knee looked like this in those first weeks:



I kept reading bonesmart staying faithful to the mantra's. Had a great time running PT off- LOL! In a few more weeks I found myself at 4wks out and began moving around a little better. Graduated myself from the walker to the cane full-time! That was fun, especially when I found myself in the kitchen without my cane and slowly walking back to retrieve it. Here's my knee at that time: (Some of my steri-strips had not fallen off as the home nurse said they would. I became impatient and pulled some off of the top of the scar and was concerned I shouldn't have as you can see a gap in the sides of my incision. I came here to share my concerns & Josephine (forum nurse) and others assured me it was quite alright to remove 'all' of the ster-strips, I was SO happy!



3wks later (7wks) and I am PROUD to share my TKR scar. I'm hoping this will assure those of you early in your recovery that you WILL arrive at a better place. And if you're thinking today that it will take forever, I look back and think- well, that 7wks went pretty quick! Hang in there- and read posts here in the forum as much as you feel up to it! There are some wonderful members here long after their TKR giving their time freely to answer your questions and encourage you forward! Thanks to all of you who have helped me get to my sweet TKR & scar recovery-!! I'm so proud of her- haha!!

 

[uva55]

Thank you Suzie, I know that when we have a challenging day it's hard to see the silver lining on that dark cloud, but that's what great about BS, we get to read stories of people like you and we know that better days are around the corner...I'm so happy that you are doing well By the way your scar looks great!!!

 

[tjcteacher]

Your scar looks great-I am pleased how mine is coming along. I've been out in the sun and trying to always remember to put sunscreen on the scars. The doctor said if I got sun on them they would stay pink longer! Don't want that!

 

[Suz]

They look GREAT @tjcteacher! SO glad you are doing so well. You are only 6-days ahead of me and had BILATERAL TKR's!! You are so much more of a woman than me!!

Congratulations on your awesome recovery!

 

[tjcteacher]

Luck of the draw my friend!

 

[Suz]

I think it has more to do with a very strong & positive mind set myself!!

 

[LFitz]

Suz your incision has healed beautifully. I'm really pleased with mine to I think it looks great. Glad to read you are enjoying your kitchen and just puttering around and working on reducing the swelling. You are doing everything right it will all be good


Sent from my iPad using BoneSmart Forum

 

[lovetocookandsew]

Your scar is looking great! You seem to be moving along well.

 

[newlybionic]

I'm glad you are starting to get back into your normal life. I'm 3 months out tomorrow and went back to work for 10 hours today with just some swelling to show from it. You are halfway there now. It will only get better and you will start to find yourself just starting to do more and more without thinking about it.

 

[Suz]

I'm certainly not hyper-focused on my knee like I have been Marian! I've been reading your thread and am happy things are improving for you as well! Enjoy your day off tomorrow!! = )

 

[LFitz]

Suz I saw how your rom jumped, so happy for you!looking forward to reading so many more wonderful bits of news.

 

[Suz]

Ha-Ha @LFitz, Lynn! Funny how things can change when someone mentions surgery (MUA) to me! I just now saw in your thread how your MUA wasn't as enjoyable as I had thought in reading your most recent post regarding it. So now I'm back to avoiding it like the plague- chanting everywhere I go.. Bend Knee Bend! LOL!!!

 

[Suz]

I'm so happy I just HAD to come share my good news! My OS told me on the 14th of this month that because of my low flexion, 50*s at 6wks, I was probably looking at an MUA to correct it. I came home so not wanting to go through that.

I decided to give PT a try, on MY terms, and have since had 2 sessions. At my first visit my flexion was 57*s. My second visit was 3 days later, this past Monday, and they found me at 87*s! I was thrilled with the 30* increase in such a short time!

I had an appointment today but woke up this morning not feeling well and cancelled. I did manage to get in some light stretches throughout the day.

I decided just now that even though I didn't go to PT today it would be interesting to measure my ROM and see if there has been any improvement.

OMG.. DRUM ROLL... just now it measured, with the goniometer I learned about here on Bonesmart, 95*'s-!!!!!!

I'm SO excited!!! = ) And it's only going to increase because I'm recovering my knee the Bonesmart way-!!

 

[tjcteacher]

That is amazing news!!!!!!

 

[sistersinhim]

Yippeee! The BoneSmart way is the only way!! You just leave it alone and it will come.

 

[newlybionic]

And take a bow!