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TKR The beginning of my new life with a new knee!

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I wish you doc had a tkr and had to "suck it up." :flabber: Poor pain control is so counterproductive. I doubt you were asking to be totally pain free,but you shouldn't be miserable.
Does your pt have a super ice cuff? Mine used a system called Game Ready--it compresses and ices better than you can at home, or at least better than I can. It really helped to bring down the swelling when they used it on me.
 
@kneeper -I don't think my PT has a super ice cuff as they would have brought it out and used by now. They have these huge flexible ice mats that mold around any joint and they use those at the end of the session. I have even considered buying one from them as it is cold and more comfortable than my ice machine! I am starting to see how lack of pain control is really starting to interfere with my recovery and is actually setting me back. This morning I met my husband at the hardware store to pick out flooring for our living room and the stabbing pain that kept going through my knee actually made me stop walking several times and suck my breath in. By the time I got back to my car their was visible swelling to the back of my knee and I could barely bend my leg to get it in the car. I have my 8 week post op check up next week and I am trying to hang on until then. If he has the same attitude towards me and my pain at that appointment then I may walk away from him and consult with my primary physician about my next step. I just want to be able to do my therapy, build my strength and gain some good ROM so that I can move on with my life. Right now I feel I am stuck in a holding pattern and to be honest it sucks!!!! Thanks for your response.
 
Hey @DanaDelight,
Same thing for me, not the specifics that you are going through but major, sometimes debilitating pain, after some very positive recovery.

I finally added an avatar because, outside of being my best friend, that's how good I felt early in my recovery and intend to feel that way again.

If you remember, we are one day apart. Today marks 7 weeks for me! I see my OS, for the first time since surgery, on Thursday.

After very good ROM and walking without support at 2 1/2 weeks suddenly, for reasons beyond my understanding, I began having totally debilitating stabbing nerve pain that brought out involuntary, very scary, screams.
That particular pain seems to have lessened since my PT knew what was going on and gave me very gentle exercises to stretch and calm the Peroneal nerve. Also I received Gabapentin which seems to be helping with that particular issue.
However I'm having other very painful stabbing pain around the knee that still make me winch or cry out. So I never know if I'm going to be pain free or doing the zombie walk.

I hope you are finding answers. I've thought of you often since we are so close in recovery. Not seeing your name pop up, said to me that you were 'smooth sailing' in your pool. I'm sorry to hear otherwise.
 
@sf-slim -That stabbing pain that makes you cry out has been going on with me the past two days. Today has been the worst for me since being discharged from the hospital. When I was at therapy yesterday my knee was so swollen and angry that you could barely make out that I had a knee. The back of my knee is swollen, the outside of my quad muscle is very swollen and overall it just looks bad. My husband suggested I pick my cane up and start using it since I am walking like a zombie today. I refuse and I know it is my stubborn nature and my pride that is getting in the way. My hip has been hurting because of the way I am walking and sleeping-even with sleeping pills-has been fleeting and anything but restful! I am still doing the basic PT exercises and bending my knee when I am sitting down feels good but once I stand up the feel good description is no longer applicable. I see my OS next Tuesday and I dread it. I know after my 4 week post op check that he is not going to be happy with me or my progress and probably not sympathetic to my pain or discomfort. I am taking this one day at a time. I am sure I will get to the point when I have had enough and start looking at other options or other doctors but for now I am hanging on until next Tuesday and then I will go from there. I am relieved to hear that I am not the only one at this stage of recovery that is having difficulties. I hope that you find some relief and are able to get to a place where you feel mentally and physically like your avatar.
 
I think your husband is right about the cane. You said yourself your hip is hurting b/c of how you're walking. Go ahead and use the cane for a while--at least part of the day--until things settle down a bit. You may feel like it's a step back, but really it's just helping your body help itself.
 
What's scary is that just doing a little too much in physical therapy, would cause that kind of stabbing, gasping, piercing kind of pain. For me it was something else, but also a physical overdoing.
I would have thought that some manageable swelling, some aching could be expected, but not this level of, at times, agonizing discomfort.
I too have thought (and keep thinking) that something must be very wrong.
I hope not, and that all will calm down for you and for me, as well.
Onward,
What else can we do?
 
8 weeks and 3 days post op. Things are looking up since my last posting and I seemed to have pulled myself out of the gutter I was wallowing in. Tuesday was my 8 week check up and it went well. X-rays looked great. My OS was satisfied at my current flexion-107 and extension-0. He observed my gait and was very happy that I no longer walked like someone from The Walking Dead. I discussed "the bubble" that keeps cropping up on my knee. A few weeks ago my physical therapist and I noticed that during the course of my work out there appeared to be a bubble on the left side of my scar that was growing in size. By the end of therapy it was the size of a ping pong ball. It did not hurt and was soft and obviously fluid filled. A few hours after finishing therapy and some ice and the bubble was gone. It reappeared at the next session and each session after that. My therapist felt that there may be friction of tissues in the knee and the bubble was blood. My OS was perplexed and had me do bend and straighten while he put his hand over the area checking for the possibility of something rubbing. He couldn't find anything so we have decided to watch the area but he doesn't seemed too concerned and to be honest I am not concerned either. He asked me if I felt I was getting anything out of PT and I said yes so he said he would renew my script for another four weeks of therapy and leave it up to me to continue. He said if I did not want to continue outpatient PT then he would like for me to continue using my pool and the routine I discussed with him. He wants me to try a stationary bike because he feels it is "the purest form of exercise for a TKR patient" and continue using my flexionater. So I am taking a few days to decide what I want to do. It is tempting to ditch the formal PT because I am getting sick of blocking out two hours three days a week for PT. PT is also starting to get super boring. My therapist will tell me do calf raises in all three directions-2 sets of 12 each and then walk off to work with someone else or do something else. It will save me money not having to pay the co-pay but it isn't a financial strain so I really can't use that as a reason to stop. I don't know but I am sure I will make a decision soon. My next appointment is in two months. I discussed some of the activities that I had recently tried and his reactions were interesting to say the least. I told him I went back into the dance studio to start slowly going over a few routines. I mentioned I was in two inch heels thinking he may say don't do that and he said nothing. He told me to take it slow with some of the dance moves and try not to plant my foot on the floor and twist my leg because he doesn't want me to loosen the hardware. Makes sense to me. I told him I jumped into my swimming pool for the first time and he wanted to know what I meant by jumped. I said well I stand on the edge, push off with my feet, do a flip and land in the water. I think the do a flip comment was something I should have kept to myself! I was told not to do that again. I mentioned I went horseback riding over the weekend. He did not seem thrilled to hear that but he could not come up with a valid reason for me to stay off of a horse other than the worry that I might get thrown off. He made me promise him I would go slow and be careful with whatever I was doing and I promised him. I told him he should look at me and feel confident in his skills as a surgeon. I continued by telling him that for the last nine years my knee has kept me from doing just about everything that brought me happiness and now that I have a brand new knee I am determined to get back to the job of living and enjoying my life. He smiled, shook my hand and then told me one more time that he wanted me to go slow and be careful while I was enjoying life. I do find that I have moments when I have been on my feet for awhile or done some new activity that my knee protests by swelling up and becoming painful. That is my reminder to slow down, elevate my leg and slap some ice on it. I feel pretty good this week about my recovery but that is always subject to change depending on the weather or phase of the moon! I am still happy with my decision to have this surgery and today I feel better than I have in years!!!
 
9 weeks post op today and feeling pretty good. I made the decision to stop going to outpatient PT but I have and will continue to do the exercises at home and in my pool. I feel good about my decision but I will stress that this decision should be made on an individual basis and with the input of your OS and physical therapist. I was getting tired of doing exercises that I could do at home and having my therapists leave me to do my exercises on my own. They did spend time with me at the beginning of each session massaging my scar and stretching/bending my leg. I have no problems pushing myself and I always did at therapy by doing more repetitions or adding more weight but every time I left therapy I could barely walk because my muscles were shaking and quivering. The next morning my muscles were screaming when I got out of bed and I spent the day walking like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I just felt it was overkill. Who needs to do 72 calf raises? So, I have been following through with most of my exercises and I have the stairs that I go up and down at least 10 times a day so I know my quad muscle is getting stronger. I am in the pool just about every day and that helps my ROM tremendously. I have very little pain these days-mostly muscle cramps or little zaps-but very little pain and the same for swelling. If I stand up for long periods of time then swelling starts but I can catch it before it gets out of hand. I will say that 9 weeks after such a brutal surgery that I am pleasantly surprised at my recovery. I have had many bad days but not as many as I imagined going into this journey. I had gone through a big knee surgery years ago that required a long recovery so maybe I was a bit more prepared than if I had not had the surgery. I knew what a CPM was and I had staples and went through a lot of therapy to regain ROM. Who knows but I can say that my experience with my knee replacement was pretty good and I am happy that I had this done. I feel my knee was a gift especially because I had been told for years that I was too young and I would have to live with the pain until I was 60. My outlook on life has improved and I can see myself doing things that seemed impossible 6 months ago. Today is a good day and I hope that every day after today is good and positive for me and my knee.
 
@DanaDelight I tried to stop my therapy he talked me into continuing but I go there for only half hour and its measuring extension and rom. They are 125 rom and 0 for extension. Then just a few exercises and then a sheet of exercises to do at home!!! So I go today and Monday is my last,. But for what little they are doing I could do at home. Tuesday see OS and hopefully he will schedule second knee, I am not concern with numbers just that I can walk and be self sufficient, I am at 5 weeks today post op
 
Today is 13 weeks post op from my LTKR. I feel good, actually great. I stopped going to PT many weeks ago because the exercises were no longer of a benefit to me. I could do everything at home and felt they were just giving me "busy work". I always left therapy limping and swollen and I felt it was not productive to my recovery.

I have had very little swelling, stiffness or discomfort since I made this decision. I am sleeping well and my restless leg syndrome has disappeared. I am going up and down the stairs normally and getting in and out of my car without having to slide the seat all the way back. My knee doesn't bend quite as much as I would like but each week I see small improvements so I am in no rush to meet a certain number with my ROM.

It has been wonderful to wake up each day with no pain in my knee. This is the first time in 9 years that I can say my knee is pain free. I still have some sore spots in my knee but I only notice those if I have been on my feet for an extended period of time. The blood clot that developed in my calf after surgery has resolved so I'm off those meds.

I plan on writing a heart felt letter to the OS that refused to replace my knee but did several useless procedures on me over the years. I want him to realize that replacing the knee of a younger patient is not such a terrible thing. I am back to doing so many activities that I had given up over the years. I am down 30 pounds and have never felt better.

If you are younger and your doctor is using that as an excuse not to replace your knee I would suggest finding another doctor. Research any doctor to make sure they aren't "cut happy" but I know there will be a doctor that believes quality of life is more important than being a certain age. We wouldn't deny someone a kidney transplant because they may need another one in the future so why should a knee be any different? Be an advocate for yourself! Good luck to anyone and everyone that is coming up on their surgery. It will be okay.
 
@DanaDelight - thanks for the update and glad to hear that you are on the mend! Being a younger person facing this surgery, I can totally relate - I've had many people tell me that I shouldn't even think about it until I am basically disabled - a logic I will never understand. Thankfully, my OS firmly believes that quality of life, at any age, is paramount in this decision. Hope you are even closer to pain-free in your next update!
 
Danna, I'm so happy to hear how well you're doing. Me too. I just posted as well, I think it's really 14 weeks though since we are a day apart.
I admire you for going horseback riding. It's something I think I will always be very cautious about since that's how I damaged my knee 25 years ago which eventually led to my TKR.
Isn't it great being success stories after not such a not-so-straight line recovery.
sf
 
@sf-slim You are probably right with the 14 week remark. I am always a little behind! I am riding cautiously and will not do any jumping or other crazy maneuvers. I initially got on the horse just to say I could do it after this knee replacement but I have found myself gravitating back to riding and I may ride on a regular basis. It feels good to be doing something that was impossible for so many years.

I look back on my recovery and it was full of ups and downs but I still feel very fortunate that overall it wasn't that bad. I read about those that have had infections, unrelenting pain, and revisions and my recovery seems boring. I think for me the key to my successful recovery was listening to my body and following the signals my knee and body was giving me. Stopping physical therapy was a pivotal point in feeling better for me. I did 8 weeks of therapy and just felt that my body was being pushed to a place that wasn't productive. I went through two grueling weeks of sciatica pain because I was limping and walking awkwardly from all the pushing of pulling of my knee muscles. The day the therapist had me do 72 calf raises and I could barely walk out of the office was the turning point for me. My sciatica pain disappeared 72 hours after stopping therapy and my knee stopped swelling. I do not recommend that anyone stops PT without consulting their doctor. This was the best decision for me.

When I hit the five week mark I started doing one productive thing a day whether it was preparing dinner, folding some laundry or light housework. It helped me feel like I had a purpose each day and then a sense of accomplishment once I ended the day. I started sleeping better and we know that is so important to all of us because it eludes us for so long after surgery. I started noticing that I was able to do more every week that passed and now I am here feeling good and doing pretty much anything I want to do. I am still cautious when I stand up or go down the stairs but I have moments when I don't think about my new knee. It just feels like a strong knee that is pain free!
 
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