PKR Tired of pain

[Roy Gardiner]

My thigh hurts, my calf hurts, my knee hurts. So tired of exercising the knee.

Are you overdoing the exercise? Doing too much can slow recovery.

 

[SuperSnapper]

I had a PKR a year ago and agree with Roy that perhaps you have done and continue to do too much exercise on your new knee. I did almost no formal PT, totally ditched the "no Pain no Gain" stuff and my knee has recovered really well. Could you take a few weeks break from the exercises, just live your normal life with the daily movement that comes with that and see how your PKR responds? After all, what you are doing now does not appear to be freeing you from pain.

Best wishes

 

[New England Librarian]

Hi @ghoffman0102 - I hear ya! I am just past 10 weeks and still need pain medication at night. Yesterday I did too much (PT plus shopping), and joined what the BoneSmarties call the "ODIC" (overdid it club")! Had to take pain meds at bedtime and again in at 6 am.

As you read more posts here, you will see that continued pain, while not universal, seems to be completely normal at this stage. Also a lot of members say that they hold on to their pain meds "just in case", so it's not unusual to need them occasionally - and nobody wants to suffer through the pain without them! Some of the surgeons tell patients up front that full recovery can take from 6 months to a year - the others don't inform their patients of this until they get pain complaints at the 3 or 4 month checkup .

Hang in there and you will find tremendous support on this terrific site.

 

[Jamie]

I'm sorry you're feeling frustrated. We all feel that way at times, but it's important to realize that recovery occurs over many months for most people. A majority of folks don't feel like things are getting back to normal until about the 6-month mark. Even then, you can have pain, stiffness, and swelling for a year or more. This is major surgery and it takes time.

One factor in your case is that you have pushed yourself from the very beginning. If you'll read back through your thread (I merged your latest thread with your original recovery thread so we can keep your entire story in one place), you'll see the impact of all that early activity on your recovery. Pushing like this can slow things down.

You mention exercises.....if you're back at work, you need to stop with any knee exercises. You get more than enough with everyday life. You should be spending as much time as possible with your knee elevated and iced. Don't do anything that isn't necessary. You are still healing!

 

[ghoffman0102]

I was in PT with a 70 year old woman. She really worked it and was walking without a cane in two weeks. I guess I'm comparing myself to others. I want my legs to be really strong. I want to climb and dance again, etc. Everyone here believes in exercising daily.....squats, leg presses, bike, walking. Feel pulled in two directions. And the knee buckled again today. First time since two weeks in.


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[newlybionic]

Don't compare yourself with anyone else. Your knee before the surgery could have been much worse than yours was. It is totally frustrating but I'm sure we'll all make it there in the end.

 

[Celle]

I was in PT with a 70 year old woman. She really worked it and was walking without a cane in two weeks. I guess I'm comparing myself to others. I want my legs to be really strong. I want to climb and dance again, etc. Everyone here believes in exercising daily.....squats, leg presses, bike, walking. Feel pulled in two directions. And the knee buckled again today. First time since two weeks in.

Don't compare yourself to what a 70-year old is doing. For some reason (and I don't know what it is), some older people do seem to recover more easily. Of course, you don't know what her knee was like before her surgery. It could well have been less damaged than yours was.

Your legs will be strong again and you will be able to do all the things you want to - but all in good time.

Complete healing takes a full year. Nothing you do will speed that up, but doing too much can slow it down.
It's still less than 3 months since your surgery and that's far too soon to be doing lots of strengthening.
Your knee needs to be well on the road to healing before you start strengthening exercises.

You really don't have to work hard in order for your knee to recover either full function or strength. All that exercise makes you feel as if you're doing something to help, but it isn't really necessary. Your knee will recover anyway, as long as you don't do anything to prevent it.

Squats and leg presses are really bad for recovering knees. They put far too much stress on the knee, so please don't do them.

As you've been working since quite early in your recovery, I think that was more than enough exercise for your knee, without adding exercises.

What you've been doing until now obviously hasn't worked well for your knee, so you have nothing to lose by trying something different:

• Stop all the exercising and just let the activities of your daily life be all the exercise you knees get. Believe me, that will be enough!
• When you're at home, continue to rest, ice and elevate your knee.
• Continue to use a stick or other walking aid, until your knee doesn't buckle any more.

Try that for a month and see how you get on.

 

[Clipless]

@ghoffman0102 , are you still doing outpatient PT? If so, why don't you stop for a few weeks and let your knee rest? You will get enough "exercise" from going to work and other activities of daily living. When you feel better, you can add in a few straight leg raises, etc. My LTKR recovery, like yours, seemed very slow with a lot of aching, swelling, and stiffness, but if you read up on the TKR recovery process that's still within the range of normal. It helps to put your leg up occasionally during the day with an ice pack, even if only 10 minutes at a time. I know that patience is difficult to muster when you're hurting, but you'll be amazed how much better you will feel 3 months from now, and then 6. Listen to your knee- it will let you know when it's ready to increase activity and work on strengthening.

Do you sleep well at night? Did you decide to hold off on your left knee replacement?

 

[Roy Gardiner]

Everyone here believes in exercising daily.....squats, leg presses, bike, walking.

Well I'm afraid everyone on BoneSmart doesn't.

Your knee has been severely traumatised by surgery. It's damaged needing healing, not weak needing training. You can't train damaged tissue, it simply makes the damage worse. For mobilityh you (mighe) need gentle stretching exercises that don't put force through the knee. When healing is well under way, then think about training.

 

[Josephine]

So tired of exercising the knee.

Then stop doing them! The "working hard to get ROM" is a myth anyway.

I recommend you read my recovery threads to see how little exercising I did!
First knee. Knee recovery - UK style
Second knee. Josephine's 2nd knee story - short version where I did even less!