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TKR TKR 4/6 pain lifting bent leg

Maybe you should try the cane again, I used mine for several months, and even longer, when I knew I’d be on uneven ground. It gave me support and confidence.
 
You WILL get there! This is a crazy roller coaster recovery. I had my last surgery before you and I still occasionally pick up the cane. If you’re hurting or unsteady, listen to the advice here. No shame in using a walking aid - better than chancing a tumble!
 
Today was my 12 week follow up, surgeon was happy with my progress, said the same as I have read here, recovery can take 12 months. Neither he nor my PT ever measured, but I am happy where I am at with extension and ROM. Guessing extension 0 and ROM maybe 110 or 115.
Still have sometimes aches, popping, clicking, tightness, but he said it will get better.
I also showed him the problem I have with doing a side leg lift with a bent knee. He said it is probably due to muscles guarding because of pain, and that it will get better with time and as my strength improves. So overall I am feeling relieved and not so worried anymore.
Today I was actually able to step into my pants getting dressed this morning. Juhu. Instead of having to sit down to put them on. Also my gait seems to get better, maybe those muscles are finally letting up.
Now the next hurdle is going back to work in 2 weeks.
 
Sounds like you are progressing well! Keep up the good work!
 
Hi Gardenplotter,

I literally feel your pain.

I am also young for this type of surgery and here almost at week 19 I was and am still very impatient with the progress.

I overdo it on a minute by minute basis it would seem. Right now I have stiffness and pain - nothing to really worry about, just frustrating.

BUT - think about the things you can do now that you couldn't do before. At least that's how it's been for me. I still can't really kneel without knee pads for any real amount of time. But I work on it in the pool and someday it will be fine - I wish that was today but if it's a year I am okay with that!

I get odd pains but knowing the anatomy is very helpful so I can isolate what I made mad and how to not do "that" again. Sometimes it's just growing pains as my bones and muscles remodel to having straight legs.

I haven' experienced a lot of hip or back pain that I thought I would - perhaps being young has it advantages =).

Merlin
 
Indeed, I also have a couple of numb places, too: on the outside of my leg and just adjacent to the incision on the outside. One person told me it's the nerves needing to reconnect and reattach where they need to be that makes it numb. My older TKR leg still has a numb patch on the quad just above my knee, but it's way less than it was right after that surgery in 2016. I suspect the itchiness is also a symptom of nerves healing... they just are acting up a bit!

Nerves take a long time to heal and recover from any type of assault, it seems. So, I've sort of taken the numbness in stride, figuring it will improve over time as the one on my old TKR knee has done.

I also have an odd gait thing going on, too: my new TKR leg has seemed to be restricted from forward motion, and the muscles in the inner thigh that wrap up and around to the hip (the sartorius muscle, I think it is) are cramped, it feels like, not allowing my leg to move, because of their long-practiced pre-surgery restriction. I had an orthopedic massage therapist work on it a week ago, and it was much improved after that. She held onto my upper thigh and stretched and held my knee, in a strong, and really delicious stretch! I was actually surprised it felt so good, but it's as if that muscle knew I needed that stretch. It was actually much improved after that, although it has gone back a bit into its tighter posture, but I hope it will stay more stretched for a while to allow me a better walking pace.
 
12 and a half weeks post OP and something new again that worries me. I just need some reassurance that this is still par for the course?

So after waking up this morning I took a few steps and wham pain shooting down my shin to the top of my foot. It caught me of guard and was pretty intense. It went away in a few seconds, but of course I tried to figure out what causes it. So it’s not every step I take, only once so often. It happens at the end of my stride when lifting the toes up to bring the foot forward again.
Also happens when I turn to the left without completely lifting my foot of the ground.
Are these the dreaded zingers?

Also am I doing enough exercises? When reading some posts here I feel like I am not doing enough at this stage. I hop on the exercise bike with very low resistance for 10 to 15 minutes in the morning and do my stretches (hamstring, calf and for flexion). Sometimes I will do some squats and leg-lifts, depending on how my knee feels. Then everything else is just ADL. We live in a bi-level, so going up and down steps a couple times a day and cooking and straightening up, some days some shopping, but not every day. :nah:
 
My zingers were mostly concentrated right at the knee. If this new pain continues to happen, give your surgeon a call, just to let him/her know.

You are doing plenty of exercises and daily activities, you don’t need any more. If you want to do more, and can handle it, that’s fine. What you mostly need is Time. Time to heal, and complete healing takes an average of a year. :console2:
 
I agree with Sisterpat, you don’t need those squats, or even the leg raises, at this point. Heal first, strengthen later.
 
So I had to go grocery shopping 2 stores, and it was not too bad. It seems I really have to pay extra attention to how I walk. Making sure to tighten the muscles and engaging the hamstring and calf — my problem areas. Now I’m icing and took Tylenol. I am going to take your advice and just take it easy for a little while.

Also I just need to vent a little, it’s so frustrating having family and friends tell me I should be further along, the first question my husband (who is very athletic) asks me when he comes home is if I did my exercises. He works in the OR and is around surgeons all day long and they tell him it is sooo important to keep up with the exercise. Of course he listens to them and not to what I have read here.
Thanks for listening. :gaah:
 
My husband was an athlete, too, and he felt the same way. We had many discussions about the Bonesmart approach and to be honest, I’m not sure he ever fully came on board with this approach to recovery/rehab, especially since just about everyone we came in contact with outside of Bonesmart told us to ”do your exercises!” In the end he realized I had to make my own decision about how I would recover.
 
Gardenplotter said:
Also I just need to vent a little, it’s so frustrating having family and friends tell me I should be further along, the first question my husband (who is very athletic) asks me when he comes home is if I did my exercises. He works in the OR and is around surgeons all day long and they tell him it is sooo important to keep up with the exercise. Of course he listens to them and not to what I have read here.
Thanks for listening. :gaah:
Click to expand...
I think they're afraid we're going to sit around and never move at all. :umm:

As @Roy Gardiner would say, you're not in training for the Olympics. :running:

I really encourage you not to do the squats. (I'm pretty sure you said you were backing off of those.) I likely gave myself tendonitis that way with knee #1 when I was trying to be compliant with the PT--at the very least I gave myself needless pain.
I refused squats with knee #2. I focused on ADLs and other less stressful ways of strengthening gradually and it healed like a dream.

By 12 weeks you are using the knee in your daily activities and that is like doing PT at this stage of recovery. At 12 weeks I was back at work and I would still get stiff and sore after spending time on my feet but the "recovery time" gradually decreased.
 
You’ve gotten some great advice here and it looks like you are ready to jump onboard - well, maybe not JUMP :heehee: !
Don’t apologize for venting! We all need to do that. Jockette, if I had a dime for everyone who said “DO YOUR EXERCISES” I’d be a rich woman today. Old ways and habits sure die hard! Gardenplotter, I would just smile at those folks (including your dear hubby) and say, “Yep, exercises done.“. (They’re DONE all right!). There are too many success stories here to doubt this way works. Hang in there. We all understand.
 
Thank you all for your great advice, it makes sense to me. I will take it easier and let go of the squats, just ADL and some bike if I feel I was too lazy.
@kneeper, I am going back to work in 10 days, and my job is somewhat physical, does involve lifting of boxes, moving pallets with a pallet jack and moving rolling equipment weighing hundreds of pounds. But that is not all the time, there is also data entry and office work involved. I would say the physical part takes up 15 % of the day.
I should be able to do it, as long as I can walk.
Thank you all for the pep talk, I needed it.:tada:
 
@Gardenplotter Here's a question to ask your husband: "Of all the surgeons you work with, how many have actually HAD a knee replacement?" My hunch would be that none of them have so their only "knowledge" of post replacement recovery is from text books and alas those are often way behind the times as well as being written by other doctors who have not had replacements!
 
ADL’s in a split level gives you plenty of activity no need to add more. You aren’t even going to want to do those when you return to work, Which is fine, I needed a lot of ice and elevation in the evening when I returned to work.
 
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