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TKR TRKR 10/13/23 - Moving Forward with Many Detours

Good evening @Jamie and @benne68 and @Elf1, and thank you so much for your feedback. Yes, @Jamie, the neurosurgeon is doing bilateral hemilaminectomy (his term), and I'm relieved. I'll have to get injections once every six months from an endocrinologist yet making an appointment in the near future is difficult. Probably best to wait until I've healed from the surgery.

Thank you @benne68 for sharing. I'm glad you're feeling better and that surgery helped you. I'm hoping for no more lower back and nerve pain. It was mentioned earlier that I start my own thread; I've found some posts from members who mentioned spine surgeries yet no threads. I'll look at the Spine Forum as I was looking in this forum. I also have spondylolisthesis @Elf1 and disc degeneration, scoliosis and other abnormalities.

Things are looking up as I feel very positive about the surgeon and his office. He knew what I was going to say Wednesday before I said it as his staff conveyed my messages. I thought of getting an assortment of cookies on a platter for the office staff as despite all my phone calls and questions and probably repeating questions, they and the surgeon are kind, understanding, patient and aware spine surgery is frightening. I'm grateful he accepted me as a patient and look forward to feeling bette

My knee is good until I go to physical therapy, which was yesterday. I'm careful and only walk downstairs when necessary. It still hurts a tiny bit at the bottom of the tendon, yet I'm suprised I can put my op leg's foot full on the step. Maybe the scar tissue procedure worked.

PT exercises include standing on tiptoe, which agitates my knee, tenses my quad and feels like the early post op days before my quad fired. One exercise is laying on the table with my knees bent, arms crossed over my chest, then I raise my head and shoulders slightly, or I lay with my legs straight and raise one leg slowly a few inches off the table. Ouch. She's in her 30s, I'm 67-1/2 (in two weeks), and she's agile, I'm not. She got frustrated and asked how I stand in the kitchen when I'm cooking. I told her I sometimes lean on the table with my elbow and shift my weight to my left leg.

The exercises I do at home are much the same as those at PT. I may stop after Monday if she continues with the same routine. For the most part I'm feeling positive and have much to to in the next two and one-half weeks.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend. :) :-) (:
 
Hope everyone had a good day. Today was productive, not a lot of overdoing it, just routine things. Yet right now I'm sitting with castor oil covered with plastic wrap and a towel on my knee, waiting for the heating pad to warm up. Back to basics until this feels better. Monday I'm checking to see how many more times I need PT to satisfy Medicare's requirement, then I'm stopping.
 
There is no Medicare requirement for your PT.

The physician prescribes. The PT requests x weeks of coverage. That just means it's available to you!
 
The days are passing so quickly, and there's too much to do. I went to PT Monday and had a different therapist, who put moist heat on my back and on my knee. Then he started in with exercises, and when I said they bother my back and my knee, he told me they're supposed to be a little painful. Nope. I'm going tomorrow (Thursday) to complete an evaluation, and I want to make sure the facility will send my surgeon a report. He (surgeon) already knows it's not helping; four times is enough.

No PT means more time to get things done.
 
I agree that you don’t need therapy that is not beneficial. Knowing you have back issues, it makes sense that therapy might not be the best for you right now.
 
You are smart to listen to your body and push back on PT, @dubloosh. I pray that your upcoming laminotomy brings you relief.
 
Hi @Jamie and @benne68, the days are flying by. Thank you for your good wishes. The anterior and lateral sides of my knee are very painful today (rainy and damp outside), probably a combination of fibromyalgia and compressed nerves. I was thinking of seeing my ortho surgeon about this yet what would he tell me? My knee is in alignment, I'm 18 months post op, and squatting is not helpful. Some days are effortlessly painfree. Hoping for more of these. Enjoy your week. April flowers are appearing.
 
You are right. This pain is not something you should see your surgeon about. He’s primarily interested in the implant itself. Should any pain you have continue and be constant (i.e., when I do “this” it hurts) or get worse then you might need to see someone.
 
Hi @Jamie, I'm sorry it's been one week since I was here. Thank you for your reply. I got my answer last night when the pain management doctor called to see how I'm doing. I'd emailed him the epidurals were short-lived and that I'm having surgery April 17, then asked him about patellar pain. He said it's from my back as the L4 nerve travels down through the knee and quad. Funny that today I have hardly any pain though Tylenol is the only pain medicine I'm allowed one week prior to surgery. I'm looking forward to feeling better.
 
Thanks for letting me know the latest. Sounds like a good pain management guy you have! Hopefully your surgery will make a big difference.
 
Hi @Jamie, sorry it's been a while since my last post. Maybe it's a good idea to also join the spine section. Back surgery was last Thursday, and it was, well, I was glad to get home. No fusion due to low bone density; L4 and L5 were decompressed. Because I'm not allowed ibupfrofen until tomorrow, my op knee feels inflamed though probably isn't as I can walk downstairs easily. I hadn't realized decompressed nerves take time to feel better; this will be a long recovery. I continue doing knee exercises at home and hope the inflammation goes away.
 
Welcome back home! I hope the decompression even without fusion will give the relief you need. I agree that a new thread in the spine forum would be a good idea so that others can read about your spine journey. It would be difficult to find that in your knee thread.

It’s good news that your knee is functioning okay after the spine surgery. These things are all connected, so it’s possible that you may have some knee involvement as the spine nerves heal from the compression. Do the doctors have you on any medication for pain? I would think you could take Extra Strength Tylenol even if you cannot take the NSAID right now.
 
Thank you @Jamie. The decompression has helped; the early post op relief was most likely from the epidural still in my system. Today I walked about one mile slowly to get exercise, and now I'm paying for it. My right knee from quad to calf is tight as anything. I'm not sure if this is a normal result after decompression. My ankle and foot aren't tight, and neither is my other leg. Tomorrow I see my PCP per surgeon's request, and next week I see my surgeon. Knee has no pain, not even tendon pain, just tightness. I'm on a muscle relaxant and Extra Strength Tylenol (forgot to mention). Tomorrow I'm allowed to start 15 mg Meloxicam.
 
That sounds like a good plan. Let us know how things go.
 
Best Wishes for you recovery from the decompression, dubloosh!
I hope you sleep well tonight.
 
Hi @Layla and thank you. Lots of pillow help. So far it's been challenging. My knee is more painful; that may be nerves. I don't want to wait and am sending a note to the NP. Other than this I feel good - hopefully no stiffness tonight - and hope to be cleared to drive next week.
 
Being able to drive will be a big plus in your freedoms! I felt like I was out of jail when I was able to first drive after my TKR!
 
Good Sunday afternoon. Went to PCP, she took a picture of the incision, looks good, sent same to my surgeon's office. This is a challenge far greater than my knee, which is still stiff. It may be this way. Please tell me where I can find others here on spine recovery journeys, and thank you.
 
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