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TKR Turning a Corner with My New Knee

Hi @sabbath - just dropping in to give you the following information:) - This is a snapshot of where you are in the medically acknowledged healing phases.

The following is a link to an article which provides the science regarding the healing process beneath and around the implant and the approximate timeframes for our bodies healing phases and processes.

Healing Phases & Nutrition

Nutrition plays a huge part in surgical recovery, in fact it is one of the 'forgotten topics' of recovery..

This second link is to other nutritional articles which you may find interesting, including one relating to bone health.

Nutritional advice for pre op and recovery

This third link refers to my ongoing research..

nutritional-snippets-did-you-know

Feel free to tag me if you have any questions regarding nutrition.

However, I would appreciate if you (or any other member) do not request advice regards supplements as I would be breaking the Common Law Act (under which I am governed) to prescribe outside of my practice, especially via the Internet.
 
I love discovering things that don't hurt anymore!


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
well 7 weeks today,,no different then last week,,had one night l slept all night other then a bathroom break,wish it will happen again soon, went to p.t yesterday 1st. Time. 70 was my ROM,,she said she thought I had a piece of fat lodge in my joint?? All I know is l still can not walk without my walker,,I have been a advid walker right up till my operation with my brace on,now can not go 2 steps,,extra strength Tylenol every 6 hrs. Still,,hopefully a better report for 8 weeks,,To go from being active to couch bound 22 hrs aday suck,not complaining ,hanging in there,no choice,,lol
 
when you get lemons you make lemonade,,teaching myself to play the banjo,,trying to meditate plus just having time to reflect back on my life the good and the bad,making plans for when l get going again gets me thru this being immobile,taking my down time and turning it in to something when I am not thinking about my knee lol,,did not want to sound like l was crying the thread before,"this too shall pass "where did l hear that,,lol
 
Does the Walker provide balance for you or do you need it to take weight off your TKR? How often are you icing? I discovered I wasn't icing often or long enough last year after my surgery.
 
@KarriB I need it to take the weight off more then balance,,a crutch hurts more to use,,feels like my knee is not strong to support me to walk but l can stand without support,,I ice a few times a day but should do more and for longer by reading advice on here,,sometimes when I see people who had TKR after me go ahead of me,I get disappointed but it is what it is when it comes down to it,,my. Turn to shine maybe in the 8th week huh,,lol
 
I didn't have a normal recovery period, so I can't speak to what my week 7 looked like. I had an infection at week 4, a second surgery and then an imbolizer for a month. So I started bending a very straight leg a month after 2nd surgery. I just know I didn't ice enough, ice is a natural pain reliever and the best thing you can do for swelling. Because of the imbolizer I had no need of ice because I wasn't bending, without bending, my knee was sooooo skinny! Skinnier than it had ever been. As soon as I started bending, the swelling started. I challenge you to try to ice every time you're elevating and that should be every time you're sitting. After a few days to a week you may see and feel a difference.
 
Is the weakness in the muscle? Perhaps your quads aren't firing yet. They have to wake up and that can take a long time. Once quads wake up they can start getting strong again and support the joint. PT helped my quads figure out what they were there for but until knee was all fixed up there was still some lag between me asking and quads moving. Felt like I was operating a remote controlled leg for months.
 
@KYata could be right. How are your straight leg lifts? My PT had to hold my leg over my head and slowly lower it to try and revive my quads because I couldn't do leg lifts from the regular laying position.
 
I do know I can't make a leg muscle on my right leg,,where l can on my left''?
 
That's where I was. Seemed like on the surgical leg all I could feel was fat and bone! Guess part of the fat must have been completely relaxed non functional muscle though. Now when I flex my legs I feel muscles on both sides with a little bit of a gap on the inside lower thigh of the surgical leg.
 
thanks for the info,I am hoping any day that l start walking again without support,that would be a big step for me,
 
8 weeks today,,my progress report for the week,,still got swelling,,hurts off and on,,only taking Tylenol for meds. Some night l can sleep ,sometimes not,,l am still using walker full time ,,doing p.t twice a week now,,my ROM was 65 last Friday,,the lady says my leg hits a brick wall while they try bending it,,they did not force it,, l swung my front door shut last week and hit my foot on the TKR. Side,,talk about hitting a level 10 on the pain scale,,that set me back in week 7 that's for sure, Hope-ing for a better week,l do find myself singing more morning on the way to the coffee pot,,l sing bad but the dog loves it.
 
My therapist says the same thing about the brick wall with my seven week old knee!

I shrieked when the dog accidentally ran into me the other day. Ouch!

sent from my Galaxy 4
 
@tigz ,l don't feel so alone now,,thanks,,l thought the dog was going to be one of my biggest fears coming home but no its me'lol
 
Oh he's my best buddy. He knows when I'm having a pity party and I'm not even making a sound! He'll come in and sit begging to be petted as if to say pay attention to me you idiot and not yourself.

I have a doctor's appointment on Friday and manipulation will probably be the topic of discussion.
 
Sabbath hang in there - we are about 3 days apart on the surgery and i understand that frustration all to well - I would give my eye teeth for a good nights sleep at this point. Only thing i can offer as help for the ROM and walking is see if you can do that mental relax thing. It really helps i think, all our brain and nerves are doing is trying to protect us from that attack so we sorta need to reset the system again. Really hope you get some rest soon and a little more mobility. It is different for everyone on the timing but the one thing that is common to all of us is this is a marathon not a sprint to recovery. I had same worries with the dogs and called it the Dog-stacle course getting around the house, as usual they are ones who really get it and are the most supportive.
 
Hi @sabbath

I was warned by my OS that this TKR would be a slow recovery. I've a lovely home PT who pushes until I'm uncomfortable but not to the aaaarrgghh omg stage. I would not allow that. I'm doing absolutely brilliant this time around. Yes it's slow but so what. Who says I have to be running by x week?

I learnt a lot of lessons from my previous recovery. In particular about not joining the ODIC (over did it club) or you pay for that dearly. I've had a couple of major breakthroughs this week but I am no fool to this recovery and understand completely that setbacks sometimes happen.

Sabbath, don't allow yourself to become isolated if your recovery is slow. That happened to me and created no end of other problems. This time I made sure that I could recover downstairs. It was just as well I did that otherwise I'd have still been in hospital. They only agreed for me to come out because of the downstairs recliner for sleeping, toilet and wash hand basin downstairs for washing. I was unable to go up or down the hospital steps which are half the depth of the home ones. Therefore I was discharged with a physio package meaning a physio comes to my home and works with me there. She is worth her weight in gold x x x

Another thing I learnt was never to compare yourself to others! It is completely wrong. We are all individual and recovery is as individual as we are.
Catch you later x x x
 
9 weeks ,not much difference then 8 wks,,only taking Tylenol now when needed,,ROM was 73 at p.t Monday,wrapping knee with saran wrap at night,,things have not change much other then pain has lessen ,l am hoping for some changes in the next few weeks, its my turn lol
 
Hi @sabbath . I know just how you feel as my first TKR was very slow recovering. That was over 3 years ago and 5 weeks ago I had the other knee done. This time it is totally the other end of the scale and is recovering quickly. So I'm testament that no two knees recover the same. I kept a log of my ROM for my first TKR. It would get stuck on a number for weeks and then all of a sudden move. The new TKR I think is already over 110 at 5 weeks.

92 - 8 weeks post op
105 - 10 weeks
107 - 5 months
110 - 6 months
112 - 7 months
116 - 9 months
119 - 11 months
118 - 1 yr
120 - 1yr 2 months
125 - 1 yr 8 months
 
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