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TKR Two years out from October 2023 TKR

One month update:
Wow. I woke up this morning and I could tell something was different. I was laying on my side and my knee felt normal! I sat on the side of the bed and dangled my feet like I usually do before I get up and my knee felt different. Not so stiff. I stood up and walked to the kitchen and the stiffness and tightness I normally feel was so much improved! Is it getting better because I’ve upped the amount and intensity of my exercises or is it naturally happening because time is passing? l‘ll never know for sure. I’ve been up for about 90 minutes and it is starting to stiffen up a bit now. I just put the ice wrap around it and I will ice and elevate for 30 minutes. But, I’m feeling optimistic this morning after a dismal, down day yesterday. What a roller coaster ride!
I am meeting my long time friend from high school today for lunch. She had knee surgery 6 weeks before me. She has had an amazing recovery and I have been comparing my very slow recovery to hers, even though I know I shouldn’t. I sent her an email after I saw my surgeon, when I was feeling quite down and regretting this surgery. She encouraged me and suggested lunch today. So, I am looking forward to it!
@CatieViv how are you this morning? Thanks for checking on me!
 
I am good. Had a nice outing yesterday. Pushed it a bit too much but my knee has settled down so maybe that was ok. Pain has been at a minimum and I have more energy! Slow progress but we will get there! I am heading to church. I hope you have a great lunch with your friend. Those things are so needed, being with friends.
 
Dmcfad2 said:
I am meeting my long time friend from high school today for lunch. She had knee surgery 6 weeks before me.
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I hope you have a lovely lunch with your friend today. Old friends are the best!
With that said, I hope meeting with your friend who is six weeks ahead of you in recovery does not have you comparing recoveries and feeling "less than" about yours. Keep in mind we all recover differently for any number of reasons and you are only one month post op into a healing process that takes many one full year.
I hope you can make today a happy celebration about the great friendship you've sustained over all these years and not about knees.
Maybe even a toast to this special day...Happy One Month Anniversary, Debbie!!
You knocked one month down! Yay! :cheers:
 
I’m 4 weeks out now too and I also managed to sleep on my side for a short while last night :)
My partner has been so supportive of me since my op and he’s now on a weeks annual leave so we walked to the local pub this afternoon and had a couple of glasses of wine…. I’ve walked 1.5 miles which is the most I’ve walked since the op and now I’m elevating and icing while tea is being cooked….. I feel I’ve turned a corner and I really hope you have too …. Happy Sunday x :)
 
Dmcfad2 said:
I am meeting my long time friend from high school today for lunch. She had knee surgery 6 weeks before me. She has had an amazing recovery and I have been comparing my very slow recovery to hers, even though I know I shouldn’t.
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Please be careful with this. When you are struggling with the emotional roller coaster, small things can really throw you for a loop. I think it’s wonderful you’re going to see a friend and have a nice lunch out. That part is good!! But be ready to put your shields up and maybe try to talk about something besides your surgery.

I had lunch with a friend a few weeks after my surgery, and I was feeling pretty positive and optimistic that day. We had a really nice lunch. As we went to leave she said, “Wow, you’re still walking really slow! I thought you’d be doing better by now”. I was absolutely crushed. It completely changed my mood and I was depressed for days afterward.

Another time, I was really struggling and posted about it. Someone else replied, describing how great they were doing, and it completely devastated me. There was even a while when I avoided reading others’ accounts of fantastic recoveries because it just made me feel terrible.

Those were just some of my own experiences, and it might be completely different for you! But maybe try to prepare yourself anyway. You could even start right off at the beginning of your visit with something like, “I’ve been spending way too much time thinking about my surgery. Let’s talk about fun things and forget about that for a while!” Or something like that. You do you! Just have a good time and stay strong. ❤️
 
@Loulou67 I am so glad you had fun. Sounds like you are doing well.

@JusticeRider I know what you are saying. All it takes is someone saying something like that and it changes your whole outlook. That’s what happened when my surgeon told me I wasn’t where I should be. It was so discouraging for me. My friend and I actually did talk about our surgeries, probably way too much, but I discovered that she hasn’t had the miraculous recovery that I thought she had had. We are both walking slow. LOL It was a good visit and we talked about many other things, too. She is a good friend and we had a wonderful visit.

I am feeling good tonight and not hurting as much as I have been when I’ve been out and about for several hours. I’ve been icing and elevating most of the afternoon.
 
@Dmcfad2 I think you are doing amazing! You said earlier you were logging 6000+ steps? I know comparison is the thief of joy but FWIW I’m barely 1000 some days…and 1500 makes me ache and swell. It’s great you are able to do ADL’s too.

My flexion was only 90-95 at 4 weeks. I know bonesmart will say this is perfectly fine. But I do believe bonesmart would encourage patients to make their own decisions and considering various sources of information. So I will share what I did, FWIW:

I do believe in the window of opportunity. My PT and surgeon do also. But they define it as the period of being able to achieve the fastest RATE of gain. This is because the body’s normal tissue healing (which includes formation of scar tissue that gets stiffer with time) is still happening actively in the first 6-8 weeks…and this tissue is most pliable at this time.

At 2 weeks when I was barely 70, I got a caring and concerned caution from my surgeon. I trust him. He has done this for 20 years and has seen it all. He follows his patients for at least a year and often for several years helping delay surgery in the other joints, injections, etc. His wait list is huge, and he genuinely likes helping people get their active lives back. I did a lot of reading from various sources, and decided the best thing for me was to trust my surgeon and PT and rip my bandaid off quickly”, get it over with quickly (gain ROM).

So I made flexion ROM my focus for 2 weeks. I didn’t go out nor spend much time on feet…so as to minimize extra swelling. I elevated and iced lots. I used a heating pad on my thigh muscles a lot to encourage them to relax. Lots of self massage and foam rolling. Lots of work with hands and tools trying to get my kneecap gliding up and down and side to side. I did long slow prolonged flexion stretches in various positions keeping quads as relaxed as possible. I eased into it slowly, then when it felt it stretching without pain, I would go a little further. Once I hit a pain zone where I knew I could handle it for a few minutes I held it and focussed on deep breathing and staying relaxed. Sometimes I played music and sang along. I figured “hey, I pushed out my babies without any drugs so I can do this for a few minutes!”. At the end, I would feel a crackle sensation in the knee tissues, tingling. Then I went a bit further if I was feeling like a warrior.

I did this at least 2-3 times per day and just did easy pain free stretches in between to prevent stiffening up to too much.
I used a mirror and phone selfies to view progress.

I won’t lie; I did bring myself to tears a few times. This isn’t for everyone.

But- I got results. Gained 30 degrees in 2 weeks. 55 in 3 weeks. I know others can do the long slow thing successfully. But I am a super-scarring person (old injuries grew scar) with high risk of arthrofibrosis if I didn’t get my act in gear quickly before the healing tissues stiffened even more.

NSAIDS were a huge help. I decided the risk was acceptable for the short term to get me over this hump.

I know bonesmart might advise against doing it this way, but I wanted to share in case this resonates with you or anyone else. I caused no harm to myself….and now I can look back with no regret, wishing I had done more.

I have a long way to go still in this recovery. But now that I have the baseline flexion, I can get to work on tackling those stairs, and get in and out of a soaking tub easy. And spin on my bike. Strength can be gained any time. But flexibility for me was most urgent as lack of it was seriously impeding my function and progress in my recovery, my journey….and I was the one who would have to live with it.

Whatever you do, will be the right thing for you. It is your journey. And we are here to cheer you on.
 
Thank you, Fluttershy! I appreciate hearing your experience with recovery and exercise. I tend to be fairly pro-active and I don't mind pushing myself if it means better results in the long run. I think we all just have to listen to the advice we get, be as well informed as possible, and then make our own decisions. It sounds like you have paid attention to your body throughout your recovery. I am looking to have my first TKR on December 15 and have been told that I should be able to go back to online teaching from home at 5 weeks. I'm sure I'll have my own story with my own timeline, but thank you for the inspiration.
 
@Fluttershy I was very interested to read your post. Since seeing my surgeon, I have decided to push myself just a little harder. I do want to improve my flexion and I figured it couldn’t hurt. I have been doing my exercises 4x a day. I have been using a heating pad on my quads before doing heel slides in to bridges. This was recommended to me by my PT. I trust her. I have been pushing a little harder doing several different flexion exercises, as well as strength exercises and stretching. I push to the point of discomfort, take deep breaths and push just a little more. It hurts but it’s bearable. I’m almost starting to enjoy it. I want to see how far I can push myself. In the last 4 days, my flexion has increased 8°. After each set of exercises, I elevate and ice. So, it sounds a lot like what you did. I do think there is a place for gentler exercises, but for me this way is working better. Thanks for your point of view!
By the way, I just started taking NSAIDS to reduce inflammation, too.
 
Fabulous news - 8 degrees!!!!! 2 per day! I must admit, seeing rapid progress like this helped fuel my RoM obsession. And knowing I wouldn’t need this intensity forever helped also. Now I’m am on the slower gains track. Stretching is much less painful, no more tears! I do notice if I am up on my feet too much I feel much stiffer….hence I had to prioritize and accept my walking distance might have to be put on hold while I tackled ROM. Now I’m working mostly on freeing up my kneecap and getting the muscles to try to cooperate with one another!
 
I went grocery shopping this morning. Every time I go anywhere, I am always thinking about my knee, because it hurts! I am just wondering when I will be able to walk around without pain. I take Tylenol, but it doesn’t help. When I am up and doing things, my pain level is always about a 4 or 5. I can hardly wait to get home when I’m out. I hate that.
 
Dmcfad2 said:
Every time I go anywhere, I am always thinking about my knee, because it hurts! I am just wondering when I will be able to walk around without pain. I take Tylenol, but it doesn’t help. When I am up and doing things, my pain level is always about a 4 or 5.
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The fact that you are still struggling with pain at this point is really not that unusual. Are you icing and elevating often during the day? As we start to get more active, they become even more important in pain control.

You might try increasing your Tylenol dosage, because it sounds like you aren't taking enough. To get pain relief, you need to take 2 extra strength tables (500 mg each) every six hours (4 times a day). Just be sure none of your other medications contain acetaminophen because it's important not to exceed 4000 mgs/day. Also, remember that it's important to stay ahead of the pain by taking them on a regular schedule.
 
Dmcfad2 said:
I went grocery shopping this morning. Every time I go anywhere, I am always thinking about my knee, because it hurts! I am just wondering when I will be able to walk around without pain. I take Tylenol, but it doesn’t help. When I am up and doing things, my pain level is always about a 4 or 5. I can hardly wait to get home when I’m out. I hate that.
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You will be able to accomplish your grocery shopping goals. I used those motorized carts between week 3-5. Week 6 walking was comfortable without any Tylenol.
by the way I go to the same grocery store weekly. Everyone asked how I was doing! The cart was fun to drive, almost like an amusement park!
 
Mutti3 said:
The cart was fun to drive, almost like an amusement park!
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What a great way to look at it! :yay:

This early in recovery I couldn’t bend my knee enough to even try to use those carts. Then the learning curve of how to use it, since I never had.:bawl:I’m so glad I’m past those days!
 
Good Afternoon!
Good to hear you got out for a bit, sorry it ended with pain.
I don't think it's that unusual, that you're struggling with some pain at only four weeks post op. I realize pain from a hip recovery is different than from a knee recovery, but possibly you are very sensitive to pain, which I don't mean in a critical way, only that some of us have higher pain thresholds than others. Did you experience pain for weeks, or months, post your hip surgeries?
@Dmcfad2
 
I’m still taking a 4 wheeled walker (aka Rollator) on short necessary outings. It has brakes, a basket and a seat to rest. Or I use it as a footstool to elevate in a waiting area.

I’ve been told by an Internal Medicine Dr. that tylenol guidelines are now revised to 3000 mg max daily in some places….as apparently a recent study has shown than 30% of patients taking 4000 mg/day will develop elevated liver enzymes. Best to discuss prescription and non-prescription medications with your Dr and/or Pharmacist as they know your medication history and/or risks best.
 
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