@brisco24 Based on the types of PT/exercises you're doing, I wouldn't be surprised if part of your problem IS the rigorous PT and Graston work. I had Graston done about 5 yrs ago, over 3 weeks time, and personally found it very uncomfortable with little benefit. :(
I've also had 2 major knee surgeries and 2 minor knee surgeries since Oct. 2015. Imagine lots of non weight-bearing for weeks on end, so I had to rebuild thighs/quads/glutes because I wanted my legs of steel back. Without a doubt, step ups/partial-leg squats/double-leg squats were (and still are!) the exercises I found most painful and irritating to my knees, even after 6-8 months post-op. I'd have extreme swelling & stiffness, especially if i did more than 1 of those exercises. My PT even said the partial leg squats and step-ups are, by far, more irritating than everything else and the likely cause of any increased swelling/irritation I was experiencing. In addition, he refuses to use Graston and does all soft-tissue work with his hands. He was able to use his hands (over 12 weeks and 30 visits) to reshape/break down the bulbous scar tissue around my right knee following my ACI (cartilage implant) surgery from 2015. It took about 10-15 minutes each session, but he said it's much safer and easier on the soft tissue than Graston. Granted, he has 15-17 yrs experience. He also admitted a lot of the newby/young PTs love their Graston tools for some reason, though he can do things just as well with his hands.
I know I'm not talking about a TKR recovery here, but everything AROUND the knees is the same, so I would think the same activities that irritate before the TKR might still do it after a TKR, knowing the soft tissues take a long time to heal.
I offer all of this only because I'm a BIG exerciser, do loads of leg-work, and love-love-love to work out----and due to my bad knee genetics, God only knows how much I've had to shell out for PT the last few yrs.
Those 150+ PT visits and conditioning workouts have taught me so much about what does and doesn't hurt/irritate though, and I had to fix my massive quad atrophy with only ball squats, leg press, and a specialized device called the KneeHab---think of a TENS unit specialized/shaped according to where the main muscles in the upper thigh/quad are located (especially the VMO muscle). It made a world of difference because so much else caused massive rebound swelling.
I guess, in the end, I've finally learned the exercises I love and see great results with are ALSO the most irritating to my arthritic knees and likely the last thing I ever get back to with my new knees. This is assuming the swelling is gone and healing is finished before I even attempt it though. So don't give up hope on the implant yet. I'd give it a month or so of easy activity before I sought advice on the implant/metal allergy possibility. I wish you the best though.
New Zealand
what's that supposed to mean? A joke, I trust?
