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Revision TKR Woohoo I'm starting to feel better!

Awww Nana Moon, I'm so sorry to hear about your day. You're so early in on your recovery though, so please don't get discouraged. I had many days where I thought I was doing everything right, but my knee thought otherwise. Your soft tissue and nerves are just now starting to repair themselves and come back to life. Sadly, they let us know that via pain sometimes. Hopefully icing and elevating is helping a bit but I do remember days when nothing worked. Tomorrow will be a much better day! If you are still hurting tomorrow when you have PT, tell your therapist what is going on, that you're not up to anything strenuous and that you just want to do gentle stretches. Maybe they will be able to give you a bit of a massage to help.

My day wasn't nearly as horrid as I feared. I was actually quite proud of myself. My knee hurts and is swollen, but I didn't give up. I got everything done. I did pretty well on the stairs today and even asked my PT to work with me on stairs as well. Little did I know he was going to march me outside to walk up and down the stairs coming from the parking lot! Yikes. Surprisingly enough, with all my swelling and my knee feeling as if it's about to explode from pressure, I measured at 120 ROM. Having been 'stuck' at 90 for the past 2 weeks, I feared I would never be able to increase my bend. I am very encouraged. All in all, not too shabby. As I didn't get much sleep last night, didn't get any naps today and am absolutely exhausted, I am hoping beyond hope that I can actually sleep tonight.

I hope that you are able to get some rest tonight NM and that your knee stops beating up on you. I know how upsetting it is to not be able to control what's going on or to manage the pain, but hopefully days like this will be very few and far between. xoxoxox
 
NanaMoon.....When you find yourself hurting, do NOT try to "walk it out." The pain is your body telling you that you've overdone things and you need rest, ice, elevation and pain meds on a schedule until things improve. If you're hurting, cancel your therapy for the day. It will only make things worse. No errands, no house chores. The only exercises you should do when you have a flare like this are gentle bends and stretches (like 10 times) 2-3 times a day along with walking from room to room during the day in your house (bedroom to living room to kitchen to bathroom).
 
Ah thanks DogLoverx3! I've had a bit of sleep but not much. Well done you with those stairs! I'll let you know how I get on with PT later on this morning. I sincerely hope that you get some well deserved rest after all you've gone through. Chat you later xxx
 
Jamie, thank you for that advice! I am so scared that my knee will stay bent and swollen, I think I am overdoing it. Unfortunately over here they promote enhanced recovery service. Basically this involves getting back to normal ASAP. I am now realising that this does not necessarily suit everyone as we are individual. This recovery idea resulted In me having two falls on elbow crutches whilst in hospital trying to do too much too soon! I had X-ray to check all was ok and they came back normal x

I will do as you suggest Jamie and once again I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help
 
The sleep issue does get better, i found a great app on my kindle that is like sleep hypnosis. I was a non believer at first but after a couple nights it worked great'
 
Hi kar1963, thank you for your post! Can you send me the title of that app. I would love to try it. I am in desperate need of sleep. Thank you x
 
It is deep sleep hypnosis by Erik Brown
 
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Kar1963, thank you. I will download this later. I will let you and others know if it works for me. A glimmer of hope ... Bless you x
 
Nana Moon, yikes on the 'enhanced recovery'. Please take a page from my book and know that the harder you push yourself, the slower your rehab will be. I wasn't a believer before and, like you, was terrified that if I didn't push myself to get the bend and extension right away, that it would never come. After my ridiculous day of being on my feet for far too long not even 10 days post op paired with my insistence on pushing myself, I realized that I had it all wrong. I was so swollen and stiff that I could barely move my leg. My ROM dropped from 105 to 85 and I was in more pain that I should have been in. I decided to follow the BS mantra to rest, ice & elevate for the next 4-5 days and although my ROM didn't improve in that time, the size of my knee, the pain and the tightness did. I will never be the poster child for this mantra, but I absolutely believe it. I know I still overdo it sometimes but try my best to balance that with a day or 2 of nothing following.

I PROMISE that your bend will come in due time. You're only 2.5 weeks out of surgery and to be perfectly honest, weeks 2 and 3 were my most difficult. I felt stuck and desperate to work on my ROM. The minute I stopped pushing, things started to turn around. Healing takes time and swelling takes time to diminish. It's just in the last 6 days or so that I have begun to gain ground again on my ROM. Remember what everyone says about recovery being a roller coaster with ups, downs, steps forwards and steps back.

Not sure when your next follow-up with your OS or the SA is, but talk to them about anti-inflammatories and their thoughts. Although it is debatable whether they help surgical swelling, they seem to have helped me a bit. I caution you NOT to take any sort of NSAID with aspirin though - they don't mix.

As for that pesky sleep. I was about to pass out when I got home earlier and was just about to *hopefully* drop off when a friend from out of state called. Although it was great to talk to her, I find myself wide awake at the moment. Darn.

Let me know what you think about that app if you download it! Hopefully you're sound asleep as I type this.... xo
 
Hi DogLoverx3. I hope you slept. I cat napped really. Bit anxious about this morning cos I got PT this morning. Yet again your post was reassuring and made me think thank you. I'll let you know later how the PT goes. Hope you get some sleep x
 
Don't let PT push you NanaMoon. Remember that they work for you and although it's seems strange to tell the 'expert' no, you must. Nothing hurtful. The 1st time I told my PT not to do something, he kinda laughed and I explained that I was serious. It doesn't make you a whim or mean that you're not trying. You had a bad day yesterday and you need to give your knee (and yourself) a break. Let me know how it goes.

It is 2:40am here and although I just woke up from longest stretch of sleep to date (2 hours), I am unable to fall back asleep. Hopefully I will be able to. I think some decent sleep for both of us would make a world of difference!
 
Hi Nanna Moon love the name, hope things start to go better for you now I'm just out of hospital today all a bit strange, at the moment but we will all get there
 
Hi , the PT session was ok! They didn't push me to do what I couldn't do. They have asked me to practice walking with ins elbow crutch, they have given me excersises to do as extra to try and straighten my knee. They said my right quads are weak. They also advised me to see my GP ASAP to sort out pain meds Etc xxxx chat later xxxxx
 
Hi yiayia3 lovely to hear from you. I have to say this site is worth it's weight in gold honestly. No matter what time day or night someone will always be around to support you during your journey. Nana Moon by the way is the name my cheeky grand kids gave me years ago when Alfie Moon in Eastenders had his Nanna stay with him! It's kinda stuck ha ha!

The thing I have discovered through this site is that we all progress at different paces, times, levels and that we must simply listen to our knee! This time is all about us and no one else getting back on the road to recovery in our own time and pace. There are no right or wrong timescales as we are all individual in our recovery rates!

Just remember anytime even in the early hours of the morning someone is out there to chat and support you. The American and Canadian people I have chatted with in the small hours have been truly amazing and lovely...I cannot thank them enough

Anyway good luck on your journey to recovery you are not on your own when you have this wonderful network of support. Take care yiayia3 love Nana Moon 27
 
:dancy: yey for a good PT session! Sounds like it went great! Don't worry about the weak quads thing. It took me more than 3 weeks to be able to do a leg lift. Didn't think I'd ever be able to do it. Your quads are recovering, just like everything else and they will kick back in sooner than you think. I always found practicing leg lifts while seated with my leg hanging was a bit easier at 1st. Do they also have you doing quad sets where you have your leg straight and you contract your quad to push your leg into the bed and hold for 5 seconds?

I had issues with extension as well and as you start walking a bit better with the proper gait of heal-toe, that will help stretch your hamstrings and improve your extension. That, and that horribly annoying exercise where you sit in a chair with your leg straight out on the floor and push down right above your knee with your hands and hold for 30 seconds. Yuck. Be sure to ice behind your knee when you're icing, btw as it will be sore.

I hope you're having a terrific day NanaMoon and you can get it in to see your GP soon! :)
 
My bonus was two hours sleep this afternoon ... Pure magic x hope your day is going well too xxxx
 
Haha, of course we are! :) We're having similar recoveries, just. Weeks apart and across the pond from each other! :)

so glad u were able to get a good nap in! I've been napping on and off most of today. My knee isn't too bad after yesterday, I am just not feeling very good today. Not sure what it is but I have NO energy and just don't feel right. Bleh.
 
Ah I'm so sorry you having an off day! I feel better today. The PT want me to try and use just one stick and practice that. I hope tonight is better. I am going to write down the exact time each time I wake up tonight just to see how often this is happening and calculate actual sleep time. This way I can go to my GP with facts and figures x I'm a bit brighter tonight. Hope you have a better day tomorrow xxxxx
 
I'm so glad that you're feeling better today! How's the one stick thing coming along? It took me a while to get the hang of it. I just felt more secure using my walker, but I'm better at it now after practicing. I just have to re-learn how to take normal steps again and not have to concentrate so hard to remember how to walk properly! ;-)

Good idea to chart your sleep patterns for your GP! There's no arguing with a spreadsheet. :heehee:

No clue what my deal is. Day has just gone downhill. Still feeling blecky and my knee has opted to share it's delayed reaction (and apparent displeasure) with my outings yesterday.

I hope you're able to sleep a little better tonight! xoxo
 
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