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TKR Yorkimom is ready to go...LTKR

Thanks, @gr82cu2 and @Minnie's knees. Well today I decided I had waited long enough and had to go upstairs to the computer to do bills. Before surgery I had everything paid up and even paid some ahead of time, but I just couldn't wait any longer. I type my checks on Quicken so I need the computer. Our house has 9-foot ceilings so going upstairs is a hike. There are 10 steps, a landing and then 7 more steps. I no sooner got upstairs to write checks when my neighbor came in as she went to the store for me....she is a sweetheart. Anyway of course I had to go downstairs and put the stuff away and then back upstairs to finish. After doing the bills I decided to reconcile my checking account. Of course I kept getting a warning that my McAfee had expired and my computer was at risk. I had just gotten a new subscription, but a month later my computer died so we had to get a new one and hadn't transferred it yet. So I had to call them and was on the phone for 40 minutes. But I got it done. So all in all I was upstairs at the desk for two and a half hours with my leg down. I slowly walked down the stairs and was so afraid that I might fall....not because I couldn't do it, but because my leg was screaming from being down so long and not iced. I immediately iced and elevated. Tonight my knee is still not happy. It's funny how doing something for too long can throw you off kilter. Hopefully it will be okay in the morning, but of course I have PT at 10:30. Have a good night. Anne
 
Bills! Ugh! I did that too. I paid everything before my surgery and then waited almost too long to do them again. Most of ours come in the last week of the month so at least there's that and they only need to be dealt with once a month. Most of ours are either billed to our credit card or deducted from checking automatically but I still feel I have to make sure everything is on the up and up, pay the credit card and balance the checking account.

After PT tomorrow, come home, put your leg up, rest and ice.....all. day. long! You deserve it :) Hope you feel better.
 
Hi @Yorkimom

I thought I'd drop by and see how you're doing? You seem to be doing ok but four weeks after TKR is nothing. I can't sit for too long with my leg down since my revision a few days after your TKR xxx I spend a lot of time having to ice and elevate still xxx it is so much better though xxx

Please don't overdo it. Nothing's worth that. It's a case of perhaps rethinking how we do stuff. Like taking regular breaks from the screen and walking around. I learnt a lot from my TKR and this means I'm doing the revision recovery by the book!!!

Good luck with the PT tomorrow Anne xxxx

Love Nana moon 27 xox
 
Thanks @Nana moon 27. Yesterday I certainly did overdo it and my knee has not been happy all day. I was stiff today at PT but I still did okay. I cam home and did nothing but ice and elevate. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Thanks again, Anne
 
@gr82cu2, Janet, as you can see from my previous post I followed your order and did nothing today. I hope you had a good day. Anne
 
Hi @Yorkimom, just happened upon your thread and decided to stop in and wish you well. Sorry your knee is not feeling well. It looks good though. The incision has healed nicely. Some days are good and some not so good and you are still early in the healing process. I still have my ups and downs, good days and bad days and tomorrow makes a year to the day for me. It will get better. Keep active and keep it moving. Hope tomorrow is a better day for you. Sending well wishes to you. :loveshwr::loveshwr:
 
Hi @chestnc! Thanks for stopping by. I know you are right in that there are good days and bad ones and that I am in the early stages of recovery, but sometimes I get inpatient and have to remind myself that this just takes time. And to be honest, sometimes I think that the biggest problem is that we might know how long the recovery can take, but those around us just don't understand. They think oh it's four weeks, you should be getting back to normal....NOT!!!!!!!
Happy Knee Anniversary tomorrow!!!!! Anne
 
Since you mentioned bills, I had to chime in. I received a bill from the hospital for $76,758.12 :yikes: (written as my portion, due now).The total before insurance was $95,076. Since I knew they were a preferred provider I wasn't too worried- usually they file under the wrong type of insurance. Sure enough, they had just sent out a corrected statement. Gotta love the way hospitals inflate their rates!
 
Hi @Yorkimom ,
I have just caught up with your recovery and, although you are a couple of weeks ahead of me, it seems your PT is very similar to my regime. I also do lunges, and just as you do I am encouraged to do an exercise, hold it and then try to push it just a little bit further. The hydro pool is fantastic but it is pretty easy to overdo things there as it appears easier.
Of cours, as you know by my thread, I had a serious gastro bleed which has weakened me wuite a bit an put a pause on PT for 5 days.
I went yesterday for 1hour gym, 1 hour hydro back to back and will continue this for the next 4 weeks. I feel so much better after it but quickly icing is critical. Today I did the exercise set but only once as ai'm pretty tired and depleted.
I had a THR in April 2013 and the hip,is fantastic. I put in a lot of work with intensive PT over a 4 month period and then we enjoyed an 8 week Europe trip and my hip was not a problem.
So that's my plan this time.
As to meds: NSAIDS are an absolute no no because of the bleed and I now take Somac 40 mg twice a day to protect my stomach as I have to take asprin for the next two weeks to prevent clotting.
For pain meds I do the following:
The times are approx ..depends what time I wake...5am 5mg Oxycontin, 8am 2x Panadol,
11am 1x 5mg Endone, 4pm 1x5mg Endone ( these are before and after PT)
8pm 2x Panadol. 11.30 1x10 mg Tamazapan ( for sleep) and 1x 5mg Oxycontin. if I wake in the middle of the night I might take 1x5mg Endone or 2 x Panadol.
I'm just 2 weeks out today. I don't know if that is too much or not.
I plan to wean off the Oxycontin over the next two weeks.
Like you, I get very impatient! I need to be out there getting on with my life again!
Cheers
 
Okay I need to vent, complain or whine to whoever who will listen. I know we are always encouraging each other and telling each other we need to have patience. Patience is a virtue and evidently today I just don't have it. Tomorrow will be five weeks and I know I am early in my recovery. Every day it seems that there is a different kind of pain and I get that. What is really getting to me today is that I am so tired at feeling inept. With today being an off day and no PT, I got up, showered, washed my hair and literally did nothing else the rest of the day. Just taking the shower and doing my hair wiped me out. My poor husband runs his own brick Mason business and luckily he is very busy. But this means that he is working all day, comes home and then does what needs to be done here. He leaves the house at 5:30 in the morning and gets home at 4:30. I can see he is exhausted. I have been doing wash now and do small loads so it won't be so much for me and I'll do dishes when they are in the sink, but not much other than that. Our neighbor called today and he got two chickens and was going to cook them on the grill and said he would being one over. Of course Marc and Joe would love beer cooked chicken, but just the thought of it makes me want to be sick. For dinner Joe made me a fried egg and cheese on a bagel. I could only eat half of it. Not wanting to eat is good for my weight loss, but at times it's also a curse.
Anyway I was getting up to go into bed to watch TV....Joe was sound asleep in his chair. I went into the kitchen to get my ice water for the night, etc., and there was the chicken on the kitchen counter, dirty pan, etc. You can imagine the mess. I couldn't in all good conscience go to bed with the kitchen like that. I started cleaning up the pan, etc. I could hardly finish I became so weak. I must have been breathing hard and struggling because Marc ran downstairs to see if I was okay. I told him that I was trying to clean up but couldn't finish and couldn't even look at the chicken because it was making me sick. He said he would finish for me.
I am so darn tired that I can't even do simple tasks at five weeks. My last surgery I was doing so much more at this point. I can't complain to my family because they just don't get it. Besides I'm sure they are wondering when things will back to close to normal. I am used to doing everything and this is just getting to me. I'm sorry to ramble on. Believe it or not, I already feel better just getting it out. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow is another day. Anne
 
Hello Anne

It is quite normal to get wiped out at five weeks. This surgery is major and the body has to use all of it's strength and immunity repairing itself. In the old days you'd have been in hospital 4-6 weeks and then continue slow but steady progress at home! You are just 3 days ahead of me. I am doing the things you mention and half the time have to go and lie down. Doing my hair is a monstrous chore and knocks the living day lights out of me!

Just do things very slowly. There's no need to rush anything. It's nearly done my head in this week because the vacuuming needed doing for four days which is my obsession. I cant stand non hoovered carpets..yuk!!! How I didn't just grab the vacuum I don't know. I don't wNt to undo the good work!!

Patience wears very thin with the recovery process but when you think about how many layers the surgeons cut through and disturbed, done the TKR and then put all the layers back it's a lot to fix in just five weeks. Our poor bodies have to cope both physically and mentally and with an anaesthetic, all the pain meds and the side effects of them too.

Btw I was scrubbing greasy meat tins and frying pans first thing...yuk!!!!

Don't worry Anne, you will be fine soon, honestly you will.
Love Ann xxxx
 
@Nana moon 27 thank you. I know you are right. I think I just needed to be reminded of that. I don't know what I would do without all of you. You are all a God send. Thanks again, Anne
 
It's hard sometimes though Anne. It feels like you're in a vicious circle of the same old, day in, day out. Getting tired for what we think is no good reason but actually there is xx the swelling and the constant Ice and elevation x the worst us the pain meds effect but we get used to it xx

Take care and have a pain free nightie night xxxx
love Ann xxx
 
:console2::console2::cheers::console2::console2:@Yorkimom Anne, please don't feel inept. Are you still on bloodthinners? I finished mine four days ago and I already feel a difference in energy. Not much, but I can tell. Also, be sure to get enough water and electrolytes. I slacked off a bit and I could feel it. A lot of the energy drain is just from surgery. I was waiting for my OS appt. today and put a pillow between my head and the wall to rest. When the OS came in I had my eyes closed and was about to drift off. I told him I had energy drain and he said that is to be expected at this point.

On days that I don't have to go anywhere and no one is coming over, I take a shower and put on another pair of jammies. I've even been known to go down the street in my fleece pajama pants (my son didn't care, so why take he energy to change?) for my daily walks. I spend a LOT of time in my recliner. I don't want to deceive anyone thinking I am up and running around all the time. I sit while I do laundry and brush my teeth and do my hair.

I think we're all so used to being superwoman that we can't handle not being busy. It's almost like we lose a part of ourselves during our recovery period. And we should not feel guilty or inept for that. (I know this, but I still feel like I should recover faster, too). Thank goodness we have this forum- I'd be lost without it! Here's to a happier tomorrow! :console2:
 
Hear! Hear @Yorkimom ,
As all the other replies stress, it's a long process and when you are used to being energetic and in control it's sometimes very hard to handle. Ultimate frustration.
It's great you vented and I bet if you look back at that post in a week you will be very pleasantly surprised at the progress you have made!
Cheers
Fran
 
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@Yorkimom Anne, I hope you are feeling better today! I really believe it should be mandatory for all family members to watch a video of this actual operation. Then, maybe they would have more patience, compassion and understanding for us and this recovery process. Cleaning up the kitchen, doing some laundry, everything is so much harder for us. It's not a matter of wanting or not wanting to do things. It's HARDER!! Early on, just walking from room to another is exhausting and takes a lot out of us. They don't understand that, sadly. We don't recover by leaps and bounds. It takes a lot of time and just when we have a good day and our loved ones think we are magically all better, we have a few really bad days where the energy levels are low and we hurt more. Pain is exhausting all by itself. Never mind that our bodies are pouring all our energy into healing. Trust me, at 5 weeks I would have been huffing and puffing cleaning up the kitchen too. I have no doubt. And I sure wouldn't have been happy cleaning up a mess that I didn't make from food I didn't eat or even want. Hopefully today will be a better day for you and the light at the end of the recovery tunnel just a little brighter. (((hugs)))
 
@Yorkimom I know exactly where you are coming from. Its the period that after my hip replacement I called 'the road to nowhere ' phase. The memory of the surgery and its immediate aftermath is fading from your memory, yet full recovery seems too far into the future to visualise. You don't seem to be getting better, and you cant imagine getting better and its so frustrating. This period does pass and will pass, and like @Maeve says, you have probably come further than you think.
 
@Nana moon 27, @PuppyLove, @Maeve. @TeeEm thank you all so much. And you are all right and have hit the nail on the head. My biggest problem is not that my family thinks I should be doing more. Most of the time Joe gets angry at me for trying to clean up. If I hadn't gone into the kitchen, then Joe would have just cleaned it up when he woke up. I just can't leave things undone like that. I guess that's the difference between men and women. It doesn't bother them and they will get to it eventually.
Today was a pretty good day. My neighbor took me to therapy. It was such a beautiful sunny day. But as usual once I got home, I took the dog out, had a little lunch and then slept off and on the rest of the afternoon. I felt like I was drugged. I guess I push myself so much during PT that I'm just exhausted when i get home. One good thing in PT was that I got on the bike today. I couldn't make a full rotation, but I would just go part one way and then part the other way. Christine said I don't have enough ROM yet, but it will help me get there. Progress in little steps.
Chris, I am still taking aspirin as blood thinners. I have one more week to go. Sometimes I think that is what is hindering my appetite. We got pizza for dinner. I couldn't wait to have a slice as I was so hungry. I ate half of the slice and then I was done. I know in a few months time I'll wish I had no appetite like this, but while going through it, it's the pits. The only thing that so have everyday that I really enjoy is a fountain coke. Joe stops at the store and brings one home to me everyday. It seems to settle my stomach. Thanks again everyone for your encouragement. I hope you all have a great night. Anne
 
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