Additional "Fun" to Go With Left TKR Recovery

Thanks. Everyone has laughed, but not in a mean way. It has already had an impact on my knee though. I just cannot walk correctly now.

Thanks Cheryl.

I put cotton between both toes and taped them together. It just makes it difficult to walk properly. I can already feel the difference in my knee!

Luckily I have a lot of PT visits covered by my insurance.

You will be fine. Just check in with your doctor if you notice anything that just FEELS "wrong".

Thanks Cheryl. I appreciate the encouragement!

Sure thing!

Just be careful not to whack it again!

Congratulations on your bend. At 14 weeks I just achieved 107. It takes the swelling to go down and STAY DOWN to get moving on the bend. I will be working on it with BOTH KNEES soon because I have surgery on my right knee in four more days.

We all can have a BEND PARTY!!!

I am a bit hesitant about smacking it again! LOL

They couldn't get my bend any further today, so they applied kinesiology tape to hopefully reduce the swelling.

I live in fear that my doctor will want to drain it!

A bend party sounds great!!

I had good results wrapping my leg in the bandages I had coming home from the hospital. I started at the foot and did it firmly and wrapped it less firmly as I went up.

I wore these during the night and felt MUCH BETTER in the morning with less swelling during the day.

After awhile I didn't have the swelling.

Try drinking lots of water. Somehow that really helps to reduce swelling. Sounds like it would make things WORSE, but it doesn't!

What type of bandages were they? Might be something to try.

Yes, I do need to up my water intake. I am bad about that. Good reminder!

Just the elastic ones like ace bandages that have some elastic in them. You can loosen or tighten as needed. The compression worked much better with bandages than with stockings which were VERY UNCOMFORTABLE for me.

Elevate and use ice. All can help.

My surgeon says EXPECT some swelling for UP TO A YEAR! Crazy, huh??!!!!!

Thanks! I will pick up some tomorrow after work. Maybe that can even help me sleep.

At PT I was told to cut back on icing, which I have done. I am thinking that I should pick that up a bit more again.

Swelling up to a year?! Yikes! But maybe that means I don't need to be worrying about the draining.

The swelling thing is weird, and it seems that each individual has different experiences with it. I had one point about five weeks in when we had a five hour round trip to a funeral in our car. I brought ice in a cooler and my polar fleece throw because icing makes me COLD ALL OVER. My surgical leg swelled and so did my OTHER one!

It was three days until that bad swelling went down. I iced and used the bandages and drank water like a fiend. Maybe I was also reacting to the stress. (This was an unexpected death of a very close friend.) I wouldn't have missed going for the world, but I surely did pay the price for the car trip, climbing up about thirty steps to the church sanctuary, and sitting without elevating my legs during the service.

Also, around that time I tried to get some suitable shoes that fit. My leg had swollen so bad I had one choice of shoe...a NIKE MEN'S slip-on sandal with an adjustable Velcro front!

After this CRAZY swelling episode, the bandaging, drinking water, ELEVATING, ELEVATING, ELEVATING of both my legs, I never had such awful swelling again.

My legs both swell a bit from time to time now, but it is minimal compared to that episode.

Another thing that has helped is this cool machine they have at PT. It is called a "Game Ready" device, and they recently got two of them. They have this blanket-like wrap that goes around your leg and secures with Velcro. Then they connect it to the device that sends cool water through the wrap. Also, the COMPRESSION can be adjusted from low, to medium to high. They started me at ten minutes on low, but it wasn't much. I then did medium for several sessions of PT. Eventually I went to high for 15 minutes. That was PERFECT! It is AWESOME following an hour of PT! The cooling PLUS compression really feels good.

I think the compression bandages plus ice will help you a lot!

I did have success with the ace bandages, although it was difficult having it touching my knee. But my leg felt so much better in the morning!

I love the sound of the wrap thing you describe. There isn't anything like that I have seen where I go, but I am going to ask at my next appointment.

My foot has been swelling a bit. When I get home from work my leg and foot just ache so much!