8 weeks post tkr

Thanks Oldsworth, your advice. I have felt this obsession to get my knee bending to at least 125, but at 9 weeks it's only about 109. Guess I have a while to improve this. How much walking did or do you do, and how important is it to walk a lot, some say 30 mins 3 times per day!!

I would find that impossible, so

much else to do plus exercises. I really think Pts don't understand. How many have had tkrs I wonder?

Hope you are doing well, and Thanks again. Rosemary

My knee has been up and down the whole time. l found l could walk more earlier on than l could at a later date.

What l do know is that l just do what l can each day. Sometimes it is 30 minutes other times its less.

lf my knee feels good l walk as much as l can and quite quickly. My rom was excellent and then l did to much in the water which made my knee very painful and set me back a lot. So now l am working on getting it back to where it was. l am 4 months now.

My PT was good but l found he gave me different exercises each week depending on what was going on with the knee. Which became very confusing.

l will be glad when its all back to normal. What ever normal is.

Good luck with your recovery.

I had exactly the same experience, walking in a one depth swimming pool. I thought I'd be doing my knee good by exercising I'm water, but I ended up in terrible agony. This was in contrast to before the TKR, when walking in the swimming pool greatly helped to alleviate my pain. I'm now having interferential therapy and my physiotherapist only wants me to do two exercises, heel side and leg raise. He agreed when I suggested adding the heel prop to stretch my knee.

l thought that the hydro therapy would also help. Like you prior to my knee replacement it was my go to for relief and l loved it. Mine was agony also. My PT said he wasnt sure if it could have been the hydro that caused my set back.

Does the interferential therapy work ? Is it like a Tens machine.

Interested to know.

I still have the swelling, but it has hugely alleviated the pain that I was experiencing and which was caused initially by overdoing things. For example, on 2nd July, 2 days off 12 weeks in, I walked a total of around 7 miles in one day along the seafront at Blackpool, from Cleveleys to the South Shore and then back to the North Pier area, simply because I could! Biggest mistake ever. Still trying to get back to where I was before, but it's a slow job. Possibly, the swelling is reducing a bit. The main benefits is being pain free for the most part. Electric current passing through the knee meant to dissipate the fluid, which the cause of the swelling.

Hi Gillian I'm Rosemary. If you read Chico's link it could change your mind. But it does seem too much most days. I'm very lucky I have a very supportive husband who let's me do what I have to do. Yes there doesn't seem enough hours in the day as you have to spread them out. I'm supposed to be having my right knee done in December. Oh God give me strength.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

If you want to put off that second TKR, check out COOLIEF. FDA approved and people report very good results.

Yes, I have, but no, I've not changed my mind. Exercises are important. I completely accept that, but I prefer a gentler regime.

Thanks Lynda, there are so many opinions for us all. Some have said in Bonesmart that you can let your knee heal and not do ANYTHING and it will go back to the ROM all by itself! I don't go for this idea, but just goes to show how many opinions there are out there.

Thanks for replying.

I found the same thing on Bonesmart, although there was much helpful advice too. I did the first exercises I came out of hospital with religiously 3 times a day, 10 of each, although I struggled with heel slides for ages and was worried I wouldn't get my bend. Instead of doing 10 I did 3 every hour whilst sitting with my leg up until I could do 10 more easily and that worked for me. My ROM is excellent, better than before.

When I was given the second set of exercises at 6 weeks I did the shoulder bridge and that put me right back. It took me 2 weeks to recover and the advice from Bonesmart was to stop all exercises, but I knew that for me I needed to continue working on my glutes and quads to prevent them losing strength so

I just held back on the shoulder bridge for a few more weeks and carried on with some of the basic leg raises, heel slides and lifts etc.

I think the important thing is to listen to our bodies. If it hurts, don't do it. Discomfort is fine, but not pain. If you feel too tired to do something, don't. As long as you're doing something every day, that's fine. If I managed only 2 sets instead of 3 I didn't worry and sometimes I had enough energy to do more. Feeling exhausted is a sign that you're asking more than your body can give at present. Missing a set, even a day, or reducing reps will not harm you as long as you keep doing something. I wish you well through the rest of your recovery and with your other knee. I'm due to have my second in January. It was offered to me in May, but I wasn't ready for it then. We're the same age too!

Dear Lynda, thank you for your great reply. It looks as though we will be going through another knee together, mine next is December this year.

By the way, what is a shoulder bridge?

How many weeks/months are you now? I'm 9 weeks on Monday, I feel as if the ROM will never get there, it's only about 109deg. But I'm impatient.

Be well, and maybe talk soon with another problem!

I'm just over 8 months now. My knee is coming along nicely, still lets me know if I do too much and have some issues with pain on the outside of the knee that is due to the correction of my valgus knee (wore out the inside of the knee) which seems to be more troublesome than the more usual varus knee where the outside is worn. The surgeon said it could take 18 months to settle. My physio is massaging it, gives me stretches to help and it is improving slowly. The worst thing at present is my back. I have scoliosis and it's been badly affected by the new knee. I'm hoping that having the other done will help, as it's hampering my walking. 30 minutes is about my limit without a break, which I find very frustrating.

Shoulder bridge is where you lie on your back on the floor, knees bent up, press down with your feet and lift your hips up before lowering them slowly. It was ok doing them, but by the next day I had a very hot, painful and swollen knee that could barely bend or take any weight when standing from sitting. At 12 weeks my physio suggested trying with a therapy band wrapped round my knees that I pushed out against when lifting my hips and that helped. I can do them easily again now.

I hope it all goes well for you in December.