80 degree bend six weeks no improvement

Hi Carol, six weeks isn't very long. Everyone is different but we all get there in the end. 80 is more than I was at six weeks. Stop worrying and give yourself a break. Your body has had a major trauma, give it time to heal.

I used to cringe every time I saw that plastic measuring thing. You can have a good guess where I would have liked to have shoved it!

Go to your GP and get your pain meds sorted. Take them on time, before the pain sets in. Ask for a stronger one to take at night to give you some sleep, that's what I did. Take your meds an hour before you exercise, so that you don't exercise in pain.

Pain meds, exercise, ice and elevation and rest. 

We are all here for you.

Caz x

Hello

I am 4 weeks post-op and my bend is 75. I am working really hard to improve this with physio and not shirking my exercises. I work every day on this. I had my first nights sleep last night since my op only waking 3 times and i feel so much better. You just need to keep pushing and working on it and it will come. If you dont then you will regress so that would be much worse. It has taken me 4 weeks to be able to lift my foot from the mattress. The lady opposite me could do that in the first week. We are so different with different histories so just know that you are doing your best and keep going. Xx

Carol, this has been the worst thing I have ever undertaken. Please don't worry - I am at 10weeks+, & I'm only measured at 80 degrees too. However - the pain started to get better about a week ago, although at night it feels like the leg is made of lead, & I physically have to pull it into the position I'd like to try & sleep in! My physio has been my salvation - I go weekly, but I'm on a cancellation list where she rings me at short notice to go in if anyone cancels, which has happened twice so far. I too felt very, very low - but on the 30th Dec, a friend died of cancer, which has put this whole thing into perspective, so I'm trying to look for positives, as I am alive! My best advice has been from someone who has been through this too, she told me to sit in a rocking chair (we nearly threw it our years ago!) & slowly rock back & forth - it REALLY hurt to start with, but now I can sit & watch a programme on TV without pain. Keep your operated foot on the ground, it really does stretch it. The other thing is to do ice - but heat also. All those muscles, ligaments & tendons have been frigged around with, since my physio told me use a wrapped up hot water bottle above the knee, massaging it every few minutes, that pain has also diminished to an acceptable level. Try it. I take the bottle to bed, place it above the knee, & actually sleep now! Hope this helps you. I despaired until I found this forum, & realised not everybody is text book!

Hi Carol

i know its hard at your stage and you wonder why you bothered.

i know I cried my eyes out most nights with the pain 

but please believe me it does get better ...you will notice a little improvement every day 

the exercises are sometimes so painful but really neccessary

before you know it you will be on here encouraging others just like I am with you

please don't despair

sleep/ exercise/ Ice / medication are the things to concentrate on right now and the bend will come.

be kind to yourself 

take care 

Jean 

Hi Carol

Can you get into the water.... a hydrotherapy pool, have the physio give you some exercises or just walk and squat in the water.    It will help so much..... but your wound must be completely healed no scabs..... good luck!   I am 10 weeks and got into the water at 6 weeks, thankfully.... so good.... relief immediate!

Cheers Carol

 

Yesterday, went to see my consultant for my follow up eight weeks after TKR.  He said I am making a text book recovery.  I have 120 degree bend but am still 3 degrees off straighening it.  I walk without sticks and have come off all medication although I do feel uncomfortable at night.  I still feel my good progress is down to cycling in the gym for twenty mins, three times a weeks.  I also use gym machines to exercise my hamstrings and quads.  I complained to my consultant that if I walk the dog over five miles I do get some discomfort the next day to which he said dismissed as most people do not walk a mile at my stage.  I also asked him if I was over doing it and he said emphatically no and said just continue as you are.  What I did not know was that he said he felt it necessary to smooth the underside of my knee cap that was badly roughed with arthritis.   I cannot recomend sitting on a bike in the gym enough.  It not only exercises the joint, it increases the blood flow speeding the healing and your bend will improve considerably. 

I am with you carol, six weeks and still can't get anywhere near the bend others have. I have Physio Monday and dreading it.  But then I have never had what others have had regards physio.   It gets me down too?  I have been to supermarket this morning and my leg was so stiff. The co codamol make me feel sick at times with headache all day so I have gone back to paracetamol which don't touch the  pain. I am seeing gp on Monday too to discuss this.  I get really panicked when I hear about others with the bend they have achieved.😔

You're lucky carol, all I get when I go to physio is being told how to walk, few leg raises and told to come back in a week or maybe two. It's bad really when you see the amount of physio that goes on in other countries. I feel that I have been left to my own devices.   I am thinking of private hydrotherapy which is going to cost a fortune