compare someone else

You are doing fine. Everyone heals differently. I was one of the slow ones and at a year am starting to feel pretty normal. At 5 weeks I was still miserable. Keep at the exercises and you will improve over time. Don’t compare with others.

You are doing great and if you continue monitoring this site you will see that.  Check out Chico Marx posting...he has been posting for at least 2 years and has lots of good advice.  I am at the 9 week mark and still am not able to put in much time on my feet...I am just now able to go the whole night with no ice!   I struggle with not being depressed with how hard this whole recovery is (again Chico Marx has great information to help with that) I am 60 and was  active before the surgery (1 hour of cardio and 1 hour of weight lifting 6 days a week) plus gardening and so on.  This is a very tough surgery...if you haven't watched the videos of the surgery you and your wife should watch them together.    They are taking out your knee and replacing it with  metal/plastic  pieces and they are cutting muscles and nerves.   This is not a surgery for the faint of heart.  I am still trying to deal with the fact that I am so limited in what I can do.  I just keep reading all the great advice here and hoping that one day I will say this was the right thing to do.  

I am at 8 weeks and I felt the same way as people were telling me that they went back to work at 4-6 weeks, I will weeks before returning to work. Coming to this group has really helped me realize that I am doing fine. People have get advise and understand what we are going through. Those on the outside can’t understand the pain and challenges we have. I was feeling great today until after PT, so I know tomorrow will be a day that I have to ease up. 

Do what works for you. Do try to walk a bit each waking hour to keep everything moving. I was told motion is lotion to the knee.

Good Luck

Hi JR,

i think you are probably where you should be in your recovery. 5 weeks is really not that long.  You will read on this forum, that most recipients, have trouble with pain at night.  I think your wife is being unfair to compare you with others.  We are all different and except for the exception to the rule, we get over it in our own time, our own way.  This is not a race, it’s a marathon.  No one knows just how bad the operation is to get over unless they’ve had it themselves.  It’s brutal.  Not only do you have a foreign body instead of a knee, that you have to program to walk again, it’s the anaesthetic and the low mood that seems to affect many of us.  You’re one of the lucky ones that were fit beforehand.  Hopefully, this will help with your recovery.  Don’t listen to others tell you how you should be.  Rest when you need to.  It’s quite common to feel exhausted the first few weeks.  Do what you need to do to cope with the pain.  Put pillows under your leg, take pain meds, ice, whatever it takes.   I am almost 29 months on from bilateral tkr’s.  I’ve had my moments believe me, when I’d wished I hadn’t had the op.  When just getting in and out the shower almost finish me off lol.  Now, it’s great, all worth while in the end.

good luck and best wishes with your recovery.  Keep reading the forum, all questions answered. Y those in the know😎.  Stay positive if you can and look after yourself.

sue xx

Here we go again....you are you....others are exactly that others. Don't let family and friends start the compare game or it will drive you nuts. 5 weeks is still very early. I've had 11 surgeries, 3 different prosthesis in the same knee and 5 complete rehab and I'm here to tell you, they are all different, even in the same person.6 weeks should be your 1st benchmark, 13 weeks the next, 6 months the next. This is a marathon not a s sprint. Overdoing can cause setbacks and setbacks are hell. Now, tell your wife to go make you a sandwich😀

Hi JR, 

Only you can do what you can do regardless of what other say. At 5 weeks I was really low but knew if u wanted a functioning knee I would have to keep on going. You may read on here that I have seem to be getting somewhere on days and other days nowhere. I’ve have been assured that this is normal and I will probably feel like that for a while yet. Would your wife be willing to read the comments on here? She really shouldn’t be comparing you. Has she had that op? If not then she really has no idea of the pain, the sleepless nights, the pacing up and down, your leg feeling like it’s. not  your own. Keep on doing what you need to do and there is plenty of excellent advice on here. I’m so glad I can post and read here knowing I will get some advice.  And if you need to go back to see the consultant or the GP then go.  

Good luck with your recovery and remember everyone is different. 😊

You have had brilliant responses already, I just want to emphasise again this is your journey and you own it. In that process be kind to yourself!

Are you in UK?

You have to listen to your body and respect your knee. Overdoing things on all fronts...walking, exercising, pushing knee too hard, just increases swelling which is NOT what you want. Getting swelling down as well as consistently working on the bend and straightening are both aims.

Range of motion, not walking distance, is the most important thing for you at this point, in my personal view.

6 weeks was my community physiotherapists last visit. She came each week and was a complete blessing. So encouraging and positive, which is just what i needed. NHS and excellent. I needed it.

Helped with not freaking out about my quads not working! she was sensitive and just gave a small challenge, but never gave the message that exercises should cause pain or that I should force knee. I only ever took my knee TO the point of pain, then stopped. Maybe a hint further, but only tiny weeny bit! Never ever THROUGH pain.

Swelling vastly reduced around 10 to 12 weeks. Range of motion vastly increased at same time.

Being on your feet for a long time is probably not a good idea for you right now maybe?

If you overdo things your body will let you know!

The input i received from the professionals who managed my care was to listen to my own body and there was never the slightest suggestion that I should be causing myself needless pain. On one occasion I over did it and leg was red and swollen...message = you have done too much. Listen to knee. If swelling and redness increases and it is still there the next day, you have really overdone things.

Getting swelling down along and rest, plenty of icing, along with keeping knee moving and gently nudging along the range of motion was the message I picked up from the way my rehabilitation was managed. Patience is essential from all concerned.

People are all different with their walking. Some can do more and others less. Use crutches or crutch and or stick as much as you need to.

I started walking unaided for very short distances, (and only sometimes) around house only, at around 5 weeks post op.

Even at 8 weeks I was only walking around house without support, but if experiencing any pain, I used a stick in house also. I used support (two crutches or a crutch and a stick) for walks of around ten minutes outside. I was working on increasing strength through exercises but wanted to keep pain and swelling reduced as much as possible. I could move quite fast on crutches!

My physio was encouraging me to keep all the support I needed for as long as I needed it, which I agreed with. Quads were very weak and I was having issues with the operated leg tending to give way. I feel that this approach was helpful to me in that it helped my gait to keep using two supports...I dispensed with one crutch often times, and used one crutch and one walking pole together as it was easier to use on public transport. Much easier to hold just one crutch and a thinner walking pole!

Learning to walk without support was rather an odd experience, but walking in swimming pool helped a lot, and once I started working on walking unaided it only took about three weeks to really take off, though at the time I was not sure I would be able to walk normally again! It felt like being a toddler and learning to walk for the first time!

So be kind to yourself and realise this is a long haul and you need time and patience.

You may like to go to my profile by clicking on the image next to my name. I kept a journal of my own knee replacement journey, and I have been told by several people they found it helpful to read, or skim through.

There is an abridged version which is shorter as well! It has a lot of useful suggestions and information. You may need to copy and paste the link I include in my profile in your browser, as the site does not allow external links to be posted.

Hi I am 6 months post op today 😃 You've had great advise already and this recovery does take a long time, 5 weeks is a short period of time in the recovery process. Keep doing your range of movement exercises, ice, elevate, rest, take pain killers and eventually you will get there. You can't compare yourself to other people that is one thing Ive learnt. We all experience a different recovery path so you need to listen to your body it will let you know when you have overdone things believe me x

Hi JR I will be take 6 weeks tomorrow and I too have same issue as you.I am not too bad during the day.I go to pt twice a week plus do a,list of exercises 3 times a,day.My issue is,nighttime and no sleep.This,seems to be common with other people in thus,forum.Just want you to know you are not alone! Good luck to you and everyone who are recovering,with tkr

If you only have pain at night, you are blessed.  Im 7 weeks out today and I have pain 24/7.

Hi  jr,

As you have been reading, you are in the infant stages of your tkr recovery.  I am 9 days post- op of my second tkr and I thought having gone through this surgery once would better prepared me for what was to come...nope, pain is still a kicker, lots of swelling, stiffness, crying, depression, etc., but the one thing that continues to help me through this is the support of family and friends ( including the wonderful people on this forum). When I left the hospital I was given a booklet for my 'coach ' to read. In it was all the advise that your caregiver needed to do, one of them being positive and supportive of your daily achievements, no matter how small.  Patience, guidance, and encouragement have to be the most important treatments in your recovery...even though I gotta say those pain pills sure do rate a good second! Lol. Hang in there, take each day as it comes, some good, some bad, but it will get better.  Sometimes I forget it's going to get better, but then I am reminded each day by just reading this forum...and by my family and friends.  Keep in touch, we are always here.

Blessings,

Cherry🍒

Never compare your recovery to that of anyone else.  It's a law here in TRKville.  Many people who have a second knee done find that it was a completely different experience from the first one so there are no "pre-determinations".  There are no timetables and the word "should" has been stricken from the lexicon.

At five weeks, you are still very early in your recovery.  We typically see people off the heavy duty meds and get most or all of their ROM back (with PT and the home exercises) by the three month (12 week) mark.  You've barely started.  Here are some things you can do at home...

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/tkr-rom-work-at-home-620053

Remember...after the ROM is back, you will need to rebuild your atrophied quads, glutes and core to support the knee.  This starts very gradually with little to no weight but increasing reps to build endurance.  Then you start adding weight for the strengthening...

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/post-tkr-exercising-565527

This is a slow process and will take months because you cannot push a knee to recovery.  Push it and you'll pay dearly in pain and swelling.  The whole thing (including mastering stairs again) usually takes a year.  Accept it...own it.  Almost everyone is back to work in the 4-6 month range, feel "more like their old selves" around nine months and then dance at their one year anniversary party.  Yeah, there are a few exceptions on both sides of "typical"...but very few.

Again...this is all very individual and you will never know where you fall in "the curve" until you are completely done and then look back.  From the beginning or the middle, you have no clue how long this will take.  The only things you have are time, work and patience...heavy on the latter.