Going backwards

I ice all day,if I leave the house I drive with ice bag on my knee.I'm sure it's not ice.I think I just did to much, Thank you for all the feed back.

It's tricky isn't it. I'm also at 10 weeks. I'm 66 and have had OA for so long my knees have been stiff and painful for years. AT 10 weeks I am a mixture of elated and down! So now I can walk really well with no pain. If I overdo it, say walk a mile on rough ground it feels a bit stiff. So that's the really good news. But ROM is the same or worse than a few days after the op. And that is after doing lots of flexibility exercises all the time. In either directio it just hits a wall. 6 deg straight, 90 deg bent. It's hard to see how it will improve because I was expecting with all the work to gain a dgree or two each week but not so. But in other ways I am lucky - no pain. So I'm afraid i don't  know the answer really but maybe we need to ease back a bit and let nature do its bit. I'm not convinced that the PT side of it is as proven as they say.

Hearing you say what I've been thinking - PT is not really proven - makes me wonder about pushing it.  The surgeon said you can increase your ROM up to a year.  So I asked him what's the rush?  That old answer, because of scar tissue.  Really?  So the numbers game goes on, while acknowleging that everyone progresses at different rates.  Seems to me there needs to be a sliding scale not set times to be at a certain point.  I just hope it's true for me what I hear some say, that the three month mark is a big turn around.  I know at 12 weeks alot of different parts of the knee (Bone ligaments, tendons) are supposed to be healed.  At 16 weeks full tone of peri-articular ligaments are healed, but it takes 6 months to restore general tone and vitality.  And deep healing of the scar is up to 9 months.  I seem to maintain the 90 degrees but beyond that I have to use heat, in the shower, or pain meds while someone pushes.  Both result in swelling and stiffness.  I'm at 7 weeks now and age 61.  Progress is so slow.  My goal is to be able to hike again.

I didn't really mean to imply that PT isn't good. I should have worded it a bit better and said perhaps "not a panacea" for everything. It would appear from this forum that it is really useful for some but makes little difference to others. Of course we don't know as an individual what it would have been like if we had done none. That's the problem - there is no control run for each indiviual.

Dave

Dave....having be through 5 complete rehab with several different scenarios I could/would never suggest the possibility of PT being anything but the heart of recovery. I have had everything from the time tested start up in the hospital the day after surgery and then onto home health the following week to out patient 2 weeks later Or the type that had me immobilized without a knee and non weigh bearing, non bending for 4 months and then the new prosthesis installed and having to start through the original process again. (This due to epistaph). PT comes in so many disguises. Leg lifts the day after surgery combined with strengthening the quads, etc. Its not all about weights and bending and being on a cpm machine or a bike or walking a mile etc. To even imply or put the idea that PT is of little value to someone justvaboutvto enter this race is really an injustice to them. Of course, like many things we all have to endure, this is just one persons opinion as is your viewpoint. The biggest step backwards I I had was not having therapy after havingb30 rounds of radiation. In an effort to kill the tumor and stop the bleeding radiation was the accepted method. It just burned and shrunk the tissue. 8 months later I had to have a synovectomy and then the effort to start getting the leg back in shape began with PT. A year later the 1st TKR....PT again. Evach time, with far more than the usual amt of work I had it close but not perfect. Of course being the 1st patient that both my ortho and therapist had ever worked with that had PVNS ( the tumor) it was a real challenge for them. But, dare to say, without PT and a tremendous and frustratingveffort by everyone I would have never have walked close to normal again. Since then and for the last 5 or 6 surgeries I changed Dr's and. hospitalso. However.......one thing that's been an absolute........I've stayed with physical therapy as the center of My. Treatment plan.

Sorry, I have tried to correct what I said as it implied something I didn't mean! I think PT is good and essential. What I am saying is that for some it might not be the miracle cure that they were hoping for. If you take my case, age 66, bent knees for maybe 20 years or so. Here in the UK we don't tend to get 1 to 1 PT but see them every couple of weeks where they do a bit and give you a regime of appropriate exercises and  this is what has happened since day one for me. SO ten weeks in I have done all of the exercises religiously and I can because I have little pain. I am pleased to be able to walk well with no pain. I do have a bit of an issue with a sort of tennis elbow type pain on the outside of my knee where the tendon joins but otherwise little swelling or problems. BUT despite all of this my ROM is less than it was a week after the op and barely what it was before. Say about 6-90 deg. The PT, who I see again Wednesday says don't worry and it is going well. Now I don't blame PT's but am I seriously to believe if I have no other issues so far yet I haven't increased ROM by even one deg in 10 weeks I am likely to get to the 100-110 I crave with exercises in the next few months? Maybe it is possible but it seems unlikely based on the scientific evidence to date. Nevertheless despite this it has been a success and perhaps the PT has helped other aspects quite a bit.

Dave

I was still gaining Bend after a year this last time. I was at 110 after 9 months and at a Year 117. Because of all the whacking and chopping I've had the Dr was setting 110 as my goal. Over the weekend of the 4th of July (in the states that's a special day as we celebrate no longer being bullied by a foreign king) I got up around 5 a.m. to go to the bathroom and had taken 7 or 8 steps when suddenly my hip gave way and I dropped straight down and I must have easily gone to a 130, let out a scream and in a twisting motion went to the floor. I severely twisted my hip and back sending me to the emergency room. No damage to the skeletal system but the pride sure took a beating. I also scraped the neck out of my shoulder and elbows which resulted in bleeding all over the white bedroom carpet. Meanwhile, my wife who is in The advanced stages of Parkinson's disease decides that somehow this frail 110 pounder is going to be able to pick this 210 pounder who is writhing in pain up off the floor. (She has to keep a walker by the bed incidentally). I am begging an pleading with her to stay in bed when she suddenly spins the walker and smacks me upside the head with the frame of said walker. Now both sides of my head are in pain as I had hit the other side on the wall during the fall. Now the picture is this: I'm laying on my back completely drenched in sweat as I have sort of gone into shock, both sides of my head hurt, I'm bleeding from elbow and shoulder and suddenly my knee is in screaming pain from the sudden harsh bend and its starting to swell immediatelythen all of a sudden reality sets in........I still have to go to the bathroom.......ONLY MORE SO. I roll my over weight, out of shape, sweating, painfilled, bleeding, almost four score body over and with my good leg get upright all the while yelling at my wife not to call the EMTs as I will have peed all over the floor by the time they got there and would have had more body fluids to clean up.........anyway.....when I got to ER later my bend was back to 103 and I was immediately put back into PT that same week. All the while I never moved off of the 0 for straight. After 6 PT sessions and daily 15 min workouts at home I am back to 110 and once my therapist got himself to the point he doesn't start uncontrollable laughter reliving my story, he assure me , with time ill be back to the 117 and maybe 120 as he believes the sudden movement actually RIPPED the scar tissue enough to allow it to happen.

Not sure how this fits in with your concerns about the validity of therapy but my newly found mental health provider ( I didn't need a shrink till this event scarred my psychic) says I need to open up and

relive the event, as damaging as it was.

Since then, My wife fell and broke her hip which resulted in a partial hip replacement and needing to go to a rehab facility to help regain strength and balance. She come home today after being gone a month and I now have to try and mentally readjust to having that damn walker back in the house and bedside again. On a serious note......after nearly 59 years of marriage you learn to accept many acts from your spouse as ones of sincere kindness and caring. However, I have vowed never to let her forget that lone act of smacking me in the head as symbolic of her true feelings. In fact, I let a few drops of ketchup dry on it to represent the blood I shed because of that caring. Wow, now I can tell my psychiatrist I don't need her anymore.......however I better keep my ortho on speed dial.

Everyone have a nice weekend. I gotta get the leaf blower out and clean house before she returns by late morning.

Nice story - glad I haven't had to go through any of that (well except for the 43 years of marriage!). Again - I do think therapy is valid, just might not achieve same results for us all. By the way - you haven't said what your bend was before the op - something I believe is crucial?

Dave

P.S - We still put up with a Monarch but at least it has prevented us from having a constitution that let's us go round shooting each other for fun ;-)

It isn't for fun.....there's always a reason....just ask em.

It depends on which time you speak of as far as the bend. I have a rare tumor so didn't have the long term bone on bone situation that most have.

The last time I had surgery I had been immobilized with no bed, no weight bearing for 4months the the prosthesis was inserted and and again immobilized for another month be starting therapy. This was all due to a staph infection. So I essence....I hadn't bent my knee more than 20° for 5 months. That's why it took a year of hard work.