Heel slides

My physio told me to use a dressing gown belt or a long strip of tubigrip looped under your foot to help pull it up 

Morning Jeanne. I'm 11 days out and I too have a lot of pain behind my knee. I can do the slides but at a pain cost. One thing I have noticed is that although I struggle with some of the exercises every new trip to PT I seem to exceed the previous trips goals. So, the only thing I can say is we know were going to feel pain and it's different for all of us but every attempt you make to do the knee slides will help you in the long run. Keep doing the ice and elevation to help with the pain if you can't take the pills. Good luck.

Jeanne. I'm surmising you're only early days?  I'm now 8 weeks po and as I remember EVERYTHING  hurt like hell! The outside of my calf, behind my knee, my upper thigh where the tourniquet was, my heel, just even the skin - everything!!!!   Even my toes swelled and looked like little sausages!  My advice is to do everything you have to do, but if it's painful, only put up with it to a certain extent.  Every day something will be easier to do. It passes,  but seems to drag when you're in the middle of it.  In a few weeks things will look much better.   

Oh, YES! Those heel slides! I used to just CRINGE when my PT would bring out that board and the pillowcase that went over my foot!😲

To complicate matters, my sciatic nerve on the right side would REALLY act up during that exercise!

Each surgery is different. Surgeons often need to repair various areas while they are replacing the knee. These repairs are healing while the replaced knee is healing. BOTH bring extra twinges, pains, discomfort during movement.

I had that BACK-OF-THE-KNEE pain prior to surgery. AWFUL! It actually disappeared after surgery but returned during physical therapy. I mentioned it to my PT who then had me do extra stretches to free-up those tendons that are behind the knee. For so many years I had walked with bent legs, not even noticing I was doing it. It was a way of compensating for having no cartilage and bones that rubbed together at each step.

Try these: 1) Put a rolled-up beach towel on the floor in front of your kitchen counter. Place the front of your feet on the raised towel and heels on the floor. Hold on to the counter with both hands. Raise up onto the front of your feet, lifting your heels off the floor. Hold for a count of ten then slowly go back down. Rest and repeat. This stretch loosens up those tendons and ligaments and muscles in the back of the legs. I CONTINUE to do this even without the towel throughout the day. REALLY HELPS!

2) When you are sitting watching TV or reading, put your feet up on a chair or ottoman. Try to straighten them out in front of you. This may be quite challenging, and you MAY be able to stand it for only a few seconds at first. I know how hard it was for ME early on to do this!😫 This activity really pays off, though, because it provides yet another good stretch to those BACK-OF-THE-KNEES! A bonus to this stretch is that it seemed to be the best practice for me to get my legs to straighten.

Things will get better. Gentle stretches throughout the day and even at night pay off BIGTIME to help recovery.

Wishing you good success in your recovery!😊

Easy way to do heel slides' sit in chair, with magazine on floor in front of you. Slide the magazine forwards and backwards under your foot.

My couldn't do excersice was the heel hang, never did do it, it hurt my back too much, but I think we all have one that's harder than the rest.

I can walk with stiffness, the arthritis pain made it almost impossible to walk at all.

So if heel slides hurt, don't do them, do a different excersice instead,maps long as tou're better than you were before the surgery, that's the important thing.

Hi I'm so sorry to hear you're having a nice day firstly there is no point in comparing yourself with other people we all move at our own pace. I have just come from my physio and he suggests using a heat pad before exercising, timing your meds to be at their most active (I personally use ibuprofen gel and apply it to the most painful spots first too and I have a rubber Pilates band which I use to draw my leg back, that's the object to get your leg to bend it's not so important how you do it. Then and this is important sit with your leg raised and apply ice directly after.  The heat then ice apparently firstly sends the fresh flow of oxygenated blood to the damaged area and then the ice closes the veins down so that the iflamarion is kept to the minimum neat eh! I also found holding on to a surface for stability and placing TKR  leg out backwards bend the knee of the other and stretch the TKR one helped the back of the knee pain a lot.  Keep the faith you will one day soon find that the pain and tension in the back of your leg will just not be there, it happens like that. All the best and good luck

As a few people have said, everyone is different with their surgery and their healing process .. I am at 10 weeks, and, like you,, get the pain behind the knee. I actually do my heel slides with my socks on; and then put a plastic bag over my foot .. I also use a cloth strap with a loop at the end to put around my foot . I was also told to put a heat pack on my knee, and behind my knee; as well as take the pain meds before my exercises. I do heel slides on my bed; heel slides sitting down on a chair; and I also lay down on my back, on the floor, and place my feet up against a wall ..

Good luck !!

Hi Jeanne,

At my group physio today, the physio advised a lady to heat/warm the back of her knee to help with the hel slides.

Also the elastic type rubber band wrapped around foot can be used to pull heel towards bottom. Note: wrap around foot to eliminate risk of slipping off and hitting you.

Take care,

Alan