Icing and one post op exercise
Posted , 8 users are following.
Can I just check on how often people are icing? My instruction book that the hospital gave me said to only ice for ten minutes every two hours. Is this the norm? Second question - the exercise where you bring the knee up to bent from flat is quite painful with ligaments around knee and a slightly pulled back muscle now but I'm persevering helping the leg up with my hands if I need to. Am I doing the right thing here? It's gradually got harder over the past couple of days (I'm four days post op now). But all round, still way better than I expected. Straight leg raises fine and everything else good. Thank you:-)
1 like, 9 replies
melinda11457 chris00938
Posted
Hi, congrats, the icing is a general guideline. There is concern that one could get frost bite. Don't get too carried away with exercises without your PT at this point. Ankle pumps and some straightening. If it hurts too much....stop. Sounds like you're doing well. Are you set up to start PT? That needs to happen pretty quickly due to that scarring thing.
chris00938 melinda11457
Posted
Thank you Melinda - your reply is SO appreciated! Right - got you, re icing:-))) They don't send you to a physio but just give you the exercises to do at home. I can straighten the leg with no problem at all and can bend the knee when sitting so that the crutch just in front of my big toe is up straight and meets the knee, so that's incredible and there's generally no pain at all, so I'm hoping I'm on track for everything. I stuck a tray under my foot to do the exercise where you're legs are out flat and you draw the knee up and that helped, so I'll just keep going at that gently then. I can raise the leg from straight on the bed, upwards, for five to eight inches and hold, with no problem so it was just the one where you pull the knee up that was the difficult one. It's all going pretty well really:-)))) I'm certainly not complaining:-)))
bren09396 chris00938
Posted
As for icing, I kept ice gel packs in the freezer and initially used them all the time as I found they helped with the pain and swelling and also after exercises and not as your book states ten minutes every two hours
Good luck with your recovery
chris00938 bren09396
Posted
Bren, you're a gem! It's not uncomfortable on the knee doing the knee raises but it's the ligaments on the outside of the knee that hurt as I pull the knee up, but doing it gently, and as you said, where it's comfortable, will be the answer. I think in some ways I'm too keen. That's a good idea about the ball too.
I thought I could be icing much more than the ten minutes every two hours! Will do that then. It all feels so positive that every day is a step towards recovery, so it's worth any effort:-))) There was a lady in hospital who had a previous knee replacement surgery and she said she hadn't done the exercises and didn't have the movement she should, so she was warning us all how important it all is. We have to do our bit in our recovery:-)))
Big thanks for your help!
clive45466 chris00938
Posted
I iced permanently almost for 10 weeks, did use hot baths as a break.
Bio oil or something similar rubbed into the knee and scar area once it healed.
Good healing
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
Hi Chris
You are doing really well for 4 days po. Well done you!
My physiotherapist told me the same for icing.
I found the knee bends difficult too, don't stress too much over it at this time. Do the exercise 2 or 3 times a day if your knee allows. If not give it a break, maybe do only once for a couple of days then try to build up again.
Good luck with it all.
Marilyn
XX
Dearheart77 chris00938
Posted
Oldfatguy1 chris00938
Posted
Some protocol restrictions are 20 on/20 off but common sense needs to prevail. Don't ever let the combination of ice/ plastic/skin come in contact as it can cause frost bit. However; when I had a synovectomy a year before my tor I was issued a cyrocold unit that is a continual flow of ice water of ice water through a plastic bladder covered with cotton. The big difference is ice water vs
Ice. Frankly, I've left ice on for hours but made sure there was plenty of cloth between the skin. I've had so many surgeries (11) that I invested in a gel pack. They are the blue heavy plastic with a slush type fill. They are flexible and can be molded to the leg. They refreeze quickly and there is no mess. If you can't find them at a local retail they are available on Amazon. They come in a number of sizes but the larger the better. I've used them for several hours without and apparent skin damage.
chris00938 Oldfatguy1
Posted
Thank you Clive, Marilyn, Dearheart and Oldfatguy! The exercise I was finding difficult yesterday is much easier today and all of the exercises are easy now but I THINK there is a bit of bleeding under the dressing so wondering if I'm overdoing it a bit, so will cut the exercises down to twice today rather than three times. There isn't massive swelling around the knee and no swelling on lower leg. The bruising is coming out now - dark purple and black on the thigh and just beginning the pretty colours around the dressing area of the knee. A tad more pain last night but not as much as I was getting from the arthritis! I'll keep using the peas but have ordered the cryo cuff. It did say on their site 24 hour delivery but that turned out to be 48 hour but the peas will keep me going until then. I do feel very fortunate with it all. Just slightly worried that it looks as though it might have bled a bit more under the dressing - is that normal? I have got a spare dressing but didn't think it was a good idea to disturb it just to look at it.