Patient, Heal Thyself!!!
Posted , 20 users are following.
I've done a lot of posting on this site, trying to overcome my own situation by encouraging people to be strong and do the work necessary to get well again. Now it's my turn. I expected something, it didn't happen and now I have to confront it.
I'm at 8 1/2 months. ROM is 0 / +132, overcame some severe sciatica starting in week 5, got off all the meds and walking aids, hit the gym for the quads. Thought I was done at 7+ months...boy was I wrong...
While looking for a new position in IT (45 years...Sr. Process/Solutions Architect), I thought I'd work P/T at the local Best Buy selling computers for the holidays. Heck, I've built all my own machines for decades and know all the technology intimately. This was an easy choice to get back into the working world. So I stopped the gym and went to work. Baaaaad idea...
Standing on my feet for between 5 and 8 1/2 hours a day, I've realized that my quads are still too weak to do the time. Day starts off horribly but I get stronger over the day until I get home and just collapse. I need to get back to the gym on my off days and do more quad work but I'm just really tired. I thought that working and walking (7,000 to 10,000 steps a day on my FitBit) would rehab the quads. WRONG!!!! Gotta get back to the leg work. There is really no alternative. I had to learn the hard way and pay for my arrogance.
On top of that, I've re-developed sciatica on both sides...in my glutes...the sciatic knots. This is very painful and radiates into my fused back. So I've got pain in the back, butt and quads but have to work four days a week on my feet (including Black Friday this coming week...five days in a row). Good thing...the knee is PERFECT! Great ROM, zero pain. It's everything else that has gone to hell.
Doc gave me some Tramadol that I take before work...helps a little bit. Will NOT go back to opioids. Need to go back to my chiroprator next week to see if she can straighten out my hips again to relieve the sciatica.
Lesson: You're not done until you're done. Period. I thought I could skip the end of the rehab and jump to the head of the employment line. It doesn't work like that...and I should have known it. Haven't joined a new band because I know that I can't haul all my bass equipment and do a 4+ hour gig without significant pain. But I thought I could handle work. Wrong.
A TKR is a very humbling experience. If you think you can breeze right through this and ignore the brutal reality of it all, you're just as delusional as I've been these past few weeks. You can convince yourself that you're done when you're really not. Talked to my doctor cousin who ripped up a major leg tendon and was in a cast for 6 weeks. Quads atrophied just like ours do. Told me it will take a year to get them back...and I didn't listen. I thought his prediction did not apply to me...thought I was beyond it. I'm not. This is going to take the full year...period.
Take heart, my fellow TKRians...we will all be a lot better down the road but there are no shortcuts. No excuses...do the work. Me too...
8 likes, 60 replies
roberta40 CHICO_MARX
Posted
The siatic is the worse.. I'm 51 and have never experienced it until I woke up from surgery. The surgeon gave me a steroid shot this past Wednesday (I'm 8 weeks out) told me to give it three days..worse past week of my life since surgery...bolts of pain shooting down the leg into the foot. Definitely inhibiting my progress..
I can't imagine both legs. I hope you get some relief soon.
CHICO_MARX roberta40
Posted
Ortho sent me to a Chiropractor...worked out great. The shots relieve the pain but not the cause. Mine was caused by locked SI joints; others can have the same pain with their hips and/or back out of alignment. Docs can't fix that...Chiros can.
lors23 CHICO_MARX
Posted
I hear ya chico l too though the same 2 hip replacements and a knee i past year. Thiugh l was doing great still have the other knee to be done but decided to have a surgery break and go back to work as an internet bank manager. God it has been so hard. I realise l an know where near healed l am in agony by the afternoons l am 43 and feel so much older now. My minds not 100% for the job l do which is hard work. And l know l have the other knee to replace probably next year. And now l think l am getting OA in my back and ankles as l seem to ache all over. I still need my pain meds otherwise l would not be able to work and l can't see me stopping them until my other knee is done . No doubt about it l am not the same person l.was and don't think l will ever be again. So l hear all you are saying.. l used to be Laura the outcgoing full of confidence great at her job woman but now l feel like l have faded into the background and am not ambitious or anything like l used to be. I just struggle to get through a day now. It will be a while before l am back l think.
Laura
CHICO_MARX lors23
Posted
I'll be 69 this February. This whole post is just a cautionary tale to those who think they're done but really aren't. Talked to my MD cousin who said that this takes a year...period. Same person in the end? Hopefully kinda. If you were a runner, you're not a runner anymore. If you walked 10 miles, maybe 5 will be your limit now. Who knows? Just don't expect anything to be normal for 12-18 months...especially work. I went to work in sales at Best Buy just to get back into the world...pain, pain, pain. On my feet for 4-8 hours a day. It's getting better but there another problem that I'll post in an update. Meanwhile I was very lucky to land a great IT job with AT&T that let's me work from home. You never know what The Universe has in store for you. Take it slow and easy.
NZJENNI CHICO_MARX
Posted
That is a hard lesson to learn but it seems to be the only way to get past some things !! Congratulations on the new position it sounds like a perfect role. Balance
. I am down at my sons property in quake ravaged Kaikoura at the moment helping get things looking normal again. I spent an hour mowing lawns yesterday which is something I love and have not done for maybe a year. All OK today apart from a tight calf muscle. Hubby emptied the catcher as required though. Merry Christmas to you and yours 
Mkhp lors23
Posted
CHICO_MARX
Posted
Thanks to everyoen's support. New news...
"On top of that, I've re-developed sciatica on both sides...in my glutes...the sciatic knots. This is very painful and radiates into my fused back. So I've got pain in the back, butt and quads but have to work four days a week on my feet (including Black Friday this coming week...five days in a row)."
There 's only one thing that radiates pain from your back through BOTH buttocks and down BOTH legs...stenosois. This is a narrowing or blockage of the spnal canals that carry the nerves from your spinal column, through the spine and out to the rest of your body. You can develop bone spurs that impinge on the nerves, a narrowing of those canals through the bone or any orther disk-related issues that touch and impede the functioning of the nerves. Had the MRI done...
Looks like I have severe stenosis from L2 though L5, one side or both in many places plus a disk that looks like it has to be removed and replaced. Not enough pain in my knee; now I have to contend with this. Can hardly walk...I'm bent over to prevent the worst of the pain. Docs won't prescibe anything more than Tramadol which has no effect on me. So it's pain until I can see my spine doc and arrange for surgery in January of February. Not complex. Open up, remove any spurs, shave back any calcified disks and re-bore the canals to make them wider...then close. Fast op, minimal recovery, pain all gone...no fusion involved. Just another day in the OR for me...payback for 45 years of hockey. Will recover...no problem. Just have to get past it...one more time. Since the docs will not prescribe Norco or Percocet, I have the choice of a "special, custom-made" tincture from Colorado or a gallon of Jack. Maybe being a functioning alcoholic for a short time would be a new, exciting experience... We'll see...
OConnor CHICO_MARX
Posted
As if you needed another challenge! But we love you Texans with that positive attitude! Something to imitate whenever possible, I keep telling myself.
?We will need the details as you recover, as my L's are all messed up and stenosis is what I fear the most. Glad you have a surgeon that you trust. Best of luck as always.
Mkhp CHICO_MARX
Posted
My goodness mr Marx, so sorry to hear about your sciatica issues along long with back upcoming surgery. U have gone thru so much. I feel your pain, u have gone through so much already, your attitude is terrific, half the battle?? I too now am having lower back issues, waiting on a Mri authorization , also been goin to chiropractor for neck n shoulder pain, we are not alone, the old story "no one likes to jump off the Brooklyn bridge by the self"?? Keep up your great sense of humor n if at all possible take it easy at work, all that standing can't possibly help... As always best of health to you n happy holidays 🌬🌬🌬 🍀🍀🍀 👼👼👼 👍👍👍
CHICO_MARX OConnor
Posted
A Texan? Me??? Never in a million years. I'm a Sicilian from Brooklyn...understand youzeguyz? Dey tawk very weerd down heyuh.
I am grateful for the move...saved my wife's life when they found an undetected brain aneurysm and the warm climate is very helpful given all the metal in my hip, knee and back. Same surgeon for my fusion and now stenosis that helped my wife...best in the world.
Hey MK... We don't jump off the Brooklyn Bridge but we've tried to sell it a million times over!!! Born in Brooklyn, spent 23 years there before moving to "Joisey". There for another 38 and now here, a little west of Fort Worth...out in a bit of country. I don't talk politics or religion to the natives...they all have serious gun racks in their trucks. Yes...everyone has a truck and at least five guns...but us. You see, being Sicilian, when there's trouble, we don't call the cops...we call FAMILY!!!
Happy holidays to all...
ihavenonickname CHICO_MARX
Posted
Chico, I am so sorry to read this. when thenerve leaves the spinal cord we term it a root, a L5 right, a L5 left.
Myforty nine cents worth is that the knee is adversly reaction to what is going on in your back and into the buttock. Have your greater sciatic foramen been considered?
In any case, may you have a speedy recovery that improves your knee.
I am having a DRUFR on Jan 6 followed by a TSR in February....you could say I am hoarding artificial joints.
hugs
CHICO_MARX ihavenonickname
Posted
Haven't seen the spine guy yet so I don't know what his "official" diagnosis will be. Just heard the report from my chirpractor (she got a copy too) that talked about severe stenosis from L2 through L5 (I'm also fused L3 through S1) coming out of one or both sides plus something about replacing a disc. Don't know if the foramen is involved...but I'm not ruling out anything...including my spine being invaded by alien parasites! No clue to the final diagnosis...I'll wait for my surgeon to explain it all.
I had a bone spur "crushing" (doc's wording) my sciatic nerve out of L4 six years ago. Very quick fix; pain free in a few days. Hoping this is similar...I don't want any more fusions and the recovery time. We'll just have to see.
Thanks
ihavenonickname CHICO_MARX
Posted
You take good care of yourself
Merry Christmas
Oldfatguy1 ihavenonickname
Posted
I had a decompression ( L4/5) 6 years ago. I started having the pain. That had me bent over, walking with a cane and popping oxycodone like they were m & m''s. I started to have something done in April and wound up having an emerg colon resection late April. Almost cashed in my chips twice..once with a bleeding problem then they had to
in again to take a kink out of the colon (2nd 4 hr surgery in less than 10 days, and my lungs shut down so I got to spend a few days in ICU.) . With that out of the way I had then the back surgery in August. Woke up with absolutely no pain and if I hadnt been so weak wouldn't have needed the cane. Gave it up in a few days and was walking without being bent over.
.
ihavenonickname Oldfatguy1
Posted
How awful a beginning. You had it soo rough. Sorry.
But, I must say, ya'll give me hope that an L4-5 fusion is not as bad as I have imagined. Thank you so much.
Merry Christmas
hugs
judith
Mkhp ihavenonickname
Posted
Judith,l4 l5 fusion piece of cake compared to Tkr, however that's just my thoughts... Happy healthy new year... Kathy p
CHICO_MARX Mkhp
Posted
Abso-freaking-lutely!!!!!!!!!!!! Fused L3 through S1. Twelve days in the hospital for two surgeries to complete the job. Recovery was a piece of cake compared to a TKR. Completely blew away the local PT record books on fusion. Doing 200+ pound leg presses in a matter of weeks. TKR? 9+ months and I'm still dealing with residual pain and weakness. My spinal stenosis diagnosis and upcoming spine surgery have set me back a bit but I'll never quit. Other option is to lay down and die. No chance of that!!!