Please help?

She will be showing how to use stairs before she comes home and she will be able to do light things with help x

Your mum will need a lot of rest for the first few weeks and won't be able to stand for long enough to cook a meal, frozen food and ready meals are a great help in the early days. She will also need some help washing her hair ect. She needs to concentrate on resting, elevating her leg on a stool or such like ,doing her exercises and ice packs. Everything else needs to wait. I'm sure you will care for her well

I recovered remarkably fast according to my surgeon and physical therapist but it was 3 weeks before I started doing simple meal preparation and some light housework. The first week is awful and I needed help with everything. She needs to get lots of rest, use ice packs frequently, change position at least hourly, massage her leg downward, do the therapy religiously, and not be afraid to ask for help.

 hi patel i think it would be best to make yourself available as much as possible its a very hard op ,and to be honest doing much for the first few weeks is not possible ,as she will be very tired and sore .i myself had the same problem as your mum with the bathroom upstairs and no loo downstairs .!! luckily my husband put a second rail up the stairs and it made such a difference not having to use crutches on the stairs (safer too) she wont feel like cooking much because standing at the begining is a nightmare if your standing for any lenght of time .she will be told not to sit too long stand too long get up and walk about for awhile as she would only stiffen up .she will also need plenty of rest during the day so if family will help her as much as possible she would do better

Be in no doubt your mum is going to need a lot of care! No way would I have even wanted to attempt any house work so soon.Your mum will be very tired and possibly have a good deal of discomfort. Sure she needs to get up and move about,  but more to excercise her knee than cook dinner. Get your freezer stocked up now! If she wants to stand by the cooker all well and good but dont be suprised if she prefers a nice nap. I did ok on the stairs but felt better if there was someone looking out for me, physio will (hopefully) show her how best to manage the stairs. I wish your mum well, take good care of her and let her do as much or little as she feels able, its a long road shes on, best wishes to you all

Any thing that requires twisting such as using a vacuum will be prohibited or at a very minimum. 1st of all, this will be the most major, difficult surgery she will probably ever encounter. It drains hog physically and mentally. Food should be pre cooked and put in the freezer for easy warm-up. Appetite will be diminished so small portions and soft easy to digest food will be needed. Absolutely no kneeling until okayed by surgeons. It will be very difficult to carry stuff as the concentration will be on not falling. Don't know if she will be on a walker or cruthces but she will have some sort of assistive device and will need both hands to control that. She will need some level of help for a period of time. I can't emphasize enough the high level of pain and incapacitation this surgery creates. You have to realize that they come close to cutting the leg off, drilling holes in the bone and gluing and stitching it back together after inserting a 4 lb hunk of metal and plastic. This isnt meant as a fear tactic but only to explain what the drs may have failed to mention. We all live through it. Personally, I have been through 5 rehabs and 3 prosthesis all on one leg (11 surgeries in all) and I'm now 78. She will be fine but don't expect too much independence real soon. She will have excercises, icing, elevation and will need plenty of rest. Others on here will be able to offer their own evaluations. I'm in the US so some of the UK protocols differ from ours and the same for Australia. Stay with this group, they are all really great and the big thing, they have personally experienced all this stuff. Best wishes to your mom and to you

It really does depend on so many factors!  Not everyone leaves hospital being able to negoitate stairs, or even walk . . At seven days post op my operated leg still would not move an inch, and stairs would have been a total impossibility.  Many other people are managing steps before they leave hospital on day 2 or 3.  Any standing and trying to prepare food is extrememly difficult.  the two crutches mean you can't take plates from one place to another, and things like trying to load a dishwasher which baancing on your good knee etc. are all very difficult.  It's a b .  . y horrible operation, and your Mum will need as much support as she can be given.  she is likely to be tearful, depressed, lack sleep, wonder why she ever had this operation,  .  .the more help she can get in the first two or three weeks the better!

Have you got some things in place to make life easier?  I would mention  . an over the toilet seat which makes it higher.  We women have to sit down so much more than men, and believe me, it is hard work sitting down and getting up again especially if there is nothing to hold on to.  A large cross body bag is a godsend. . use it for moving things from one place to another, like a book, glasses etc . . when you are on crutches it's so hard to do!  Plastic plates and glasses to avoid the need to wash many things up . . gel packs for freezing so she can ice the knee often . . lots of lovely pain killers!! Not just those stupid paracetamol that they give you, but something which will at least take the edge off the pain, like tramadol, or co codamol, some really loose fitting trousers, nice smooth material  . some safe shoes maybe a bit bigger than she usually uses, as the foot is likely to swell . .ready meals,  and how about some little luxury to make her feel loved!  A nice perfume for instance!  Oh, and if you have a bath tub as opposed to a walk in shower, there is a board contraption which makes it possible to   use the shower over the bath . .otherwise, it will have to be washing with a sponge or flannel for quite a while. . getting in and out of a bath is pretty impossible. . . Hope she has a good and successful operation!  give her all the support you possibly can!

 

Hi Pate

hope all goes well with your mum

your hospital should give your mum a full list of does & donts at this stage along with her pre op MOT please ignore all the stuff the well wishers and their advice on this particular and please get the proper advice from the hospital who are going to perform the operation who should have this informayion ready at hand.

I am going in for TKR on 30th November and have been given  this information which seems to be standard stuff produced by the NHS for the patient.

best wishes

Jude

Thank you for all your kind responses. I am truly grateful. I am going to be there for my mum for her recovery and will help as much as I can :-) I hope all of you who have been through this are doing well.

Hi

What she won't want to do is std for any long periods (I.e. Cooking) and will be on 2 crutches initially...so she won't be able to carry things easily either.  She is lucky to have family to assist.  She also will not be comfortable sitting on dining room chairs.

As soon as she wants to, she can do dusting and light tasks, but not vacuuming (or anything that involves twisting) and no kneeling.

She will be taught how to do stairs, but it will be one at a time, initially, and with a crutch.  Make sure that she has a big bag to put over her shoulder to take things upstairs.  She can do the washing, but others may need to carry it.

Really, it's up to her when she feels ready to try things.

I live alone, so I had to find out ways of doing things myself...but cleaning was not important to me at the beginning...and I didn't feel like eating much either.

Make sure that you listen to her...don't make decisions for her.

Wishing her all the best.

Patsy

1st TKR Dec 2012 2nd TKR Sept 2014 (and opened up again Sept 2015)

I had partial knee replacement on 6/11 and came home on 9/11. Based on my experience she must focus on her exercises and

stretches and balancing these with ample rest. She will still be

suffering from impact of surgery which wouldn't be exactly a

stroll in the park. I had nausea for the first week after coming

home.

I would say no chores for first 2 weeks when as in my case I

return to hospital for physiotherapy review. If she has friends

and family who can help out - maybe on a roster basis! I'm still

trying to work out how to walk on elbow crutches and carry a hot chocolate at the same time !!😇