Posted , 4 users are following.
I’m at the eight week point after my total knee replacement everything is taking longer than I expected. Anyone else out there find that their knee becomes terribly numb and stiff? It feels heavy. I had to stop physical therapy after two weeks because of the virus. But I’ve been trying to work at home to keep my ROM.
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CHICO_MARX MLTMI
Posted
"everything is taking longer than I expected". Really? So here's the deal...
Get rid of all your expectations and timetables. Your brain is NOT in control of your recovery...your knee is...and it CANNOT be pushed...ever. Disregard the warning and you will end up with "balloon knee"...not a pretty sight. Almost everyone slams into the brick wall of expectations vs. reality the latter of which translates into a typical one year recovery. Accept it, own it. Some get away sooner, some later but one year seems to be the standard recover period.
Numb and stiff? Normal and normal. Both will go away gradually, imperceptibly with time. You will probably feel some residual numbness on the incision line forever...nerves have been cut. The stiffness will work itself out over the next year with it being close to gone in the 12-18 month period. The problem is that you will need to keep the knee active for the rest of your life else it will start to stiffen up again. This requires a change in life style that you have to make or deal with the stiffness forever. You will also experience some nerve pain when you kneel on the TKR knee. Again...it's nerve pain and not the knee itself. Just use a foam pad indoors and knee pads outside to avoid the discomfort. It will lessen in time but probably never completely go away.
Here are some things you can do. Get your ROM back and then start the mandatory muscle rebuild at home with a set of exercise bands or gym equipment if you have any. Gotta do this to take the load off the knee and put it back on the surrounding musculature which is now dead. Do this to walk correctly, regain your balance and be able to do stairs alternately again like you used to. Can't do that with a dead quad.
ROM at Home
Muscle Rebuild
Other Pain
Click on my name, discussions and See All. I've got about 30 discussions out there on all sorts of topics. Hope they help. Now post this on your fridge...
toni25563 MLTMI
Posted
i had my surgery done on March 10th .
i am still going to therapy. And yes my knee in the morning is very stiff and heavy. I also have a sharp pain that runs on the outside of my knee. Almost like a nerve pain.
During the day i try to keep moving around to prevent the stiffness.