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Total Knee Replacement 8 weeks Post Op

Posted , 148 users are following.

pegs_girl
pegs_girl

Hi 

I am 8 weeks Post Op and wondered how you were all getting on!!

I am pleased wit my progress other than having what is commonly know as a Bursea behind my Knee, this is causing me pain on bending but mainly through the night.

I am achieving a 140 bend, can walk properly up a full set of stairs going up, but still coming down with both feet on 1 step and need to work on this.

Physio have now reduced my visits to monthly and the consultant is really happy with the 'end' result, albeit i do have to go back in 6 weeks to check the Bursea. i have been told this may be drained or surgically removed if it doesnt go down on its own accord!! 

The on going issues i have is through the night i do have pain that keeps me awake and i rarely get a full nights sleep.

For all of you out there who have either just had the Operation or are due too i can only advise to be patient, the pain and disability gets better in my opinion after about 4 weeks, each day after this i found so much improvement, i am back driving, dont use any sticks at all now, and can walk quite a distance, i still have a slight limp when walking and am working hard on 'marching' when i walk advised by physio, apparently if i concentrate on swinging my arms when walking it makes me walk straight without a limp. I am still off work and dont imagine going back for a further 6 weeks. I use an static bike twice daily and try and beat my time each day, this is helping with my muscle wastage.

I could never imagine i would feel this way 4 weeks ago but now i am doing so well i know its been worth it. My scar looks good and is just a thin line although its a bit purple looking, i still have swelling on the knee but not much, and my Knee does look a funny shape!!

I hope you are all doing good and that my experiance helps you with your recovery.

Good luck and stay positive...

20 likes, 341 replies

341 Replies

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  • timclark58
    timclark58 pegs_girl

    Posted

    Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone here can share his or her experience with Robotic Assisted bilateral knee replacement surgery, what to expect, down time or recovery time, complications, and whether or not one can return to his or her normal everyday routine 12 days after bilateral total knee replacement surgery?  What does anyone know about Robotics for knee replacements?  Thanks for your help. 
    • sueoz
      sueoz timclark58

      Posted

      Hi tim,  don't know anything about robotic knee surgery but look forward to hearing what others have to say 
  • Quick_sticks
    Quick_sticks pegs_girl

    Posted

    After just two weeks of my operation ,I find the knee pain is very servere, mainly through the night,reading your experience has given me encouragement .

    My concern now is to try and find some equipment for helpin g me get in and out of the shower ,has anyone found the suction wall bars safe and worth buying?

    I am trying to get assessed for safety at home but there is a waiting list

    • caroline46398
      caroline46398 Quick_sticks

      Posted

      Look for a moblity shop or order from Lloyds Chemist if you have one near you. Otherwise its online. I found the suction wallbar worth it. Otherwise just continue mainly with body washes as it wont be too long before you can get in an out safely under your own steam. DOnt take risks though. The alternative is to get a zimmer frame and lean on that if you have walk in shower.
    • danie61
      danie61 Quick_sticks

      Posted

      hi danie61 from south africa and are 7.5 weeks post op and doing great, i wont mention all the mishaps funny most of them but the shower thing is my son inlaw bought a shower rail and i use a swimming pool chair and that helps a lot. Advice from me if there are someone to bed wash you for another two weeks till your leg is stronger your shower will be so much easier,and keep the chin up it stayes a big operation from danie 61

       

  • Quick_sticks
    Quick_sticks pegs_girl

    Posted

    Hi pegs girl

     I had a tkr 2 weeks ago and I was wondering if you have tried the suction grab handles for getting in and out of the bath. I've been on to occupational therapy or health team but have had no help off them what so ever so I was hoping someone would know if the suction handles were any good.

    Kind regards

    Quick sticks

    • moandrieu
      moandrieu Quick_sticks

      Posted

      Quick sticks, in another week or so you will notice a change. It's not immediate relief, but the pain is less and you should start feeling better. At least that's where it's happend for many of us. Sleep is murder and it's best to grab it whenever you can. This is a long process and at 6 months I can say it was all worth is (I had a bilateral TKR). I still struggle with pains and use ice (probably not as often as I ought to). But I am so much better off than I was a year ago. And while it's a long journey, I wouldn't NOT have the surgery for all the money in the world. This group is amazing and helped me feel like I wasn't imagining things and was pretty much on track with a normal, albeit long, recovery.
    • sharon52158
      sharon52158 Quick_sticks

      Posted

      I had my first shower after op when I was 4 weeks post op at my dads flat he has a bath board and grab rails so was able to sit on this and then swing my legs over the bath and used rails to help me stand up I am now 7 weeks and can manage getting in and out of my own bath by holding each side of the bath then putting my good leg in first then bringing my operated leg in a slip mat is essential 
  • Quick_sticks
    Quick_sticks pegs_girl

    Posted

    Hi sorry Im new to this site, my first first post disappeared so I re wrote it and then I found it again

    Anyway I only have a bath with electric shower over the bath.

    • caroline46398
      caroline46398 Quick_sticks

      Posted

      I got into my bath around 8 weeks - but its quite risky so get a mon slip mat and a holding rail
  • julie22900
    julie22900 pegs_girl

    Posted

    I am ten weeks post-op.  Swelling is considerably down and Ai can walk unassisted. However, I still have pain that the Aleve  doesn't really help with but I do not want to go back on the Dilaudid. Any suggestions from anyone? Aldo, has anyone experienced a real tightness and something moving tight above the knee? My trainer says it is a tendon trying to or slipping back into place because the swelling has going down but it is a little disconcerting. Thanks. These posts are really helpful. 
  • daviethistle
    daviethistle pegs_girl

    Posted

    .............a wee update on my 'condition'

    been 7 months now, and I feal the TKR has been a waste of time,

    I'm still in considerable uncumfyness and a whole load of new pains,

    my bottom half of my leg dosn't feal part of me any more,

    it kliks and klaks when I move - pain, and when I lift my leg to walk it

    feals like the whole bottom half at and below the joint is loose,

    and I'm going to fall over at any time,

    it seems to move a split second after the rest of my leg,

    Iv'e got to use my stick still, if I walk any distance

    and the pain at night is extreme, pain shoots up and down my leg

    if I lay any way other than on my back,

    ​ if I sit for say 10mins I can hardly move my leg to stand up!

    been too annoyed and I spose a bit depressed about it all, and the 

    doctors are still supplying me with dyclofenac, naproxin and now the hospy has gave me gabapentyne, still using co-codamol etc.,

    and I go to physio once a week as well as using a walker

    and exercise bike in the house,

    I have been told All this nonsense is 'normal' 

    and it will be at least another 6 months to improve if atall!

    getting really fed up with it all now, 

     8-(

    glad most of you are improving as time goes by.

    D.

    • Annodoremouse
      Annodoremouse daviethistle

      Posted

      My op was 1st October. I have some pain sorted with Paracetamol I walk 2 miles 4 tmes a week through woods without pain, that includes going over styles. I dont have any clicking at all. Aske for xrays and MRIs to be done as it seems there is something wrong here. I finished physio weeks ago 

      Wht you have isnt normal by any streach of the imagination Go and insist

    • caroline46398
      caroline46398 daviethistle

      Posted

      Sounds like you need a second opinion. My recovery feels slower than most on here and a lot slower than my own mother who had hers after me. However my Physio did warn me that at six months might feel better and some people take 12 months. Are some days better than others? Maybe you could keep a diary and if I were you I would try and get a scan as this sounds strange to me. Better to get checked to put your mind at rest. It' feels like it's taking for ever and I'm just coming to four months so must be really hard for you. Good luck
    • andrea30334
      andrea30334 daviethistle

      Posted

      Hi Davey I had my TNR in March and its just started clicking well I say clicking it sort of feels like I need to click it a bit like when you crack your finger if that makes sense and also I get the severe stiffness on standing if ive sat down so much so that I went to a county show here in west yorks yest and I dare not sit down all day cos I knew if I did my knee would seize and that would be that so I kept on my feet with a stick for 6 hours!!!! and am paying the price today but I went to see my 4 yr old Grandaughter in her pony class so worth it really but the thing I wanted to say was when I saw my Cons 2 weeks ago he told me it takes 12 months to be back to normal so keep on keeping on and you may be totally different tom?????
    • martinarvelo
      martinarvelo daviethistle

      Posted

      If this is 'normal' for your surgeon, then he probably isn't much good as a surgeon. if you consider that most people on this fu=orum proa=obably are here because they need reassurance, and perhaps were finding  things a little harder than the majority, then you will see that at around three months most of us are feeling considerably  better. Yes, still stiffness, some pain perhaps, some difficulty bending the knee. . but normal walking for most of us. . and you are at seven months and still in a bad way.  I know doctors like to send us home with more pain killers, but you will have to be very direct with this one, and isnsist of an MRI to see what is happening, and why you are not progressing like over 90 per cent of the TKR's. I'm really sorry you are going through this . . you need to be really pushy, brodering on the agressive if he (or se) refuses to give you the investigations you obviously need.  Veronica, who is on this furom, was told for months that everything was OK, that it was just a matter of time, when in fact it is misaligned. I'm not saying yours is misaligned. . heaven forbid . . but you need to know if this really is going to improve after all your hard work.  Gabapentyn is obviously because they are treating nerve pain, and if that really is the cause of the trouble then it is true that nerves take ages and ages to settle down . .I do still have some probems with nerve pain at 18 weeks, but nothing like you are describing. frown 
    • Annodoremouse
      Annodoremouse martinarvelo

      Posted

      Something is definitley wrong You shouldnt be in as much pain The band should be over 110 and walking should be easier and you shouldnt have clicking/clanking.

      Ask for an xray and MRI

    • veronica91735
      veronica91735 daviethistle

      Posted

      Hello Dave - I'm the Veronica referred to by Martina. I have had confirmation that it is misaligned, by 6mm. I made so much fuss that it just was "wrong", that with the help of my GP, an ultrasound was arranged. The consultant radiologist confirmed the problem (what a relief - I thought I was just a wimp) - he called it a "shelf" - the overhang traps soft tissue every time I walk. However, a 2nd x-ray also confirmed the top part is not fully attached to the bone, so all my clicking (every step) comes from the top area. If I move, & put my hand on my knee, the whole thing clicks. I asked to change consultants, as like you, mine told me that in 2 years, the body would adjust, & I have had one appointment with the new one, who gained my trust, he arranged a long alignment x-ray, for full measuring, which I had 3 weeks ago, & I see him to discuss the possibility of a revision (doing it all again) on the 4th June. My leg feels like a lump of lead too, sleeping is hopeless, in-fact, I made a long list of the things I can't do now, that I could do before this TKR. Mine is also about 7 months, it was done on the 27th October last year. I have been sent a questionnaire, re a revision, one of the questions is "Do you consider yourself disabled" & instead of ticking yes or no, I wrote "I do since the 27th Oct 2014". I can't believe I will once again go through the pain & suffering, knowing the 2% of revisions fail too! I just cannot live like this. Keep in touch with what you decide to do.

      Veronica

    • martinarvelo
      martinarvelo veronica91735

      Posted

      Hi veronica . .hope your revision does go well . .however well it goes, no-one is going to be able to stop it being another long and painful process but at least there surely HAS to liught at the end of the very very long tunnel you have had to go through!

      regarding 'clicking'  do you think this is i necessarily a bad sign ?  Mine clicks every time I bend it . . not a 'clunking' sound like some people mention, but a definite click . . also more painful now than it was a few weeks ago . . I didn't know that you the topepart of your prosthesis was not properly attached. . .rather looks as if your first surgeon was pretty useless . . Good luck

    • veronica91735
      veronica91735 martinarvelo

      Posted

      I'm not sure if it is correct to say not properly attached - I perhaps should have said there is a gap between the bone, & the prosthesis, clearly visible, which the new consultant said was adding to my problems. The click/clunk is awful; The odd click I could put up with, but this is so bad, I actually slow up to try & stop it when walking! When the new consultant held my leg (on a coach) & turned it, the click was so loud - he actually looked up at me! I am not looking forward to 4th JUne, but so want to be back to normal again (before I forget what being normal is!!)
    • daviethistle
      daviethistle veronica91735

      Posted

      Hi Veronica,

      thanx for the wee heads up,

      yeah, It sounds like I have the same problems as you,

      I really don't know if I want to go through it all again, I think I will try

      and live with it just now, see how I get on, mibbees it will? get better,

      who knows,

       I just know I feal really frustrated and let down,

      by the whole sorry episode.

      anyway, hope you get sorted out soon,

      The op was done by the head surgeon in the

      Royal Infirmary in Glasgow,

      he spacializes in Hips!!!

    • veronica91735
      veronica91735 daviethistle

      Posted

      So Dave, 2 months on - how do you feel now? I have had the pre-op tests for the revision, but because of the backlog here, it won't be for a while yet. At least I know what to expect this time. I couldn't live with the leg being so useless.
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