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Two months TKR and still very swollen after walking

Posted , 12 users are following.

saralice
saralice

I thought the swelling would have gone down by now but it is still swollen even after icing and raising leg.I sleep OK(on my side) I can climb stairs and I don't use a crutch. I am fine until I start to walk on it.It is still painful when I walk and I can cooe with that but the continual swelling is worrying me. Is this normal?

0 likes, 16 replies

16 Replies

  • CHICO_MARX
    CHICO_MARX saralice

    Posted

    You may be walking too much.  Get a pedometer or FitBit to track your steps.  Get to know the limit where you get swelling.  Then back off and increase gradually.  When you push the knee too far, it swells.  Happens to all of us.
  • susan27997
    susan27997 saralice

    Posted

    Sarah, you sound like you are doing great! Ice and elevate are your best friends. MDs and physical therapist all day that swelling is common for a year or more. Glad you can sleep...I am 4 weeks post op with my TOR and still not sleeping for more than an hour at a time.
    • johnny17592
      johnny17592 susan27997

      Posted

      I got to agree with Chico i had to go out on Wednesday had no choice but to take two buses there and back plus a fair bit of walking and standing around on one crutch kneee was fine at first after about an hour of getting back it was very sore and stiff yet today I went and did a little shopping lirt there and back about an hour round the store and it feels great .
    • CHICO_MARX
      CHICO_MARX johnny17592

      Posted

      I was about 5 weeks post op.  Went for a walk in a mall with my daughter.  No big deal...right?  That night, swelling (elevate...ice).  Looked at the FitBit...8,000+ steps.  Geez...  Paid for that oversight for days.  Never made the mistake again.
  • lynn15111
    lynn15111 saralice

    Posted

    How intense is your pt?  I'm at the two month mark this upcoming week, and I quit pt because of what they were putting my knee through.  I have less swelling, yet when I move up to another 5 degrees of bend, it will swell.  Nothing wrong with that.  I expect this stiffness to go down too the more I bend the knee over the next 4 weeks.  People say the 3 month mark is another turning point.  Too much walking still makes my knee very stiff too.  Just listen to it and don't do more than it's ready for.

  • joyfull1
    joyfull1 saralice

    Posted

    I am told swelling is normal for up to a year. I'm at 3 months post op and still swollen, though less than at 8 weeks.

  • maria1957
    maria1957 saralice

    Posted

    Hi Saralice

    I always had the swelling and dr keeps on saying can take 1year I've persistent I don't think it's normal look at me now😡

    • lynn15111
      lynn15111 maria1957

      Posted

      all I know is that you need to take a short course of antibiotics whenever you have your teeth cleaned or worked on to prevent infection in the TKR....for the rest of lifetime.  I wonder if other things may cause the same risk, but just not aware of it now.  Plus there are antibiotic resistant infections cropping up.  
    • janeyt34
      janeyt34 maria1957

      Posted

      Hi Maria

      Just read your post.

      I am in the same position as youself i.e., swelling, I had TKR last Dec, MUA in March this year and my knee still becomes swollen when I have been on it, so here we go again elevate at least twice a day. My doc and nurse and Physio have all said I could have the swelling up to two years !!!! Everyone is different, however I am not in any pain just when knee is swollen it feels tight. Unbelievably my friend who has had a TKR just 3 wks ago, has no swelling or no bruising at all. I think we have been unlucky.

      Try not to worry.

      Regards Janey

    • maria1957
      maria1957 janeyt34

      Posted

      Hi Janet

      I'm back to operating room tomorrow my CRC is alarming elevated 289 and ESR 51 just have to stay positive and hope for the best

  • dave63380
    dave63380 saralice

    Posted

    I'm 2 years post op both knees, for me the swelling lasted for at least 4 months, did 3 days a week physical therapy for a year. Always iced after for 15 minutes. This recovery is a long process. Everyone seems to think they should be all better at two months! The serious pain should be gone, Replaced by sore muscles from PT. At least 6 months or more is how long it really takes but everyone is different.

  • cheryl90571
    cheryl90571 saralice

    Posted

    Hi!

    I had lots of swelling with my first TKR. Sometimes when I did EVERYTHING I could to prevent it, it would STILL swell. It was frustrating!

    I DID have success after I put my compression stockings on that I was given following surgery. These were ones that went all the way up my thighs. (After I had taken them off after two weeks post op in order to get my staples out, I thought I was DONE with them, but I was willing to try pretty much ANYTHING to get rid of the swelling!)

    I felt a lot of relief once I got those stockings back on! I left them on all day and all night for the whole weekend. It seemed to be EXACTLY what my legs needed!

    I repeated this procedure each time the swelling got bad. It really helped.

    Of course I continued to ice and elevate, too. I drank LOTS of water to flush out toxins and watched my salt intake.

    I did not have nearly as much swelling with my second TKR three months later. I'm guessing since each surgery is different, the results are different, too.

    Swelling is the body's reaction to trauma. It is the way it immobilizes the area to protect it from harm. It also is VERY, VERY ANNOYING and makes it hard to walk, wear shoes, bend the knee and do PT successfully!😲

    Try the compression stockings or use Ace bandages which do a great job, too.

    I hope you can soon get relief!💟

  • saralice
    saralice

    Posted

    You are really great on here. I really appreciate your advice. Thank you very much.
  • pat71856
    pat71856 saralice

    Posted

    I have same thing, I also swell up after driving a ways It seems as though I cannot point the leg downwards for extended periods of time or swelling will occur . I very frustrated and irritated by this knee

    • cheryl90571
      cheryl90571 pat71856

      Posted

      I had the same problem at first! A month after my first TKR a dear friend of ours passed away, and my husband drove the five hour round trip to the calling hours and back with me in the passenger seat.

      VERY BAD SWELLING!😵😱😰

      Even now, over a year later, I TRY to prop up my legs when seated!

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