Getting a New Knee After Africa Trip

'Nuther update. Improvement seems to be accelerating.

Saw the surgeon yesterday. He said I'm ahead of schedule. PT just left. She’s still impressed. Measured a max of 112º flex on the knee, but officially 110º because the 112 was a major effort. She said she thought my face was going to pop off. She said that's way ahead of the curve. She doubled the number of reps for four of my exercises. And I surprised her by telling her I walked all the way up to the corner and back this morning sans walker (about 1/3 mile round trip). Also, my last pain pill was at midnight when the knee woke me up. Not feeling a need for it 13+ hours later even after two exercise sessions and the big walk. It’s getting there. Not ready for squats yet.

 

Latest update. Still going well. PT was here yesterday. She had me outside doing close order marching drills. "Turn left, turn 360, turn right, turn left, walk backwards, walk sideways," and so on. I felt like the dancing bear in the circus. And she said I managed to bend it 120º. Still can't get it all the way straight, though. Tomorrow will be seven weeks since surgery. One more week of home PT. Then I think I might try outpatient for a while. I know I don't need it, but if it will help, I definitely want to make use of it.

 

Thanks! And amen!!

Sunday a friend seemed surprised that I was going to go home from church to do PT instead of taking my wife to supper for her birthday. I said, "Yup! Three times a day, seven days a week." "Even on Sunday?" she said. "Yup, even on Sunday." She said she knows someone who got her knee replaced and didn't do the PT because she said it hurt too much. Now the lady is basically bedridden.

PS: I took my wife to lunch for her birthday before doing my afternoon PT. LOL!

 

That's so sad. The old "no pain, no gain" saying is really true with this stuff. You can choose whether to hurt for 2-3 months or to hurt for the rest of your life. For me, that's a pretty simple choice.

BTW, besides doing two of my three PT sessions and about to start the third, I've gone for two walks. The first was in 55º temps, so I only went 1.1 miles, but wore ankle weights. The second was so pleasant that I went 1.45 miles w/o weights. I'll take another walk after PT before supper since I have a meeting to go to tonight. Every day I walk farther than the day before.

 

I hear that rotator cuff is one of the hardest recoveries.

As well as things are going, it's clear that I have a lot to do. For one thing, the knee looks more like a cantaloup than a knee. It still hurts a bit. Still stiff. Not able to straighten fully. And I can see visibly how atrophied those thigh muscles have become.

 

Just had the last home visit from PT. Measured 114º of flex. In the other direction, I'm almost getting it straight. So there's work to do in both directions. Swelling might be part of the obstacle there. She said to try to find an hour a day to lay down with my leg higher than my heart. We also figured out a pillow arrangement that should accomplish that and also be more comfortable than what I've been doing.

Next step is to call the surgeon tomorrow to ask for out patient therapy. Lots of work remaining before this puppy is ready to go to Africa again!

 

After one night with the new sleeping arrangement, both sides of the kneecap are starting to peek out from the swelling. Going to try really hard to find a couple one-hour segments per day now for having the leg elevated. Less walking and more lounging. LOL!!! Learning as I go.

 

Right! I'm cutting way back on the walking. No walk after morning PT. Just over a mile after the noon PT. Not planning a walk in the afternoon either. More time with it elevated. It's already making a difference. Hopefully, that trend will continue. Not sure the ankle weights are a problem since the PTs recommended them. But I also don't think I need them anymore since I've regained most of the strength and the rest of it will come naturally.

With the lingering swelling, I can only maintain my current flexibility (which is right on schedule, they say) and improve it as swelling goes down. It's not all that bad, just feels like that one last hurdle to clear.

 

That's the odd thing. Everything I've read about Osgood-Schlatter talks about severe pain. I don't remember ever having knee pain till the arthritis got bad in the past year or two. In college, I did five sets of 25 leg presses with 250 pounds every other day and could dunk a basketball even though I'm only 5'-9". Nothing that athletic now, 58 years later, but squats and leg lifts don't bother me at all even though that left thigh is a little atrophied since the knee started locking and forcing the surgery. The only evidence of O-S disease is the big bump under each. knee. And by the way, the new regimen of elevating the leg above the heart is starting to pay off. The bump is beginning to show through the remaining swelling.

 

Ouch! It's so weird that I didn't have that pain or anything close to it.

But I do have those -- pretty big ones, too.

My knees have always sounded like Rice Krispies. But now it's more of a popping or clinking sound in both of them.

Oh yeah. I've had to use pads for many years.

 

Thanks. The knee keeps progressing. What I'm experiencing now is a pretty strong tightness from the left side of the knee joint going up the left side of the thigh about 6"-9". The tendon below the patella is pretty tight, too. I'm more aware of these areas because ether other areas are so much better now. And the swelling behind the knee is still the main flex limit. Still not able to get it all the way straight either. But all in all, it's noticeable better each day. Because of that tight muscle, I'm temporarily halting the squats and stair steps and focussing more on stretching and elevating. Hopefully, I can get into some outpatient therapy next week to see what they want me to do next to polish off this project.

Silly boy! I never did like to run except when playing football or something. Beside's the doctors strongly forbid running on these fake knees even though I know of people who do. It wears them out faster. But I do see lots of walking in my future.

The doc said it was caused by osteoarthritis, but I'm sure all the running, jumping, kneeling, and climbing (ladders and mountains) contributed. I was hoping he would show me the old parts so I could apologize to them.

And, just to prove it did happen :