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   people who are having or had a total knee replacement. I'm traveling down the road towards recovery. It would be nice to find some one to talk to.
I get my down days and days where I want to shout out to someone about that little thing I just did or trying to do.
   So, come on people, don't be shy, and let's talk.


   Marisa

You need to talk to Crunchy. She didn't get the total, just the arthoscopy. But she's having to make adjustments.

I'm due for both knees. One doc says total, another says arthoscopy. Neither of them are going to do it because of insurance changes. I see a new Ortho end of November. I'll know more then.

I have had 7 knee surgeries on my left knee including a high tibial osteotomy and doing a replacement after the 1st of the year. 

Marissa Sue,

Just replied to your other post and then saw this one.  I would love someone to comiserate with too...had TKR on October 17.

Chris

Ouchy, I had my total knee done on Sept 14th., so we're at about the same place in the recovery road. I'm still using my walker and have a quad cane too. I had 21 staples holding my incision together. After the third week, they remove them.
   It wasn't bad as I only had 3 staples that didn't want to come out as my skin had started to attach to them.
   You're just a little over one week from your surgery and the knee is stiff and painful. Sitting is hard as you don't know where to place your leg so that you can be comfortable. I had to add a pillow to my favorite easy chair to elevate the seat and then I took one of my wicker baskets and used it to prop the foot on. This way my knee was straight and I could move the basket to adjust for my leg position.
   I made good use of this rubber band thing that they gave me. It was the only way that I could get my leg up on the bed.
   I'm still working on my range of motion and it does hurt but I find that as each day passes, I can move better. Found out the hard way about not taking my pain meds BEFORE doing my excerises.
    Like you, I'm living on my Ultram and now am taking it every 6 hrs.
    Ouchy, do things slowly, take your time. Ask for help when you need to. You will find that you will get stronger as the days pass.
    Glad that I found you. Feel free to ask me questions or cry on my shoulder. If you're like me, you will celebrate the little things.


   Marisa

Thanks Marisa,

It helps to talk to someone going thru the same things.  Wow, my doctor took my staples out one week after surgery.  It is always interesting to see how differently each doctor does things.  When I was still in the hospital I would try to walk up and down the hallways and get the other patients out of their beds so we could do the congo line down the hall together, but I never did get too many takers - did have a race down the hall with one lady though.  I don't feel so 'with 't' now that I am home, doing more of course and so I am not so ambitious now.  When did your doctor say you could walk up and down stairs or drive? My surgery was on my left leg so they said I could drive when I felt confident and was not a lot of pain meds.

Chris

My knee has been howling like a Halloween ghost for the past week.  I guess it is back to the ortho for me.  Cortisone shot last month with no relief.  Even a morphine with a vicodin backer is not doing anything so I know it is time to go.  I was waiting til after the holidays since we travel so much for them but looking at these posts it seems I will be recovered enough for a 2 hour car ride.  I might not be able to drive as soon as I would like since we have stick shift cars and it is my left knee.  But the relief after surgery will be nice as it won't hurt to push in my clutch. 

Thanks everyone for showing me that it will be well worth it to get this done sooner and not later!

   Chris, they had me going up and down stairs on the 5th or 6th day after surgery. I wanted to go home and I have stairs leading up to my place, so I had to learn how to do it. Wasn't bad at all as my knee was in such bad shape BEFORE my replacement. Had to use my quad cane when doing the steps. We only have one hand rail.
   Now about the driving. Since it was my right knee, I had to wait until I could sit behind the wheel and put pressure on the pedals. I waited until my 5th week before I tried to drive. For my first drive, I backed my car out of my space, went up the driveway, turned on to the street, and drove up to the other driveway. It's a very short distance and parked my car back into my space. It didn't hurt getting into the car but hurt getting out as I had to bend my right knee more than when I go into the car. Wish that you could have seen the smile on my face as I felt that I had a degree of freedom back. My next drive was 4 days later and it was down the street to the bank. Felt funny for a couple of mins but soon it was like old times. Can't do long drives yet as I get so stiff. The doctor had placed no driving restictions on me. Plus when I hired someone to drive me around, it was per hour and you had to hire them for 4 hrs.

   Liz, I'm glad that you're not waiting to have the knee done as it sounds like it's in bad shape. My knee had turned to a 45 degree angle towards my other knee. Yes, you will hurt but it's a good hurt and it decressed as the days go by. The big key to everything is to move that knee after surgery. If you don't move it, you will lose it! I would get yelled at by the nurses as they would find me walking up the hallways, getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, etc. before I had permission to do so. Yes, I'm a go getter person.

Keep in touch,

Marisa
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