I finished Physical Therapy and had a final* post-op appointment with my surgeon. My range of motion has returned to a tiny bit better than what it was pre-op, which is around 4°—110°. I would like to keep working on improving it but it has stopped being the limits of post-op swelling and more the limits of pre-op soft tissue extension. That is going to take time. I need to keep walking and biking in the short term. My leg strength is finally coming back due to some gym time.
Linda and I went to Palm Springs last weekend to visit her brother-in-law and I spent quite a bit of time swimming. I feel really good in the water and swear my RoM was better submerged than on land. Who knows?
The real test will arrive in late November when ski season begins. Stay tuned.
*I still have to visit my surgeon at the one year mark so not completely done with him.
It’s taken almost two and a half months to get here, but I finally have the range of motion to clip into my recumbent bike’s right pedal, and stay that way throughout a ride. I’ve been able to clip for short stretches of road, usually uphills and by shifting up/back in the seat of the bike. But now I can clip after a short warmup and just stay in for the duration of the ride.
My Physical Therapist says this will accelerate my progress quite a bit, so I try to ride at least 30 minutes a day. Sometimes with Ripley, sometimes alone. I meet with my doctor on August 6th and am really trying to avoid another procedure on the knee and just keep working it through exercise, and PT. Wish me luck!
So, with the threat of an “MUA” from my surgeon I’ve doubled down on my PT to improve my range of motion. Progress has been made! I can finally pedal a bike so I have gone on morning rides every day that I can. Some days I bring Ripley the Aussie Shepherd along because she has energy to burn. Dottie the Corgi is not ready for bike work (yet). The bike riding (and soaking/bending in the hot tub) have done wonders for my range of motion. I went from being “stuck” around an 80° bend to 110° at my most recent PT appointment. I think the doc won’t be happy until I am at 120° so I’m keeping at it.
I can’t clip in with my bike cleats on my right foot yet (not enough bend at the apex of the stroke) but I’m getting closer every day.
I’m also back at the gym. It is amazing what two months of being sedentary does to muscles at my age. It’s like starting over again.
Saw my Orthopedic surgeon yesterday for a post op visit. He lifted all restrictions on my activities. So I can finally travel, swim, hot tub, and get back to the gym. So I immediately hit the gym and started leg work again. I have lost so much strength from being inactive for the past two months – to the point that I’m worried.
He also re-upped my PT regimen because he feels my range of motion isn’t where it should be by this point. Of course my pre-op range of motion was terrible, but I haven’t even returned to that point yet. I’m going to see him again in six weeks and if it hasn’t improved by then he will do something called “manipulation under anesthesia” which just by the sound of it, I want to avoid.
I’m hoping some hot tub time will assist with getting some flexibility into my right leg. My PT folks have really helped and I know they can get me to next 20° RoM.
Sorry for the radio silence. I usually write these on Fridays and last Friday was a busy day for me. Linda flew to PDX the night before, and I had a lot to do on Friday: drop off two of the dogs (Ripley & Dottie) with our dog sitter, go to my Physical Therapy appointment, then drive to Portland with our old dog (Marky), to spend the weekend. Linda was doing some relief shifts at a Veterinary Hospital just outside Portland, and we booked a hotel stay downtown. We met with Nick & Izzy for dinner that night (only a few weeks until their wedding!) I served as Dr. Goolsbee’s driver to get her to/from the clinic every day. On Saturday, I took Marky to Mount Tabor and climbed the stairs to the summit where the wedding will take place. I wanted to make sure I could accomplish the climb on my own. Using my cane, the climb was actually easy, and I was able to climb the ~300 stairs easily. Their pitch is lower than a household staircase, so I had no problem going up the stairs normally with my right leg.
Mount Tabor stairs, Portland, OR.
Going back down was a tad tougher, and I had to do the two steps per stair method using my cane and the railing.
Sunday I enjoyed a nice Father’s Day brunch with Nick.
Sunday night we had Mexican food with Stewart.
We drove home Monday morning. All in all a good weekend.
Since then I have stopped using my cane most of the time. That’s a pretty big milestone in recovery from knee replacement surgery. There are times I miss it, but for most daily activity I don’t really need it anymore. I have my post-op appointment with my surgeon next week, and hope to be signed off for most things I would like to do, such as driving my regular car (manual transmission!), getting in the hot tub, swimming, going to the gym, etc.
My Range of Motion is increasing little by little every PT session. I was able to turn the pedals of a stationary bike at the clinic today (Friday 6/20) for the first time ever, though it was turning the pedals backwards and was quite difficult. I’m not ready to ride yet, but I hope that is coming soon. As soon as I can ride, I will take Ripley (and maybe Dottie) for laps around the neighborhood to start rebuilding my leg muscles. I saw myself in a full-length mirror while in Portland and my legs have lost a lot of muscle mass. Not good! I worked SO hard for so many months to get my legs in shape prior to my surgery, and I’m thankful that worked out well, as it made the immediate post-op process easier (things like getting up from sitting.) But now is the time to build them back up again from nearly two months of inactivity/recovery.
My incision, one month post-op. The skin texture is due to the compression stockings they have me wearing during the day.
Today is June 2nd. My Total Knee Replacement Surgery was on May 2nd, so today marks one month. As you can see all of my bandages have fallen away, revealing my full incision. Linda, who is both a seamstress (recreationally) and a surgeon (professionally) says these are some of the best sutures she has ever seen. Given what happens during a TKR procedure it is amazing it looks so good. (They basically cut you vertically, pull you all apart, including sliding your kneecap off to the side, and do all the horizontal bone-cutting with the knee wide open!) I have seen many people’s photos of their incisions and this one is a work of art by most comparisons. Dr. King is very good at what he does.
So how am I doing?
Making slow progress. On the upside I am able to walk (mostly with a cane) and I have actually driven a few times (just short trips into town for errands, PT appointments, and taking the dogs to the park.) I am back to cooking our meals, which I am sure Linda is very grateful for (she is not a chef!) I made it to the gym (!) to begin working out again.
The downsides, I still have very little stamina in terms of mobility. I have to stop, sit, and run the ice & compression machine on my knee after any amount of activity. My range of motion is still very limited. I can’t straighten, nor bend my leg very far. I have increased it by maybe 10% in total after two weeks of PT. That is a bit disappointing to be honest. The knee is just VERY stiff. To illustrate, I can turn my bike pedals about 190° of the 360° rotation. When I first attempted I was a bit under 180°. My therapist tortures me twice a week pulling and bending my leg to the limits of my pain threshold, which is about as unfun as it sounds. I do exercises at home too. As soon as I can spin those pedals fully I will be riding laps around my neighborhood to begin to rebuild my leg muscles.
I mentioned going to the gym. It was shocking how much strength I lost in a month of inactivity. I only did upper body exercises, and only “push” lifts at that. The “push to failure” was easy to get to. Oh boy. Therapist says no leg work yet, so skipping leg day for now.
TLDR: I’m happy with the appearance of my incision, but not happy with my range of motion and decline in overall condition.
Had my second PT appointment, and made some ROM progress. After my first appointment I was told to focus of straightening my leg with some specific exercises. I definitely did the work there as I have measurable improvement at my appointment today. However my flexion only improved by 1° of motion, so we worked on that today. Oh boy. That hurts!
In some good news I have started to switch from the walker to a cane. Slow progress but continuing progress.
