Knee Update

I'd best get writing how things are going before I forget. Seems that's what happened to all the people Who had this done, they just plain forgot what they went through.
I'm in my 12th week of recovery. My out patient therapy lasted 7 weeks, 3 days a week for 2 hours each visit. I loved it, It was very motivating me to keep moving I would take a Norco 10 about 30 minutes before my appointments as recommended.
The first thing was to lay on a table legs propped on a huge pillow and electric patches put two on each side of my knee then heat packs laid on top of that they called it heat stim pacs, it wakes up my nerves and helps me to get through the exercises so 15 minutes with that on and it feels great!
 then I have standing, sitting and laying exercises to do the standing ones are hardest for me like marching, up and down stair, leg raises and tilt board. all each just 3 minutes which may as well have been 3 hours, My legs would feel so heavy that I couldn't pick them up and the timer would go off at three minutes, I'd be saying ~whew~ there are lots of ways to strengthen leg muscles so I learned. after a total of none stop 45 minutes, then the therapist would manipulate my leg while I did my best to relax it and let her move it for me,( 15 minutes) generally just a bit more than I could move it on my own.
Then a cold stim pack for 15 minutes to help with swelling. Yes my leg is still discolored and swollen. they tell me it's extra blood running to the leg, and a normal expected thing to happen.

Something I didn't know was there is a nerve that runs right across the knee cap that usually gets cut sometimes numbness remains for a life time on the outside of the knee, yes I am numb and can't feel the stimulation on that part of my knee but before surgery I already had neuropathy a bit in my feet because of my type 2 diabetes.
Now at 12 weeks post op I am numb from just above my knee to the tip of my toes. ( they tell me that is normal)
When I lay down I tend to want to lay on my side but it feels like my knee cap is pulling away and falling off. Ice packs all day long to try and keep the swelling down,it doesn't seem to help but it feels good.
About the pain I experience, well....it's horrifying, I am beside myself, I don't sleep at night and I cried daily for the first two months I was taking norco 10's 4 to 6 times a day, it really didn't help much, just made me sleepy and I would fall asleep for 2 hours then have to wait for time for the next pill, I had to start smoking weed which was the best help and relief I got so I'd recommend doing this highly, I'm not a pot smoker, well not since the 70's so this was a decision I needed to make and am very glad of my choice. I think i'd call anyone a fool for not at least trying it. I swear it has helped me immense. Besides, it's a million times safer than the norco's

Things youll need for knee replacment

1;a walker with wheels in the front, you don't need anything elaborate like the ones with brakes and a seat, I used my walker for three weeks and couldn't have gone on with out one

a cane, you probably already have one, its a good buddy and helps bring confidence when walking

a shower chair, i used mine for three weeks then found it easy to just stand as my leg got stronger for a short shower

stool softener/ prunes/ prune juice, your pain meds cause constipation trust me you will need something of this sort

toilet riser with handles, this is my best buddy, i still need it , my toilet is very low, bending to sit or trying to get up would be really hard and painful without it Hopefully your toilet is on the same floor as where you sleep

ICE PACKS, the more you have the happier you will be, i wish i had several to cover my entire leg, because the whole leg becomes swollen
so you need some in the freezer while you are using the others, i hate the gel packs that become hard, so get the good ones called col pack in polyurethane

lotion, your leg will become very dry for some odd reason

 

neosporin, for about 4 weeks in to recovery you will need this to soften up the incision area

A Heat Pack, this is good to have as you get into some serious therapy, use it before exercise to loosen up your muscles, then ice after your exercising

Loose fitting safe shoes, my surgery side is very swollen and none of my shoes fit yet

Part 3 The surgery

After a few cancellations I finally got the nerve to get this going and made my surgery date for August 19 th 2014. I arrived at 5 am

 that morning

jumped into a hospital gown, then the fun began, Iv"s inserted, then they tell me I was going to get a spinal block

 and some meds of some sort to relax me, after getting that , the next thing I remember is 

being in my room with Pat and Alicia sitting there. from what i understand it was 2 hours prep and 2 hours surgery

 then 2 hours in the recovery room.

The bandages around my leg felt very tight and hurt pretty bad. as in a sore kind of hurt. I wanted the bandage off so bad.

 There was a tube just above my knee draining excess blood and another one administering numbing meds.

compression leggings on each leg that filled with air then released the air. That felt good, kinda of like an automatic exercise machine.

 but it's purpose was to prevent blood clots in my legs.

at 2;55 pm i got a shot of dilaudin, i fell asleep 15 minutes later.

in between the dilaudin every four hours, they gave me two norco;s, i am thankful. not really feeling any serious pain yet.

 just very uncomfortable.

8;30 pm i sat up and dangled my legs for 15 minutes, it felt good.They brought me dinner. They didn't want me to get up until i had 

my first therapy to learn the proper way.

 So I had to use the bedpan once. The Bathroom was only a few steps from my bed and the night nurse showed me how to stand

and get moving, i was so nervous about what pain I might feel when putting weight on my leg, to my surprise it felt good to stand,

 i was mainly a bit wobbly

from the meds.After my first walk to the toilet they brought a potty chair n said don't get up without help, but then another

 nurse told me if I think I can 

walk to the bathroom then go for it but call for help, then another nurse brought a chair and said no don't walk to the bathroom yet

 i kept them busy, i needed to pee every two hours.

Day Two: It's all like a dream, not sure how things went, each time I felt pain I'd let them know so they weren't cheap

 with the pain meds and I was thankful for that.

I had breakfast then the PT came, I have to admit, I don't know what she taught me, just to flex my feet and try to straighten 

my leg and tighten mu butt muscles. Lunch time

then PT again, she showed me how to sit up and get into the chair and sit there as long as I could take it, maybe was one hour. Dinner,

PT Again, we walked down the hall, that wore me out but no pain like before with bone on bone kinda of pain,

 just my leg was so swollen that caused my pain.As if all my leg muscles had been manipulated

and pulled at and twisted around, that's exactly what the Dr said was done in order to get to my bones.

Day Three: needed to have a group therapy , a shower then go home. it took until 5:30 before I could get that done.

Day Four:  a nurse came to visit that day. All looks good

7 Days after surgery home PT and nurse came , blood too thick so they put me on warfarin,

 that stuff worried me but i only took it for a week.

Nurse came twice a week to check my blood and PT came three times per week. I'm moving right along. 

Good advise is take pain meds one hour before PT and have Ice packs ready for when it's over you WILL Need it!!

So Just two weeks of home visits then off to outpatient PT. I had to research for my own place to go,

 one that was in network, I can't believe my DR office didn't set that up for me, they only had one place that they deal with

and it was out of my health care network. so I found a place very near to my home.

I went for evaluation and new exercises, each set progresses to something harder than before,

 I need a whole day of rest and ice and pains meds after each therapy, this is much more painful than I imagined.

Part two....

First speaking to my Family Dr who knows my every ailment and had treated me forever and has my prior records from his father before him, sad to say he recommends I NOT get surgery, he says I can survive the actual surgery but the therapy after would be difficult if not nearly impossible. He suggests me to just continue taking pain meds until they just don't work anymore.
Well, they aren't working and my quality of life isn't what it should be at my ripe age of 65. I can't grocery shop or even go into any store that doesn't have a cart for me to lean on, I can't take a simple walk, go to the basement and carry laundry up the stairs, or even sit on the floor to play with the Grand babies.
I can take a easy bike ride because pedaling doesn't put pressure on my knee as long as there are no hills, so nightly Pat and I take a midnight bike ride about 6 miles, I feel like this is strengthening my leg muscles.
I return to my Orthopedic Dr Callan and he says its time to replace my knee and did I have any vacations planned in the near future, We could do this right away or put it off until winter, he left it up to me, well I can't go on like I am so I agree to do this as soon as possible. He checks his calender and makes me an appointment for the next week!
The nurses give me a booklet and instructions on what I needed to do before surgery, they arrange appointments for phone interviews with all who I needed to speak with.
I read the booklet and find there are tons of things I needed to do in preparation. Pre admission blood work,, ekg,, x-rays a few pages of leg excersizes to help build muscle. There is no way that I can get this done in one week.
Especially because I had problems with the results on my ekg and they then wanted me to see my Cardiologist and get a Echogram to get a better look into my heart then they can blame him if anything goes wrong because he would be the one who signs the release form to go ahead with the surgery.
All tests went well and Cardiologist Dr Gowda tells me that I should definitely get the surgery because as I am now my quality of life is at a stand still and I will be very happy to have this done.
I know a few people who have had knee replacement, so naturally I ask as many questions that I can think of. I feel confident this is what I want to do. Even though I have heard horror stories and success stories, It seems to be a fifty fifty chance.
I'm going for it!    

Living with osteoarthritis

It's been a tough last two,years when my joints starting really bothering me. I didn't really understand what was happening but looks like this all srarted quite a few years ago, in my hands. Walking began to become difficult some five years ago, but it was a very slow process that built up as years went by.
I really believe weather brings on pain, like when it's cold or very humid, I read about studies on this matter and they say it's inconclusive. Well I know my body and I started to keep track on my pain levels and what the weather was doing. So I can tell you that for me, I can tell the difference when the weather changes.
I complained to my family Dr about pain and he suggested ibuprofen 600 mil twice per day, and it seemed to help a bit, for my hands. Then it almost seemed like a sudden pain I was getting in my knees, but only when I walked, sitting or riding my bike put no stress on my knees so it was still a livable sort of pain that I could deal with.
Time went on and it seemed the pain began to get worse, I could no longer grocery shop through the entire store so I'd have to skip a few isles and just get the essentials. I needed a rail to get up any stairs and found out I'd needed to walk one step at a time, thank goodness this is only pain in my right knee.
I look around at people who seem to be having trouble walking and now I understand why and what's happening with their bodies. How horrible it must be to have artheritus all over the body in every joint.
This doesn't happen over night, it gradually grows, at least that's how it happened to me.
Ibuprofen wasn't helping anymore so my Dr suggested I see a orthopedic Dr Callan, who showed me an x-Ray of my knee and the cartilage was wearing down, so a shot of some sort of steroidal cortisone maybe would help fill in the gaps and relieve my pain but It wouldn't last if I'm lucky about 3 months, then at that time is when I could come back for another shot. My first shot was wonderful! It worked fast and helped my pain but walking was still a problem, I continued taking the shots for two years, each time it would last less and less, until this option was no longer helping what so ever.
Another x-Ray showed that all cartilage was gone and I was entirely bone on bone, time for knee replacment.

Sarah and I made it on todays show! WOOT

Happy April

Spring has arrived, at least I'm pretty sure about that. Battle Creek visit, I suppose the pictures can tell the story better than I ever could. So here ya go