Total Knee Replacement and Hyaluronic Acid Shot experiences?

Thanks guys, yesterday was awful and my nausea (even with a patch and anti nausea pills) very high and I puked anything I put my stomach all day, including Meds, so I had a lot of pain. Finally could eat and drink and take meds this morning so doing better besides the usual knee pain. Once again my Quad/thigh area is very, very sore and stiff, pain significant but now under control. Doc said it went well so now that nausea is done hopefully my recovery is similar to my right knee. Even in the depths I am glad to have them both over and look forward to tennis and other activities I enjoy. DJN nice to see progress, keep it up!
 
Thanks guys, yesterday was awful and my nausea (even with a patch and anti nausea pills) very high and I puked anything I put my stomach all day, including Meds, so I had a lot of pain. Finally could eat and drink and take meds this morning so doing better besides the usual knee pain. Once again my Quad/thigh area is very, very sore and stiff, pain significant but now under control. Doc said it went well so now that nausea is done hopefully my recovery is similar to my right knee. Even in the depths I am glad to have them both over and look forward to tennis and other activities I enjoy. DJN nice to see progress, keep it up!
Do you have a nerve block/pump?
 
with assistance from the PT, I hit 122. It was painful getting there.

This week is also a milestone for me. 6 years since my near death Aortic Dissection
No pump, supposedly a nerve block. The thigh and ITB area bruising/soreness is pretty bad. Been icing like crazy, just using Advil/Tylenol combo as no way I will take another opioid base pain killer, it simply hammers my system. Doing a little better today and slept well last night. Worst appears over and now it's the incremental improving grind over many weeks/months. Way to get your ROM to 122 DJN!
 
No pump, supposedly a nerve block. The thigh and ITB area bruising/soreness is pretty bad. Been icing like crazy, just using Advil/Tylenol combo as no way I will take another opioid base pain killer, it simply hammers my system. Doing a little better today and slept well last night. Worst appears over and now it's the incremental improving grind over many weeks/months. Way to get your ROM to 122 DJN!
Sorry to hear that pain meds don't agree with you. More reason to focus on other types of pain control. Good luck.
 
I had the same problem with the meds and just took the strongest advil which seemed to do the job.Still getting some pain at six months, but used to it now and looking forward to the day when it’s gone completely. Good to see everyone seems to be making progress.
 
No pump, supposedly a nerve block. The thigh and ITB area bruising/soreness is pretty bad. Been icing like crazy, just using Advil/Tylenol combo as no way I will take another opioid base pain killer, it simply hammers my system. Doing a little better today and slept well last night. Worst appears over and now it's the incremental improving grind over many weeks/months. Way to get your ROM to 122 DJN!

Sheesh! This talk of a nerve block/pump brought back my worst memories of my knee replacement. I went and found my post about that wonderful experience, three days after my surgery:


Nope, not laughing about it yet, and if I ever have to do my other knee (or re-do my current knee), I'm going to forego the nerve pump. :(

Best of luck to all you new-knee warriors! Keep up the good battle!
 
Dude! If the worst part of your knee replacement was removing medical tape from your skin, it kind of shows how beneficial the nerve block was, considering they chopped off part of your femur, tibia and knee cap.
 
I think everyone has their own worst moment and probably most of us go back to the start when it’s bad, realizing that the process is just beginning. It was like that for me the morning after surgery thinking ‘what have I done’ and realizing that this was going to be a life changing period of extreme pain and no sport for a long time. It’s only now, after 6 months that I think I may get back to near normal…..possibly
 
Dude! If the worst part of your knee replacement was removing medical tape from your skin, it kind of shows how beneficial the nerve block was, considering they chopped off part of your femur, tibia and knee cap.

Removing that medical tape really was one of the worst parts. I went back to read some more of my entries in those early days and it didn't seem that losing the pump resulted in that much more pain. No doubt it helped, but there was that concentrated period of pain and angst from having to peel off the outer layer of my skin, and to pull out that tube that implanted deep into my quad. The squeamishness factor is pretty high there.
 
yesterday PT session was rough. I regressed to 118 but was still able to ride the stationary bike. I have not had time to do my personal PT exercises. Was busy helping my parents pack and move. I did lots of walking in their condo, pushing a dolly to the elevator and to the cars, lifting boxes, and on my feet for hours at a time with no ice till late at night... so needless to say an exhausting (physically and mentally) week. I did notice more muscle tone. The past two days i'm still pretty sore and have been using the walker more. Time to rest and hope to reset. Crossing my fingers that next week I can get off the walker

take care knee warriors!!!
 
Thursday was my turn the corner day as my quads finally started firing so I could do a straight leg raise. Mobility is getting a little better and don't need the walker anymore and I can now "really" do my PT. Still a good bit more swelling then when I had my right leg TKR in January, but it is slowly abating. My PT said my right knee was one of those fortunate ones where everything goes pretty well. He says I am close to normal expectation at 10 days out, a bit behind on ROM. Nice to get past those really hard initial several days.
 
taking stairs going up with both legs. trying to limit my use of hand rails. Going down still one leg at a time. Follow up today with ortho
Good to hear! I'm feelin a lot better as swelling abates and I can really work my ROM stuff, walking w/o walker or cane and a lot less stiff. Now I can actually envision a future (2-3 months out at least) of tennis/hiking/Pball, lots of incentive to work hard at my PT. Feels good to have both TKR's behind me!
 
Ortho follow up yesterday seemed good. Dr isn't concerned about me having surgical manipulation. Reminded me that every patient is different

So...in looking back at how much scar tissue and compensation I have had over the years with x4 surgeries already on the knee...and that the 1st 2 months after the TKR I really lost so much mass and use on the leg...etc etc...

and trying not to stress eat. life around us doesn't stop.

last night I tried to walk the dogs. they are not good walkers and tug and tug. not ready for that just yet.
 
Good to hear! I'm feelin a lot better as swelling abates and I can really work my ROM stuff, walking w/o walker or cane and a lot less stiff. Now I can actually envision a future (2-3 months out at least) of tennis/hiking/Pball, lots of incentive to work hard at my PT. Feels good to have both TKR's behind me!
cheers! take care with your recovery too
 
Ortho follow up yesterday seemed good. Dr isn't concerned about me having surgical manipulation. Reminded me that every patient is different

So...in looking back at how much scar tissue and compensation I have had over the years with x4 surgeries already on the knee...and that the 1st 2 months after the TKR I really lost so much mass and use on the leg...etc etc...

and trying not to stress eat. life around us doesn't stop.

last night I tried to walk the dogs. they are not good walkers and tug and tug. not ready for that just yet.
I think you might be right , but I don’t know what exactly the manipulating achieves, maybe good to talk to the surgeon and ask him. I confirm that the dogs tugging is not great. I bundle mine into the car and take him where he can run around, it’s a better solution for him and me. Let me know how you get on, I think you’ve got to the point where manipulation could be a good idea, someone else in the group has maybe experienced it?
Hang in there.
 
I think you might be right , but I don’t know what exactly the manipulating achieves, maybe good to talk to the surgeon and ask him. I confirm that the dogs tugging is not great. I bundle mine into the car and take him where he can run around, it’s a better solution for him and me. Let me know how you get on, I think you’ve got to the point where manipulation could be a good idea, someone else in the group has maybe experienced it?
Hang in there.
AFAIK, surgical manipulation can be approached a number of ways. One is no incision but being under anesthesia, the patients legs are moved so much and far that you couldn't do while awake. The other is to have an arthroscopy where they make incisions to go inside and clean up scar tissue and adhesions.

What I hope to achieve soon is to reduce my PT visits. Shows signs of improvement and helps save the wallet from the co-pays.
 
slow but steady progress on left knee now 3.5 weeks out, definitely a slower recovery than right knee done Jan 8. I'd say right knee was an 8-9 on a 1-10 scale, left knee is likely average at a 5 with more pain/swelling than left. Finally hit 104 ROM yesterday, so making some decent progress there, left knee was near 116 at comparable time from surgery - they always say every knee is different. 3 days ago was finally able to do a revolution on a stationary bike and it gets a little easier each day - 10 days behind left knee. Still have sore lateral quads/IT band and that is the reason for the more limited ROM vs left knee, again slowly getting better. All in all slow and steady progress and I am looking forward to being able to actually ride the bike and get a workout and start some strength training work vs pretty much only focus on ROM improvement. GLTA
 
slow but steady progress on left knee now 3.5 weeks out, definitely a slower recovery than right knee done Jan 8. I'd say right knee was an 8-9 on a 1-10 scale, left knee is likely average at a 5 with more pain/swelling than left. Finally hit 104 ROM yesterday, so making some decent progress there, left knee was near 116 at comparable time from surgery - they always say every knee is different. 3 days ago was finally able to do a revolution on a stationary bike and it gets a little easier each day - 10 days behind left knee. Still have sore lateral quads/IT band and that is the reason for the more limited ROM vs left knee, again slowly getting better. All in all slow and steady progress and I am looking forward to being able to actually ride the bike and get a workout and start some strength training work vs pretty much only focus on ROM improvement. GLTA
Great progress, you’ll be back on the courts in no time !
 
@drak thanks for sharing your update

I was on a tennis court last weekend...although it was to dj the liveball tournament and not play. lol

It was great to see the other tennis staff and players
 
@drak thanks for sharing your update

I was on a tennis court last weekend...although it was to dj the liveball tournament and not play. lol

It was great to see the other tennis staff and players
With lousy weather and very uneven terrain I have been walking at my tennis club which has about a 400 yard track circling the 7 indoor courts. So, I salivate and dream as I walk the track and see many of my buddies playing! LOL Nice to be on the other side of two TKR's this year and looking forward to doing "FUN STUFF"! slow and steady wins the race, GLTA
 
Same thing with me, at the tennis club but not playing, referee for matches, but hopefully hitting some balls on Thursday
Let us know how that goes and have fun! I am curious about court movement after fully recovered from TKR - do most people feel slower or faster? I wonder becasue they were likely very limited the year or two before because their knee likely hurt, so after TKR, fully healed and with no pain, do many feel they are now faster than right before the operation?
 
Let us know how that goes and have fun! I am curious about court movement after fully recovered from TKR - do most people feel slower or faster? I wonder becasue they were likely very limited the year or two before because their knee likely hurt, so after TKR, fully healed and with no pain, do many feel they are now faster than right before the operation?

While I have not had a TKR.. I know quite a few that have. I have also viewed talks by a number of knee doctors. The 1st thing I was surprised about was the fact that after a TKR you will still have some pain in many cases. I think the outcomes of TKR in my little circle has been about 60-30-10. 60 percent being very positive, 30 being decent.. and 10 being I should have kept the old knee joint. The 60 percent seems to be folks that are really well prepared for the TKR both physically and attitude wise. So glad to hear you are doing great. Sometimes the surgery for various reasons doe not go well. It is much more complicated than advertised IMHO. Hips seem to go better and are easier to rehab. Best Wishes!
 
Let us know how that goes and have fun! I am curious about court movement after fully recovered from TKR - do most people feel slower or faster? I wonder becasue they were likely very limited the year or two before because their knee likely hurt, so after TKR, fully healed and with no pain, do many feel they are now faster than right before the operation?

I am moving as well as I did five years ago, when I was then in my late 50’s and before knee issues flared up. I did have to do sprint training. With a TKR, I found I had no proprioception of my knee joint angle because my new knee had no nerves, so being able to stride long and run fast had to be retrained.
 
I am moving as well as I did five years ago, when I was then in my late 50’s and before knee issues flared up. I did have to do sprint training. With a TKR, I found I had no proprioception of my knee joint angle because my new knee had no nerves, so being able to stride long and run fast had to be retrained.
Very interesting on the sprint training, do you mind sharing what your sprint training routine was and when after your surgery you began it.
 
Let us know how that goes and have fun! I am curious about court movement after fully recovered from TKR - do most people feel slower or faster? I wonder becasue they were likely very limited the year or two before because their knee likely hurt, so after TKR, fully healed and with no pain, do many feel they are now faster than right before the operation?
Thanks I did enjoy it, but it felt strange. The forehand was ok, but I found it more difficult on backhand to get into position. Overall I didn’t try to move too much, even taking care I could hardly walk the next day and definitely not faster than before. I think I need to change completely the way to move and try to prepare as quickly as possible. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to learn and adapt……
 
Thanks I did enjoy it, but it felt strange. The forehand was ok, but I found it more difficult on backhand to get into position. Overall I didn’t try to move too much, even taking care I could hardly walk the next day and definitely not faster than before. I think I need to change completely the way to move and try to prepare as quickly as possible. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to learn and adapt……
I am assuming you just had one knee done? Sounds like going to a PT and getting an exercise program started to relearn movement/strength/balance with the new knee would be a good idea. Damn, I have had two done in the past 3 months - LOL I think I might be a mess
 
Good news from my PT visit today, got my ROM up to 122 on recent left knee (almost 5 weeks out), just 3-4 degrees behind my right! Very happy with that and now doing a lot of walking (dog very happy about that!) and increasing biking as well and can now do more strength training. Very relieved that I caught up fast with my ROM as I had a lot more swelling in first 1-2 weeks with this TKR than I had with the initial right one. Nice to get the initial and hardest stages done and now looking forward to building strength and stamina for future "court time"!
 
great to hear!!!

assisted I got to 128 and i'm starting to feel more muscle mass. Just have to be patient as this is very very very slow recovery. I was told I need to get to 125 un-assisted as well as to 0 on extension and then they will decrease the amount of PT visits. Till then it's still twice a week.

I just saw a co-worker who had his TKR in February and he is back on the field with no restrictions as of today. we had some jokes back and forth...
 
great to hear!!!

assisted I got to 128 and i'm starting to feel more muscle mass. Just have to be patient as this is very very very slow recovery. I was told I need to get to 125 un-assisted as well as to 0 on extension and then they will decrease the amount of PT visits. Till then it's still twice a week.

I just saw a co-worker who had his TKR in February and he is back on the field with no restrictions as of today. we had some jokes back and forth...
That's great news! Keep up the good work. I'll be happy with 125 (or a bit more) unassisted, my last 122 reading was unassisted. Got zero already on left knee extension but my initial right knee TKR per last check was near 3, that knee was more damaged than left and I only had 8 degrees extension pre-op.
 
keep it up @drak

I'll ask for measurements again unassisted and assisted.

For flex, they measure while i'm on my back and I bring my foot as close to my glutes. At the Drs, they had me in a chair and then slide forward. That last way of measuring I had my weight to help me.
 
Thursday was my turn the corner day as my quads finally started firing so I could do a straight leg raise. Mobility is getting a little better and don't need the walker anymore and I can now "really" do my PT. Still a good bit more swelling then when I had my right leg TKR in January, but it is slowly abating. My PT said my right knee was one of those fortunate ones where everything goes pretty well. He says I am close to normal expectation at 10 days out, a bit behind on ROM. Nice to get past those really hard initial several days.

Ortho follow up yesterday seemed good. Dr isn't concerned about me having surgical manipulation. Reminded me that every patient is different

So...in looking back at how much scar tissue and compensation I have had over the years with x4 surgeries already on the knee...and that the 1st 2 months after the TKR I really lost so much mass and use on the leg...etc etc...

and trying not to stress eat. life around us doesn't stop.

last night I tried to walk the dogs. they are not good walkers and tug and tug. not ready for that just yet.

These posts really should be signed with the poster's age haha
 
Very interesting on the sprint training, do you mind sharing what your sprint training routine was and when after your surgery you began it.

Apologies for the long delay. I haven’t been on in a long while.

I think I started my running training somewhere around three months and sprinting probably six weeks after that. I do practically all of my sprint training on a cushioned astroturf field. Current routine is to warm up with a few full field length jogs. Then, I’ll run the first half the field at about 8 minute mile pace, and sprint the second half. I’ll vary the sprinting from all out speed to bounding types of strides where I try for extra long stride length. I briskly walk the length of the field back to the starting point for aerobic recovery, and do between four and eight reps, about once per week.

I’m 63 years old.
 
I did some gardening/tree trimming this past weekend. very little walker use. mostly early morning when getting out of bed or when i go to work to carry my backpack. I'm not confident to walk w added weight. I have the cane with me and try to not use it unless i'm feeling tired/sore. i'm not 50...yet. lol
 
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