Finally recovered from my TLKR

[Guest guest]

I have not been on here for quite a while for various reasons. I had

my LTKR on 31st January 2007 and at one point I really thought I had

made the wrong decision to have it done, but now after almost 10

months I am really glad that I went ahead with it and that I am at

last seeing the benfit of having it done, despite all the pitfalls

along the way.

When I was last on here I was having trouble with my knee giving way.

I had not been very happy with my PT and so stopped going as she

seemed to be doing me more harm than good.

My OS said that a PT should NEVER force the knee to bend, as mine was

doing, as they can do more harm than good. I got severe bruising on

my inner thigh from her forcing my knee to bend, even though I begged

her to stop.....7 months later this bruising is still visible!!

I changed to a new PT and she said that I had 'quad lag' when trying

to lift the leg and that was what was causing the knee to give way.

She couldnt believe that the previous PT hadnt given me any

strengthening exercises at all. This new PT gave me loads of quad

strengthening exercises, they varied from doing them lying down,

sitting and doing mini squats. She also had me trying to balance on a

wobble board!! That was fun...I couldnt keep my balance at all at

first, so I bought one myself, as my PT said this is best done every

day to get good results and now I can balance really well. This helps

with core stability which I am told is very important after a joint

replacement. I can now walk very well, the knee does not give way at

all and at long last I am off the pain meds and have abandoned the

crutches, which I was using all the time for support and security,

just incase the knee gave way and I fell. I cannot believe the

difference changing PT's has made to me and my recovery.

So for anyone out there struggling like I was, maybe look to what

your PT is giving you and change to another PT if you feel you are

not getting any benefit from what you are being given re exercises.

Everyone is different, we all heal at different rates so we progress

at different rates too. I made the mistake of comparing my recovery

with everyone else, but just because one person gets better in a very

short time, it doesnt mean we all will, as I know only too well.

As well as having rehab for my new knee, I have had a lot of trouble

with my left wrist/thumb for the last 16 months, this started after a

fall down some stairs in a store in June 2006. I broke my wrist in 2

places and when they x-rayed and MRI scanned it, they found that I

have a problem with my thumb and the way it joins to my hand and this

has given me pain and gradual loss of the use of that hand.

The OS that I have been seeing for this problem was very reluctant to

do surgery, after all the complications etc that I had after my

TLKR. When I saw him 2 months ago I was still having trouble walking

and was using crutches. He made the decision to try steroid shots but

after giving me 3 of them over the last 9 months, there has been no

improvement, if anything its worse now.

I saw him again yesterday and he couldnt believe the difference in my

walking and asked what had happend to make me recover all of a

sudden. I told him about having a decent PT and how much better I

was now that I was getting helpful exercises.

Due to this recovery, he has now decided that he will do surgery on

my left hand. The damage I have there is due to the way my thumb

joins my hand (its the way I was made apparently). This means that

when I try to use that hand, one side of the joint rubs against

another bone and has worn away quite a bit now and I have developed

osteophytes (bone spurs)in the space where the bone has worn away. He

will remove the trapezium bone which is directly under the joint that

is damaged, as this bone is gradually slipping behind the trapeziod

bone next to it. This will make my thumb slightly shorter than the

other one but still give me full range of movement, even though it

might not be as strong as the other hand, at least I will be able to

use it. The space left will fill with scar tissue and it should stop

the pain. The rubbing of the bone and joint has caused similar damage

to what I had in my knee (the knee damage was due to having initially

trained as a dancer).

I will only be in hospital overnight, I will have a pressure bandage

on for 2 weeks then will have the stitches out and have a full

plaster cast put on for 6-8 weeks. They will then remove the plaster

cast and fit me with a thermoplastic brace for another 4 weeks, I

will have PT and gradually wean myslef off using the brace. If for

any reason this doesnt work, they can apparently replace thumb

joints, as they do with knee/hip joints, but its not a very common

surgery, so the outcome is a bit varied, this would only be done as a

last resort.

So with any luck come January 2008 I will be back to normal and able

to work again. I have been in pain for years with both the knee and

thumb and it will be so nice to be pain free and able to get back to

doing everything that I enjoy doing.

I will let you all know how everything goes.

Marilyn (UK