Scar tissue after knee replacement

This is Lori. I had written before about neuropathy. My foot pain seems to be getting better very slowly. Neurologist, podiatrist, foot and ankle orthopedist all said there was nothing they could identify to cause the pain down the inside of my foot and weak painful feeling when I walk more than a block. I am doing a lot of strengthening on my tkr right knee from surgery 8 months ago, and am up to 75 pounds on squat sets. I got up to 50 miles round trip on my road bike before the weather got too miserable to ride anymore. The problem is that every single morning I have to go through the herl slides pulling up with a strap to get my knee to bend to where I want it to. Without assistance, it is about 128 or 130 lieing on my back, but if I sm doing some activity outside and my foot gets slightly caught up against grass or snow or something, it is incredible pain because the knee is forced to bend the amount that it really needs to clear my leg from stuff on uneven ground when
I am walking. This tells me it is not bending far enough. When I do heel slides, I have to go through a lot of pain and finally pull my heel up to within a thumb to index finger width distance from my butt. I think that distance is about 135 degrees. It is frustrating and I wonder if I have to continue to do these painful heel slides forever every day, or will it finally bend enough on its own? I hope other people read this and respond. Not sure how this works to get other people to see this.

have you seen a neurologist? That would be my first stop. And your flexion is very good ! Why are you worried about it? Lots of people never get past 120. And I hear that improvement continues for the first year, so that is something to look forward to. Just keep moving. I had my second knee done late September, and I just got to 120. and 125 with some help.

I saw a neutologist but think the results were not accurate. He said he was sure it had nothing to do with knee surgery before he even did any tests! He was very negative and treated me like I was crazy and overdramatic and did not like rhe zillion questions I kept asking him (because I was curious about all parts of rhe nerve conduction test and muscle stimulus tests he did). It showrd that one nerve was slow or not at all responding, but that nerve Is not connected to the area where I have symptoms. Anyway, my worry about flexion is that I wonder if it is expected at this point post surgery, to have to force-flex my knee every single morning for 15 to 30 minutes (with painful heel slides) to get it to bend enough to be comfortable enough to go down stairs and move around for the day, and I am almost 8 months out from surgery!

I hate Doctors like that. I just switch when they act like that. I’m three years TKR, still with tightness, swelling. I do get 102, as far as it’s going to go. I don’t do stairs very well, walk sideways. Gabapentin has helped with the swelling. Maybe another round of PT may help ? Good Luck

Hello @maggiet, and welcome to Connect.

I can understand your frustrations and concerns as I have experienced all of what you are experiencing now. I had my right knee replaced at age 19 because of a genetic disability that left my right knee with end-stage arthritis beginning at the age of 9. I had a horrid recovery and also had two manipulations because my scar tissue growth was so aggressive. My range-of-motion was 10-40 degrees for the better part of the first year.

I kept with my rehab and stayed active, and eventually I felt a "pop" in my knee and over the next few days I went to 0-100 degree flexion and extension. This all developed 1.5-2 years after my initial replacement. I can say 11 years later, my knee has not degraded at all and my quality of life is so much better. Stick with it, it will come, even if it takes longer than what others maybe expected. Stick with the PT & keep your spirits up.

@maggiet, how are your exercises going? I admit that I did not push myself hard enough because of the pain and that hindered my progress. How is your pain?

Hi...I am 2 1/2 years post-op, bilateral TKR and have had problems since day 1. They finally found both knees to be full of scar tissue, so I’m scheduled for the left, scope lysis of adhesions next week. Does anyone have experience with this procedure? I don’t want to mess up the recovery with too much or too little pt, exercise, etc. And I live by myself, what should I expect for recovery? Thank you!

Hi...I am 2 1/2 years post-op, bilateral TKR and have had problems since day 1. They finally found both knees to be full of scar tissue, so I’m scheduled for the left, scope lysis of adhesions next week. Does anyone have experience with this procedure? I don’t want to mess up the recovery with too much or too little pt, exercise, etc. And I live by myself, what should I expect for recovery? Thank you!