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← Return to TKR at 81, living alone, and with balance difficulty: a good idea?
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TKR at 81, living alone, and with balance difficulty: a good idea?
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Apr 6 10:01am | Replies (46)Comment receiving replies
Hoping you get some good input Ray @ray666. Not sure what I would do. I'm 82 and my TKR is less than 10 years old but I definitely have the balance and arthritis issues and am doing my best to strengthen my legs. If you do go ahead with the surgery, if it were me I would focus on pre-surgery exercises and do them faithfully every day for 6 to 8 weeks prior to the TKR and keep up with them after the TKR to help with the recovery.
The other night as I was getting ready for bed, I sat on what I thought was my side of the bed but I was too close to the corner and much to my surprise ended up on the floor. Fortunately it wasn't a hard crash but I couldn't get up and my wife was frantically trying to help. My problem was hardwood floor, socks slipping on the floor, unable to place my hammertoes in a position that didn't cause pain when trying to get up off of the floor and nothing to grab onto and push myself up. My wife ended up getting my socks off and then I toughed it out with the toe pain and was able to push off of some furniture to get myself upright. Since that happened I've added another thing not to do on my list - stay away from the corner of the bed. 🙂
Have you thought about one of those medical alert bracelets to have during your recovery time? Do you have any friends or neighbors close by?
Replies to "Hoping you get some good input Ray @ray666. Not sure what I would do. I'm 82..."
@johnbishop
My sympathies with trying to get up from the floor. It's both very frustrating and laughable. I had total hip replacement surgery in 2020. One of the exercises in physical therapy afterwards was learning how to get up from the ground if I feel. The internet has several videos showing how it's done.
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I'm sorry to hear about your fall, John (@johnbishop). Here, too: hardwood floors throughout. I rely on non-slip socks, except for bedtime. I prefer sleeping barefoot. As for pre- and post-op PT, I had that super-covered when I had my right knee TKR; I was enrolled in a Federal study to see how the quads deal wiith a TKR. For weeks before and weeks after my TKR, I was a=peddling and a-pounding and a-weight lifting, all to measure the TKR's impact on my right leg quad. I credit all that exercise with how little the surgery impacted me and how rapidly I was back to full flex and full recovery, So I'm pre-sold on leg exercise. 🙂 Don't forget, John, to hang an orange caution cone on that bed corner! ––Ray (@ray666) P.S. I do wear a med-alert wristwatch.