Total knee replacement

@ddsack Thanks for the advice. I go for short walks with two canes on the sidwalk or my driveway. I have excellent balance because I usually cross country ski, hence 2 canes. Next week the physio will put us ob a recumbant bike. Again I have an exercise bike and use the moveable hand levers,skipping the pedal if I miss a stroke. I normally ride all winter in Florida and summer here. I am only taking tylenol arthritiis.
Are you a recipient of TKR? If so , how was your therapy Thankyou kindly. Love this site. It gave me knowledge before.

@rightkneereplacement I have Arthrofibrosis. That is over abundance of scar tissue. But I won’t have surgery to remove it because only comes back even worse. So my flexion is 70 my pt pushing can get to 78-80 . So you all doing great . The scar tissue stops me in my tracks.

@ddsack Thanks for the advice. I go for short walks with two canes on the sidwalk or my driveway. I have excellent balance because I usually cross country ski, hence 2 canes. Next week the physio will put us ob a recumbant bike. Again I have an exercise bike and use the moveable hand levers,skipping the pedal if I miss a stroke. I normally ride all winter in Florida and summer here. I am only taking tylenol arthritiis.
Are you a recipient of TKR? If so , how was your therapy Thankyou kindly. Love this site. It gave me knowledge before.

@ezas123 I have arthrofibrosis also. Had a for one year ago,MU,then a scope in September to remove scar tissue. Did have flexion of 105 now it is down to 90 with discomfort every day. I am back to PT. My thigh and hamstring muscles have become weak so we are working on strengthening them to hopefully help. It sucks!

@helenchi Hi! Yes, I had both knees replaced, about a year apart starting at the age of 72. It will be time for the required 5 year followup on my 2nd knee this fall. Arthritis runs in my family, my sister and mother also had knees replaced. I had very little post-op pain, and was given sheets of home exercises to start at once upon returning home from the hospital. Physical therapy started a few days later, and lasted about eight weeks, started with 3x a week the first week, working down to only once a week the last few. Faithfully did all the home exercises my therapist gave me twice a day.
No one told me not to go outside, so I used a borrowed non-wheeled walker (my hospital issued walker with wheels was too sticky in our long grass uneven ground) to stump around our large property and investigate my late fall gardens as soon as I could. I purposely scheduled surgery after the gardening season was over, planning to be in shape by spring. We have a cedar swing that I happily used to help aid in pumping and bending with my knees as I was able. I had a good relationship with my physical therapist, he was very helpful in seeing areas that I needed to improve, but always said to stop him if I felt too much pain. After reading many of the stories of people posting here with a lot of pain, and bad outcomes, I feel fortunate that both my knee surgeries went smoothly, with good results. I give half the credit to my physical therapist who made sure I put in the work to get back flexibility.

@helenchi
I have awful balance. My RTKR was six months ago but I recently restarted PT primarily to see if they can do anything to help with my balance.

I think there are two matters interacting that causes confusion. A knee replacement is very strong. The pain comes from the trauma to the bones, tendons, muscles and ligaments that were affected by the surgery. Most TKR recipients are seniors (e.g., I am an 80 YO male) and the falling risk relates to the rest of our body.

So...if you are one of the younger recipients you may not need to worry about falling. If you are one of the older recipients, then falling may be a concern as our bones do get more fragile as we age.

When I started PT my ROM was 122 and I told my therapist I wanted to get to 140. She responded that going anywhere beyond 125 ROM would imperil the implant. A couple of days later I was speaking with my surgeon and he almost broke out laughing. He said the oxidized zirconium knee was one of the two strongest parts of my body; the other being the titanium hip he implanted about four years ago.

@helenchi Hi! Yes, I had both knees replaced, about a year apart starting at the age of 72. It will be time for the required 5 year followup on my 2nd knee this fall. Arthritis runs in my family, my sister and mother also had knees replaced. I had very little post-op pain, and was given sheets of home exercises to start at once upon returning home from the hospital. Physical therapy started a few days later, and lasted about eight weeks, started with 3x a week the first week, working down to only once a week the last few. Faithfully did all the home exercises my therapist gave me twice a day.
No one told me not to go outside, so I used a borrowed non-wheeled walker (my hospital issued walker with wheels was too sticky in our long grass uneven ground) to stump around our large property and investigate my late fall gardens as soon as I could. I purposely scheduled surgery after the gardening season was over, planning to be in shape by spring. We have a cedar swing that I happily used to help aid in pumping and bending with my knees as I was able. I had a good relationship with my physical therapist, he was very helpful in seeing areas that I needed to improve, but always said to stop him if I felt too much pain. After reading many of the stories of people posting here with a lot of pain, and bad outcomes, I feel fortunate that both my knee surgeries went smoothly, with good results. I give half the credit to my physical therapist who made sure I put in the work to get back flexibility.

@ddsack Loved your encouraging words. I am 69 and an avid gardener on acreage and was concerned about TKR in late June and my garden. I have a lawn swing I sit in several times every day and never thought of it as exercise. Thank you for your post.

Has anyone heard about Jiffy knee surgery?