Climbing Stairs After TKR

Hi @babette, I hate stairs. And I totally get your concern. I had a right TKR in April 2017. We have stairs front and back so they made me climb before I was released from the hospital... but it was a step/stop kind of climb. I wish I could remember how long before I could do stairs normally. Going up has always been easier than coming down for me. I know that I was going up in a normal way after the first month because I had home PT and he made me practice each session. However, going down was harder. I blame it on the fact that my left knee is still pretty bad. I'm going to have a left TKR this coming February. So... even now, going down, I either turn around and go down as if it were a ladder, or I do the step/step method. I CAN go down stairs normally, but unless its important - at an event or something - I just do it the way that is most comfortable. I believe that @gailfaith and @contentandwell have both had TKR's. I tagged them to see if they may chime in with some tips. Just keep at it. Sometimes progress is so slow that we don't realize it, then all of a sudden there's a breakthrough. Hope that happens for you.

@debbraw Thanks for this validation. It helps to hear that someone else has faced this challenge, even though I'm sorry you have.

I'm going to have to have my L knee done and have no idea how I will manage our stairs if my R knee is still this bad. My R knee is no where near ready to be the "good" leg!

Thanks again.

@babette - I believe you should just do something nice for yourself and wait to see how you feel tomorrow or next week. I kept a little journal after my right knee surgery and I looked back at it today thinking I might find something about stair climbing. At about 3 months I wrote "Really discouraged. I know they tell me I'm making progress but I feel like I will always be awkward and hurting." For what its worth... We've probably all been there. Wishing you strength and patience!

@debbra Thank again -- I can't tell you how much reading that meant to me! Discouraged has been my entire frame of mind for at least a couple of weeks. I've been very hard on myself, comparing to others, etc. I have a friend who says "Let patience do her perfect work." Indeed!

@debbraw @babette unfortunately my memory is foggy. I do generally, even now, hold the handrail but can manage without it if I am carrying things. I am quite sure that by 3 months I was still going slowly, but in the normal one foot after the other way.
Going down was definitely more difficult than going up, and I always reminded myself of my therapist’s saying, “up with the good, down with the bad”.
I know I will never again run up and down stairs like I was able to before but part of that may just be getting older.
Babette, maybe you should put off your TKR a little longer. I put mine off, but for me I just was not ready for another hospital stay and recovery six months after my transplant.
JK

@jk Thanks for your post. I'm not having my L TKR anytime soon! In fact, I'll be having it at a different hospital and with a different surgeon so I need to meet with him first and get his take on things. And he's a rock star so I'm sure there will be a wait to see him and that's not a bad thing. Yes, my therapist also says "up with the good down with the bad." Part of my frustration is that my quadricep is strong yet I still can't do this. Back to patience. 🙂

@babette I was so desperate when I had my first TKR that I took a doctor who seemed to have a good rating on one of those sites like healthgrades, and he was the first one who could do it. I was in tremendous pain and limping badly.
That's great that the new surgeon is so highly thought of. Have you talked to him about your problems with your first TKR?
JK

Babette: I am at almost 9 weeks post TKR, and still have some issues with stairs. Going up is tiring, but not really painful or a problem, even though I hold on to the railing for safety. Going down depends a lot on when I last exercised. I have access to an indoor salt water pool, and after those sessions I can absolutely walk down quite easily. Other times not so much. However, I had arthro clean-out surgery on the same knee 12 months ago, and even after 10 months I was unable to handle downstairs at all, so for me the current progress is very encouraging. Hang in there!!!

@ellerbracke What is arthro clean-out surgery? Is it outpatient? My surgeon said he could snip some scar tissue to give me more flex, is this the same thing? If so how long was your recovery?
JK

JK... What I meant is I had arthroscopic surgery for a torn meniscus, moderate arthritis on tibia and under kneecap, and some torn cartilage inside knee. Was supposed to take care of pain until eventual TKR 5 to 10 years out. Did not resolve issue, though. Standard PT, some pain relief, but not nearly enough. 5 Supartz injections, voltaren gel, meloxicam, and finally cortisone injection that lasted all of 51 hours convinced me to bite the bullet and do the replacement (11 months after initial procedure). I got my timeline wrong in the earlier post. It’s now almost 7 weeks (not 9), and I’m already feeling better than I ever did with the first surgery. Nothing to do with scar tissue, though.