← Return to Mako Robotic Arm TKR Day Two

Discussion

Mako Robotic Arm TKR Day Two

Joint Replacements | Last Active: Dec 2, 2019 | Replies (28)

Comment receiving replies
@babette

@ellerbracke

Hi and thanks for checking in! Yes, I'll be 7 weeks out as of this coming Friday. This experience has been completely different from the first disaster, which lasted 15 months. It's hard to describe how/why I know this is better. I just have a sense of well-being and slow, steady progress that I never had with my first TKR. At 2 weeks, I was at 0/110, had my stitches out and permission to drive by nearly 3 weeks out. Everything just feels in place and I'm approaching PT differently. I'm doing gentle PT with the support of my surgeon and a terrific therapist. My mood is better, my attitude is much more confident than it was the first time around. I still have some pain, usually at night and still take 10 mg Oxycodone so that I can sleep through the night. The only thing that's the same as before is that my scar is very sensitive. That said, it's improving much faster than it did before.

I'll start working on strength building and stamina next. (Surgeon and PT believe that early weeks are for working with mobility and flexion only w/ strength training coming later.) I still face stairs with trepidation (we have snow/ice on uncovered stairs in the winter here). I'm just beginning to take stairs the normal way even though I default to the step-together-step method a lot.

I attribute this all to the remarkable skill of my surgeon. He only does revisions and is a rising star in Boston (star may already have risen, actually!).

Jump to this post


Replies to "@ellerbracke Hi and thanks for checking in! Yes, I'll be 7 weeks out as of this..."

@babette It really does my heart good to hear you doing so much better. I firmly believe that not only does the type of knee affect the results but even more importantly, the skill of the surgeon. You and I both had excellent surgeons.

I have my three year check-up on Thursday. My knee had not hurt since shortly after the surgery but unfortunately it and my other knee are both hurting now, since having fractured my femur. I presume that's because I am walking in a compromised manner. I sure hope things will improve soon, I really don't know what to do about this. The fracture exacerbated an already existing bursitis which is now quite severe.
JK