Mako Robotic Arm TKR Day Five SETBACK

Just sent you a pm. /Babette

Forgot to mention that although I cannot see the knee to tell how swollen it is, above the knee the leg is swollen noticeably. Is that normal. And, when ROM measurements are taken, are they passive or involving pushing/pulling?

@saeternes I am sorry you are having a setback but it will be temporary. I wish I could help but I have come to realize how foggy my memory is about my recovery. I do know I was in pain for about 6 weeks but then everything suddenly improved.
I wish now that when I have had surgeries or procedures that I had kept a journal and recorded my progress. Hindsight is always 20/20.
JK

@contentandwell in addition to getting advice, one reason I am posting on my progress is so I can look back and remember what it was like. I have found that almost no one remembers the first week or two! I often hear from friends who have had the surgery "I got rid of my walker right away" and when I ask what "right away" was they have no idea. Anyway, I just spoke with a nurse who told me the leg swelling all the way up was not uncommon. Unfortunately the laxative made me throw up this morning so I must remember to take it with food.

@saeternes: several answers Yes, swelling of leg is normal. Mine was moderate, I had more of an issue with the large bruised areas along the leg and foot to fade away. The foot especially took weeks until the last of the blood was resorbed. My incision was closed with surgical glue, and dressed with an XXXL super sticky, silver colored bandaid, so no ace bandage (and able to shower right away). The bandaid was changed by PT lady 8 days after surgery.
Regarding measuring the knee flex, usually (and in my case only) it is done unassisted. Whatever you can do on your own, that’s it. Sometimes it will also by measured with someone pushing on the knee, but that is always spelled out, to know the difference.
Wise decision to keep a log of things as they happen. I know for sure that at day 5 my walker was permanently parked in my bedroom, where it came in handy to use it in reverse, stationary, to hold on to the handles when doing bent leg lifts. I vividly remember walking into the outpatient PT room about 10 days after surgery without any implement, showing off by walking as normally as I possibly could. I had been a patient there several times over the years, and I like to see their jaws drop.

. (Unless one of my grandsons borrowed it to race down our long hallway). Stay with the amount of pain medicine that will let you function. Don’t stop taking it because you feel you ought to. Not everyone wants to tough it out like I did. My goal was independence, as in driving, so I lived with the sometimes painful consequence. Not sure that was a good idea.

Just wanted to clarify: the swelling of the leg should subside fairly quickly. The knee itself will stay swollen for many weeks, and only very gradually return to normal size.

What is your knee motion, flexion and extension (assisted or unassisted?). What helped me a lot was getting a knee glide device- well worth the $80 I spend and wish i would have had it from day one. In bed, I used a garbage bag to make the surface slippery and easier to slide on.
I am a PT (if that matters at all) and I have see swelling last a long time but what helps a lot is to watch the static standing, in place and it's important to continue to ice. I iced for many weeks after I returned to work and had this written in my return to work instructions. .
Don't be in too much of a rush to get rid of an assistive device- at 4 weeks I went to a cane for outside and still used a walker inside; when I went back to work, I used a cane for several weeks and gradually went off that. I took myself off the pain meds at 4 weeks to allow driving. Which ironically, my pain level wasn't any different (no worse, no better without the strong narcotics). For me, ice has been the best way to manage the pain.And I still use it 2 years later as still struggling with some pain.

@dixiedog, I don't know my ROM numbers as they were not measured in the hospital. They will be for the first time tomorrow at PT so I can post then. I am pretty sure my numbers were better in the hospital than now as I was much more pumped full of drugs and didn't feel much. I do plan on taking a slow road to getting rid of the devices and slowly get off the meds. The biggest problem of course is constipation from the meds although I am managing some movement (not really movement at all). The laxatives have made me throw up twice in a row now so I will try something different. @ellerbracke the PT may also take my ace bandage off and check the wound so we'll see how that goes. I also am wondering if I'll be able to tell whether or not the painful nerve ablation helped me at all. Maybe next week I'll be able to tell!