Knee replacement. Help!

There was a long thread about this some time ago if you can find it. However, I had both my knees replaced 2 years ago ( 5 months apart ) and have been so pleased. Pain is a thing of the past and I can keep up with everyone . It will take a while to feel the full benefit and doing the physio exercises is essential. Please ask if you have any questions I may be able to help with.

Jane I'm a member of a walking group and one of the fastest walkers is older than me (I'm 67) and when I was walking with her last week I was astounded to gear her say she had a knee replacement. She looks and seems to be as fit as a fiddle.

Hear not gear ...

Thanks. Am getting used to the idea. Fingers crossed!

Due for TKR at the end of October. My present state is something like 'looking forward with apprehension'!
Try to do muscle strengthening exercises regularly before as that will help recovery. Ask all the questions you need. Get all the equipment. You need in place, I've got 2 new door steps and 3 grab rails, also a kitchen perch stool, a bath seat, a bathroom step and (oh dear!) a commode. Some will be essential, some useful and at least one won't be used.
I keep meeting people who've had their quality of life greatly improved by a knee or hip op. Two tips I was given for after the procedure were: if you use a recliner chair, don't, let your legs do the work and if you have someone to stay with you don't sit around letting them wait on you, you should be doing the moving about.
I'll let you know how I go!

I'm abandoning hope of a bath. I already can't get out of it and prefer a shower but I have to clamber into the bath to have one. DH won't hear of the bath being removed to allow a walk in shower to be fitted.
I do love my stressless recliner but I have to use my legs to get up off it. Is that what you mean? Its not one that lifts you up.
I plan to exercise and do exactly what I'm told. Already doing exercises ++.
Commode...oh dear indeed! Surely I'll be able to make it to the (raised) loo. Oh my poor family. I just want to get it over now. I might hear a date on Monday. Thanks for suggestions. Also thanks for the helpful PMs -you know who you are

In hospital we were expected to get to the loo without help using a zimmer frame on the day after the operation and on elbow crutches the day after that, so I am sure you won't suffer the indignities of a commode.

Jane10 so sorry to hear you will soon need a knee replacement. I had mine done 6 months ago.

Every knee replacement is different- it depends on the reason (mine was result of a severe car accident 46 years ago!), your age, fitness, weight, and as my surgeon said, your state of mind and how determined to work very hard post op to recover movement and fitness. I asked him about being overweight - and his reply was 'well to be honest, no, it doesn't help - but you are very fit and hugely determined to work hard and get back to full movement and normal life- and that is massively more important.

I am still having physio twice a week which I now have to pay out of my own pocket- but it is the best money I've ever spent.
Swimming twice a week and exercising in warm water is also helping hugely. Not sure if you would have the space to put a blow-up jacuzzi in your garden- but for me it's been an absolute boon. Also bought a blow up cushion to put on my electric recliner to raise the level- that has helped too.

Would you be able to get one of those special wide belt that can slowly let you down into your bath and raise you later? And if hubby won't change the bath into shower (really I'd get the help of others in the family and your doctor, etc- to try and persuade him it really makes sense) - can you get a couple of handles fixed to help you clamber in and out of bath? It's very hard at first- and depends also which way your bath is facing and which knee you are having done. But whatever happens, you won't be able to bear weight on new knee at first, and clambering over bath is almost impossible- honestly.

As we couldn't fix a handle to help getting on and off the WC- we bought a frame with handles that screws into the pan under the loo seat. That was really helpful too. And we borrowed a grab handle to help get inb and out of bed from the Red Cross- and we bought some raisers for the bed and put everything in place some weeks before the op.

When I was in hospital, they put me on a KineTec machine - it is a sort of electric splint that slowly and gently helps bend and then stretch the knee- with adjustable angulation- which start at 25 degree, that you can slowly increase up to 130 degree- and I asked to rent one to take home. That was also massively helpful - maybe you could enquire about the possibility of such but have to book well in advance. I had one at home for 1 month.

For travelling in the car, we bought a circular seat to help twist around- and used a half-filled with water plastic bottle to give support for the foot/leg/knee.

Hope any of this may help- happy to answer any questions by pm or here. Honestly, it is not picnic - but if you are prepared to work hard- the door to a new lease of life xxx

Do get family and surgeon or GP to explain about getting in and out of bath when you can't weight bear (and that is for weeks, not days). If he comes with you to your next visit- just say 'I am really concerned about ... and insist it makes you panic).

Thanks. Its all so overwhelming! No chance of blow up Jacuzzi I'm afraid. Too chilly here although it would give the residents in the 30 other flats a laugh!
Top tips re seat raising and car entry. There is absolutely no chance of DH giving up his bath I'm afraid. Its poss a neighbour might let me use theirs. They are all kind and helpful.
I'm doing the 5:2 diet and keeping up my exercises. I do remember your posts about your knee and thinking that it seemed to be very well done in Switzerland. Thanks for helpful tips and support.

I've had both knees replaced 11 mths apart and in the last 13 mths. You need to do strengthening exercises before surgery of your quad muscles. Lie in bed legs straight and push the back of your knees into the bed whilst squeezing your thigh quad muscles tight for 10 seconds repeat up to 10 times. Do this morning and evening as its the one exercise that makes a huge difference to recovery.no one told me before my first op and recovery was slower than my second op.also you won't need to buy anything in UK as occupational therapy will assess you for all you need before discharging you from hospital

I'm having my second knee replacement next Wednesday.
The first one was done 11 years ago and was massively successful. I could dance,- sort of , - within two weeks!
It's quite important to do the physio properly I think.
It's marvelllous to be rid of all that pain, Jane 10.
Good luck.

Hope it all goes well Henetha

Clinical trials have shown that continuous passive movement machines, the type that Granjura was describing, are rarely used in this country any longer because they have been clinically proven to have no long term benefits.

Without buying gadgets it is just as easy to put the front seat back as far as possible, get in the car and then readjust the seat. There is a way around most things without spending money.

Hi- do you have a link to that effect- as I found it helped me hugely, thanks.

As said, using a half-filled plastic bottle to rest foot against in the car really helped in the first few weeks.

There is a big difference between spending a little on stuff that really makes life easier in the first few weeks- and a fortune.

The blow-up jacuzzi is perhaps over the top, and can be fitted in the smallest of gardens - and I am really enjoying it as well as helping with exercises in warm water - but yes, sorry jane, even it fitted on your balcony, it would probably bring the whole thing down.

No downstairs loo, small house. Legs lifts also good strengthening exercise. Stairs good too!
Henetha - ?For Wednesday, I'll be thinking of you then following the progress of your recovery with interest!
Lovely to find so many people who've 'been there, done that' on Gransnet.
My cousin, a great walker all his life, is getting his 3rd new knee 'run in' by exploring the (flat!) Roman roads of the Midlands.surgeon assured him he'd soon be tackling Snowdon again.

I don't wish to poo-poo Granjuras suggestions but please don't be put off by all the gadgets she used. I used none of them and managed perfectly well. I'm also surprised by her saying about not being able to weight bear for weeks. I and most others I know we're up the next day on crutches and encouraged to walk as normally as possible. They will check that you are able to manage stairs before you leave hospital.

ginny, of course walking with crutches and increasing weigh bearing. Weeks was perhaps the wrong term, but certainy a while- my comment was about clambering in the bath- where the only way as you get one leg over, is to totally weight bear on the other as you do so. Of course I was up on day 1 and increasingly next few days and up and down stairs- but then you can take some of the weight on the arms with the crutches. Have you tried doing so to get in and out of bath tub to shower?

'Gadgets' as you call them are perhaps not 'necessary' as such- but we planned well ahead to make life as easy as possible with getting in and out of bed, going to the loo and getting washed. And why not plan to try and make things as easy as poss if you can?

My knee replacement was made more difficult by rather severe long term atrophication of tendons and muscles - and a bit of foreplanning made me feel much more confident. Our beds are very low so putting them on raisers was great, and so was the overhead grab handle.

Please don' think I was criticising you. Of course, do what you can to help yourself. I was just concerned that the op would worry that she would need to get loads of 'stuff'.

You had complications and obviously needed more help e.g physio. On the whole the physio offered by the hospital is plenty as

fumble fingers me!

As long as one perseveres with the exercises given at home.

Not all hip replacements are immiediatly weight bearing. My first one was not. Because I was relatively young and it would probably need revision, they did not cement it in place. The bone had to naturally grow into the joint. I had to use crutches for six weeks keeping weigh off the new joint. I did however have too walk as far as possible every day. I also had to wear compression stockings for six weeks and found a sock puller very useful to save me keep bothering Mrs P

Our shower is over the bath. I knew I would not be able to step over the edge. Before my op I made a large step covered in carpet, so I didn't slip. This enabled me to step into the bath and shower. The hospital supplied a raised toilet seat. Hips are more critical regarding over flexing than knees. The physio will try to get you to flex your new knee as far as possible.

That is the point I was trying to make Wobblyb- that preparing in advance for what will be required is not that difficult or expensive- but anticipation of possible problems and thinking of solutions BEFORE, like your step, makes things so much easier.

Ginny no offense taken at all- I get totally why you made the comment. But as said above, a bit of thorethought can help tremendously. The bed raising block cost about £20 - but made a huge difference, and borrowing a grab rail for above the bed too.

BTW how much physio did you have in hospital? All I had was get up next day, a fes steps day after, along corridor day after that and up and down stairs day after then home. It was up to me to organise follow-up physio locally - and again, I booked about 6 weeks in advance to ensure I would have someone straightaway (no NHS here!)... Continuing physio event though I pay for it, is such a motivator- she says a very large % of people do NOT do their exercises for long enough post op, and if they do, not enough. She is constantly adding new things as I get better- and then I can use the great gym equipment, including a reclining bicycle, after the session. We are also working hard at strenghtening the other knee that has had to to all the hard work for my shorter leg and damanged for 40+ years- and will need a half replacement scheduled for Spring 2018.

I suppose it depends too about the outcome you want- I want to totally forget I had it done, and get back on my skis this winter- so anything that can help - I'll do- so it can give me a new lease for life for the next 30 odd years.

I'm happy to plan for the worst and hope for the best. I don't mind spending a bit of money. I've saved for a rainy day and this certainly feels like one. I'll happily pay for extra physio as required. I want my life back!

Planning is good. If you have things upstairs that you may need, bring them down first. I found carrying a cup of tea difficult at first. I use a flask to carry my tea from kitchen to chair, and a shoulder bag to carry stuff around. A pickup tool is very useful, the hospital gave me one. Try to give yourself a clear space to move around, you will be a bit clumsy at first and tables, rugs etc can make life difficult.
In bed, if found a couple of spare pillows helpful in supporting my leg in a comfortable position.