My recommendation is to start PT as soon as you can. The next day, if possible. It's always helpful!
Welcome! I am in the midst of recovering from knee issues, not on the level you are dealing with but arthritis and severe inflammation brought on by playing softball last summer/fall.
I had my knee scoped in Dec and have been in PT since before the scope. Cortisone shot in the fall did nothing. Recovery has been slow (or at least slower than I would like) - 7 wks past surgery and I still cannot walk or stand properly and the knee is still rather swollen and locked. I am still using a cane to get around. I am in PT 2x/wk and recently started pool PT 2x/wk. I was given exercises to do 5x/day immediately after surgery by the surgical center's athletic trainer. I restarted PT 10 days after surgery and it was that long only because of Christmas. I am also only supposed walk no farther than 5 telephone poles w/o a cane or crutches per day.
There have been successes - I am regaining range of motion, walking up stairs is getting easier, I can put my pants, socks and shoes on while standing up, I am beginning to show signs of walking normally, I no longer have to ice the knee constantly and I am working on ditching the cane. I have a heavy duty compression support I wear for "heavy" activity - lots of walking/standing and yesterday, shoveling snow.
There has also been a lot of tears, venting and in my case, eating, as I am a stress eater. I have a lot of frustration, fear, anger and sadness that all periodically bubble up. Frustration at the slowness of my recovery, anger that I cannot do any activity (no skiing this year) other than necessary activities and being stuck in the house w/ ice packs, fear that this is the "new normal" and my knee will dictate what I can and cannot do and a lot of sadness as I remember how active I was before the arthritis and inflammation and how little I can do now.
Everyone keeps telling me - time and patience but it is hard to be patient when there is so much you want to do/need to do. I have struggled w/ being happy w/ my successes and my pool PT and little walks.
Everyone here has been wonderful and helpful. Even though I can't ski this year, I still poke around here and daydream about gear and trips.
Hi Ladies,
I hadn't popped in to write in a while and I love all of the posts! My household was sick with passing the flu (besides me) for over 2 weeks and the days I had a quiet moment to reflect, I didn't log on and try to reply. I had many ups and downs in that time and now realize that I should've. Maybe I wouldn't have had so many downs in those days. It's been an emotional roller coaster the past few weeks - good days, and then some BAD. :(
Thank you to all of you wonderful ladies for sharing some helpful advice. I know Altagirl wrote a key piece of advice that I didn't realize until the second week post surgery and that was to get my leg above my heart. Laying in bed with my leg up got my swelling down much more noticeably than sitting in a chair with my leg up on an ottoman or another chair. I mistakenly thought that by just moving to the living room and sitting up was by some standard a success, but I didn't know that not getting my swollen knee above my heart was not helping at all. So, the swelling is going down... slowly, but at least it's progressing. My doctor did say that it will take months for it to all go away...
Again, thank you for the posts from all the divas that shared your advice, successes and sadness. It's nice to not feel so alone. I recently saw a neighbor walking around his front yard who I heard just had ACL reconstruction too... he is about 3 weeks ahead of me and he was doing yard work! I almost fell apart crying minutes after hearing him say he's been doing really great. He said his range of motion was completely back with only 1 degree of difference! He also did say that his physical therapist said his recovery rate and mobility was "rare". BUT, it still left me feeling crushed. My husband saw it too, and in trying to cheer me up, he reminded me that my doctor said he was happy with my rate of progress and that I have been meeting my milestones. But, it sucked seeing that with my own eyes when I'm still barely walking around like a zombie.
I know a few Divas said another key thought that I have to remind myself about and that is to listen to my own body and also not to measure up against anyone else. I am still trying to take it day by day, but it's hard to see the progress like that. But, I will say, I do see the progress, the milestones are coming.... just SO slowly. Two days ago, I started to drive! So, just a few days after my 4th week post surgery, I drove (with my softer, hinged) knee brace on, and it went fine. I was a little sore from my driver's test my husband gave me, but I have some new freedom and feeling less helpless!
I am just feeling a little bad that I'm not quite ready to get rid of the crutches yet. I'm down to one crutch, but it's either walk at a snails pace or use it to walk a little better.... I DID order a cane to try out to help me through the interim, should be here soon so I'll see how that goes.
By the way, although my formal PT wasn't scheduled for 6 weeks post surgery (starting soon), I will say that I was assigned new PT exercises to do at home since my surgery and with each follow up visit I've had so far. So, to be fair, I have been doing some kind of PT I am supposed to do 5x's a day, for 5 minutes at a time. I am trying to do more as tolerated when I feel up to it. I also hardly have worn a brace while at home (as long as I'm using my crutches), the doctor said that was ok. I use the softer hinged brace if I'm going out of the house for support and 1 crutch as of this week but I will say the brace is uncomfortable with so much swelling still. My knee gets really achy right at the knee after an hour so back to the bed to elevate and ice when I can.
Thanks for reading my posts and sharing your thoughts with me Divas! I really do appreciate it!
