Should my knee feel this "good" post-op?

   Alice, I'm happy to see that you are doing so well this soon! Wonderful!

   SE

I typed too soon. Sensation is back with a vengeance.

PT this AM has me sore. The kneecap area is hot, swollen, and feeling everything. I had to take off the compression hose because they pressed too hard on the knee and thigh. The hip and inner thigh are very sore from my therapist's pyriformis stretches and massage.

Should I have kept moving after my session? I came home and took a long nap.

Back to the ice and elevation!!!!

Thanks Flower, and all -

The heat and swelling never start during PT, and they ice as a last step to prevent it. But it has started acting up a couple of hours later - since the massage of the large thigh muscles started. I'll see my ortho Monday. Meantime I'm icing and elevating this evening.

I wonder why PT causes swelling, pain and stiffness. I don't do a whole lot of exercises or hard ones. I'm supposed to stop if it hurts. I don't tolerate or do any twisting.

Would walking after PT help? Is walking anytime a good thing?

There are loads of videos, websites explaining the surgery, but very little about recovery outside of saying PT is needed. I read that I should be recovered 2 weeks post-op. Is some miracle going to happen tomorrow or Monday?

Alcie I had a lot of swelling with all of my surgeries, many times it was after PT, or if I had been up on it. You asked about walking , what did your dr say about walking? I was always on non-weight bearing and on those lovely crutches, lol. To this day both of my knees will still swell especially if I have been up on my feet a lot. My last two surgeries were in 2004 I believe,. Also on the last two my surgeon used this contraption that was like a leg wrap from the thigh to the bottom of the leg, and you wrapped this around your leg and it had long pockets that allowed cold ice water to circulate thru it. It was awesome for swelling. This thing was attached to what look like a cooler with a hose to feed the cold water thru.

You may want to call you dr on Monday to ask about the swelling and pain, better to be safe than sorry.

Susie

Thanks for the tips and encouragement from all.

My knee swells and gets hot after PT, especially last Friday and Saturday. The knee itself doesn't hurt much, and I am walking without aids. Was allowed to walk right away. Crutches and walker were worse than hopping about without them. I can walk now fairly normally - for a while.

The worst is the thigh muscle pain! My thigh is bruised about 5 inches above the knee joint - the tourniquet or a holding post? PT (massage) in this area with a new guy made it very tender, stiff and painful @7/10, maybe more because I chronically take tramadol for back pain and fibro. The bruising is going away, but the pain and stiffness are not. I'm not going to allow any more of this muscle massage! Most of the rest of the exercises help with flexibility, and I do them faithfully and wear the support hose, but after each exercise session I need ice and an hour of elevation for the knee, and the thigh pain gets worse.

I haven't found any antiinflammatory meds that work that I tolerate. Aleve, Motrin hurt my stomach a lot. Mobic doesn't work. So I wasn't given anything. I'm icing and elevating when the knee gets hot or painful, several times a day.

I have an appointment with my surgeon tomorrow morning.

Thanks Lisa -
So the ortho doc said I have no limitations, showed me the pictures of arthritis and some pitting, didn't answer anything at all about thigh pain. I'm just to come back in a month.

I might as well quit complaining for now since the doc doesn't seem impressed, but I still don't know why the thigh hurts. Actually it didn't hurt much this morning, seems to get going if I exercise or walk around the house, and then it hurts enough for ice all evening until I fall asleep. I'm not going to PT until Thurs, but I do have another 4 weeks if I need it. Maybe it's a fibro thing. I do expect it to go away without treatment since it's not all the time now. I'm listening, Lisa, when you say massage might have aggravated a fibro thing.

Amoxicillin isn't working on my sore throat and sinus infection - started with general anesthesia. Not having the patient pulling and tensing muscles may be better for the doc, but the patient doesn't much like having a throat infection for over two weeks.

I wish I could see my rheumatologist. He's ben ill and his office has postponed my visits for the last year. Now it's supposed to be December, maybe. I've got pretty bad shoulder pain and sciatic pain that isn't being helped with injections any more.

One body part at a time.