I'm on vacation this week at a big old beach house - it's always humid here in the summer and it's even worse right now after a couple storms. Ever since I got here, I feel like I've been set so far back! I'm at about 12 weeks and have been at about 0/120 ROM for a while... but I swear I can barely get it past 90 here. Is the humidity the problem? Does anyone else stiffen way up when it's humid?
I'm at 11 weeks today and I'm feeling so frustrated. As far as my surgeon and PT can tell, my recovery is great. I've been at 0/120 ROM for weeks, I'm walking unassisted, and my scar is healing really nicely.
From my point of view though, things are not as great as they look on paper. Getting to that 120 flexion HURTS every time, a lot. All my flexion exercises hurt. Sometimes walking hurts. Sometimes sitting still hurts. I've got hip and IT band pain coming alongside the knee pain. I'm also still stiff pretty much always. Just walking around the block makes the knee noticeably stiffer.
And I'm still sleeping like crap. I might get 2 consecutive hours at the beginning of the night, then I'm up and down for the rest of the night with no more than an hour of sleep before I wake up each time. Sometimes it's pain that wakes me up but more often I just wake up for no apparent reason. I've been off the opioids for a month, which I thought might have been causing the bad sleep, but apparently not (still taking 3x/day of both Tylenol and Advil for my pain though). And yes I'm taking edibles and melatonin at bedtime, which is a great cocktail for getting me to sleep but not for keeping me there.
I know I'm not supposed to be comparing my recovery to anybody else's, but at this point it feels like most people are better off than I am when they're approaching the 3-month point. And it sucks. I don't know if anyone can say anything that will help, but I guess it feels good to vent.
I regularly see posts in here from people who are farther along in their recovery than I am, who say they are so glad they had their knees replaced and don't regret a thing. At five weeks, I currently feel like I'd let my other knee fall off before I agreed to go through this pain, sleeplessness, and loss of independence again. But I'm really looking forward to feeling glad I did it! When did you turn that corner?
Just wanted to toot my own horn a little bit in a community that will get it 😊 I had RTKR on April 9, so I'm just past 3 weeks today. It was my first day on the stationary bike at physical therapy today, just going back and forth at first, and the quad stretch felt so good that I was pushing my ROM a little extra. My therapist said he thought I could pedal all the way around (backwards) if I wanted to try it, so I did 10 full rotations! My therapist was impressed, and I felt all loosened up and great (until I went home and took a nap and it got all stiff again 😅)