Thirteen Weeks! (Knee Arthroplasty)

It seems like months ago, yet really it is no time at all! Thirteen weeks have flown by.

I kept up the rehab exercises every single day for twelve weeks. With the approval of my surgeon, I have now dropped to every second day but I have increased my walking. I was aiming for my first four kilometre walk today, but missed it by 120 metres – slight miscalculation on my part! It is important to keep up mobility work on your knee, so I do.

With the encouragement of my trusty physiotherapist, I’ve even managed to do single leg glute bridges. I was doing 30 glute bridges a day, now I’m doing 30 every second day. Unless I get super bored by Covid-19 lockdown and then I might still do sequential days.

What can I say? I. LOVE. MY. NEW. KNEE.

I think at thirteen weeks it is safe to say that! I’ve even knelt on it – not too often and not for too long as yes, kneeling on it does feel very odd. I don’t think I’d be out kneeling for long periods weeding a flower garden, for example. Plus the risk of kneeling on something sharp and not feeling it is always a possibility – to be avoided at all costs.

I can now walk down stairs normally, rather than the bringing the two feet together on one step method employed initially. My flexion was last measured (about week 10) at 145 degrees: I was very happy about that!

My right (the still natural knee) decided to be nasty almost a month ago. My physiotherapist said in her experience this is not unusual and should settle with some love and care. It seems to be settling down this week, possibly a load issue due to the operated knee not doing its fair share for a few weeks.

The only remaining issue I had at 12 weeks was a bit of pain around the kneecap getting on and off the toilet. However, even that seems to have resolved. I had adjusted one of the rehab exercises to strengthen the muscles used in that action and it seems to have worked. Plus the glute bridges, of course!

I recognise I’ve had a very successful knee operation. My surgeon is great, my physiotherapist is great and yes, I was dedicated to doing my rehab consistently and effectively. Between us we got a great result.

A word about rehab exercises. I used the word effectively in the paragraph above. From my experience, that is critical. It can be tempting to “back off” if an exercise causes a little discomfort (most don’t). Especially I found the stretches can really feel as if you are stretching! I’m not suggesting suffering pain, but at the same time don’t back off at the first twinge of discomfort either. Check with your physiotherapist if you are unsure.

One of the extra exercises my physio gave me was to lie prone (face-down) across the bed with a weight on my ankle and let my leg be stretched that way. Let me tell you, trying to take a photo of yourself lying face-down in this position is not easy, so I’ve drawn a little stick figure to give you the idea. CHECK WITH YOUR PHYSIO FIRST before trying this at home. Everyone is different!

I’m using this exercise to illustrate the discomfort factor. I started with one kilogram for 30 seconds. I can now do two kilograms for over a minute. Yes, it does hurt a bit this one. Not the actual knee, but the muscles. In my specific case we have been working on getting those muscles working properly again. I persevered. No, I didn’t let myself get into a really painful place (a martyr I am not), but I didn’t stop as soon as I felt a twinge either. The physio did warn me it would hurt a bit. The benefit is I have 145 degrees of flexion!!

We are all different, we all have different pain tolerances. Even so, we should feel as if our exercises are doing something.

The flip side of that coin, of course, is not to go to the other extreme and overdo things. When I was leaving rehab, I asked the physio how far was I allowed to walk, one kilometre, two? She looked at me and in a stern voice said, “I was thinking the end of the street”. One of her colleagues, who had worked with me on some days I was there, piped up from the other side of the rehab gym, “Just make sure she doesn’t live on Dandenong Road!” For those with no knowledge of Melbourne, Dandenong Road is very long, a major arterial road. I got the message.

I was splitting my walks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. However with Melbourne in lockdown, where we are only allowed to leave the house once a day for exercise, I’m increasing the single walk.

I miss the gym, swimming and hydrotherapy pool. I was hoping to be back on the leg press by now! All in good time.

Oh, did I mention? I. LOVE. MY. NEW. KNEE. 

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