New Knee Status: Drugs

Everyone has different pain tolerance so it is hard to tell what you will need after surgery for pain control. Here are some of my thoughts on my own pain med use.

I was able to "mostly" get off the hard stuff prior to my first months doctor checkup. I occasionally use Tylenol and occasionally will grab an oxycodone when I feel sore enough to really disturb my sleep.

While the new knee has its aches and pains related to rehab and healing the rest of my joints have the same old aches and pains they had before surgery (duh). I went off daily NSAIDs before surgery and have not gone back on it yet  so I am starting to feel some of those other aches now. I may end up on some regular NSAIDs but for now the occasional use seems to be working for the rest of the joints.

One trick I use for judging my use of pain meds. I try to keep my pain levels controlled enough that I get decent sleep. I also want to get back to my normal level of  activity and keep up my physical therapy. Sometimes it takes a couple tylenol or even an oxy to get there.

New Knee: First Hike!

One of my hopes for the new knee is that I will be able to get back into hiking again. This weekend was a gorgeous northwest weekend so seemed to be the ideal time to drive out of the city and do a little hike. And yes I do mean little! I used the Washington Trails Association Hike search (http://www.wta.org) to look for hikes UNDER 3 miles in the central cascades. I came up with Lake Elizabeth on the way to Stevens Pass.

Becky, Beethoven and I headed off after a fortifying breakfast to find what turned out to be the elusive Lake Elizabeth and circumnavigate it on foot! The circumnavigation was 0.7 miles and involved a small amount of stepping up roots and over streams on rocks. I had my hiking poles which helped on the sketchier bits.
I wore my sturdy running shoes although I had my hiking boots in the car in case I though I would need them. The trail was just muddy enough to do a number on Becky's cute shoes....

New Knee Tips

Remember while you rehab to be aware of your body position and especially the position of both hips and legs. It is easy to cheat your gait and end up with sore joints.

New Knee Day 42

Mr. BikePT said I could get on the bike! Short FLAT rides with flat pedals instead of cleats but that's a start!

New Knee Status: One Month

Yesterday one month ago I got to go under the knife and saw and crowbar and get a brand new knee joint fitted in.

I am all in all very pleased with the results so far.

My leg is no longer bow legged. In fact I keep looking at in in amazement that it is so nicely straight. 

My range of motion has been quite good from right after the surgery. My PT and I are working on getting it to go straight without having to work at it. As for bend I am now doing full rotation on the bike and only sometimes have to work at keeping the foot in the right position. 

Quote of the Day

If you are going through hell, keep going. 

-Winston Churchill 

New Knee: Heat part 3

And now for that hot knee later on.... It refers to heat generated in the joint with exercise vs heat generated in a normal joint. Interesting....

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16394760

Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2006 Jan;442:195-8.

Heat generated by knee prostheses.

Pritchett JW1.

Author information

• 1Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Bonerecon@aol.com

Abstract

Temperature sensors were placed in 50 knees in 25 patients who had one or both joints replaced. Temperature recordings were made before walking, after walking, and after cycling. The heat generated in healthy, arthritic, and replaced knees was measured. The knee replacements were done using eight different prostheses. A rotating hinge knee prosthesis generated a temperature increase of 7 degrees C in 20 minutes and 9 degrees C in 40 minutes. An unconstrained ceramic femoral prosthesis articulating with a polyethylene tibial prosthesis generated a temperature increase of 4 degrees C compared with a healthy resting knee. The other designs using a cobalt-chrome alloy and high-density polyethylene had temperature increases of 5 degrees-7 degrees C with exercise. Frictional heat generated in a prosthetic knee is not immediately dissipated and may result in wear, creep, and other degenerative processes in the high-density polyethylene. Extended periods of elevated temperature in joints may inhibit cell growth and perhaps contribute to adverse performance via bone resorption or component loosening. Prosthetic knees generate more heat with activity than healthy or arthritic knees. More-constrained knee prostheses generate more heat than less-constrained prostheses. A knee with a ceramic femoral component generates less heat than a knee with the same design using a cobalt-chromium alloy.