I’m so sorry to hear about your Dad.
So sorry to hear about your Dad:(
Thank you, we are sad but it was 100% his time. Does not make it easier, but it absolutely helps me.
I am all about the happy, so may I just say how DIVINE a bending brace is! And it certainly does help with getting the knee much looser, although it’s still a bit strange to be able to bend it whenever.
My PT will take months still, but thank goodness it’s a little step forward every day. No pun intended, of course! 
Oh, and a quick reminder that Surpass is your friend.
I am so sorry to read about your Dad, Coreene, and I send my deepest condolences to you.
I am, however, delighted to read the positive news about your knee.
How are you doing with your Surpass? Do you need any more? I can send you down some anytime you need more, it’s just called Voltaren up here. You’ve reminded me I should use it more often on my shoulder, but I wonder, would it work for tendon tears? I found out on Tuesday that I had a small rotator tear that was cleaned, not repaired, during the rest of my shoulder surgery. I, however did not know I had ANY problem with the RC and now I’ve had to go right back to step 1 of physio again. BAHHH :< I may not ride again for months, either, boohoo.
I will keep up good thoughts for you, though.
In the same boat here my bad knee is now my good knee and my good knee is worthless now. So that will be the next one to get fixed
I’m walkin’, yes indeed …
It’s getting there! Monday the wheelchair stayed home and only the walker came to the office. That afternoon at PT, first I walked with a cane + bendy brace, then brace was removed and did walker braceless.
Then PT said no brace at home with the walker. 
Friday it will be learning to walk with the cane and no walker, which is how he wants it at home, and in about 1 1/2 weeks … no more brace at work!
Of course, this is the bendy knee brace. I still have an ugly ass brace in my shoe, which goes part way up the back of my calf, for the drop foot. Sadly, this brace will be around for quite some time.
PT is brutal, but I love it. Have to get my lame right leg as toned as the left one got from pushing the wheelchair around on carpet :lol:.
Fingers crossed everyone is doing better! Can’t wait to ride again - I know it won’t be for months and months and months, and then a few more months, but am ready for a target month so I can begin x’ing off the days.
Glad to hear the [pretty] good news!
I am riding again, when the weather allows (been Pi$$!ng down for the last 4 days here) and no arena, but she is only not quite 4, so no biggie. When U do get to ride she goes quite well for a greenie :).
My PT is, I think, coming to an end shortly. I don’t go back for 2 weeks, the day before my post post-surgical follow-up appointment. Shoulder’s feeling quite good, am able to clean stalls AND paddocks, as well as total groom and tacking up. I do, as all good patients should 
, ice the shoulder every evening after I’ve finished working for the day, but I’m so used to icing other parts of the body that it’s not a big deal.
I’ll check in soon to see how it’s going, and will follow up after my surgeon visit.
Glad to hear you are making good progress, Coreene. I’m sorry it’s going to be such a long-assed recovery, though.
I’m riding again. Hurts a bit, but as it hurts all the damn time whatever I do, I may as well ride as sit around being glum about it. Angry Frankenscar needs stretching and massaging, and riding seems as good a way to achieve that as any other.
Voltaren helps some, but good lord it upsets my stomach.
I will jump in with you all for a couple more weeks!
I broke my ankle almost 3 weeks ago sledding at a weekend camp. Ice+duct tape and cardboard sled+5 people+ 2-3 ft jump does not always come out well. When I saw the on-call Dr. at camp, he first said nothing was wrong, just rest for a few minutes. Later we went into the infirmary, and was told that it was a bad 2, or 3 grade (of 3) sprain. Went to the doctor once I got home, and it was fully broken. If I am remembering correctly, it looked like someone had sliced my anklebone (the roundish part on the outside of your general ankle area) completely off.
I have been casted for 3 weeks, and next Wednesday, I will be x-rayed and then either a) put back in a hard cast
b) put in a walking cast
c) booted (air cast)
d) completely off
Praying for the best! I’m glad that surgery was not required, and I have it easy compared with all of you! Hope everyone gets better!
So, I’m back to riding and lessons, but only for a few more weeks. Then it’s back to surgery to remove screws in the right leg. It’s supposed to be an easy surgery, so hopefully not long out of the saddle. Here’s hoping!
Good Luck, dreamin!
I’m happy to say that I’m now 8 weeks post total knee revision surgery (removing all the old hardware from a unicompartmental knee and replacing it with a total knee). The first two weeks, I said LOTS of dirty things about my surgeon. At 4 weeks of PT at my house, I was turned loose to finish on my own, and at 6 weeks, I laid down the cane and haven’t looked back. I’ve started working the dogs again, and have very few restrictions now other than common sense — don’t mow the grass, don’t try to run, etc. No real pain to speak of, and I can hardly count getting stiff because I’m arthritic everywhere. On good days and on good footing, I can even get into a short period of a long strided swinging walk — which I haven’t been able to do in years! Thank you, Dr. Martin! See you in a few months when we do the other knee over!
Happy update! First day totally without knee brace! Happened earlier than thought, and no more walker at home, just a cane. Doctor on Monday said get off the walker ASAP, and then get off the cane fast too.
And then he said "YOU CAN RIDE THIS YEAR"!!! :sadsmile:
Don’t know exactly when I can ride, but that doesn’t matter. Am now getting extra brutal therapy so I can drive again. Brutal. Savage nasty brutal, but so worth it.
YAY, YAY, and again HURRAH!!!
I was wondering how everyone was doing.
I’m 8 weeks post op for the roto-rootered ankle. Its been pretty good, I survived a wandering around a ship (not the cruise variety :))all last week then got cocky and walked too far on Saturday, didn’t even make it to my usual Irish bar on St Pats day. I was on my way there & a block away decided I needed to stop NOW.:eek: Its been kind of crappy all week. Oh well. PT has been pretty easy this trip - just getting ROM back, ankle’s still pretty strong from the never-ending PT last fall. Now if can just get the “good” ankle to cooperate.
My most pleasant surprise - the pillow on my desk has been great for my chronically messed up c-spine & shoulders! It’s hard to hunch over a keyboard when your foot is on the desk and the keyboard is in your lap. My PT thought that was pretty funny. I need to find a pillowcase in a light oak pattern to match my desk.
I haven’t been back on a horse yet. Between the winterish weather & the 2 hour drive, I haven’t been down to the barn much. The big horse will be on her way to be re-acquainted with driving in a couple weeks; hopefully when she comes back I won’t have to ride.:winkgrin:
Slight correction! PT watched my gait and said knee now strong enough on inside yet to go completely without a knee brace, so back on it goes when I am out of the house - but it’s all good! I’m not in a rush, I want it to fix the right way, and if it means this, so be it.
just scheduled bilateral TKR for early August. I am 55. Been pushing it off for too many years as local ortho thought I should wait til I am 60. but after a tibial plateau fx 4 yrs ago -non surgical, thankfully - the PT at that point thought I was overdue then for TKR. Having already done all the non-invasive things over the last 10+ years (modify activity, cortisone shots 5 in each knee, Synvisc 3x in each, and several meniscus surgeries) am out of options. Range of motion down to 20 degrees extension and 90 flexion, 12 Advil daily just to function. I do ride 4 to 5x week, and until this year was able to ski, but only managed 2 days this winter. People watch me walk and wonder how I can possibly ski and ride - I figure 2 reasons; mind over matter and if you look at the typical angles required for each, I’m pretty much permanently IN that "flexed at the hip/knee/ankle’ position. I now measure 4.11 versus 5.1 at my annual physical due to the inability to fully straighten my legs!
What finally pushed me to the surgery is that the ROM is disappearing quickly and Docs are concerned that will make the surgeries and the recovery more challenging. And I am tired of not being able to stand up longer than 15 minutes, nor being able to walk much more than 1 block. 2 at once makes me a little nervous, but the surgeon thinks both are so bad that bilateral is the right path. I had to really do some legwork to find the right Doc - one that wasn’t averse to surgery on younger patients, and understood the desire to get back a life that Includes skiing and riding. My local guy seems to think that sitting around watching TV is a fine way to live; so I searched til I found a surgeon who does TKR’s all week and does not think waiting until you are xxx age is smart. He’s 5 hrs away in a different state, but Oh Well!
I am really looking fwd to Aug and getting the surgery over with and rehab started!!! In the meantime I continue to ride and have fun (and keep the Advil and Ice at the ready!)
Another step forward at last
I have an appointment to see the surgeon and it is really soon, 10th April, does happy dance on one good leg…
Typical though, I don’t like to grumble, but I’m going to anyway…Why is it that I have waited 2 months for an appointment, and it has to fall on the very day that my buyer wants to come pick up the horse that I have been trying to sell since November.
I can’t work out which one I want to re arrange:confused:
That really sucks Haffy, hopefully the buyer will adjust the pick-up time for you. At least you managed to get in to see the ortho before the next ice age, fingers crossed you can get some answers and not have to wait months for surgery! Keep us posted…
Sounds so strange but I am happy to see this blog on COTH. I had a horse riding accident almost 2 years ago. Nothing too bad as I am still here and walking. I bought a new horse last March that I thought I could ride post accident. My big problem is getting over the thought of something else bad happening. In my accident, the horse I was riding went dead on into the arena wall. I tried to turn her but honestly felt she would turn and I would be able to ditch. No such luck. I went over her head, breaking first my left wrist, then the right wrist. Started to catch helmet brim, but turned head quick to take a side blow to head and slid the 8 feet to the ground. I was between her front legs and stood as quickly as I could to plaster myself to wall to avoid trampling. Great, my left leg was hyperflexed and I pushed up. Horse did not step on me. Odd thing was the leg wouldn’t work quite right. Didn’t hurt, it just wasn’t right. At hospital I found out that I had torn off my own Achilles’s tendon in the attempt to avoid her hooves. I was put back together fairly well with steel plates and the wrists work almost as well as before the accident. Ankle is stiff and leg does not hurt mostly due to nerve damage from a previous horse accident which is why I did not feel anything when it tore. Does anyone else have trepidation in riding after an accident like this? How about after your surgeries?
