I shouldn’t moan and whine and complain, but I’m week 5 after having a total knee revision — that translates to the surgeon taking out the old artificial knee hardware that was there and putting in an entire new knee. It’s a harder surgery to recover from than just a straight knee replacement. I’m walking everyday and am up to 20 minutes at a time, in addition to being able to go up and down stairs, no problems with chairs, driving, etc. But it’s been a bad day, a lot of pain. I stopped pain meds last week, and being a stubborn old broad I won’t take them anymore. And I am SO tired of ice packs. I realized yesterday that it’s unlikely I’ll be able to go back to showing dogs. I can take a lot of the restrictions — no shoveling snow (isn’t that a shame!!!), avoiding stairs if I can, don’t lift heavy weights, etc. But I gave up riding horses after having both knees replaced and went into training and showing my dogs — and I love it. Now I’m losing that, too. Maybe I could show goldfish…
Can you take up driving?
I have done some driving, but now have my horse out on a permanent loan — so taking up a new sport with her isn’t too likely. But maybe with someone else’s horse… I hadn’t thought about it, but there probably is someone in the area who gives driving lessons.
HEY Jingles & AO ```` Don’t give up … just concentrate on healing ```
hey … no no no
no giving up that dog showing ````
just concentrate on ‘healing’
healing takes lots of time
lots of patience
and lots of nacho doritos ```:yes::winkgrin:
jingles and ao
tomorrow will look better ````
push onward !!!
all the faith in you ````
you’ll show dogs for years and years
I’ll bet you a bag of doritos !
and if you were in my area you would be jogging horses and ponies daily if you had the time
very fun !!!
chin up ``` you’ll show again !
I’ve made it back to work and the walking and everything else is getting easier. Still some pain, but it’s mostly muscles that are relearning things. My surgeon is happy with how I’m doing, I’m ahead of schedule in the recovery, and he hasn’t outright banned anything as of yet. Except I’m not allowed to mow grass for awhile. And we’re planning to do a total revision on my right knee by next January. I have been working the dogs occasionally now in the front yard, but no running beside them. I’m not as whiny as I was, but there are still good days and bad days. Still trying to get my head around the entire concept of “work” and the things I have to do here — 6 weeks of not going to work really empties your mind of a lot of things!
Replaced the titanium and everything?!? Wowza. When my husband has his “revised” they just replaced the plastic spacer. I can’t imagine having the metal yanked out of there.
Donk, are you going to PT? Monday I’d been walking four for weeks (with bendy brace and walker), and the PT - which I’ve gone to since 1/16 - has been a godsend. There is no way in the world that I would have progressed like this without PT.
hey Donk!
I’m at 11 weeks today of my first (and hopefully only for another 10 years or so) total knee replacement and you had sent me a wonderful PM prior to it explaining everything which was so helpful. Everything went well and I’m progressing steadily but slowly, slower than I expected I guess. Don’t give up on the dog showing just yet, it may take months but you may still be able to do nearly as much as you were doing before.
I’m still wavering between doing some light riding or giving it up altogether and heading into the world of driving with a mini or a small pony. I can’t walk my dogs very far, my son and husband take them out for the long runs and I can’t clean stalls and vacuuming my house is sort of out for now too. I still carry a cane with me if I’m headed into unfamiliar or uneven terrain and also when I cross the big parking lot at work. The knee is stable and strong but the rest of my leg and my lower back is pretty whacked for now. The surgeon ended up having to do a lateral release so the kneecap would track correctly (first time in 30 years) and also removed a few huge bone spurs from my femur so there’s more healing that needs to take place plus my leg was crooked before and now its straight and the rest of my body needs to relearn things all over again.
Muscles, ligaments and tendons all take time to heal and everyone is an individual. We would never push our horses to rehab faster than what worked best for them and I have to keep reminding myself of that. I will never again look at a horse with a stifle injury in quite the same way. You take care and please keep us posted!!!
