Thread: New to Gimp Room (recent knee surgery)

Hey Gimps,

Thanks to whomever pointed me to this room since I posted my ortho-surgery thread. I recently had patelar stabilization surgery 3-01-05 along with some scope cleaning for parts of my patella that were floating in my knee from past good times (skateboard, wakeboard, mtn. bike, MX, etc.) This is my first knee surgery and turned out better than the last prognosis of torn ACL which the DOC.
All that came of it was a scope and some reatached tendons to my patella so I was given 2-3 months of downtime to plan. Now into it 5 days and 20 movies later I hate this shit!!! I am too cross-eyed from drugs to read and I have the cold and hot sweats all the time. Good thing I am married because playing with myself would add a hell of alot of mental pain.

How are you mags

bump

WHOAH!!!

I was pretty messed up on Oxycodone when I wrote that...no wonder no one has replied.

Anyhoo, had my bandages taken off yesterday and my knee looks like a plump and juicy Florida grapefruit. I planned PT for tomorrow (first session), and hope to make the best of it.

How are the gimps getting along?

Heh - at least you were enjoying your painkillers!

What kind of rehab do you have in store now?

I miss pain pills , but not the pain. Hit the rehab early and often, Spread. The little stuff you do in the beginning even though it seems useless, gets you back on track faster. Plus there is a confidence boost if you can surprise your Pt with getting ROM back early etc. Best of luck.

So my PT has been for the most part icing and electro-stimulation to reduce the swelling. My PT Kevin claims that the swelling is normal after Patellar Realignment surgery but right now it inhibits more active recouperation. For exercise I am doing quad-sets, which requires me to flex my left quad in order to stimulate movement in the kneecap. I am also doing straight leg raises that hurt behind my knee cap like a son-of-a-bitch. The hard part is getting my leg off of the ground to start. I usually need a helping hand to lift my heel up for the first couple in my sets of 10.

Today the brace was set to bend up to 60 degrees so that is my goal soon. Right now I can only bend the knee up to 20 and man is it still a fat grapefruit looking like thing. My leg and ankle are still very swollen

Re: all the swelling - Are you elevating it enough? By that I mean both time wise (i.e. 100% of the time unless you're going to the bathroom or something) and height wise - where you've got your knee up over your heart - not just up on a foot stool or end table or something. (I made that mistake my first time around - didn't elevate high enough and it swelled and bruised like crazy!) Of course, not knowing much of anything about what you had done - maybe a lot of swelling is normal. Icing a lot will help too -both for pain and swelling.

Keep it up at PT - sounds like a painful thing to go through, but good luck with it!

Dominate that shit! Full assimilation! No prisoners!

Whoa, i didn't know you had surgery Christian! Yeah, that first post was somewhat unlike you, i laughed, hard!

Hope all is well, good luck with the PT, work hard!

thanks Altachic, you da friend!!!

Well I know I never stopped by when you went through knee hell but if you feel like doing some charity visits for a GIMP...stop on by. The wife and I would love to see you.

PS - I may have a ski free opp. for you if you take my wife
she needs some chic lessons.

Today at PT the tech let me know that they are behind with the outlined schedule to get my knee back on track. The prob is that my knee only bends to undesirable angle of 45 deg. and I have been given the go for 60 deg. So my session consisted of hellish bending and graphitational plyometrics in order to take me from 27 deg. to 45. Man is that a weird sensation to not be able to bend my leg. Any maggots have any stories to the likeness? I would like to hear.

I've spent many painful hours bending my knee over the last few months. At first I couldn't bend it much but eventually I gained flexion and am about 4 degrees from where I started. The hellish part is you think that all of the sudden you will have full flex back but the reality for me has been that going from 138 degrees to 146 degrees is just as painful and discouraging as the initially bending from 45 degrees to 50. The key is to keep at it but don’t stress over it because eventually the flex will return. Reducing the swelling and making sure that your knee cap is loose will help. Also my best flex gains always happened after I washed a few pain pills down with an Optimator or two.

Right on Ranger. Truly 45-50 is going to be a bitch but worth the effort. Man if you are already past 130 are you biking yet? Full recovery?
Thanks for the words of confidence

Yeah I've been biking a lot. If not for biking I would have gone completely insane with this rehab. Officially in one week and I can start running again and in about a month skiing.
I'm sure that I don't need to tell you but yesterday was sucky. Everyone I know went skiing, I wanted to go so bad. And, the forecast for this week looks really good... If ACL rehab didn't suck so bad I would risk it and go.
Oh I tried running last night that feels really strange my bad leg can't keep up with the good one.

Spread – How’s the flexion?

Flexion is ahead of schedule! After I heard that I was behind schedule and that there was an outlined progress report sheet monitoring this process, I kicked it in the ass and started bending the knee with plyometrics.

The doc monitored me at 60-70 and the PT confirmed with a solid 68. I feel good and I feel a drive now to get it to 90 and more. It's funny what a little glimpse of progress has done to motivate me but it keeps me going. I am going to be biking this summer so it's now or take longer to bend the motha into shape.

More stories please and motivating experiences.

Thanks Ranger and those who respond to this thread

You asked for it so here: I'm almost there, got the go ahead to run, but it doesn't feel great. I am getting stronger, though, and have been biking whenever possible. For once, there is still a ton of snow here in S. New England, and the woods and trails are unridable . So I bought a fixed gear road bike today, and it kicks ass. With no freewheel, your legs have to work constantly, and no gears means no granny on hills. This is going to get me over the hump. It seems like yesterday I was hobbling on crutches, and now I'm this close to normal. Keep at it, Spread, progress happens.

Originally Posted by SPREAD EAGLE

More stories please and motivating experiences.

I skied wonderful bottomless pow on Sunday (I'm right around 6 months post op now). Nothing too steep, and it was mostly on top of stuff that was groomed before the snow, but damn it felt fantastic. (my knee too )

3 weeks later and you can only bend to 68 degrees???

what the hell did they do in there? sounds painful.

Well xboat...I think I paid them to kick my trash (trash = lower half of body with left knee emphasis) legally under coma inducing gases used by a licensed drug handler. or I had my knee cap put back in place with a lateral release freeing up the opposite side for optimal placement of femoral anchor. This is known as patellar re-alignment or stabilization surgery.

My PT let me know that it can be more difficult than ACL recovery as far as bending is concerned but I will be able to support more weight faster.

COME ON 90 degrees!!!!!

hey man, i wish you nothing but the best of luck. +++

90, 90, 90 damn yesterday I could only get into the high 70's.
I must work this motha over!!!! Bend knee bend!!

Friday I was able to bend my knee 90 deg. and damn did it hurt. Good thang I popped a lortab before the hellish bending. The schedule is definetly set and I will be at 110 deg. in less than two weeks. I MUST BIKE even if it means starting out on the stationary.

Thanks for your comments mags

Originally Posted by SPREAD EAGLE

I MUST BIKE even if it means starting out on the stationary.

Um... were you considering something else? I can't imagine trying to start on a regular bike when you're at the stage when you can't even get a rotation yet on a stationary bike...

Originally Posted by SPREAD EAGLE

I MUST BIKE even if it means starting out on the stationary.

To add to what altagirl said....yeah, you pretty much have to start out on a stationary bike. In fact, expect to sit on that sucker, gently rocking the pedals back and forth as you hit your flexion / extension limits without even being able to pedal full circle.

This was my experience anyway. I'd sit in my garage, with my road bike on the trainer, pedal forward to about 3'oclock, feel the pain, try to stretch it out and push it as much as I could stand, then pedal backwards to 6'oclock, and do the same and on and on and on. I did this until I could withstand the pain enough to get my knee able pedal backwards a full rotation. For some reason, getting around fully going backwards was easier than forwards. So I worked on backwards pedaling for about a week, and then I was able to get around going forwards. And even when I finally got the pedal all the way over the top going forward, I had to cheat because I had to slide my hips way off the saddle to give me knee enough clearance to get around. It took another week or so of keeping steadily at until I could pedal forwards, with a somewhat "normal" stroke, and a decent cadence.

I wouldn't get outside on a real bike until you can pedal normally on a stationarly with little discomfort, and your orthopod/PT has cleared you for riding outside.

Just keep at it. Don't get discouraged. Everyone progresses at different rates, but as long as keep at it and work consistently toward your goals, you will get there. Just take it one step at a time.

man, i was at 100-110 degrees of flextion by the time i went in for my first post op check up 10 days after my surgery.

i just had straight PT graft, and went home with a CPM machine. i was fully extended, even about 3 dreees hyper within two days, and slowly ramped the flexion up 10 degrees every day.

i talked to kellie last night and it seems she didn't have CPM either. i,know there are obviously different schools of thought on it, but i really belive this helped me get mobile faster.

good luck spread, keep focuing, keep pushing it! time is all it takes.

Stationary first, see Ty's post. Work into it. Progress happens, but in increments. Speed is irrelevant. One step at a time. There is no other way. Keep at it. Be cool. Every thing is cool.