February 14, 2019 6 Months

It’s been 6 months since I had my knee replacement.  People still continue to ask me how I’m feeling and my answer continues to be good, really good.  And I tell them my knee is so much better then it was and I’m happy I did it.  I don’t wear my knee brace anymore, cause I don’t have to, and that gives me a lot more mobility on the Pickleball courts for sure.  I don’t have that nagging pain that would keep me up at night and I all around feel like I’ve had great results.  It still swells and gets stiff here and there but that’s usually after a day where I’ve done a lot.  Like played a lot of pickle, did some harder exercises or just was on my feet a lot.  But unlike before my surgery,  it isn’t painful.  I did tell Kev a couple days ago though that something didn’t feel right .  It felt like the last week or ten days that it’s been super tight and it makes me think of when I had alot of fluid in there cause that’s how it felt.  I made an appointment to see Dr Wilmink but can’t get in til March.  So for the last couple days I’ve been taking some of my ibuprofen again and it seems to be feeling better.  Maybe it’s just inflamed and there isn’t any fluid build up.  I’m going to keep my appointment and if it totally goes back to feeling good then I’ll cancel.  The Dr did tell me that it will be swollen and stiff here and there for maybe a year or so, but it felt like it was more then that, and that’s why I wanted to have it checked. But overall it’s really good and I’m happy that I went through the hassle and pain of getting it done.

November 5, 2018 12 Weeks Post Op

It’s already been 3 months since I’ve had my surgery.  Hard to believe and yet sometimes I feel like it just happened.  I feel like I’m doing really well.  I’m playing a good amount of Pickleball here at our courts as well as in outside groups and am moving good on the courts.  I do feel like I have more mobility cause I am no longer wearing my brace.  I don’t have to, that’s why I got my new knee.  The brace was keeping it all together until I got my replacement and now that I have I am brace free.  I still have a good amount of swelling and it does occasionally get stiff but that’s all to be expected and will be that way for a little longer.  I do continue to ice everyday and that is helping I’m sure.  And at this point I only have one annoying problem, that one spot on the inside of my knee. It STILL is bothering me and hurts now and then and of course at night drives me crazy.
So today at my 12 weeks out checkup I was telling Dr Wilmink how it’s still bothering me.  He said that they do alot of work when they or go in there and it’s not the joint that’s the problem it’s the tendon.  It’s inflamed and tender.  He said I could wait it out and of course like everything else it would go away, or he could give me a steroid shot to quicken it.  Well naturally I said let’s quicken it. So he decided to give me the shot to help.  He said it’s completely normal and sometimes it even happens to people a few years down the road.  I got my shot.  But holy hell did that sucker hurt.  Hurt, like bite my tongue cause I want to yell hurt.  Then he said yeah and it’s gonna probably hurt more later too.  As I am sitting here getting ready to go to bed I have to say he  as right.  It’s hurting quite a bit right now but I’m hoping in the next few days it will all be worth it.
The rest of my appointment went well.  I asked if now that I had replacements I don’t have any more arthritis in my knees and he said no it’s all gone and won’t come back.  That’s good news.  He shook my hand and said go kick some butt playing Pickleball and I’ll see you in 5 years.  That’s exciting!!

October 11, 2018 Pickleball

We had the twins for a week and after Alicia and Arnold came to pick them up I went down to the courts to try and play.  Yvonne had a game set up with a couple people and one of them was visiting from out of state.  I wanted to play and see how I did.  I had only been doing drills so up to this point and I needed to know how I could do.  I played with the girl I didn’t know and the funniest thing happened.  I always do this to Yvonne and now this girl did it to me.  A ball came over the net short and she said go go go so I went went went.  It was the first time I ran and moved at a quick pace, and shockingly I did it and it felt fine.  I was once again ready to get out there and start playing again.  Yay!!!

October 3, 2018 Bike Riding

Since I got the ok to be riding my bike Kev and I decided to go for a ride after breakfast.  We just rode around our neighborhood but went all over.  It felt good to be out and about but I screwed up and should have gone around the block one last time to get past the 7.99 mileage we did.

And then a funny thing happened the same day.  Our community cycle club had an event to ride the cart path on the golf course.  It was open to all residents and Kev and I had seen it listed on the events page but then kind of forgot about it.  So I went to Fry’s and on my way home I saw all these people riding along the golf course.  I quick ran in the house and told Kev it was happening and we jumped on our bikes and started at hole 4 which is right by our house.  It was really fun.  There were lots of people riding and having a great time.  I thought when we reached home 18 we would just take the road home but Kev went around and we finished up doing the cart path that we missed around 1, 2 & 3 and then finished at 4 where we started. 

I hope it’s something they do more often it was a fun ride and really pretty all along the course.  I do have to admit it was a little too much riding for me for one day and it being my first time on my bike.  Had we known we were going to ride the course we wouldn’t have rode so far in the morning.  But nothing a little ice and ibuprofen can’t fix.  

September 29, 2018 Hiking

I went away for the weekend with my girlfriends from high school. We went to Steamboat Springs in Colorado and stayed at this nice condo at the ski resort.  It was a weekend of relaxing and hanging out with the girls.  We did do some walking around town and sight seeing and also went on a great hike.  It was my first hike since my surgery and felt great.  It was a short hike, maybe 3 miles in and out and the trail was really nice, part of it was even paved.  It felt good to hike and be out there on a trail with some beautiful scenery.

                                            

I didn’t have any problems going up or down any hills so I felt good.  Looking forward to hiking more this year cause I didn’t do any last year my knee just wasn’t up for it.

September 25, 2018 6 Week Post-Op Appt

Tomorrow will mark 6 weeks since my surgery.  I had a follow up appointment today with my Dr.  He was very happy with my progress.  He said he I was doing great being just 6 weeks out.  My bend and straightening is really good and he’s happy with it all.  I told him about how bad my sensitivity has been and how the inside of my knee is really sore especially at night.  He said it’s normal that the pain is worse at night and also normal how my knee is always hot.  All of this takes time and will get better in time.  He gave me a prescription for an anti inflammatory cream which he said may help that pain, otherwise I just have to wait it out.  I got the ok to ride a regular bike and he also said I could play pickle.  Although he did follow that with not all out and running around but you can get back out there.  I told him how my lateral movement isn’t there yet and that I need to work on that to be able to go all out.  He asked about PT and I told him I was going twice a week and he said he thought I could  quit going in the next two weeks.  I may or may not stop in two weeks cause I feel like if I’m good with everything then I need to build some strength, but I’ll see how it’s all going.

On another note I had read back on some posts I made with my previous surgery and saw that I had been walking a lot more then I have been.  That made me feel like I haven’t been doing enough, so tonight after summer I went for a walk.  It was pretty slow but I’ll just have to work on that.  Felt pretty good and I was a little stiff when I got home but I’m icing now and will put some cream on before bed and hopefully will wake up and feel good tomorrow.

September 22, 2018 That Big Scar

It’s crazy how when I had Alicia take my bandage off my scar looked huge.  It is a big scar but at first it looks so much worse then it will end up being.  One thing that will always be there is the numbness.  My other knee still has a little numbness to it on the scar, this new knee is numb all over and especially the scar.  All of that does dwindle down but I’m diffeeent phases.  Right now the tenderness in the inside of my knee is my biggest problem, still sensitive but mainly at night in bed is when it’s the worst.

But there have been some more improvements.  I have great bending going on right now with little if not any pain.  Check out how I can bend my knee all the way just like my other knee and that’s doing it without having to push it.  It’s doing it on it’s own just by me bending it.
And how about me sitting Indian style.  Let me tell you I can’t even tell you how long it’s since I have been able to do that.  So these are small but great improvements.  I’m going to be doing a lot more to get some more progress in.  We’ve already added so one new exercises at PT and I’m
going to be stepping up everything I’m allowed to do on my own to help get farther along and just be more aggressive.  I have my Dr appt with the Surgeon on Monday and I’m sure he’ll agree.