6 Week Post Op Total Knee Replacement.

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this is my favorite knee flexion exercise I'll sit in this position for about 5 to 10 minutes and I'll just keep working that foot closer to my butt here I am checking to see how close I am here we are we made it Dr Johnson's office Holland Bone and Joint Center so I'll let you know what he says afterwards hey welcome to my Vlog series regarding my KNE replacement many of you know I had my left knee replaced uh six weeks ago in fact it was six weeks ago uh yesterday and this afternoon or this later this morning I'm heading out to my doctor doctor's office down in Holland to go get my six week evaluation and I'm feeling really well so February 14th 2024 I had my total knee replacement on the left knee like a lot of people bone on bone arthritis no ACL um severely tilted uh tibia amphibia at 7° varus and you may have saw that photo right at the very beginning I showed the two pictur pictures of my knee before and after or after and before or whatever that it's before and after I believe and you can see how much my my knees was really tilted there but I'm back in my cabin waiting I got about another 20 minutes before I have to head out but I just wanted to touch base on a few things and uh let you know how I'm doing I'm doing great I feel really good I mean I feel better than good in fact my left knee now feels better than my right knee I do have some strength deficits I'm trying to overcome but that's from years of babying it and favoring it even though I worked out you know you can always work around your pain so I was able to uh keep it relatively strong I'm happy with where I'm at I feel great mentally physically it's just fantas I think actually the time we walked in was exactly 4:20 and I was already walking around I walked probably a half a mile total in the uh hospital and I got home and I walked a couple laps around the house and just shook her loose I feel I felt good the doctors the nurses everybody told me I'd have the Breakthrough pain they called it breakthrough pain on day three and day four I never really had much breakthrough pain you know they subscribed me medication to deal with it they subscribed me oxycotton I believe it's called or oxy Coto I think it's Oxy Cotton uh a nerve block pill I believe was lria and another pill for muscle spasms and I think day one the first day home we took it I took oxy that night in some nerve block and then the next day I did take the oxy on day the first day home I took the oxy and the nerve block and then I realized I didn't need it you know they said to stay ahead of it I don't think I took it anymore uh after that so really the next day is the only time I took it by day two I had it on Wednesday by Friday I was already feeling a little bit of pain coming through that you know they they numb up your knee they put nerve blocks in there of some sort or and anesthesia in your knee of some sort to help alleviate that pain and they say it's going to be brutal on day two and day three I didn't find it that bad I could always find a place to get comfortable and I always was able to uh relax with ice and take care of my knee um so I was very happy with that by the first week by Wednesday the following week I was already walking miles a day and by the second week I already put in two miles before the second week I put in two miles on my walk and before my fourth week the day before my fourth week uh three 3 weeks and 6 days I was able to complete a six mile hike through the park down Trails uneven ground I'm not talking about on the elliptical of the basement which I was doing already I'm not talking about you know a treadmill I'm uneven ground Trails though so I did have one little set back earlier that only sent me back about a week I tripped on a vine on one of my trails and it kind of locked up my knee a little bit for about a day I did deal with that and that was on day nine I believe however it only lasted a you know short 24 hours and and really felt good after that so sleep you know I was talk about sleep you heal when you sleep I was able to sleep every single night in my bed I wasn't uh in pain at night time I wasn't uh uncomfortable day one I put the ice bag around my knee or the ice machine on my knee and I slept with it all night there's no fear of freezing or frostbite with an ice the ice machine because just water and ice it can't get any colder than 32 degrees I guess I just left it on I had a barrier underneath it and but after that it's the only night I did that with and when I went to bed I went to bed and slept through the night star from day one I also had a ferocious appetite I was eating everything and I can tell I gained a few L few few pounds few lbs there um and I noticed that when I went to the doctor they had to get on a scale I think I gain probably three pounds it's because I'm not doing as much as I was but my appetite was great I never got nauseous I was I was eating everything but that makes sense cuz you're burning a lot of calories trying to heal that wound up I also every morning when I woke up very first thing I did is I took my aspirin which you had I had to take an aspirin every morning in evening for blood clotting and I took my multivitamins my vitamin C and you know all all the regular things we take and a protein shake every morning your body needs a lot of protein protein you know you're making you're laying down a lot of scar tissue so the body's make I used protein shakes to help get the extra protein so and my wife fed me great another thing I had is I had a great support staff being with my wife and my kids um my wife took off the first three days I believe and I believe the following Monday or she yeah she did because the first three days Wednesday Thursday Friday I had it done Wednesday she helped out a lot one of the things she did and she did it all the way up until about well she even gave me did it the other day it was a lot of massage a lot of Massage Therapy on my thigh in my calf where she just put you know I put it up I elevate my leg and she just keep working it and I really never swallowed up much I didn't use ice after about two and a half weeks that was about it now the day I did the sixmile walk I think I used ice for about a half an hour when I got home just to maybe prevent and elevated it maybe to prevent uh some swelling but I didn't experience much swelling either I don't know why everybody heals differently some people heal extremely fast I guess maybe I'm one of the lucky ones my hips were the same way I had both the hips done and I was able to get back to work I had them done on Monday both of them and I was able to get back to work by Friday and I ran a martial arts school for a living so I had no problems with the hips and if I was still in business we shut down back in 21 after uh 25 years of business but uh if I was still running the business I would have been back to work weeks ago with no problem I have been exercising every day I did my PT just like they said and then I added a what you saw at the beginning of the video I did a lot of that stuff with outweights to begin with I was on that elliptical by probably the fifth or sixth day but I was only doing like minutes at a time and then the next day I had another minute then another minute and finally after about two weeks I was up to the full 30 minutes and I think after four weeks I just put it on random I used to just leave it on the you know like the second to the lowest setting on Resistance now I let it run through all the programming the resistance that it wants to give me so no problems with that one of the things I wanted to do was uh get on my tractor and I wasn't able to do that the first week I thought I'd been able to I got on it after seven days and I wasn't able to push the clutch my tractor has a clutch for my left foot and it makes me bring my knee you know up pretty high well that's my right obviously and then I had to push down and I just I could it wasn't problem bringing my leg up and bending my knee the problem was the push with my my foot and and it just it that that hurt a little bit so after 10 days though it was either day 10 or day 11 I was able to get on it and I think that really helped because I was working my clutch back and forth and it was just like doing a little leg press you know it's felt really good another thing I utilized is a rocking shair just moving just pumping my legs back and forth back and forth bending that knee ever so slightly from 90° to about you know whatever it it it took the rocket and you can always feel the tension it always felt good weeks one through two and a half I always felt like I had a band around it my knee like a big thick rubber band all the way around it it didn't hurt but when you walked it just felt tight it just felt like it just didn't want to bend too much but I just said well it's there I'm just going to bend through it so I just bend through it and sometimes they hit a point where it's like o that one ate a little bit but it wasn't a problem something to be mindful of now that I'm noticing as I'm feeling and I talked to the doctor uh sent him a message and he said that's nothing to worry about and I'll talk to him again today about it but I get some clunking I can feel the mechanical Parts in my knee actually clunking a little bit and that's after even going online and talking to my doctor uh via message he said it's just uh you know your ligaments are loose everything thing we stretch things out so it's just that just bumping a little bit in there and sometimes it's a tendon rolling over or maybe a bony protrusion or something but other than that and those clunks don't hurt at all you're just like it's kind of weird almost like popping your knuckle and that's getting better as I get stronger as everything tightens up I'm not getting as much clunking anymore couple of times when I was really working my flexion I had a couple big pops you know I'd bring my knee up and I'd pull it in or you might have saw at the beginning I do that rubber band I feel a little think a little snap in there and the first time you feel that you're a little startled but after that it start it's pretty nice uh it looses I think what it is and as what I understood that uh the physician assistant told me that you're actually breaking the scar tissue popping the scar tissue and uh it does great so now I'm doing a lot of scar tissue manipulation and a good time to do that is when you're sitting on the can you can see it don't bring your phone in there with you just while you're sitting there work your uh your Scar Tissue uh you you don't want to do that though until couple of weeks they said told me about after three and a half to four weeks it's been six weeks now I stopped taking the aspirin uh my flexion I feel really good guys it just there is no pain there isn't any pain whatsoever in the knee anymore my right knee feels worse in my left so if something you're thinking about getting it getting done don't hesitate you you've been living in pain for a long time if you've got arthritis and I'm telling you you're going to feel a lot better now I know there are people some people that don't get the same results I've gotten but uh I think it's worth the shot guys I I think it really is it's uh I feel like I got a new lease on life and I'm almost ready to go have my right one done we'll see what he says when we get in there so don't hesit on that if you if you want to reach out to me and talk a little bit about it I will gladly sit down with you if you haven't watched any of my videos on this I do have a series days one through four what I experienced at at the end of one week at the end of two weeks at the end of three weeks at the end of four weeks and now this one the first four days I had my Walker but I was gradually transitioning to my cane and I was we had a bunch of snow on day two so I I had to use used the house as uh little race course and I had a little course to the house that I used but by day four I was pretty well transitioned to a cane at week one at my therapy after meeting my uh therapist Brett asked him about the cane around the house he said let me see you walk and he said oh you're not even hardly using it anyhow your your gate looks great so he said uh around the house don't use it you know someplace safe but you get outside take it so about the first two and a half two weeks two and a half weeks I did use the cane when I went outside I just carried it with me you know if I did fall it would be something I could use to get up and it did help you know a little bit of balance there but then I I got rid of the cane something I did do and I don't know if I mentioned in other videos I used the walk around the first couple of days but I always use my crutches at night if I had to get up in the middle night to use the restroom I just thought I was more stable on my crutches instead of trying to walk with my Walker at night time in the dark trying to use the restro so I did use crutches during the night time that's the only time and sometimes after sitting for several hours at the end of the evening I would get up with my crutch and it seemed to help all right I got to leave here in a couple of minutes anyhow and I'll see you you know all of us who have arthritis or always looking for ways around the arthritis aren't we what are we going to do how are we going to feel better what are we doing you know I know many of you have a table like me probably I have my bof freeze right here now I haven't used this since my knee surgery due this due to the scar um and I don't think I even need this on this leg anymore I'll put it on my this is just feels good what else do I have back here if you have arrus I'm sure you have a heating pad right I use this heating pad quite often it's often on my back uh I did use the heating pad on my leg often even on my knee I just keep it like that and just warm up my knee a little bit what else do I have down here I don't know if you've ever seen one of these these are a knee massager I enjoy it this is called the kneecap treasure it just goes over your knee now I'll be starting to use it on this one I have used this quite a bit on this knee uh not in the last couple of weeks but when it was just achy in the evening at the end of the night it takes your mind off everything I wouldn't be surprised if somebody has you guys have these things sit next to your chair I use this often I do also have little bit of arth rtis in my neck and the if you haven't gotten one of these oh does this feels so good I really enjoy this so we sit here watch TV let's turn it up one there we go there we I like it there we have one of these right who doesn't have a massage gun oh that feels so good this one I can't even read it with my glasses without them Arling airling I have different attachments I like this one the best the round ball kind of hurts a little bit but I do like this big flat one it feels really good I get a tennis elbow quite a bit too and I'll use this on my arms last thing I have back here who doesn't have a medack massager Meed massage.com massager this thing's a beast woo this thing oh if you haven't gotten one of these get one of these we all have our little things we do for our arthritis and that's this is my arthritis pile of goods here and obviously I do Journal all this I keep a little Journal of all my daily activities and everything I'm doing so all right let's finish this video up hey I just got back from Dr Johnson's office down in Holland his words were this is amazing and I've not seen this too often very rarely does this happen he said and he some of his questions were what have I been doing you know to and I told him you know going into it I told him what I've been doing and the last time I went in there after two weeks I just saw the physio I'm sorry the physician assistant and he he was pretty impressed with what where I was at so I told the doctor and he absolutely loved what I was doing um I told him how many miles I've been walking he had no problem with it he said uh let's just not Chuck around heavy weights and I haven't been he goes you we got to use discretion still be careful but he liked the fact that I was lifting weights he had no problems with that and I told him about how much I was using he goes your muscles will tell you and he says if your leg tells you it's tired let it rest I think for the fact that I built the strength up in my legs prior to uh the surgery you know I've always maintained my strength and flexion you know I think that really helped out a lot he's pleased he said go ahead and start working in your activities I told him I've been cutting firewood but I haven't been going out into the woods I've been doing it in my Woodyard he had no problem with that talking about the Sawmill he liked that because it's going to be adding a little resistance as well he had no he was very excited it he looked like a kid on Christmas so we talked about my right knee and some of the issues I'm having with it cuz my right knee to be honest with you doesn't feel as good as my left knee my left knee I'm going to say I'm at 100% beginning I mean it's not the strength I don't have let me tell you I don't have the strength I originally had there is it's quite a bit diminished still but you'll if you watch the beginning of the video you probably if you got this right you did see the beginning of the video and I put in some clips about you just real quick clips of me lifting weights in the morning before I left this morning and I do have some deficits still but I could function the rest of my life just like this with and be very pleased he said Jerry it's only 6 weeks just think what you're going to feel like after 12 and he said and it's going to it takes about a whole year until everything and I'm like well I don't know how much better I can get I literally felt better as you know I've been talking to you if you followed my series three or four weeks and I was great to go they didn't check my flexion today I'm not sure I'm I know it's more than 130 it might be getting back to where it was 135 closer to 140 I'm hoping but that's besides the point I feel great the doctor's pleased so guys like I mentioned before if you're thinking about knee replacement make sure to get yourself in shape him and I already had the conversation about this one when are we going to do it and he said it's not ready yet and I agree he and he also believes this knee since it's uh in a little better shape than this one was that it really help cortisone shots so this summer if I start getting some aches like this one was getting I'm going to head right back down there and get that cortisone shot he's really optimistic about this one too if we have to do this one so we're going to just see how it goes I feel great if you're thinking about doing this you're going to have some time once from the date of your scheduled surgery during that month two months six weeks I can't stress enough get in shape just do something a little bit 15 20 minutes 30 minutes a day for the last over a year now let the grandfather clock finish for over a year now I've been working out every single day for a minimum of 30 minutes a day since my knee surgery I I put my time in then too now I obviously I didn't do so much at the very beginning of my knee surgery I did all the PT and then some but it I kept track of it it was over 400 straight days of exercise and I made sure I was on the elliptical did something every single day for at least 30 minutes on my lifting days I usually had the elliptical for 30 and then another 30 to 45 minutes of lifting weights then obviously some Brazilian jiujitsu in there as well stay moving it's like it's like your arthritis you you already know what pain feels like it feels good when it's moving when you stop and then start moving again as when it hurts as long as I'm moving I'm in good shape so I would suggest finding a fitness program maybe joining a gym or if you have you know the ability to do it at your own house or you know some people don't have the ability even if they have all the weights at their own house to do it you know it's just it's hard mentally doing it at your own place sometimes it's easier just to go somewhere like uh physical therapy or a gym to go get your exercise done so get in shape eat healthy drop a few pounds and uh you probably will have the same kind of success I had now again even the doctor warned he goes you he couldn't guarantee I'd have the same success for the right that I had for the left but he said most likely you would have the same success attitudes also carry yourself with an attitude of positivity when you're feeling a little bit run down or worn out put a smile on your face and it does make it go get better it does feel better when you're happy find yourself a good support team like my wife she was awesome my kids were awesome one of the My Favorite Things my wife did for me was she worked massage therapy on my leg every single day and not for just a couple of minutes half hour to an hour she would work my leg when I'd have my leg up and she would work on just slowly working the muscles you know they were tight last week she was doing it she goes my gosh your cat feels normal now it's not tight anymore and my calf was probably the tight probably the sort you know you did have I did have for the first week and a half just stiffness where the had some stiffness with the tourniquet was for a couple of weeks wasn't bad it was just like sore muscles same with my calf you know the some of the swelling got into the calf I didn't swell bad but some of the swelling got into the calf and it just really made it tight and painful not painful just tight s again sore muscle maybe I like that at its very worst it was like a strain calf muscle at the very worst and but I could still walk in function with no problem so all right guys I'm done this is the six week series I don't know maybe I'll do uh I'll let you know where I'm at in 12 weeks or 10 weeks unless You' like some other updates if you'd like some other updates eight weeks 10 weeks 12 weeks let leave a leave a comment and also if you have any questions leave a comment or concerns or anything you want to talk about if it's you're leading up to this I will gladly answer your questions you can find my uh email if you want to email me Bigalow Woodcraft gmail.com and I think it's in probably the description too uh you've got this you can do it very pleased I did it like I said I had a lot of anxiety the week before and after two or three days well the day of the surgery you know there's no looking back and after three or four days I was feeling fantastic I was so happy I can socialize without pain now I can follow my friends around and hang out with people and walk through the parks without pain a little bit in my right knee but without pain uh when you're not in pain you're a happy person so guys thanks for following my journey I hope you enjoyed this series and there might be some more to come if you guys would like to see some more but I think I'm ready to go it's time for me to get out to The Sawmill and start working out there next week um I got to finish up my firewood and then I'm going to enjoy my summer take care guys best of luck to you if you're having your surgery best of luck to any friend or family member who's having a surgery that you may be the caretakers for exercise thank you stay safe and have a great day

Channel: Bigelow Woodcraft

Views: 1,245

Keywords: Fit over 50, Men's fitness, Physical therapy, Stryker knee replacement recovery time, Total knee replacement, body transformation motivation, fit over 50 women, fitness over 50, knee replacement, men's health, men's health gym and fridge, men’s health magazine, skinny to muscular transformation, total knee replacement physiotherapy, total knee replacement video animation

Id: iQjjhrZdLSA

Length: 31min 4sec (1864 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 29 2024