9 months

According to the large handout my doctor gave me when I began my knee replacement journey, at 9 months I should be 90% healed.  Based on my experience lately, I would say that is close to right.  It's hard to believe that it will take another 3 months to finish that last 10% of healing.  I have had a setback though which I hope is minor, but it is too early to know.  Last week I went to see my physical therapist for a "tune up" and stretching.  My left knee has 6 degrees less flexion than my right knee, and I don't know how much less extension, but to me it is noticeable.  I have made several visits since I graduated from PT just to get my muscles stretched.  This last time I was really impressed by how flat I could get my left leg when I straightened it out, and more importantly, the next morning after sleeping, it was still that way.  When I did my usual extension exercises, I was so wowed at how straight and pain free my efforts were.  THEN, slowly over 7 days, the bottom of my left foot hurt when I stood for long.  Then the backs of my calf hurt.  Then the back of my knee.  Somehow I'm thinking we must have stretched a nerve too much, and it is not happy. The past 3 days I have not been very happy either.  I did my water aerobics one day last week even though I really did not feel like it, and it turns out that that was the only time that day I did not hurt.  For the past 4 days, I decided to forego all exercise in the hope that some rest will help my nerve to settle down.  That, of course, really concerns me.  I don't want all my hard work to go by the wayside.  I know from experience that your muscles can go to pot in 2 weeks. Yesterday I went to see a doctor just to make sure that I was not dealing with a clot.  He thought it was a muscle strain.  I don't think he was listening.  This does not hurt like a muscle.  Even so, I am taking a muscle relaxant at night and rubbing very expensive NSAID gel on my muscles.  Quite frankly, I'm bummed because I've got a feeling that this is going to be a TIME issue, and my gut says it's going to be a long time.  As far as activity, my doctor said I could do whatever I felt like doing.  Well, that's nothing! (Did I mention that I am back on my cane?  This thing really hurts!)


I came away from PT with 2 new exercises, one for helping with stairs, and one for really stretching those knees.  I guess it's possible that the new stretching exercise could be the culprit.  I complained to my therapist that stairs were still a problem, and she was not concerned.  Said that just takes a long time.  To which I replied that if she was not concerned, then I wouldn't be either.  It's so hard to be patient with oneself.