standing still after a knee replacement

[Wolf68]

I am still feeling slight discomfort and severe stiffness in my new knee 3 months after surgery, is this normal?

We had the family around yesterday for lunch and I tried to help with the cooking but standing in the kitchen just for a short period of time I could feel the joint stiffening up and it quickly became very difficult to bend. I had a similar issue last week when waiting for a bus. This makes, getting shoes and socks on almost impossible, my wife said yesterday I seem to have gone through a lot with very little gain, I got to admit I currently feel the same way about it all although when people ask me I try to be positive.

Am I just being impatient or should I be worried about this?

[Croqgirl]

There is a really excellent support group online called bonesmart. It is staffed by people who have been through this procedure. I highly recommend seeking it out.When I went through a knee replacement I found it a useful resource. It can feel very lonely recovering from a knee replacement.

Some people just take a very long time to recover and there is sometimes no rhyme or reason for it. It can take up to a year.

Do you feel you are making progress, however slow? Is it just stiffness or is there pain too? Is there stiffness when walking or just when standing?

If you are worried it might be worth getting it checked by a professional.

I had a good physio who used to reassure me. I also decided to see my surgeon privately a couple of times rather than wait for an nhs appointment.

[Wolf68 in reply to Croqgirl]

Thanks for the reply. There is some pain still but nowhere near to the level I had pre surgery and it isn’t all the time.

I can walk and I am doing lots of walking, swimming and exercising the way the physio showed me but I limp and still get sore from walking especially below the knee at the top of my shin. Swimming is hit and miss, some days it feels good and appears to ease the stiffness and other days I struggle to bend the knee for breast stroke and front crawl feels a little bit painful.

I swam on Friday afternoon and felt great Saturday morning, but just a little bit of standing around yesterday and it seemed to knock me back again, it feels terribly stiff today and I am limping quite badly. It is not particularly painful it’s just frustrating and hard to know if I am doing right or wrong.

I last saw my surgeon on 30th January and I was completely honest about what exercises and activity I was able to do and how it is affecting me and he seemed happy with everything but I have not really made much progress since.

[greynot]

I had a TKR in Aug 23 and was told at the time that I could expect improvements over 2 years. It took time, improvement was gradually, and although I rarely think about it these days, it does still get better.

Standing around isn't good ( I have a hip replacement on the other side, too!).

Both are better than pre replacements. I've recently got an electric bicycle which is great fun, and I'm looking forward to the better weather and getting out more on it.

Knees do take a long time. Maybe some more physio would help with your bad stiffness, to get something specific to your knee and the state of healing? And the balance between exercise and rest.

[DorsetLady]

As has been said on here -and in most of the information you read it can take up to 2years for your knees to be completely settled. So think you need to be a bit more patient with it. Your surgeon is happy with it mechanically, so it’s probably the surrounding muscles/tendons etc that need to rebuild -and that does take time! Although swimming is good -I think (having been there) I’d maybe not push the breaststroke for a while - most sites saying not during initial recovery, but as yours seems to be slower than some maybe a few more months avoiding it would sensible

High stress on knees:

The kicking motion in breaststroke involves significant sideways movement of the legs, which can put excessive strain on the knee joint, especially after a replacement surgery.

[Charlie123123]

I agree with the two last ladies, I had a tko nearly two years ago, and time really is the greatest healer. Stretch your limbs and do all things in moderation. At times you may feel "was it worth it" I feel for most people the answer is yes, no pain. It will feel different as its artificial, but you'll get used to it. Good luck.