Jessica's TTO and MPFL 1/25/11

[JessicaO]

 7 Weeks Post Op
Today I am 7 weeks post op and also it is my second day back at work. I have a desk job so I am managing pretty well right now. I have something to put my leg up on and I even brought my ice pack with me. My knee is swollen but not as bad as i thought, I am walking around pretty well. I wear my small brace too. This is what the brace looks like.... http://www.amazon.com/Kuhl-Shields-Knee-Brace-Size/dp/B002BV2O14

I like it a lot better than that hinged brace with all the straps i had to wear before. (even though i ditched that thing about i week post op and just wore it when i was out of the house) my leg is so skinny that brace was so big and gave me no support what so ever.

Also went to PT yesterday and she got me to 101 degrees. Im not totally happy with that but the scrip said to take it slow. I dont have any home exercises that have me working on bending it though. All of the bending is at PT three times a week. I also did this mini squats that were easy and 6 inch step up which was pretty easy.

The only thing weird that happened yesterday that i am sorta worried about since my doc said the MPFL doesnt heal for 12 weeks is i was walking and my foot sorta got stuck to the floor and turned and im not sure if it twisted my knee at all but i sorta tripped. didnt fall or anything, it didnt hurt, i just hope it didnt stretch my MPFL or anything. It also didnt swell. and worst of all was i wasnt wearing my brace because it was night time and i just walked out of my room to go to the bathroom

Well other than that i think im doin pretty good for 7 weeks.
Happy healing peeps!

[cdubb]

Post op, did you have the giant Ossur ROM brace that went from hip to ankle!  I hated that thing.  I really only wore it out of the house also because it moved so much.  I found that wearing TED hose with sweat pants actually held it in place best.  Hated getting the TED hose on and off though because my foot/ankle nerve issues....it just hurt so much... luckily, at 6 weeks, I was given the all clear to just ditch the brace.  No additional brace needed.

Good job on your return to work.  I worked from home for about a week and a half and then to the office while still on crutches/brace, but it worked out okay.

Is it your right or left leg? I'm sure I could go read that, but just wondering if it was your right, how long before you could drive?  If left...disregard...  I drove once I was permitted to unlock my brace to 60 at about week 4ish...prior, I just didn't fit.  Just wondering how that works for the right knee and if you can drive while still in a brace?

[JessicaO]

CDUBB-My surgery was on my right. I didnt drive till about last week. They said  i could drive a lot sooner but with the nerve issues i didnt even like to put a shoe on that foot. What is a TED hose? They gave me those super tight hose things but i couldnt even wear them because of my nerve issues. haha they were probably TED hoses im guessing? So pretty much until I got that smaller brace that fits under my pants. I dont think it is very common for people to get this sort of brace after this surgery but out doc was soooo worried about my MPFL because literally my knee gave so much force to push out to the right before surgery he wanted to take an extra precaution im guessing. i remember right before they put me out before surgery he took a video of me raising my leg and straightening it out in front of me and my knee cap just sat on the outside of my joint. but to me that wasnt even dislocated. that was just my knee. I am planning on getting my left done if this one is a success. Not sure when though...

[mermaids]

Jessica, I have that same brace.  Wore it before the surgery to try to keep the knee cap from going off track too much.  Thought I was done with it after the surgery.  OS recommended wearing it again until resolve this setback.  He said the knee cap is tracking well, but he is worried it lose the good track without proper support from the quad.  Sigh.... while it is better than giant brace with all the straps, I really hate wearing it. 

[cdubb]

Yes, the TED hose are those super tight hose....I didn't have much swellling to necessitate the need for them, but they though the pressure would help with the nerve issues...my husband had to put them on because they're crazy tight and it was absolutely torture to put them on!  My leg with all the nerve issues would scream at me for about 10 minutes.  I always slapped a pack of ice on it immediately when I put them on or took them off because imy foot and ankle hurt so much.  Once it calmed down, I think they did help. 

I'm debating on my other knee and when to do it also.  Not ready yet and he won't even do them sooner than 6 months apart, but I'm only 2 months away from that and won't be ready by then.  Plus with everything going on with my dad (he's battling stage 4 cancer), adding a major knee surgery to the mix isn't really good timing.  I'm still so limited with strengthening my quad anyway, that I figure a year out would be better timing. You may recover quicker to do yours earlier.

[JessicaO]

I have therapy again tonight but I achieve a few things at PT that I thought I should write down...
Start off on the treadmill walking for ten minutes at about 1.8 miles per hour i believe. I know its not much but i didnt want to overdue it. Then for the very first time I was able to go fully around on the bike without picking up my hip! It is one of those bikes that isnt upright its make of a relaxed sit. My seat wasnt even pulled very far back either. So that was cool that I could do that, hopefully it will help with the quad strengthening. My thigh had no muscle and I can definitely grab a lot more skin than i can on my left leg. My legs in general are skinny but now my left thigh is gooshy and gross.

Next thing i did was mini squats, I started them in the beginning of the week so i probably wrote it in my other post. But what i noticed was it was super easy to do it with my surgery leg but my left knee with the one that was clicking and making noise and didnt feel stable. that leg was always "perfect" to me. Ha! Now its a sad runner up to my right knee. Also the position of my knee and legs when i was squating was awesome. well i guess it wasnt really a squat it was more of just bending my knees down. Kind of like when you golf and you bend you knees a bit. I remember this summer i couldnt even do that because when i would bend my knees a tiny bit like that it would slide out. It was sick. Now it doesnt do that whoohoo. i feel like im getting back to myself and i hope these results just keep getting better! Until i my other knee done i guess. I have high hopes for this surgery and I hope Im healing right. My PT acted like she was pretty impressed with my yesterday. Mind you she hasnt worked with me hands on since my first couple of weeks (I normally have one girl and i was working with her partner yesterday) I also got to 103 degrees. Hopefully the ROM will come back but they arent even really push my knee "that hard" when they do. I remember when i was little they would crank and crank until i couldnt take it anymore. Seems like a lot of the girls struggling with ROM on here (you know who you are) are experiencing those things i did when i was 12 years old. Im sorry guys Im not sure why they arent doing that to me though. Prob because my docs script says words like "gentle" and "as tolerated"

Happy healing everyone!

[cdubb]

Sounds like you're doing awesome!! Great job and keep up the hard work! I never struggled or worked hard for ROM either (so maybe it's the doc     )

[lisa424]

Jessica, my thigh also looks gross from lack of muscle. I don't know how long its gonna take to come back. I never really could do squats or lunges because of my knees. ROM work is actually the scariest for me! I'm afraid I'm gonna tear my patella tendon or something!

[JessicaO]

8 weeks Post Op

Today my knee is so sore because of PT last night. My docs specific instructions to the PT place were gentle and as tolerated as far as the ROM goes. Yesterday my PT asked this male PT who I never worked with to measure my knee. He said he would rather push it than measure. So she said, " You cant push her too hard though" Well obviously he didnt know my protocol and Im pretty sure he didnt care.

Because he pushed my knee so hard I screamed. I think they were both terrified by my scream. He pushed it way to hard and Im pissed. I emailed my PA and she didnt seem too happy either because she is going to call them. She pretty much said a little forced passive motion is ok but she doesnt want them doing that again.

So Im hoping no damage was done. They said they got me to 106 degrees. I dont even know how they could read that since I screamed and it was all very frantic if you ask me.

[cdubb]

Yikes!  Hope all is okay.  I actually e-mailed the office yesterday also because I tripped and jammed my knee really hard and it hurt all day even while walking. Still sore today, but better.  My fear is damaging my ACI graft, but was advised that it would be difficult to do at this stage.

[Pieter]

I agree J. Many of these PT's kick at people who do fast recoveries, and many of those should care more about damaging things. I'd like to see you complain tomorrow, tell them that such things aren't right and that you don't apreciate it one little bit. We should open our mouths more at PT's because they think we can take it all or smt.

Are you in pain right now? Hope you're ok x

[nmf3]

Those jerks! What the hell? How are they helping if you are clearly in pain?  We cannot be expected to heal if they are re-injuring us!! grrr....that makes me mad!

[JessicaO]

9 weeks and two days post op

So since my last post my PT's arent actively pushing my knee anymore. I told my PA and she explained to them that the allograft they put in there for the MPFL reconstruction is tight and will loosen with time and no forced motion is needed. They want it to take and not damage.

Strange since a lot of people's doctors are very different with protocol.

Right now I can get 100 degrees active motion and about 104 passively. Not much of an improvement Just hope it doesnt get stuck there.

[cdubb]

Our doc doesn't seem to be as concerned about ROM as many other docs do.  I didn't have the MPFL reconstruction and you didn't have the patella ACI, so our protcols would be different, but I rememeber going through my rehab and I was concerned about ROM, but my PT's, my Dr. and his PA's weren't at all and said they didn't worry about it until 12 weeks.  Other peoples docs on here do seem to be more concerned and will do MUA prior to 12 weeks if ROM aren't met.   You don't want to mess up that MPFL, so listen to your doc. 

[JessicaO]

Wow...11 weeks post op

Havent written in oh so very long...my mom used to tell me that once people get better, or are not having problems they dont write on here..So it makes it seem like this surgery is horrific because only the people who experience bad things write it on here. I guess I can say from my experience so far, it may be true.

My knee is doing AWESOME!!! I havent tested it at all very much yet. But my alignment looks good, and I have absolutely no pain pretty much. Only when I have been wearing my brace for too long and it irritates my skin. My strength is coming back and my knee looks like such a "normal" knee compared to my non surgery knee. I seriously cant wait to get my other one done because I want it to look like the other one. My knee cap is lower as a result it looks less "pointy". I mean Im not a fan of my 12 inch scar, but i already have a scar on the other one so at this point i could care lesss. I cared more about my scars when i was younger (Im only 24 now though)  I mean im still self conscious but i am way way way better than i used to be.

The only thing i can really complain about is my ROM. I am only at about 110 degrees but my PT's dont even push it yet. Im guessing after my doctor appt. next week he will give them the go ahead to get that knee back into motion. and then the real fun starts I guess! haha yeah right.

I even can go up and down stairs. Not like a pro or anything but definitely can do it. Up is easier i think only because im more nervous and feel less in control going down. But wow my knee feels so different when i go up the stairs. it used to like rub and move all over the place. i seriously cannot even describe what it used to do.

Im planning on waiting till about november to get my other knee done, mostly because i dont want to wait my summer and nice weather for another surgery. I really was only dependent upon people for three weeks max but it wasnt till about 6 or 7 weeks post op that i felt like i can accomplish more on my own. Also i want surgery knee to be totally good when i do the next knee. I dont feel my screws or anything. i really hope i never do. Do anyone feel theirs? Whats it like?

Happy healing knee friends,
---Jessica