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| Bye Bye Pins, you did your job but now its time to get the hell out of my leg! |
I realise that if they're not removed I'm just not going to progress any further as the anticipation of when the next stab is going to strike is just too restrictive during physio therapy sessions. He said he would mark my surgery request as urgent, but it could take up to 3 months! So I resigned to just "getting on with it" and doing what I can in the meantime. Until last Friday .....
I got the call to tell me my surgery had been scheduled for 16th May, to be fair to the hospital, just over 3 weeks after the request, now that is pretty good going for the NHS! I went in to sign permission forms on Monday and am due for a pre-op assessment tomorrow.
So instead of starting back to work full time next week, I'm preparing to be inactive again, for a couple of weeks at least. Oh well, one step forward and all that jazz ......
Hi, thanks so much for sharing your story. I am 5 and a half weeks out of surgery and things seem to be progressing along ok, but like you, my PT suggested that my 30 degree ROM was terrible. I practice all the time, however the pain below my knee is awful. Like you mentioned it feels like twinging. When I do manage to push it further I can, but it hurts the whole way, I am so scared its going to hurt to bend my knee forever. I know you mentioned that if you could bend earlier you thought that maybe your ROM would be better, I was allowed to start passive ROM from 2 weeks post surgery and still struggle with ROM, so I figure it must just be part of it. Just one question I have for you is that when bending your knee do you find stabbing pain occurs depending on the position of your leg and bottom? I find if I get the twinges then I shuffle my hip a little and it lessens. My PT seems to think that that is odd as the knee only moves backwards and forwards, but it is definitely the case and annoys me somewhat that he keeps telling me it's all in my head. Perhaps it could be pins catching?
ReplyDeleteHi, sorry to welcome you to the broken knee club! Those twinges are horrid aren't they! When I first started my therapy to bend my knee the pain was more of a stiffness inside the joint, there was a lot of scar tissue and swelling which I think "protected" me from the pain of the hardware poking in. So it was more of a deep ache really. I worried too that it would hurt forever!
DeleteOnce the scar tissue started to break up and the twinges began to kick in, it did VERY much depend on the position my knee was in as to when the stabbing pain occurred. If you look at my XRay, you'll see that there are two hooky pins at the top, when my ROM is at about 20/30 degrees a stab occurs in that area. If I push passed that position it eases somewhat. Similarly, notice the "loop" of wire that seems to go under my kneecap? Well now that I can bend it further, once I get to about 80 degrees, I get a gripping twinge that feels like the wire has hooked itself under my bone. Yuk!
With regards to your PT saying the knee only moves backwards and forwards, well yes it does. But one thing I had when I first started working on ROM was a kind of twisty feeling in my joint. Like, for example, when I did lunges with my foot on a stair and leaning into a bend, my knee felt as though it was moving forwards towards the left rather than straight forward in the direction of my big toe. At this point, again, more intense pain. My PT also shrugged this off saying that it was because the muscles were weaker in that side of my quads, and didn't show much concern at all. Then one night as I turned to get into bed I heard an almighty crunch in my knee. No pain, just a sickening noise. Immediately, the twisty feeling disappeared and on trying it out I noticed at least another 10 degrees in my ROM. Maybe there is something similar happening to you if a change of position lessens the pain. I think mine was due to the scar tissue holding it in a slightly out of line position and once that broke up and moved it aligned itself properly.
The pain that you're feeling is very real, not in your head. The "in your head" problems I got (and still have)with this rehab are also very real, but relate to confidence, fear of falling and disorientation from not walking for so long. The mental blocks are a major hurdle, pain is a separate one, don't let them tell you any different! Good luck with your recovery, keep in touch and feel free to message me here or via email if you prefer.