Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

Can I contribute to the pity party?????

I still cannot kneel on the knees and looks like probably won't be able to... even kneeling on the left one on the bed is just at the edge of TOO MUCH PAIN.... and the lack of strength is driving me nuts. But then everytime a farmer tells me how much better I am walking and that they think I am doing great...I just bite my tongue about the not being able to kneel.
Don't stay in bed... Get up every hour or so and at least do 15 min of walking... walk like you are MARCHING , to get the knees up... my biggest problem is not lifting the knees enough and I tend to trip on things... It doesn't have as much to do with the angle of bend as making yourself pick up your feet... I still tend to not pick up my feet like I should... and I did before the replacements.

The best thing is they don't hurt to stand on and I really can walk without being in agony....nerves across the front of the knee are just very sensitive.....

I need to lose weight now.... serious weight.

 

[murphysranch]

^^this...The alligator incision still causes shocking deep pain if I accidently hit it with something. Its the raw ends of the nerves.

When my now 31 yr old son was an infant, I accidently swiped a blade across my left thumb at the joint. Stitches and big thumb bandages. Even now, if I knock that part, the pain is excruciating. Again, raw ends of nerves. UGH>>>>

I wonder if there are any exercises we all can do to strengthen our legs, since its impossible to kneel and get up off the ground?

 

[Bruce]

Squats maybe?

 

[Mini Horses]

I believe @Ridgetop will be at PT more regular soon...we can assign that question to her. To ask them! And how to get up after you fall.

With one almost good knee maybe you can do but @farmerjan had both at once. Then practice it....when healed enough. It IS something to consider and a need...l have been knocked down by animals and my knees are good! I can get up. Y'all need to learn and practice. It's serious, even if you're laughing now. Roll to a fence and pull up? Now, that could be messy!!

I can see sitting. Legs bent. Then onto one knee. But if rebuilt knee won't let your weight be acceptable....hmmm. yeah. It's an issue. I might have to roll around and see what might work.

 

[Baymule]

@Ridgetop @farmerjan @murphysranch

Y'all KNOW I have an appointment to get my new knee installed September 28??? Y'all do NOT sound encouraging !!!! Thanks a LOT for that!


I can get up, but have to stick my butt up in the air, hands on ground and push up with hands. I can't kneel on my knees now, it hurts too much. Can't squat down either. @Bruce, been thinking of doing squats, at least however far I can squat and be able to straighten back up, to strengthen knees before surgery, thanks for the knock on my knucklehead.

 

[farmerjan]

One of my exercises is to do "squats" against a wall; back against the wall and just go down a little, standing. Just go down a little. work on getting down a bit more... Works on strengthening the thigh muscles and helps with the knees... muscles, tendons, ligs, quads... Yes it does help. And it is hard and tiring... But the not being able to kneel on them is driving me nuts. Funny thing was I could kneel on them before...didn't hurt once I was on them..unlike most everyone else has seemed to have that problem. But the standing and walking was so painful....but yeah, if I get down on the floor... and you contemplate HOW to get down on the floor since you can't kneel down... I have to have something that I can get up to, and pull up and get the legs under me but not on the knees... NOT FUN and not pretty... I contemplate getting down that low all the time. And this weight is NOT HELPING at all....

 

[Baymule]

We are just a bunch of darned turtles on our backs, legs and arms waving in the air!

 

[Ridgetop]

Thanks for the kick in the pants, y'all! I am walking more and WITH MY CANE! No more walker! I do tend to lay down a low, since sitting and walking much makes the knee swell, but I am getting up and walking more now. Also doing a lot of exercises bending and straightening the knee in bed, etc. that have to be done laying down. Some pf the new exercises from PT I am doing at home. Getting up on tiptoe 20 times, then shifting from foot to foot 20 times, and calf stretches on the bad leg 20 times are the 3 new exercises I have added to my repertoire. I also push my knee to the maximum bend every time I sit in a chair (or on the toilet). I am supposed to do the knee bends 3 times a day but this way I can actually do them a lot more. I do the tiptoe stretches in my bathroom since it has a chin window with a view of the sheep fold and pasture so every time I go in the bathroom I do those and the shifting ones. I do that anyway to look out and check on the sheep so win, win.

I am now getting up and getting dressed every day instead of staying in my loose PJs. I make the bed and instead of being IN bed I am laying on top of it to put my leg up on the foam support ("toes above the nose"). I am starting to get backaches from laying down so much so will have to do some sit ups to strengthen the back muscles. I still have to limit my sitting at the computer to about an hour at a time then go and ice my knee to reduce the swelling. I am running out of TV programs even with Prime and Netflix though! Only so long you can read or watch TV.

I haven't had to take Oxycodone for a week or more now. I was taking it when I went to PT but don't need it now. Off the blood thinners and back with aspirin and ibuprofen as well.

Yesterday the therapist measured my bend and straightening out of the knee and was very pleased. I have 120 degrees bend (need to have 130 degrees), and only lack 2 degrees for the knee to lay flat. Two visits ago the PT said that they would eventually work on softening the scar tissue around the surgery site by massage so I started massaging Vaseline into the scar and massaging the surrounding area. The therapist said that it showed yesterday with much more pliable scar tissue so that was good. I wanted to use Vitamin E cream but DS1 couldn't find it at the drug store. I will try to order some on Amazon. I used Vita E cream during all 4 of my pregnancies and have no stretch marks so hopefully if I can find some to rub in it will help heal the scar.

The scar is still very painful to the touch and hurts when bending the knee. Probably because it is stretching the still healing skin as I exercise and bend the knee. But considering the fact that I had surgery only 5 weeks ago, I am on the mend and seem to be getting the movement back quickly.

The therapist massages the thigh muscle on the outside of the leg and really pushes on the muscle causing a lot of pain. He says it needs to be stretched so I grit my teeth and just try not to moan too loudly. No pain, no gain.

Haven't tried kneeling or getting down onto the floor. Getting up out of a low chair is still difficult so if I fall down I will just have to roll along till I can get someone to find me and get me up.

I have figured out how to fence the property to a 5'/6' height. By using 8' T posts, and 48" wire then applying a shorter height wire on the top half of the posts we will have 5-6' fencing. We can connect the 2 pieces of fencing together with cage clips or small hog rings. I told DH we could use chicken wire on top for sight value for the dogs, but he said it is not strong enough. Putting up 30" woven wire should be doable. I also think that 5' fencing would hold the dogs since they are not jumpers or climbers. Or diggers. I could also add a strip of electrified tape instead of wire along the top of the posts with a Gallagher solar charger. The tape will give more eye barrier and the hot tape will control any desire to climb over. They are not Pyrs after all. LOL

 

[SA Farm]

Keep up the scar massage with the E cream. It takes at least 6 months for a scar to heal, so if you keep it up, hopefully you’ll have a smaller, healthier scar and a better chance of kneeling with, at least, less pain than someone who didn’t keep up with it.
(Learned from a plastic surgeon who I, of course, didn’t listen to and have a very ugly scar now lol)

 

[Ridgetop]

Found the Vita E cream on Amazon. Good price so am ordering some. I did struggle into the trailer and found an old jar of Vita E cream which had been there so long it had separated in the heat. Brought it in and stirred it up then refrigerated it. Will use it until the new stuff arrives. The reviews on the Vta E I am ordering had a bunch of 5* reviews from people that used it after knee replacement surgery so it should be good. An added bonus was that it is also reasonably priced. I can mitigate my ugly scar without being poor! LOL

Yesterday I was able to do some cleaning around the house. Living with DS2, DDIL2, and DGS5 Robert, age 15 months is beginning to get tedious. They order a lot of stuff from Amazon and leave the empty shipping boxes in the laundry room. When they are finished with stuff the baby has outgrown they just leave it around! DD2 is unhapy because DDIL2 has packed up a bunch of toys including se that were DGD3's personal toys. These are toys that DD2 and I have bought just for Annabel when she comes over to be babysat. Also ut anything they don't want at the moment in the dining room on the floor. Not enough storage in this house for all the stuff they buy and bring home. When I went to the trailer there were two huge cartons in there that DS2 bought for DDIL2 that he had to store! i think I will suggest that he rent a storage unit for his stuff and empty one of his little storage sheds into it. DDIL2 will be bringing a lot of boxes home from her school soon since she has given her notice and will not be working until after baby #2. She used one of the storage sheds for that stuff last summer but now it is filled with more of their stuff. They need either their own place or to rent a storage unit for their wedding presents, etc. If they do that they can use the emptied storage shed for the stuff they are accumulating now. And for the outgrown baby equipment. DD2 has brought some of her outgrown baby equipment over for DDIL2 to use and it has been sitting on the front porch for a month! I can't take it down to the shed loft and it is not fair to expect DS1 to do all this clean up and storage for DS2. I am just !

Anyway, I sorted out a bunch of stuff that needed to be removed and DS1 took it to the shed. I still have more to do up here and have started moving some of the baby stuff to the nursery. (2 giant stuffed dragons, and the bottle sterilizer, and a few items like that. DDIL2 is from the Philippines and still boils the water she gives to Robert! That means that the pot she uses and the large thermos she stored the boiled water in are continually on the counter. Then there is another large plastic box of bottles, cups, special dishes she uses for Robert, and DS2 is now on a diet. That means that his special vitamins, recipe book, scale, etc., also live on the counter. This leaves me very little counter space to cook or prepare food on. I hate having anything, including appliances on the counter and makes me nervous when I go into the kitchen. One reason why I spend a lot of time in my room with my leg up.

Doing better standing and walking short distances without the cane. Last night I even made dinner! Just vegetables and hamburger patties but I was able to actually stand in the kitchen and cook! This morning I did dishes and cleared out the fridge too - getting back to some regular activities. Oh yes, and I can sort the laundry and put away the clean clothes if someone else loads the washer and dryer.

The "grass" was installed and looks nice. Much cleaner than the dirt. The dogs immediately baptized it with a large pile. LOL Next I have to clean off the patio and move some of our patio furniture over to that side of the house. I will need help with that since there is a lot of stuff to move around, most of it too heavy for my new knee. And needing 2 hands to move - I need a 3rd hand for the cane. I can sort out some of the smaller junk that has just been left there though. Some of the tools that need to go to the shed can be grouped to be taken down by DS1 and DH. DS2 uses tools and then just walks away leaving everything where he finished with it. We are all getting annoyed with him. On th other hand, we need him and Kathleen to be here while DH, DS1, and I go to Texas in September to put up the fencing.

I have decided to order the T-posts from TSC in Sulphur springs and have them delivered to the property. They can unload them into the barn. I will also get a couple of farm gates from TSC to enclose a section of the barn where we will store the fencing supplies. If we don't get all the fencing up in September we can store the stuff under cover and out of sight. I can also put hasp and lock on the tack room door and store stuff inside there.

This weekend we have to retag some of the sheep that lost their tags and were retagged already since the new tags don't match their registrations papers. The blank tags and pen arrived, and I wrote out the numbers from their papers. This has to be done before the inspector arrives on July 5. With me still unsteady on my legs we will have to run them through the chute and the squeeze so DS1 can cut off the first retag and then insert the new in the hole. I might be able to get DSIL2 to come help. He likes learning to work with the sheep with DS1.

Now that I am feeling better and able to walk more, I keep seeing stuff I need to do and working myself up over not being able to do it! Before the surgery, I still couldn't do some of the heavy work because of my bum knee, but now it is fixed I expect to be able to get back to doing stuff! It is a psychological trap for us go-getter types! OK Ridgetop - take a tranquilizer! LOL Time for my knee exercises - as soon as I check the back patio for anything I can clean up.