1. Don’t avoid taking your pain relief medication
You were prescribed to take them by your doctor. Pain will prevent you from walking, moving your knee and will affect your mood and your motivation to do your exercises. That is why it’s important to take you pain relief medication that were prescribed if you feel the pain is stopping you from recovering.
2. Ice you knee
For the duration of 10 min X 3 times a day for at least 5 days.
After your surgery you will probably experience pain and the knee will swell up.
Generally swelling is slowing down the recovery of the tissues in the area and preventing the muscles around to activate as needed. The Ice will help to reduce the natural post-surgery inflammatory reaction and therefor will help to reduce the swelling.
You can use a pack of frozen peas or an Ice rap. Please make sure you have put a towel between the ice and your knee to prevent an Ice burn. It is recommended to put the Ice on a straight knee.
3. Improve your knee range of motion
Your ability to straighten your knee is the one of the most important abilities after your surgery. A person that will end up with a bent knee in the end of the rehabilitation (6-8 month) will have a slight limp and that will affect different activities. That is why it’s is so important for you to work on straightening your knee. It will be unpleasant or even painful, but it will help to reduce your pain and imp
rove your mobility in the long run. How can you improve it?
- Don’t sleep with a pillow underneath the knee.
- When you are resting in bed try to leave the knee straight as possible.
- sit with your leg lifting on another chair and let the knee drop. Try to do it at least once a day for as long as you can (up to 15 min) as shown in the photo below
4. Lift your leg straight up in the air
The pain and the swelling are stopping you Quadriceps muscle to activated and contract. The Quadriceps muscle is working during most of the activities we do, for example:
When you want to transfer from sitting on the edge of your bad to laying down or when you want to stand up form a chair. Deactivation of that muscle is contributing to the pain level and dysfunction.
How to get you Quadriceps working again?
Lay down on your back with your non operative knee bent. Then try to lift the affected leg up as straight as possible. Try to do built up to doing it 20 times a day.
5. Don’t sit down for too long
Your knee will stiffen up and it will be hard to straighten it again. Try every now and again to stand up and walk around the house and then go back to your chair.
This advice does not replace physiotherapist assessment and treatment. Physiotherapy treatment is very important after Total Knee Replacement to make sure you will gain full range of motion, strength and achieve your goals!
#TKR#Soonpainfree#Rehab
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