Word from PT

[Guest guest]

H, I have not had my TKR or possible patello-femoral arthroplasty (scheduled

for Oct 8) yet, but I am on basically permanent physical therapy due to

other problems. I got my PT talking about TKR and PT, and she started

talking to the other PT who was at the next table. Here is the consensus I

got from them: There is a window of opportunity for laying down the " good "

kind of long, straight, flexible scar tissue (as oppose to bunchy, knotted

scar tissue), and that window starts 7-10 days after surgery and doesn't

last very long - like a month. And, it's expected to be painful. That

doesn't mean that doing this guarantees a " perfect " result - as we know,

every person, every knee, every surgery, every recovery, and every PT is

different, and people seem to have extremely varying degrees of

post-operative pain. People also have varying ways that their bodies deal

with scarring.

The lesson I think is to jump in, don't wait, take what pain meds you need

to do what the PT tells you to do - push yourself to a certain degree.

Callahan Goodman