Top 5 Reasons Your Knee Replacement Does Not Feel Normal Yet
Here are the top five reasons that a knee replacement does not feel normal yet. Number one is time, most surgeons will tell you that a knee replacement feels normal within about six to 12 months after having a knee replacement.
But in reality, I find that my patients usually tell me that they don’t feel normal as they can’t return to their normal activities until after a year has gone by since their knee replacement. And really, that’s what makes you feel the most normal when you can go back to doing the things that you love to do.
Things like being on your feet as long as you want being able to go to the store, shop, do chores at home, do yard work outside, maybe be able to go hike, or even exercise. Again, most patients are trying to get back to these activities too soon. And it really takes a while to adapt to your knees so that you can get back to doing these things comfortably and truly feel normal again. Number two is a leg length discrepancy.
It’s very common to have one leg longer than the other even before going into having a knee replacement surgery. But it can feel more pronounced. After having the knee replacement surgery, it’s possible that the hardware may be added or ended up taking away with the surgical cuts some of the leg length, but the surgeons these days do an excellent job as making it as easy as possible.
It’s a huge possibility that it may be coming from your hips, or even your lower back or even your feet and ankles. But because of the weaknesses that you have to have after you have a knee replacement, because of not being able to use your hips, feet and back the same way as you’re recovering from a knee replacement.
Some of these leg length discrepancies may be pronounced. umber three is a loss of strength. It’s common to get weak after surgery because you get cut open and you lose strength you’re recovering, you just don’t move the same way. And so you inevitably will lose strength as a result of losing strength, usually balance will be decreased as well.
Because of decreased balance, you may need to use a cane or a walker, of course immediately after the surgery, but even for a time after the surgery, and some people will stay on a cane or walker indefinitely.
If they don’t get their strength back. If you did not use a cane or a walker before going into a knee replacement surgery, you’re definitely not going to feel normal having to carry something like this around and be using it and depending on it to keep your balance and to get around.
One of the most common times people don’t like having this around is when they have to get up out of a chair or out of a vehicle because they have to take this with them of course and lean on it tremendously. So they can get up safely without losing the balance. Number four is that your nerve endings are gone.
After having a surgery your knee has been replaced so much of nerve tissue that was in your bone and cartilage that was there has been removed and replaced with an artificial joints, that you do still have some nerve endings in the joint capsule that remains in the ligaments that remain. And these nerve endings help you to be able to react that help your reflexes, and they help give you a sensation of where your knee is in space.
It’s something called proprioception and this has to be restored. After you have surgery, your brain literally has to adapt to what’s left and to how to use it based on the strength that you have. And if you gain more strength, it has to adapt again, don’t be surprised if your reaction time is slower than you’re used to. And it may take you some time to get that reaction time back up so that you can regain your balance should you lose it.
The fifth reason you may not feel normal after a knee replacement is because of muscle imbalances. Muscle imbalances are what setup knee arthritis, which tends to lead to a knee replacement. And so if you haven’t addressed the muscle imbalance before, chances are you still have it.
The most common muscle imbalances when the quad muscles in the front of the thigh are too strong, and they’re putting a lot of excessive force through the knee joint. Now if you’ve had a knee replacement, and you still have that muscle imbalance that’s going to make your knee joint rub inappropriately and cause some bad mechanical shearing.
This may cause your knee to not feel normal and regaining your balance if you begin to lose it or even just standing in a walking can feel off as a result of the muscle imbalance. It’s common to begin to get pain and swelling as a result of this because you can still get tendinitis and bursitis in your knee even though it’s been replaced.
And if this goes on for months, without being treated properly, it’s possible to loosen the hardware and begin to get abnormal knocking or clicking noises coming out in your knee. Correcting the muscle imbalance is necessary in order to normalize the forces in the knee joint.
To get the most out of your knee replacement for the long term. I talk extensively about correcting muscle imbalances in those that have had knee replacements here on this channel. In fact, I’ve got a playlist of all our knee replacement help videos linked down in the description below.
I’ve also got a program called the failed knee replacement recovery program that walks you through step by step on how to calm down an irritated knee replacements and also how to strengthen everything around it properly so that you’re balanced again so you can get the most out of your knee replacement for the long term.
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