Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had left knee arthroplasty 2 years ago. I loved the physician assistant & I loved my orthopedic surgeon, his being just a short time's younger than my son notwithstanding. But I was sent out on my own after I recovered from anesthesia, sent first to a heartless hospitalist & then to a PT. My physical therapist announced he was just out of PT school, his zeal to work on an old female total knee patient glowing. I should have suspected something that would hurt & likely cause injury. He went to work right away, forcing my knee in hyper flexion & in hyper extension so hard & for so long I would cry. Not silent weeping but the kind with noise & tears & snot. It was soft crying but noisy for sure. But Wendel kept on going. One day, the day before I called & cancelled the next & all the rest of the PT sessions, when he bent my knee with such force, I felt & was convinced I heard a pop. Then for the rest of the day & for months--probably one+ years thereafter--I had pain, stiffness, weakness, that crept up my thigh & down into my calf. I felt generally ill & could not sleep because I was awakened in the middle of the night by agonizing pain in my knee &, oddly, in my chest. The pain in my chest was caused by pulmonary emboli, blood clots in my lungs. I made appointments & went to see my orthopedic surgeon several times complaining that "something is very, very wrong," but it was a mystery to him. Maybe I was nuts. My orthopedic surgeon & his assistant found nothing, and while they said they believed me, their facial expressions said "you're nuts." I even went to urgent care with the back pain, pain that transcended hurt. The UC doc diagnosed shingles without so much as a look at the outside of my back; obviously, he didn't put a stethoscope to my chest nor order a chest film. Hmmm. No blisters. I went to my usual PCP appointment the next week, and he looked at some old films, maybe a CT from some recent year and ordered a CT with contrast of the chest to be done some time in the reasonable future. I had the CT done a couple days after that appointment, thinking it would show nothing. We went out to dinner that evening. I turned off my phone thinking report of findings would come the next day "during business hours." At 11:00 pm, my doctor (PCP) called to say I had to get to the ER right away. Delay would create a "life threatening" situation. My lungs are full of clots. In the ER the doc told me that a lobe of my right lung had collapsed (shingles?) & I had to be admitted to be heparinized. I begged & pleaded to be sent home. By then being admitted would be worse than treating myself at home, admission's then being the extreme life-threatening option. I was prescribed Xarelto & sent home with a warning of danger: YOU CAN GET MORE PEs EVEN WHEN ON AN ANTICOAGULANT. So, here's the point of this: After a few weeks I was in need of some range-of-motion exercises that wouldn't set me up for the liberation of a mean little clot from my new knee to send it swimming inside me until it would get to a blood vessel/one of those teeny lung things that exchange air, alveoli, where it would be trapped so it could make me hold my breath for the rest of my life. I knew I didn't want to run: couldn't. I knew I didn't want to let another proud PT graduate do more trial-and-error, no-pain-no-gain shots at me. I read up on post-op physical therapy techniques & was convinced that aggressive physical PT, especially for women of a certain age: me, almost 80, resulted in more injury & pain & dysfunction than did passive ROM & gentle movement or no formal therapy at all. I knew I needed ROM for prevention of more PEs & for flexibility/pain relief. My daughter bought 2 pedal exercisers. We sat in front of our tv, watched our favorite news & pedaled, gently, fast or slowly, up close to our butts & out away from our bodies to create flexion & then extension movements. It was easy & pleasant, & here's the deal: it worked! I'm not a doctor, nor am I a PT. I am an elderly woman post-op total knee with a PE complication. My PEs were not diagnosed until almost too late, & this made me scared to do any exercise for fear of a scatter-shot of clots to my lungs. Yet, immobility would set me up for stationary clots that then would break off & travel to places where they could cause the most damage. The Pedal Exerciser turned out to be The Answer, the Old Lady PE Prophylactic & Analgesic (no, not that kind of prophylactic!). My daughter got hers so she could rest all the while exercising & burning calories. It didn't work for her. But mine increased my range of motion, stopped my knee pain in a gentle way and made walking & getting into a car, plus doing all the other things your knees do for you, possible again. Remember, I am not giving nurse advice; I am merely telling you what has worked for me. You just might be glad to discover that no pain--no gain is a made-up thing.