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Our user asked: "I'm ten days post total knee replacement with a PT doing in home therapy five days a week. My p.t. has me take a pain pill before he arrives and mostly does ROM and stretching exercises with me while I do ankle pumps, heel & foot slides heel press downs, and knee pressdowns alone. The therapy that the P.T. does is quite painful but I told him I have a good pain tolerance and wanted to maximize results. A R.N. from out of state who has had this surgery done thinks he therapist is too aggressive and I should not have to take pain meds before therapy. Now I feel confused and uncertain about my therapy. I ice it down and am ok later. I am a 64 year old female and in general good health. What do you think? Is it likely my therapist could damage my knee like the R.N. says? Thank you."
Ask a PT Response: "Pain tolerance will vary among patients. It is not uncommon for a patient to take pain medication prior to participation in physical therapy after this type of surgery. If you are experiencing pain that is difficult to tolerate, you should make this aware with your therapist. Your therapist should be able to come up with alternative exercises or treatment strategies in order to achieve the same results but with less pain.
As far as the therapist damaging your knee, it would be very unlikely to damage the components with participation in physical therapy. However, If the staples or stitches are still in and and the incisions are still healing you might run the chance of compromising the incision site. Best of luck with your rehab and recovery."
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