Charlotte's Peace: Healing from Total Knee Replacement

After recovering from having a TKR (Total Knee Replacement) on both of my knees and spending months before and after surgery in physical therapy, I put my own Reiki techniques to work. Here is what I discovered worked for the best outcome. I am a little over 2 years from the surgeries which changed my life forever.

Here are the techniques I used:

1. Get a picture of a normal knee joint, showing muscles and ligaments. Every time you think about your knee, whether before or after, use this picture to see your own knee healthy and working normally. Soon your mind's eye will 'see' your knee joint without having to actually look at the picture.

2. Get into a comfortable position where you can place your hands gently on your knee. Close your eyes and begin to do some slow deep breaths. As you breath in imagine your breath carrying healing into your knee joint, picturing each bone, muscle and ligament that was moved or cut during the surgery itself. It is most helpful if you can see the breath as light coming into the top of your head through the crown chakra, and traveling down to your heart chakra which sends it out through your blood vessels down to your knee.

When you breathe out reverse the process, watching once again the color that is being breathed out. It will be different from the light that brought healing to the area. As you breath out very slowly, see that color going into your lungs and out of your body. Watch as that breath dissipates into the ground.

*Once you have done this several times it will just become natural to you anytime you have the chance to touch your knee. Your body WANTS to heal itself and in this way you are facilitating that healing to come forth.

3. Once comfortable with the breath work itself you can go one step further. Using a picture of the knee surgery itself, with all the muscles, tendons and bones exposed, you can gain insight into where those said tissues need healing with most and why your knee hurts like it does. Having the ability you gained in step 2, to see your knee as healthy, look at the exposed knee during surgery and watch with your mind's eye seeing all that was moved or cut come into a healed place, bringing your knee joint health and wholeness.

*You will come to a place where the process in steps two and three flow naturally and wherever you are, whether at home or in the market. Your body is then set up or programmed to do it on it's own.

4. Touching your knee. There is such healing that comes from touching your knee and gently (very gently) allow your fingers to make tiny circles on your skin. As healing continues you can use a stronger massage movement which will help the ligaments and muscles to stretch as they are meant to.

*During my own recovery, I found that the area which took the longest to heal was my quadriceps and patella's. Probably because The patella (kneecap) is removed and a new one put into place, meaning that all of the tissues, vessels, ligaments and muscles had to go through tremendous healing. Still today, over 2 years since surgery, my right quad will get tight and I massage it to get it to stretch and move easier.

5. Use of Essential Oils. I found that peppermint oil was extremely effective in helping with my pain levels. Caution is to be taken though, for it is not wise to put the oil directly on your skin. Using a medium, such as Almond Oil, mix it with a few drops of the Peppermint Oil into a small vial, which you can get from Amazon. I like the little spray bottle myself. However you want to get it on your skin, massage it into your whole knee joint. Watch, with your mind's eye, the oil reaching into the total knee joint. Believe me, you will get to a place where your massages feel really good! You may also benefit from peppermint tea.

*When I first used the peppermint I didn't dilute it with the almond oil. Within 20 minutes I was short of breath, dizzy and thought it was caused by my orthostatic hypotension, blood pressure which drops when one sits up or stands up too fast. But the feeling didn't go away so I was puzzled until I remembered putting the peppermint oil on. Once I washed my knee off the feeling went away within just a few minutes. I thought it interesting that it didn't cause any burning to the tissues of my knee.

Remember with me that our skin is our largest organ and it does respond to lotions, oils, baths and showers. Use only high grade oils, you will have less problems.

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6. Find a GOOD Massage Therapist and splurge. Make sure you tell them about your knee and what stage you are at in the healing process. It will help your body as a whole to heal. Remember that the pain you lived with before your surgery, caused your body to compensate for the knee that was hurting. It through off your sense of equilibrium, most often causing you back to hurt a lot.

Now days there are a growing number of Massage Therapists who are also Reiki Masters and they combine both techniques to bring total healing.

7. Continue your Physical Therapy as long as you can. You need it and if you are anything like me, I wasn't the greatest at doing ALL of the exercises at home.

Other notes:

Having had both knees replaced I can tell you that my Dr and PA were right: No two knees are alike. I had my left knee done first and it is what I call The Knee From Heaven. I woke with minimal pain and went through a beautiful recovery. Eight weeks later I have my Right one done. To say that this was the Knee From Hell is calling it mildly. Within an hour of waking up and going through the little physical therapy in the recovery room, I already noticed a huge difference. I had to have a pain pill before leaving for the hour and a half drive from Phoenix to Prescott Valley. Marty had found a dog bed for Bella on Marketplace and I had told him that was fine with me to go look at it.

In the 20 minutes it took to find the house he was looking for I had changed from a very calm and composed Reiki Master into The Wickedest Witch of the West. I was writhing in pain laying in the back seat of our Tahoe. I tried every trick in my 'Woo-Woo' book but nothing helped. AT ALL. Marty found the house, didn't like that bed and wanted to look at one more that was 'on our way home.' It took him an hour to find that house, all the while my pain was growing worse and worse. I was moaning in the back seat, as I had when I was passing my kidney stoned years before. I took 2 more pain pills but nothing touched the pain.

Marty found the house, like the bed and soon we were on the 303 up to the 10 to get us up the mountain. It was a horrific ride up the mountains and I continued to grow into a She-Bear ready to devour anyone in my way, including Marty. I yelled. I screamed, I moaned. I just wanted to pass out, but nothing like that happened. Once home the pain continued be be over a 10. I realized later that during the 1st 24 hours I took 10 pain pills. Thank goodness I do not have an addictive personality or I'd have been in real trouble.

The recovery process was the slowest, hurt ten times what my left knee had. Today I woke to it hurting a small bit, and I just massage it. Why the difference? I have no idea, and neither does my doc. They are different surgeries, different amounts of tissue damage, etc.

Having Total Knee Replacement surgery is considered the hardest surgery to recover from. I totally agree.