Soreness just above knee on outside of thigh

[Kelly]

on April 12th Dr Su performed a bilateral BHR.  Recovery has been very good.  I am looking forward to my return visit on May 8th for pictures.  Mylegs swelled up like water balloons post op.  I would put compression socks mon in the morning and take them off at the end of the day. 
Any time I was prone I elevated above my heart.  he fluids went down pretty quickly.  a couple days after the reduction of fluids I stopped the compression socks.  that was several days ago.  I still have soreness just above my knee towards the outside of the thigh.  Pretty tender to the touch.

Thoughts?  Thanks

[Marco Polo]

Kelly:  I am 3 weeks post op and also was sore and stiff in the outside (lateralis) quad muscle just above the knee.  I attribute it to the manipulation that occurred during the surgery process.  While still a little stiff and tender, it has gotten better with walking and stretching.

[chuckm]

Kelly, the leg muscles just above the knee will remain sore to the touch for weeks or months. It helps to use a roller once you are more mobile. For now just massage the area by hand and put cold packs for 20 minutes at a time.

Chuckm

[kimberly52]

Hi Kelly,

Same on this end about being tender to the touch and sore.  My entire thigh and groin were sore and tender to the touch.  Now that I am 2 1/2 weeks out it has diminished considerably with ice and stretching.

Hopefully yours will get better soon.

Kim

[hernanu]

Hi Kelly,

You're still very early, so it's hard to differentiate from surgical causes (stretching, etc of the muscles), or other causes that are more long term, but which do abate and eventually go.

For surgically produced, there is the overall trauma that you underwent. The muscles take time to get back, so it's actually pretty impressive that we are back and functional as quickly as we are.

I remember a hamstring pull that I rewarded myself with when kicking a heavy bag one time. It took a good three months before the muscle loosened enough to let me back to life, so despite the stress of the surgery, I think the surgeons try to minimize the damage done.

So from surgery, you get the overall trauma, scar tissue that needs to be dealt with (I had some pulls from that until it loosened), swelling and its aftermath, the weakness as the muscles recover - and the uneven way in which they do.

Longer term, there are issues that can pop up. The IT band on the outside of the thigh is a muscle that can be an issue for us. It is a common issue for runners and other athletes as well.

Like Chuck mentioned, the roller is a great tool to fight that, but that can only be done at a later time, when you are stronger and more able to move your body. For now light massage on the non-incision area is probably good.

After the incision was blessed, my PT people also did light massage of the incision to break up any incipient scar tissue.

Overall, we have short term challenges and longer term. I still use my roller, for the IT band, lower back, upper back and hamstrings. It is grueling for the first few weeks, since we are so tight, but when used frequently, it is very good at helping us.

I started to use it at four months.

So what you're feeling is normal. Patience is key, you are still early on.