TKR knee stiffness two years post-op

cathyn518

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Wednesday am was surgery and I stayed over night in the hospital. Surgery went well but the pain is terrific. My surgeon does not believe in meds after 7 days and even the 325 tylenol don't help that much. I have a cyro cuff on me. My surgeon also wants me on the stationery bike today! He also does not believe in elevating the leg, it needs to be flat. Of course this is contrary to advice I have gotten here. Now I do have my leg elevated but I am worried that I am not following medical advice
 
You will find a lot of contradictory information in this recovery, there are so many opinions among the medical community, as well as family members and friends.

Try different things and find what works best for you.

Are you home? If so then you have full control over how you want to recover.

I will leave you our Recovery Guidelines. Each article is short but very informative. Following these guidelines will help you have a less painful recovery.

Knee Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary
2. Control discomfort:
rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
don't overwork.
3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.​
4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this
6. Access to these pages on the website

The Recovery articles:
The importance of managing pain after a TKR and the pain chart
Swollen and stiff knee: what causes it?

Energy drain for TKRs

Elevation is the key

Ice to control pain and swelling

Heel slides and how to do them properly

Chart representation of TKR recovery

Healing: how long does it take?

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

There are also some cautionary articles here
Myth busting: no pain, no gain
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in the majority of BoneSmart’s forums, we ask that each member have only One Recovery Thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.
 
@cathyn518 Please read the articles Jockette left for you-they really will be helpful. As to the recovery advice from your surgeon, I disagree. Elevating and icing your knee will help not only with swelling, but with pain.

Not allowing you pain relief after seven days is, IMHO, barbaric! Remember this-it's YOUR knee and YOUR recovery, and only you can decide how you want that recovery to go based on how your knee feels and how it responds to different movement and positions, etc. Just because your surgeon operated on your knee does not mean he now owns all rights to your knee! Only you will know what works and doesn't work, and you make all the final decisions.

You can listen to any advice you choose, but in the end it's YOUR decision; not anyone else's. And you don't have to tell your doctor that you made different decisions unless you wish to do so. Please, keep us posted as you recover; feel free to ask any questions you have. We're here for you and will support you as you travel this path.
 
Just because your surgeon operated on your knee does not mean he now owns all rights to your knee!
I do love this!

The first 4 weeks of my recovery I did 98% of what I was told to do. As I was having set backs from PT I started searching for information about stopping PT and found Bonesmart.

Bonesmart made so much more sense to me, and my surgeon was telling me to do things Bonesmart said not to. I chose Bonesmart and didn’t tell my surgeon.
 
@cathyn518

:welome:to the recovery side. I am one week ahead of you on the TKR recovery road. And I can not imagine having a surgeon who does not advocate for adequate pain control; elevating your surgical leg; and expecting you to be on a stationary bike just one day after surgery!:yikes: Just because your surgeon wants certain things, does not mean you must deliver...it is your knee and you are the one who decides what happens to your knee.

As far as pain control medication, if your surgeon won't supply such meds after 7 days, perhaps you might consider contacting your primary care physician for some help in this regard.

I wish you all the very best on your road to recovery. You have already taken a very good first step by joining BoneSmart. You will find a wealth of information here and an abundance of support by other members.

Anna:flwrysmile:
 
I ignored hospital advice to ice for only 20mins every 4 hrs, and iced constantly with leg elevated (they didn't need to know). Was also give long list of exercises I also ignored, just did knee slides and a few leg lifts. 5 weeks out and they are amazed how well I am doing with 120°flex and 0° extension, no walking aids, and now given ok to swim and drive.
 
Oh yeah, the opinions do vary. I chose the Bonesmart approach pretty much, but did start my exercycle about a week after surgery and built up from there, slowly and carefully. Iced a lot, elevated whenever I could and can't imagine not doing that. I only took Paracetamol and antinflammatory antinflammatory when I got home, not because I didn't have much pain, but because the stronger pain meds just did not agree with me. Icing long and frequently, plus elevating really helped with pain.
 
Take it one day at a time, follow BS, and get your pain under control, you are your own advocate, do it tomorrow. Good luck
 
I think I already created a recovery thread, a couple days after my TKR but I can't find it. It is 7 days today and I am going to PT in a bit, I will not let the therapist push me to the pain limit. Speaking of pain, I live in upstate NY where it seems the entire community has banned opiods. If you call any doctor, the greeting message is about not prescribing opiods. My surgeon gave me 7 days of opiods,tylenol 3 but I got very nauseous. He then switched me to celebrix only, 3 days post surgery and the pain was unreal. My primary did prescribe zofran and tramadol for 10 days and I am making due with that for now. Otherwise I am following the bonesmart philosophy of rice and gentle exercises. I am able to make it to the bathroom now without a cane or walker-eureaka! I am feeling blue though, it has been beautiful weather and I am stranded upstairs. I have a very active dog who will go bonkers if she sees me and she is behind gates downstairs. I am trying to keep my morale up but it is hard. Yesterday I snapped at my husband and son because of something to do with the microwave- silly. That's about all for now. I can't find anything to distract me anymore to stream and my goodness the news is so bleak. I have caught up with all my podcasts and don't seem to have the attention span to read which makes me sad as I am an addictive reader. Thanks for listening and please move this post if needed, I am a bit confused these days
 
I found that watching movies on my iPad was the best. Passed the time happily and always gave me something to look forward to night and day. It gets easier, just hang in there.
 
The early days are very hard, especially when you have to limit where you go in your home, in the best interest of recovery, and not having the pain relief you need. :console2:
 
@cathyn518 I found your original recovery thread and merged your two threads. Try and keep all your questions and updates here so that we have record in one place in case we need to advise. Thanks!
 
thank you Jaycey for straightening out the thread. I seem to be more easily confused since surgery. I will try and keep posting on this thread. One thing that brightened my day was I got to see my dog Lilly! She is normally so full of energy but I think she sensed I was not up to her ususal activity and she was very calm. PT went better than I thought it would. Therapist was good, some gentle stretching and did not want me to feel pain. Only problem was I could not find the PT office in a large medical office building. I walked way too much before hubby found a wheelchair trying to find it (had left my phone in the car) and now I am sore and icing. Thank you all of you for your suggestions/support. I don't know how anyone who has not gone through this is able to understand it's toll and struggles.
 
You sound so much better, it all improves before you know it. Thinking of you!
 
@cathyn518 After my revision I binge-watched "Home Improvement" while in the hospital for a full week. It helped keep my spirits up, and gave everyone who came into my room something to comment on. I also watched "Golden Girls" and some other sitcoms when at home, along with all my favorite movies such as "Sound of Music", "Shall we Dance" the Anne of Green Gables movies and so on. Because I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after the revision, I needed a ton of stuff to watch, whereas after my TKR I had a rough recovery and fell asleep constantly so could watch the same things numerous times before I finally got through them.....

I'm sending good thoughts your way and hoping your pain levels are dropping. Not getting needed pain meds after this surgery is just wrong and I hope the pendulum eventually swings back to the middle so those who need them after a major surgery can get them, but those who are addicted can get the help they need.
 
You know, I'm a big reader too--a couple of books a week or more--and for the first two weeks for some reason I wasn't able to read at all. It was really disconcerting. I found myself listening to a LOT of music and taking naps. By about week three, though, the reading bug came back, thankfully. I'm sure it will for you as well!
 

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