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TKR 19 Dec. 2014: santa brings me a new knee

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I agree with Tim. The hospitals really depend on that feedback for individual staff members....both good and bad is important.
 
@treypops Sorry to hear your hospital experience hasn't been that great. The good news is you will be home soon and in control of your own environment where you can ice, rest, elevate and medicate on schedule. Best wishes for a successful recovery...follow the mantras, they work! :)
 
Thanks everyone. The night shift nurse is awesome. I've gotten seven hours of sleep tonight so far!
 
way to go @treypops -following your progress with interest and wishing you as painless as possible recovery. Maggige
 
It's amazing how much better you feel when you get decent sleep. I just got my morning blood panel drawn and now I am in the cpm, set to 70. I actually got up and went to the bathroom onmy own earlier. I am hoping to go home later today. Thanks everyone for the support system.
 
Day 3....

went home today. My horrible day nurse was an hour late for my pain meds twice before I left, which made for another uncomfortable day. I experienced the most extreme pain to date earlier today.i am walking ok with my walker but I get exhausted very quickly. I miss my strength.

I am currently lying in the bed with my leg in the cpm. It's not running right now though....I have found that it can also serve as a wonderful elevation device. I currently have ice packed in all around my knee, including behind it. My pain is manageable at the moment.

im taking percocet every 4 hours, along with coated aspirin twice daily and stool softeners. Ive been running a low grade fever most of the day.

my flexion is at 70, which is apparently a big deal to my os. He ended up giving me the smith nephew legion with oxynium 30 year knee. He also gave me a 50% thicker insert than normal since I'm young. He is confident that I will have it a long time.

I will have a visit from in home PT tomorrow. Sadly, my grandmother passed away the day of my surgery so I will be testing my limits at the funeral on tuesday.

sorry for the rambling post...
 
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Oh my goodness @treypops , I'm so sorry to hear of your grandmother's passing. Please be very careful on Tuesday and sit as much as possible (but get up and move a little each hour). Be sure to take ice packs and your pain meds with you. A tip for the car is to take a pillow and if you're in the front seat, put it under your TKR foot on the floor to help absorb the bumps in the road. If you're in the back and can put your leg up, then use it to elevate.

I'm a bit surprised that you were released while running a fever. Sometimes the pain meds will cause that, but please keep monitoring it. I'm impressed that you're getting by on just Percocet on day 3. I was on extended release Oxy (1 every 12 hours) plus regular 5mg Oxy (2 x every 4 hours) for the 1st week. I think the aspirin is for blood thinning purposes and not pain.

Please let your OS's office know if you need something stronger or in addition to what you have. This surgery hurts and there's no reason to be in more pain than you need to be; especially so early on.
 
@DogLoverx3

Thank you.

the fever is low grade - about 99.5. My OS said it was due to the percocet and wasnt concerned.

You are correct about the aspirin. It is serving as a blood thinner.
 
Hi @treypops,
Glad to see you made it through! Your ordeal with your day nurse was unforgivable. I had one scatterbrained nurse but she was still quite helpful. Sounds like your CPM has become your best friend too. Have you tried running it while sleeping? I got used to doing it in the hospital and it's freed up a lot of useful time. The only concern I've had about that is that sleep time is healing time. A couple of mornings the last knee to get CPM'd just felt tired and stiff.
Again, glad to see another Supernova on the other side! Take care my friend. Prayers are with you and your family at your loss.
 
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@treypops I'm so sorry to hear of your grandmother's passing. I know it will make it more difficult to concentrate on your healing. Please continue to rest, ice, elevate and medicate on schedule. It's really important that you don't let the pain get ahead of you. I also ran a low grade fever for a few days after I was home but it was nothing to worry about. Don't worry about the low energy. It is a result of the surgery and will take some time to rectify itself. Listen to your body. It is your best frame of reference. Please take care and best wishes for a smooth recovery!
 
It's truly amazing, some of the things we get excited about during our recovery. As I've heard it referred to here before, I got a visit from the "poop fairy" today. Those who haven't gone through this would probably categorize that as "too much information" but most recognize the achievement.

Smile, everyone. We are getting through this.
 
Isn't it nice that even now you're creating memories that you'll cherish forever? Bet you never, in your wildest imagination, considered that one day so many people would be interested and congratulatory about that particular aspect of your life.
Congratulations, sir, well done!
 
So sorry to hear about your grandmother, treypops.

I had a couple of nurses that were quite tardy, as well. I keep wondering if the hospital will send me a survey! Would love to share my experience with her and with one of my PTs!

I have my CPM machine at home but haven't used it yet since my PT asked me to do nothing but rest. I am guessing the 72 flex I had leaving the hospital is about 20 by now. I never thought of using it just for the elevation. Are you just stopping it at a certain point? I hope to get back on my CPM tonight.

Keep up the hard work!


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@lunula yeah, you can just set it at about 40 so, and put your leg in it....then pack a bunch of ice in around it...and the key is to put ice underneath too - on the back side of the knee. It's a Christmas miracle for pain relief. I know different things work for different people, but give it a try and let me know if it helped.
 
Day 4.....

Had my first in home therapy session. Quickly grew frustrated with my therapist who seemed more interested in her phone than me. After I had to repeat myself to her the third time, I told her to put her phone down and focus. That gave her pause but things went well afterwards.

I am getting 88 degrees of flexion and 12 degrees stretch. I don't really know if that is good or bad and don't really care....im just not concerned with rom right now.

after PT I shaved and showered and it is downright startling how little stamina I have. I knew to expect it and tried to prepare myself for it but I think you just have to go through it to really understand it.

pain hasn't been much of an issue today. Ice behind the knee is the greatest thing ever.

Tomorrow is my grandmother's funeral and it will be interesting to see how I handle that.

all in all, I think things are going well. I would love to be able to do more but then again, id love to win the lottery, too, and I don't expect either to happen right now.
 
treypops said:
After I had to repeat myself to her the third time, I told her to put her phone down and focus
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That is too bad, but a great action on your part---she does, after all, work for you!
treypops said:
I am getting 88 degrees of flexion and 12 degrees stretch. I don't really know if that is good or bad and don't really care....im just not concerned with rom right now.
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Again---a great attitude---let them PT folks obsess with #'s---your job is simply to recover.
treypops said:
Tomorrow is my grandmother's funeral and it will be interesting to see how I handle that.
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I am very sorry to read of that---you and your family are in our prayers.
treypops said:
all in all, I think things are going well. I would love to be able to do more but then again, id love to win the lottery, too, and I don't expect either to happen right now.
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In time, you will be amazed at what yo can do---you will be able to do much, much more---but I cannot promise the same about the lottery, though!
 
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