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TKR 2 years on and in more pain than before I had the surgery<

After checking the Internet about withdrawal symptoms I appear to have all the symptoms of opiate withdrawal. As I explained earlier yesterday how I am feeling at the moment. Because I was beginning to have constant headaches and feeling generally grotty I went to my gp who told me to drop taking all my pain killers and prescribed one 1mg at bedtime of Amitriptyline which I took for one night. No sleep at all that night and a lot of pain and the following day the same. Doc then told me to take nothing at all for couple of days to see how I get on. Today is the 3rd day and I feel terrible. Pain in knee, severe diareah, sweating, no sleep, aching all over and now I think about it doesn't 3 months of oxycodone then codeine at least 4 tmes a day together with ibrufen and paracetamol suggest that to stop all this so suddenly withdrawal symptoms are bound to happen??? Help!!!!!
 
People vary in addiction to narcotic pain meds. I was on percocet for just 4.5 days, and I quit it suddenly because of constipation problems, not knowing you had to taper it off, I had barely started it. It was one of the worse nights I ever experienced, and I was not right for several days. If you are on it longer, I believe the withdrawal is longer.

joey5898 said:
Pain in knee, severe diarrhea, sweating, no sleep, aching all over
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Yep, that was it. Cold Turkey :thud:
 
thanks @jmdearras feel really bad but another challenge to face and go through I guess, certainly not going back on the morphine!!
 
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Hi @joey5898 - I'm obviously not a doctor, but I am a patient in a pain management program for neck and back issues. I've had access to narcotic pain medication for the past 8 years. When I've gone through a rough patch, I've taken medication on a daily basis for up to 3-4 months at a time. When I'm well I don't take it at all - no tapering; I just don't take it. I'm not addicted and I have yet to experience a single withdrawal symptom. More than one doctor has told me that as long as you only take meds when you have real pain, you're unlikely to become addicted. It's the people who continue taking meds when they're no longer in pain because they like the way it makes them feel. And it takes more and more pills to get that feeling. I think those are generally the people who get it trouble with narcotics.

I honestly don't know if you're going through some type of withdrawal or it's just a coincidence and you have a nasty virus or flu but maybe you should call your doctor and see if there's something that they can give you. Either way, you shouldn't be suffering.
 
My OS confirmed I went through withdrawal symptoms. I was supposed to gradually taper the dose.
 
joey5898 said:
I tend to agree with you, withdrawal symptoms?
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I am a very "regular" gal but experienced severe constipation when I was on the narcotics. Sometimes I went 3 or 4 days without a movement even with Colace 2x/day and warmed prune juice. When I got off the Oxy or Hydrocodone, boy did I go! I didn't really experience other withdrawal symptoms like headache or general malaise.
 
Wait, I seriously doubt that you are addicted to your pain meds. I agree with Susie, if you are in pain and are taking pain meds, you will not be addicted to them. Some folks go through a period of time when they were dependent on the pain meds and have to taper them down. So instead of four, you would take three and then two and then one and perhaps a half until you can easily stop them.

When I took Amitriptyline---like you I took it once, I had muddled thinking and felt terrible. I think it is more likely that your symptoms are from that and from pain itself. You are only three months out from major surgery, you have to give yourself a little more time to heal. At your stage, I found Tylenol 3 and Tramadol both helped me without the nasty side effects of opiods.

All of us exerpience pain differently. I just saw a friend who had a second TKR and like the first, she professed that she felt no pain and took no pain meds---just Tylenol PM so that she could sleep. I was envious and know how rare she is!! Jo, recommends Tylenol instead of Ibuprofen for pain---You can take up to 4000 mgs per day. Although many people are frightened of taking Tylenol in the US, I think that it is okay to take it for a short time while you are having pain.

I myself too Tylenol with Tramadol and found it to be quite effective for pain relief. If you don't want to try anything else, you might try Tylenol PM at night, many folks on the forum have found that it helps them to sleep at night.
 
Thanks jmdearras, skigirl, susie09, hawk2go , good of you all to comment and all very interesting too.
as you say its hard to tell whats currently making me feel so wretched but I do seem to tick all the boxes on an opiate withdrawal symptom list. But whatever it is I plan to try to get through the weekend on ibrufen and paracetamol just to get me through the nights then speak with my doctor monday. She did say that the Amitriptyline may not suit me so I will mention Tylenol, I can deal with the pain through the day but Im so desperate for sleep I just need something to help me with this. Hope you're all doing OK in your own battles.
 
skigirl said:
I myself too Tylenol with Tramadol and found it to be quite effective for pain relief.
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Me 3. I have toyed around with various pain med combinations both narcotic and non-narcotic. Even 15 weeks out, I tried to shift to Aleve (naproxen) just yesterday and had to go to bed as soon as I got home from work. Today I went back to Tramadol+Tylenol and have felt better all day. I'll be glad when the pain is in the rear view but it is with me still. Certainly not debilitating or even that distracting but definitely still there poking me for a bit of attention.
 
hi @hawk2go , nobody can prepare you for this episode in our lives can they but that's probably a good thing! They say so many seem to breeze through it virtually painless but since talking to all you guys over the last 3 months I do believe they are in the minority. I find it so hard when you seem to be turning the corner and everything seems to be easier but then you go backwards a few steps and it really gets me down. I'm sorry you're still in some pain at 15 weeks (I'm at 12 weeks tomorrow just behind you), I hope you're soon perfectly mended and well. xx
 
hawk2go said:
I am a very "regular" gal but experienced severe constipation when I was on the narcotics.
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That's exactly why I stopped. I decided I could handle the knee pain better than no BMs post surgery at all!
 
joey5898 said:
Next day felt very poorly and had 3-4 very loose bowel movements.
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Can you describe your bowel movements to me? Were they a real movement or thin and watery? Do you still feel a bit bloated?

I'd also like to advise you about your pain meds if you would tell me exactly what you are taking, how much and at what times?
 
@Josephine
Hi, first thing every morning since stopping codeine paracetamol and ibrufen cold turkey as doctor suggested I have quite normal bowel movement although severe griping pains in my stomach cause me get to the loo pretty darn quick! Then I have to rush back to the loo 3-4 times during the morning and this is very loose and watery.

As I said in earlier post the one 10mg Amitriptyline the doctor told me to take instead at bedtime made me feel so terrible the next day (didn't ease my night pain and didn't sleep at all either) that I haven't taken any more, doc suggested I stop them for few days to see if I feel better. Desperate need for sleep has me back on 2 x 200 mg ibuprofen and 2 x 500mg paracetamol 4 times a day but STILL no proper sleep. Knee wakes me every time I move.

It's Saturday now, 5 days since stopping the codeine (this was changed from oxycodone because after nearly 3 months of taking it I was feeling brain dead but believe the codeine was no better) and I'm still feeling all the symptoms of withdrawal if slightly less intense and less frequent throughout the day and tummy bloated and loss of apatite.
 
I'll leave it to Josephine to answer more fully about your medications, but I do think that you have some misconceptions about what they should do.
Amitriptylene may make some people sleepy, but it isn't a pain killer.
Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It can reduce inflammation, but it's not a very good pain killer. It can cause stomach bleeding, so you need to be careful about taking it. It won't help you sleep.

I wonder if your doctor would consider prescribing Tramadol for the pain? It works well in combination with Paracetamol.

Is it pain that's keeping you awake? If it's not, but that you now have a poor sleep pattern, many of us have suffered from that after this surgery: Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

If it's really getting you down, maybe your GP would consider a short-term prescription for a few sleeping pills?
It took me about 5 months to get back into sleeping properly again, and I did find a few nights of taking a small dose of a sleeping pill were helpful.

I'm sorry you're feeling so rotten, but I don't think that coming off all your pain killers "cold turkey" (in one go) was the best advice your doctor could have given you.
 
@Celle hi, thanks for your comments.

It is pain that keeps waking me every time I move in the night, not the awful severe pain of weeks ago but enough to wake me up. I once had a bad reaction to Tramadol so I'll speak to the doc about something else. You're right about the ibuprofen not having much effect on pain but I thought if it reduces the inflammation that would lead to reducing the pain but no.

I've had a busy day today at the UK Masters golf tournament and have walked around quite a bit (as a spectator not a player!!) knee seemed to be ok but this evening it feels like someone has filled it with concrete which has set solid! Can hardly walk, dull ache and sharp pain when I try to bend it. Overdone it I suppose! Silly me but I don't think I'm being unreasonable to think I should be able to have pleasant outings at 3 months. whether I sit at home elevating and icing or go out for a few hours to an event it makes no difference, still incredibly stiff and sore at the end of the day!
 
@Josephine Hi, thanks for your comments, kind of you but I've not been constipated hardly at all since the op, once or twice in 3 months and not when I was taking codeine. I know paracetamol and ibrufen are not addictive, it's the 3 months of morphine oxycodone and codeine I have symptoms of withdrawal I suspect. P.S. can you delete the pic of the faeces? Feeling a bit nauseous at the moment too xx
 
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