TKR 3 weeks out and going stir crazy! !!!!!!

[dtmbf]

Re sleeping more comfortably - I also use a pretty flat pillow between my knees plus a small body pillow. My husband hates both of them but I find the body pillow helps me get into a position I can relax into and the knee pillow is cuz I hate the feeling of anything pressing hard onto the knee, which my unoperated knee does.

I'm on the same boat as you - I need my other knee done but I don't have enough amnesia about this 1 st knee yet. My recovery was pretty slow (by my standards anyway) and I'm just not ready to face it all over again. I need to feel a lot worse than I do right now.

 

[mjkpek]

I'm on the same boat as you - I need my other knee done but I don't have enough amnesia about this 1 st knee yet. My recovery was pretty slow (by my standards anyway) and I'm just not ready to face it all over again. I need to feel a lot worse than I do right now.

I have been telling my husband that this isn't like having a baby and once you hold it you just forget everything else. I haven't held this knee yet and with this scar it isn't even cute. LOL

I know I will have it done, but doubt it will be this year and I don't care that I have already met my out of pocket maximum...I just don't care.

 

[referee54]

I tend to be an over achiever and this time I fear it has bit me in the butt.

That is quite OK---I would say that many of us who have gone through this are very much the same!

I have to accept that I can't make this get better before it's time.

Exactly---many of us had to also learn to accept the idea that the knee is in charge and there is nothing we can do to speed things up---but there is plenty we can do to slow things down.

I am just gonna start taking it a little slower and listen to my leg.

Slow and easy may not be the most enjoyable---but it is more comfortable and it does get much better results---just please be patient! You will reach that destination of being fully recovered!

 

[mjkpek]

I have been trying very hard this week to take my knee into consideration. It does not appear that it appreciates my efforts. I have developed a click, for lack of a better explanation. I know some will say, why ask here before you ask you dr. But all of you have gone through this and if it isn't a problem, I don't want to look like I am a hypochondriac.

My knee or in that area clicks with each step. No pain or discomfort, but very annoying. It is like it is snapping within my knee. Should this concern me? Or is this just another something that will eventually resolve it's self and just go away?

Any advise is greatly accepted.

 

[kneeper]

I had some clicking in the first couple of months. It gradually went away--I think it was part of the healing process and the muscles around the knee regaining their tone.

 

[referee54]

After my BTKR, I had that clicking in stereo---your knee now is plastic and metal, so you will notice it for a while---it will subside in time. I believe that as the muscles regain their mass back, you will hear it less and less.

Some of my students claimed that they could hear it as I walked around the classroom! No problems now!

 

[mjkpek]

I am still having issues with muscle spasms in my knee. It is worse at night and it has reached the point where I have asked my dr to help. Sleep deprivation makes me ugly inside and out!!!

He has prescribed metaxalone 800mg. It is a generic for skelaxin, a muscle relaxer. I am going to start using it tonight and hope that I am able to put this angry steal knee to sleep. I really need a full nights sleep.

Has anyone else had to go from Norco to a muscle relaxer? He was going to give me more Norco, but I said "it isn't pain, it's spasms!" Hopefully this is just another step towards recovery that will make my next surgery easier....as I will have suffered through all of this on the first knee.

Hope everyone is healing well and keeping their spirits lifted as well.

 

[referee54]

I know your feeling! and your pain! Those sleep issues are very, very frustrating, and it is not necessarily the pain---here is to hoping that the new meds will stop those nasty muscle spasms!

 

[kneeper]

I take skelaxin as needed for my fibro and took it after my tkr. It should help.

 

[Celle]

My right knee is getting on for 3 years old and it still clicks from time to time. Since it doesn't hurt, I don't worry about it.
It's just metal on plastic, instead of bone, cartilage and soft tissues meeting.

 

[mjkpek]

Thanks for all the continued support and advise. I go to the Dr today for my almost 12 week post op. My leg is better and I know it. I am stiff when I sit then stand, the spasms have stopped, still sleepless, still stiff when I sit then stand - oh already said that. But I guess that is now my biggest complaint.

We walked all over Dollywood last weekend for three days. As long as I was moving little to no problems. As soon as we set to watch a show or take a break, even for 5 minutes, had to start all over again. Those muscles get stiff quick!

Interested to see what the Dr will have to say today. Will update later and let you know if I agreed to schedule the 2nd leg..... we will see.

 

[bottomshollow]

@mjkpek, the stiff knee after sitting a while will be with you for several more months. I guess you note that as soon as you've taken a step or two it's gone. Eventually it should resolve itself completely. However, we have to remember that as we age, we tend to have stiff joints.

 

[mjkpek]

However, we have to remember that as we age, we tend to have stiff joints.

So so very true, but I guess I just hate to accept it.

 

[mjkpek]

Dr visit went well. He was very pleased with where I am in recovery. Then I went and said, "But what about the fact that my leg doesn't go completely flat when I lay down?" He checked and said that I had less than a 10% loss of range and he felt like that was there before surgery, but he could get me an "EXTENDINATOR" (sp?) and that would help regain any range that was still possible. I thought I was excited about that...boy was I wrong.

I got fitted and shown how to use the new torture devise and it was ordered. It won't arrive for about 10 days and that is good. My husband and I leave Friday to head to our cruise ship and off to the seas for 9 days. A much much needed vacation.

But I can tell you that after simply having that contraption on my leg for only 3 minutes...it is going to be a less than fun fun ride to do it 4 times a day for 10 minutes. Seriously, I dread the thought of additional pain and having to ice and elevate more, but if it will help my leg feel like "MY" leg I will do it. The PT even said not to do it any closer than 2 hours before bed time or I would just exacerbate my sleep problems. NOTE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR.

As for my other knee...Doc has decided that I need to wait maybe even another year. My bone spurs are not near the amount of my surgical one. He believes that once my right knee becomes dominant, it will help take some of the strain off the left leg and we will be able to push that surgery out. I have been very satisfied with how he has treated me with the right leg, so I am going to trust him with the left. If it gets to a point that I think we need to revisit the option of TKR for the left, I will.

You guys are great and I hope that others in the future find encouragement and answers to their fears and pains, just as I have. Will keep posting and reading.... know my journey is long from over.

 

[Nana Mo]

Hope your "blues" have passed you by at this point. We have all felt them at some point in our recovery so we can all sympathize with you. At my lowest my wonderful sister surprised me with a visit...she lives 4 hours away...and spent the day with me, taking me to therapy, picked up lunch and then painted my toes for me! Oh it is the little things that can lift our spirits. As for your therapist...I would just smile and say " no thank" and then do things at your own pace. My therapists were great but always gave me a list of things to do at home, some I did, some I did not, I went at my own pace and at the 6 month mark spent the entire evening dancing at my sons wedding!!! I let my normal life be my real therapy. Sometimes I think they just feel like if they don't push then they aren't doing their jobs. Just do you own thing!!

 

[mjkpek]

OK, someone explain my new phenomenon. I have not changed any habits or exercises. I woke up Monday and the muscle in my surgical calf was so tight, it felt like someone had wrapped it around a stick. I had an obvious limp, that has not been there for some time. It has not gotten better.

Last night I even took a muscle relaxer, hoping it would ease it up. When I got up this morning, I thought it was going to be better. But I have been to work for only an hour and it is already so tight that the limp is back.

What would cause this? I have stretched and even had my husband massage it last night... Boy this recovery stuff is ever changing. What could I possibly do to relieve this tension, that I haven't already tried?

Thanks,