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Bilateral TKR 32 y/o and her new knees!

@MCC I'm on oral diluadid and Tylenol today and it's going ok. The IV diluadid helps more but I'm trying to stay off of it, and so far I've been successful! My sleep got better today, and I've been taking lots of nice naps! :alarm: So far no movies, I haven't had the attention span to do much yet, but I know those days are coming!
 
My blood pressure dropped after surgery, too, but I never felt like I was going to pass out. I had a great PT in the hospital, he put an end to our walk because he didn’t think I looked good, he took my blood pressure halfway through the walk and then said, we’re done here, and we went back to my room with his assistant right behind me with a rolling recliner in case I went down! I didn’t. But I appreciated his concern. Some PTs are not like that.

If you are uncomfortable in the chair tell them you want to be back in bed. I think you’ll be better there for now.

Just know that you have a say in how things go. You are allowed to negotiate with the staff there!

I’m glad your pain is at a better level.
 
Great news that your pain is down and you're able to sit in the chair! I, too, had the low BP after my tkr. When I first tried to walk shortly after the surgery, I got really light headed and they put me back to bed. Later on that evening, I was much better. Yours will level off pretty soon.
 
Great news! I sat upright in the chair for a while and felt decent. When the PTs came back, they checked my BP and it was good sitting with my feet on the floor. I told them I wanted to try to stand and they agreed I stood up and still felt ok, they checked my BP and it was holding steady, so I told them that I really wanted to reach the bathroom. So I started out with two of them at my sides and one following with the chair.

I MADE IT! I FINALLY GOT TO PEE ON A REAL TOILET!

I was ecstatic, clearly. After relieving myself, we did a very short walk into the hall and came back to the chair. My BP continued to stay up! I did get tired from the short walk, so I took a nap. I'm a little sore but nothing crazy, plus it's almost time for my meds. Hoping things continue to look up tomorrow!
 
Awesome!
 
Well, as much as I am satisfied with my progress today, I will probably take a mini step backward tomorrow since I ended up doing quite a bit for my first real day. My legs are feeling stiffer and more achy even now.... but I will stay positive and take it one day at a time!
 
Oh yes, your knees will certainly react when you do more than they are ready to do. For the next month the best thing for them is just doing your daily living activities with lots of icing, resting and elevating toes above your nose!
 
Hang in there, @ricekrispy ! I'm going to be following your thread...Best wishes. I am so dreading the pain, but knowing it's different for everyone and necessary to get to the other side. So far, your story makes me think the two at once is the option for me. Take care.
 
Sounds like things are going well now. The BP, manageable pain and little walks are great progress.:thumb:
 
@ricekrispy, your knees hurt, not because you are bone on bone, but because of surgical trauma. The day after my surgery, I got brave and looked up a YouTube video of knee replacement surgery (specific to my type of procedure). I wanted to get an understanding of why I hurt so much. I was amazed to see what the surgeon does to our knees and what it goes through. The cutting, stretching of tissues and ligaments, bending and twisting, NO WONDER WE HURT! I gained a significant level of understanding and sympathy for my knee and promised myself to take good care of it. I found BoneSmart the same day (thank God!). Everyone reacts to pain and pain meds differently. Once the doctors figure out what works for you and the pain is under control, you will feel much better. From there, you just need to still be sure to listen to your knees and pay attention to what they will tolerate and what they won’t. Give them time to heal. Have an open and honest discussion with your OS about your expectations and concerns. Do NOT let him/her brush you off! Go with what your body and gut tell you, even if it doesn’t fully align with what your OS and PT say. Use that to drive discussions so as to gain agreement that everyone can support. If you do that, recovery will go much better.
 
All the days are blending into one, so it seems like an eternity since what I last posted even though it was only 2 days ago...

My BP has been fine since the second day and my pain regimen has been keeping me going. I've had the most pain as I'm going to sleep and when I wake up in the morning. I think it has to do with my leg extension, since it's required that your legs are immobilized and straight during the night and this is uncomfortable. And in the morning, they are so stiff.

The hospital staff was really great, which was a relief.

I can make short trips with my walker, but it takes quite a bit of concentration and it gets painful pretty quick. I practiced a couple stairs at the hospital but that is really hard because it requires me to bend one leg and then put weight on the bent leg to bring the other leg up/down and when you don't have a good leg to stand on (lol) it's nearly impossible.

I've been icing pretty much constantly and taking the dilaudid and Tylenol on schedule, and that has been keeping most of the acute pain at bay. When I'm sitting comfortably, I have little pain at this point, which feels like a huge accomplishment.

@MCC the dilaudid gives me those same muscle spasms you were describing! They are so annoying and even painful. I notice them happening a lot when I'm in a light sleep, and they always result in my legs jerking and instant pain. The dilaudid is the only thing that's been successful for my pain so I'm going to stick with 4mg and drop to 2 slowly as I start to improve. I take 1000 Tylenol as needed too.

I start PT on Monday so I'll see how that goes and I plan on being upfront with the therapist about what I want.

Last thing on a random note: my anesthesiologist stopped by to check on me and I mentioned to him that I remember waking up during the surgery, hearing a saw and feeling my body shaking, but not caring. According to him I was awake most of the surgery in what they call "twilight" sleep and that at the beginning I apparently kept insisting to the Drs that my feet were backwards.... eventually they had to lift up my feet to show me that, in fact, they were still on rightside up! :rotfl: of course, I don't remember any of that...
 
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Hahaha! Oh twilight sleep! some weird stuff happens there. :)

Glad things are going well! Aren’t those spasms strange? I also kept having really vivid dreams of eating while I was on dilaudid and would pretty routinely wake myself up by trying to lift an imaginary forkful of food to my mouth. Haha!

Good luck with your PT! I found all of the muscle work and massage my PT did was more helpful than any of the baby exercises early on. I’ve been walking without a limp for a good 3 weeks now, and I think a lot of that is because of my PT focus on building the supporting muscles & giving the flexion all the time it needs to come back!
 
ricekrispy said:
I've had the most pain as I'm going to sleep and when I wake up in the morning. I think it has to do with my leg extension, since it's required that your legs are immobilized and straight during the night and this is uncomfortable. And in the morning, they are so stiff.
Click to expand...
It's not really necessary for your legs to be kept completely straight while you sleep. In fact, having just a little bend is much more comfortable. One you're home, you'll be able to do this, and sleep more comfortably.
Have another look at this article, and you'll see that the knee is slightly bent.
Elevation: the do's and dont's
 
Day 6 post surgery

I'm at my parent's house and since leaving the hospital I have been sleeping so much better. Last night I slept for 7 hours straight! New PR! That is also the first time I slept past my med recharge. Usually I wake up shortly before I'm due.

I was able to reduce my dilaudid from 4mg to 2 mg but I'm probably going to increase with PT starting tomorrow. I'm going to keep on a 4 hr schedule regardless.

I've been moving a tiny bit better every day, but obviously there's still a ways to go, and I'm listening to my body.

My biggest problem is actually with my heels... from sitting with my legs out and laying on my back at night, the backs of my heels are super sensitive and sore. I know that this happens, but does anyone have any suggestions? Last night I actually slid down in my bed until my feet could hang off of the bed, and that helped, but it seems silly to have to do that all of the time, so I'm open to ideas! At the hospital they had sheepskin, but it didn't seem to make that much of a difference...
 
@ricekrispy, I was going to suggest either a pair of socks or sheepskin, but you’ve already said that didn’t help.

At 6’2”, my feet tend to hang over anyways, so I see no problem with that option either!:rotfl:
 
ricekrispy said:
Day 6 post surgery

I'm at my parent's house and since leaving the hospital I have been sleeping so much better. Last night I slept for 7 hours straight! New PR! That is also the first time I slept past my med recharge. Usually I wake up shortly before I'm due.

I was able to reduce my dilaudid from 4mg to 2 mg but I'm probably going to increase with PT starting tomorrow. I'm going to keep on a 4 hr schedule regardless.

I've been moving a tiny bit better every day, but obviously there's still a ways to go, and I'm listening to my body.

My biggest problem is actually with my heels... from sitting with my legs out and laying on my back at night, the backs of my heels are super sensitive and sore. I know that this happens, but does anyone have any suggestions? Last night I actually slid down in my bed until my feet could hang off of the bed, and that helped, but it seems silly to have to do that all of the time, so I'm open to ideas! At the hospital they had sheepskin, but it didn't seem to make that much of a difference...
Click to expand...

How are you getting around now?
Are you able to walk at all unaided?
How's your pain level typically during the day?

(I had heard of the bubble wrap idea mentioned by another poster, too)
 
I’m with you @NavyGunns ! My feet usually hang off everything since I’m almost 6’1, so this hasn’t been an issue for me.

One thought, @ricekrispy , do you do a pillow stack for elevation? Maybe you could orient the top pillow a different way (or use a smaller pillow) to still get elevation but the support will end under your ankle, then your heel can be free?

Glad everything is going so well, especially with your sleep! :yes!:
 
@Rhodyrhody I am getting slowly better at getting around. I can walk unaided but I still drag the walker around for balance. I don’t lean on it at all, though. My pain level is between 0 and 2 when I’m sitting/relaxing and 2-3 when up and moving. At night it can sometimes climb to 5ish. I am still taking pain meds, though.

@MCC I just tried elevating last night and it helped for most of the night. Previously, I had not been. I did have to readjust at 3:30am, but it definitely worked better. Thanks for the advice! I can’t wait until I can sleep on my side again!
 
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