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TKR 8 Weeks Out

So I am still experiencing some restlessness in my legs, sometimes during the day and sometimes at night. It feels a little like a cramp but also jumpy. Usually if I can ice my leg it will go away. I've heard that drinking tonic water might help this. Has anyone else heard of drinking tonic water to calm down a restless leg?
 
I would like to add some history to my record here in case it helps anyone. Years ago I had injured my R knee falling through a river dock. It damaged the bursa and I had it aspirated at the time. Over the years it continued to swell and cause pain. I never did anything about it. Fast forward to last fall, I began spinning classes. I absolutely loved it. However, my knee didn't. I would take a few days off and the pain would subside. Then it would flare back up to the point nothing would help it. I finally went to an ortho to take a look. They indicated that I did have arthritis in both knees and hips. Plus there was an issue with my R knee. They initial gave me a cortizone injection and prescribed physical therapy. The cortizone lasted about 24 hours. The PT wasn't doing much either. They suggested that I get the Euflexxa injections. It is a series of 3 injection into the knee joint. The first one was painful but tolerable. The second one was incredibly painful, to the point that I had a seizure and completely passed out. I lost control of all of my bodily functions. By the time I came to they had already called the squad and were calling my husband. They claimed it was just a reaction to the extreme pain (vaso vagal). I wasn't convinced. I have had my sister, brother in law and stepfather all have these injections and have never experienced any pain. I did not have the third injection. I asked my ortho if it was possible that she hit a nerve when injecting it. She said no that I did not have any nerves there. ???? I then asked to see the ortho surgeon to discuss the next steps. After a review of my history and charts he suggested the TKR.
 
OMG, that was dramatic!! did you end up going to the hospital? Or where you okay when you woke up. I cannot take most anti depressents---I took one of the popular ones and went to the bathroom during the night ---and woke up on the bathroom floor hours later. (I felt like Elvis) Obviously I am not taking any more of that!!

I thought those shots were painful--but that sounded seriously wrong!! At least you survived.

tonic water is given for restless legs because it contains quinine. I found that a little magnesium spray worked for me. ( if I spray more than one time, I get a rash) But the magnesium really helped with leg cramps. Other remedies are to drink sport drinks like Powerade. You need to stay hydrated which is easy to skip since you are drugged and half asleep most of the time.
 
They did take me to the ER after the shot episode. Ran MRI on me to make sure there wasn't a brain issue. They didn't do much else, really just treated it is a pain issue. I wasn't going to count on that so I didn't continue.
 
Wow! I had the Synvisc injections a number of years ago. I had 3 in each knee over a period of 6 weeks. My doctor used a topical anesthetic and I never really felt much pain except for a little burning. Unfortunately they never did anything for me.
 
They did hurt me, too, and I got no relief at all from them.
 
Ya, my doctor told me for 1/3 of people it works great, 1/3 works okay and 1/3 doesn't work at all. It was soooooo convinced they were going to work and was so disappointed when they didn't do anything at all :-(
 
I'm one of the lucky ones- I get 3 to 4 months of great relief and no pain from injection.


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Well I bought some Tonic Water to try last nite. Drank about 6 ounces prior to bed. Aside from it tasting very bitter it really didn't do anything. I still experienced my jumpy leg for quite a while and ended up walking around a bit and putting an ice pack on to fall asleep.
 
Try some magnesium cream or spray---a little bit!!! I put the lotion on my legs, like lotion--and had a bright red rash the next day!!

Also, I find that if I put aspercream on a cramp, it goes away right away. I actually keep aspercream right beside my bed, so that I don't have to wake up all the way.
 
@skigirl I was just reading about magnesium spray and how it's good for sleep. They do say to start slowly with it.
 
Right, the guy in the health food store where I bought the spray cautioned me to use one brief spray at first. But, when i saw the lotion somewhere else, i stupidly thought--oh, lotion, isn't that great. I then spread it all over my legs I woke in the middle of the night with the most horrible rash I have ever seen!!! I got up and took a shower at 2 am to get off whatever I could. It took days for that itchy rash to go away!! I am much more careful now!!!
 
I'm still experiencing alot of muscle spasms mostly at night in my TKR leg. It's driving me crazy. I get up and do some stretching exercises and it will calm it for a while but it will start back up. If I get up and walk around it will stop. I can't walk around all night long. I do have a call in to the doctor to see what he suggests.
 
My PA suggested for me try a heating pad on my twitching muscles. It helped some. I found out mine was coming from 2 Benedryls that I took to help me sleep. Stopping those, stopped my night time muscle problems.
 
I did get a new Rx yesterday from the doctor for a muscle relaxer. They also indicated it would help with any residual nighttime pains. So I took the bill about a half hour before bed last nite. At first it seemed to be working but within two hours the spasms/twitching started again along with the pain. I again got up and did more stretching exercises and walked around a bit. I did this several times during the night along with applying ice. I don't think I got more than two hours of sleep. Finally got up at 3:45a and stayed up. I don't have these issues all day, they seem to come just at night. The spasms/twitching is along the top of my thigh to just over my knee, so it seems to be the quad muscle. It makes me want to stretch my leg out completely when it happens.
 
Isn't it aggravating that these knees act up more during the night! Are you doing too much during the day? Night time reactions are normally the knee area fussing because you overworked it during the day. I wish I could offer a suggestion that would work. Maybe just cutting down your daytime activities would be a help.
 
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