TKR Apricotpie and his right TKR

ApricotPie

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The surgery was done Monday July 15. As expected the day following the surgery is very painful. Taking Oxy and acetaminophen. But they are no helping much. .


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Welcome to Recovery!

Are you still in the hospital? Keep talking to the staff about your pain level, maybe they will try a different medication.

Are you elevating your leg? Using ice? These will help you feel better.

I will leave you our Recovery Guidelines. Each article is short but very informative. Following these guidelines will help you have a less painful recovery.

Knee Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary
2. Control discomfort:
rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
don't overwork.
3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.​
4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this
6. Access to these pages on the website

The Recovery articles:
The importance of managing pain after a TKR and the pain chart
Swollen and stiff knee: what causes it?

Energy drain for TKRs

Elevation is the key

Ice to control pain and swelling

Heel slides and how to do them properly

Chart representation of TKR recovery

Healing: how long does it take?

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

There are also some cautionary articles here
Myth busting: no pain, no gain
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in the majority of BoneSmart’s forums, we ask that each member have only One Recovery Thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.
 
I'm at 4 weeks. It gets better!!
 
#1 rule, stay under the pain with your meds, take them the minute you’re allowed, this is a long tough road for the next 4 weeks. Read this blog, take in the advice, ask any questions, and Ice I’ve ice. Good luck
 
I’m home after one night in the hospital. Lots of stairs in my place and I think that caused me to overwork the knee today.


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Stairs are tough. I went up mine the day I got home and spent the first week up stairs between my bed and my bathroom. My husband delivered food. Is there a place you can camp for a few days so you don't have to move around so much?
 
I have lots of stairs too. To use the bathroom it is 4 steps up and down every time I need to go. So I do about 32 to 40 stair steps a day. Challenging right from the get go., Welcome home!
 
Stairs are tough. I went up mine the day I got home and spent the first week up stairs between my bed and my bathroom. My husband delivered food. Is there a place you can camp for a few days so you don't have to move around so much?

I’m camping out in my bedroom also. I have Kind bars to snack on, TV, iPad, and a bathroom is near. . B


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It’s been four days since the TKR was performed on my right knee. Day 2 was the worst by far in terms of pain. Oxy has made the pain a manageable nuisance for the most part.

The knee is very swollen and my rom is tiny compared to rom 12 hours after the surgery. I can hardly bend it to do the exercises. I go to the point of significant discomfort - which is not very far - then stop.

First meeting with PT today, Ugh. That means I have to go down two flights of stairs.


RTKR July 15, 2019
 
First meeting with PT today, Ugh. That means I have to go down two flights of stairs.
Is the PT coming to your house? If so, have the PT come up to you. Remember, you are the employer here. You call the shots. They work for you. If it’s not absolutely necessary, doing 2 flights of stairs is not in your best interest.

And if it’s out patient and you have to go there, I would consider canceling. You’ll be fine without a PT session for a while, and even totally, if you are so inclined. (I will not be going to PT next time. Been there, done that.

In these early days all our knees swell more for a while, you’re moving around a bit more than when you were in the hospital.

Reread some of the guidelines. “If it hurts, don’t do it.”

Exercises can wait. You only need to move your knee gently to give it mobility.

It’s not exercising that gets our range of motion back, it’s Time:

Time to recover.
Time for pain and swelling to settle.
Time to heal.

Our range of motion is right there all
along just waiting for that to happen so it can show itself.

In the general run of things, it doesn't need to be fought for, worked hard for or worried about. It will happen. Exercise as in strength training is counter-productive and in the early weeks does more harm than good. Normal activity is the key to success.
 
@ApricotPie I love your handle! I have never had apricot pie but my mom used to make a puff pastry thing with apricots and pastry cream and that was to die for. Since you are camping out in your bedroom, do you have someone who can go up and down the stairs to get you things through the course of the day? Are you icing and elevating your knee? Ice is your best friend now and for the foreseeable future. It helps with both pain and swelling.
 
I ended up going to the pt. She pointed out a few things I was doing wrong. Nothing we did was very stressful though the knee was definitely more sore upon returning home.

Absolutely I want to control the pt. Gentle stress is my idea of good pt.


RTKR July 15, 2019
 
I’ve been taking two oxycodone every three hours to control my pain after surgery. Surgery was 5 days ago.

I want to try and back off the oxy as the constipation is becoming a real nuisance. How did people do that? I could cut it in half - one pill every three hours. Or I could alternate between taking one pill and two pills every three hours. Or?..... suggestions welcome.


RTKR July 15, 2019
 
@ApricotPie you will notice that I have merged your two threads together as we prefer that members in recovery only have one thread.

This is for three reasons:
1. if you keep starting new threads, you miss the posts others have left you in the old threads
2. it often ends up that information is unnecessarily repeated
3. it's best if we can keep all your recovery story in one place so it's easily accessed if we need to advise you.

Please keep all your questions and updates on this thread. If you would like a new thread title just give a shout.
 
While it’s very early to cut back your medication, I understand. I ditched my prescription pain medication on day 11, it wasn’t doing much anyway.

Call your pharmacist or doctor for the best advice about cutting down, or ask for an alternative medication.

My doctor had me on stool softeners and miralax to help with constipation. There are many other options for that, too.

This is a tough recovery that takes a lot of fine tuning to get us through.
 
Taking stool softener on a schedule is important when taking Oxy, I believe I was taking one in the morning and one at night, Cutting back on pain meds this early on is rough, sleeping is where you need them
Just take it hour by hour now Breathe
 
Stool softeners, laxatives, and prunes are all good friends to have these early days. I cut way back on the meds only to discover I could no longer sleep, so I've added them back in at night. Sleep is critical for healing.
 
Another day. It’s been 6 days since the surgery so not much time has gone by. My knee continues to be very swelled up. Both raising it and icing it does not seem to do much good, and I will keep up doing those things, maybe it’s keeping the knee from getting worse. I may try a few simple household chores today, like dusting the living room.


RTKR July 15, 2019
 

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