I'm so happy to hear you're in recovery!!! And frankly, your ROM sounds just fine for this point in your recovery journey. It IS a journey, you know......much longer than just a few weeks or even a few months. You've had a major, MAJOR procedure and your body is telling you it needs your patience and gentle treatment to heal properly. Please listen to your body and not to any therapist who may tell you to "work hard" or "meet this goal" or "you only have so much time to get things right." It's just not so. You are far better with the gentle approach to exercises and stretching mentioned above. Any pain you experience when stretching should be just to the slight discomfort stage.
From reading your posts, I believe you are doing too much too soon. Especially with a bi-lateral TKR, you should not to doing a lot of walking. In fact, just moving about the house and maybe a short walk outside (like to the mailbox and back) is plenty. Of course, you should be doing those stretches and bends as maryo52 suggested. Most of your day should be spent resting, icing and elevating. It's okay to work at your desk for short periods or to sit in a chair, but watch how much time you spend doing this as it can contribute to your swelling (knee is not elevated).
You say you are walking with a cane....does that mean you are walking with a good strong gait? Or....are you kind of limping a bit when you walk? If it's not a normal gait with the cane, you should drop back to a walker or crutches. Many times people try to advance to the least amount of support way too fast. This makes your body work harder to walk and stresses your tender tissues. For example, I used my walker around the house with my single TKR for about 2 months. At that point, my gait was mostly back to normal and I actually never used a cane except when I went out of the house. With a BTKR, it might even be a bit longer. If you can walk with a walker or crutches with a normal gait, in fairly long strides, then you might transition to a cane. If not, please stay with the walker or crutches until you are healed and strong enough to make the change.
At five weeks, it is perfectly normal to need pain medications....even prescription ones. You are undermedicating for your pain. You need to be on a regular schedule with whatever medications you are taking. That ache you feel is breakthrough pain that's not being managed. Pain meds only remain in your system about 4 hours. That is why you're waking up and hurting. So, get yourself on a regular schedule of taking something every 4 hours.
Since you have the hydrocodone, I suggest starting with 1 pill every 4 hours (assuming that is the dose on the label, of course) for a day. If the pain is controlled, you could expand the time by an hour or two gradually until you are taking one pill every 6 hours, provided the pain is still managed properly. You can also break the pills in half and take half a pill for all or some of the regular doses. The point is to keep some medication in your system throughout the day and night so that your pain doesn't have a chance to build up on you. The way you're taking the pain meds now, you are always chasing pain and it actually takes more meds to do that than it does to manage it and keep it under control. So once you get to the point that you're managing the pain properly, then you can see if less medication or longer periods of time between doses works for you. But you must get things under control first!
At some point, you can start using Tylenol for pain...either by itself or in combination with the hydrocodone. BUT.....there are limits to how much acetaminophen (the ingredient in Tylenol and also in your hydrocodone) you can safely take in any 24 hour period. That limit is 4000mg, so be sure you tally up what you're taking and don't exceed that each day. You can take up to 1000mg of acetaminophen (Tylenol) in any single dose and usually we recommend that amount be taken for maximum effectiveness for pain. That would be 2 Extra Strength Tylenol or you could combine one (or half) of your hydrocodone and one 500mg Tylenol for a single dose. Once the pain is under control, it's okay to do a little experimenting to find out what the least level of medication is that you need.
It's true that using prescription pain meds can contribute to depression, but it's also a fact that constant pain and lack of sleep can do the same. I think you'll find your depression improving once you get your pain under control. I believe it's the constant pain that's causing you to feel as you do.
Please post again soon and let me know how you're doing!!! We'll help you through this. It will get better!!!
United States
![[Bonesmart.org] Back for more info](https://bonesmart.org/forum/attachments/a2-bp-blogspot-com__u0o_wosgi30_t0guis7fbai_aaaaaaaaado_krj4ti8fc419595d681738097b1060f32be2b9-jpg.44493/ "[Bonesmart.org] Back for more info")
