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TKR Bad day

Thank you for the advice fellow members, it’s very much appreciated.

Well, I backed off on the physio by a third and it has got better. Although I am still getting some pain, but also getting zingers now as I understand they are called. It still aches quite a bit, but hey ho I’ll keep persevering with. Not that I’ve any choice ha ha :heehee::heehee:

Can anyone tell me if you can ice too much?

Many thanks, kind regards Maria xx :loveshwr::loveshwr:
 
No, you can't ice too much, as long as you protect your skin from frost bite/freezer burn, by making sure you have some soft material between your skin and the icing medium.
Depending on what you're using for icing, you may need to have several layers of material. For example, if you're using ice in a polythene bag, it will feel colder and you'll need more layers of material. An icing machine may feel less cold, so you could have fewer layers.
 
Thank you, they are physio therapy ice packs made for the job and you can also use them hot.

I do put a cloth between me and the pack to protect my skin.

Feeling a little better today, thank goodness, but not going to overdo it, like I have done. Lesson learnt I think, but so easy done when you’re feeling better.

Thank you, once again

Kind regards Maria :loveshwr::loveshwr:
 
When will pain get better!!

Having a bad morning, got up when back started aching at 4 am and managed to get some more sleep in the recliner. Then the pain started, taken meds and still not settling. On top of all that I can hear my heart rate in my ears :arrow:

I am so fed up with this, I thought I might be getting somewhere by now, but now I am not so sure.

Still doing exercises, but not as many repartitions as before, although it has helped with swelling, the pain seems to have increased. Help!!

Sorry, rant over, icing now :blackcloud:

Kind regards Maria :hairpulling:
 
Hi there, can anyone tell me what do the glasses mean alongside my thread, I’ve not seen it anywhere else.

My apologies if I have upset anyone today with my post, feeling much better now.

[Bonesmart.org] Bad day


Kind regards Maria
 

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Hi Maria,

I'm just over 7 weeks out from a complex TKR in my right knee. I had quite a bit of soft tissue repair done as well (extensive lateral release and IT Band release, according to my surgeon's notes). In the first few weeks after my surgery, I didn't find the pain in my knee joint to be too bad, but....the pain in my muscles and soft tissues just above my knee was pretty intense - especially if I tried to bend and lift my leg. It was almost like a bad searing, burning pain if I lifted my leg too enthusiastically.

Good news is that the joint pain and especially the muscle/tissue pain has gotten much, much better. I would say that any pain that I have occurs when I have been sitting with my knee bent around 90 degrees for more than 15 minutes. Sometimes it gets achey, but not super painful. I can stand and walk on my new knee with no discomfort, now, which is awesome.

It does get better with time (and a little rehab). One thing to anticipate - the more you move, you may have other parts of your body that get a little cranky and try to rebel, especially if the new knee creates a new gait for you. Right now, I'm dealing with some pain on the right outer side of my ankle. Since my entire right leg was re-aligned during the surgery, I'm sure my foot and ankle are moving and bearing weight differently, now. I'm seeing my PT tomorrow. Hopefully he'll have some tips on how to deal with cranky ankle!

Stay sane and take it easy!

Jan
 
Hi there, can anyone tell me what do the glasses mean alongside my thread, I’ve not seen it anywhere else.
It means that you're watching this thread. Depending on your notification settings, you'll get an alert and/or an email when anyone posts here. It's a good way to know that people want to talk to you, when you're away from the forum.
 
Hi, Maria. The pain will vary from day to day, hour to hour, and sometimes minute to minute. This recovery is a roller coaster, and takes a full year on average. But, by 3 months or so most people feel much better. If you have days with a lot more pain, look back and see what you did the day before to see if that helped add to your pain, then try not to do it again for a while. But, sometimes it just hurts for no obvious reason-that's the roller coaster. When it hurts more, spend more time icing and elevating to help with the pain. Because I can't take strong pain meds at all, I used my ice machine as my pain relief, and it really did help a lot. I had a pain ball for about a week; after that was finished, I was able to control the little pain I did have with icing and elevating. I also made sure not to do anything that would cause a lot of pain as I had no way to alleviate any strong pain.

You're at one month, so you still have a couple of months ahead where your knee is doing a lot of recovery. It will still be recovering for a full year or so, but the pain, swelling and so on should be much easier to handle after the three month-ish time frame. I know it seems that after a month you should be feeling back to "normal", but it's really early in this recovery, so hang in there.

No need to apologize for a "rant", we've all been there and done our share of ranting and moaning. That's what we're here for, to support others as they go through this surgery and recovery.
 
Hi Jan, it looks like you have had more surgery than I have. Sound pretty painful and some of what you saying is how mine has been too. I’m still getting quite a bit of pain at the back of my knee, but I’m icing it quite a bit to alleviate it. It is helping, but my goodness it is taxing.

Hope you continue on a good recovery and it is good to know it will get better.

Take care & thank you xx
 
Thank you Alex, that explains it.
 
Thank you Kim, I guess I am just impatient.

I have been having constant pain for 18 months now (which probably isn’t a long time compared to some of you) because of a torn cartilage initially after a fall alongside the canal. We have a canal boat and of course I want to be able to go and enjoy boating on the canal again as soon as I can. I feel for my husband as he really looks forward to our time away on the boat and now we are restricted. I was perfectly able bodied till the fall and did a lot of walking with the dogs, which I can’t do now. Although I do manage short walks with my husband and the dog ( we lost one of our dogs last year).

I will try to be more patient and concentrate on pain relief a little more with the ice.

I’m also going to change our mattress to something a little more comfortable as this one is really telling on me now. I knew it wasn’t right when we bought it, but too late to do anything about it, oops.

Anyway, onward and upward, here’s to less ranting

Good luck with your recovery and perhaps we will talk again.

Kind regards Maria
 
Rant when you need to-we understand. Your need to rant will fade with time, and your successes will abound as time goes on. This recovery takes a ton of patience, which is really hard to summon at times. But, you'll get there, as do we all. Before you know it you'll be out walking your dogs again with nary a thought to your knee; until then it will require lots of icing and elevating, plenty of rest mixed in with more and more ADLs, and much patience. Your boating days will return and your husband will also be rewarded for his patience.
 
Thank you for that, the last thing I want to do is upset anyone.

Take care, kind regards Maria xx
 
Hello everyone, sorry for the absence, but I’ve been in hospital!!

Unfortunately I have had a TIA but I’m ok. Hospital looked after me very well. I’m now stable, had countless tests. My bloods were all wrong too, I became dehydrated following vomiting episodes and my sodium, potassium and white blood cells were all low. They are now stable and I feel so much better.

Back to the knee progress, well it’s a little stiff because I haven’t been able to walk around much, but I did do the exercises as much as I could. But because I couldn’t ice it, (hospital had limited ice supply) it is now swollen and aching, however the pain is not as intense.

So I am now concentrating on icing and gentle exercises. Will go on short walks too. The scar is looking very tidy and I’m going to use bio oil to reduce the redness.

Will check out other threads and see how everyone is doing in the next few days.

Take care Maria
 
So sorry to hear you had extra issues, I’m glad you’re feeling better. :console2:
 
Do they think it was a small blood clot that came from your tkr? Thank God they got your blood count corrected.
 
[Bonesmart.org] Bad day Thank you for the kind words, I didn’t have a blood clot thank goodness, although they did want me to wear stockings which I declined, because my surgeon does not use them anymore following knee surgeries. Uses blood clot injections and a type of blow up support boots following the op. Which I have to say is much better than the stockings, having worn them before.

It was a bit of a shock to find out my blood were in such a mess. I am off the strong pain killers now, thank goodness which I don’t think were doing me any good. Just using ice, paracetamol and gentle exercises from now on. Hope you can see from my picture, my scar is looking pretty good and has healed well.

Good luck to everyone on their recovery journey, I know at times it can be very testing as I know mine has. Thank goodness I think I might be on the right side now and I’m going to avoid anymore hospital admissions by hook or by crook.

Take care all, I’ll keep postings and checking how everyone is doing.

PS: Thank god for this site, I shall be telling everyone about it.
 
Great news that you didn't have a clot! I didn't have to where the TEDS either. I probably wouldn't have ayway since I'm so active and I recovered alone. Your scar does look good, but you look like you are swollen. Of course, it could be the angle of the camera. Elevating and icing kept my swelling way down and the pain, too. I did it the first 2 months or so the whole time I was down. I had a cold water circulating machine that I was addicted to. I even kept it on all night long so I could sleep almost pain free!
 
You are quite right it is still swollen yet, but I’m working on it. Not too much pain at the moment and under control with paracetamol.

You did well to recover alone, I do have my lovely husband who is looking after me very well.

Take care, thanks for the kind words.

Kind regards Maria :loveshwr::loveshwr::loveshwr:
 

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