TKR Burning knee pain above and below knee

Little Bee

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I had a total knee replacement for left knee 4 months ago. No pain there All is good. I had right knee replaced 1 month ago and it continues to be painful and burns. I can’t sleep. Nothing can touch my right leg at night, side, front, etc. This means I can’t have covers or even a sheet on me, I can’t allow My hand to touch my leg.
I have to do my own PT due to the corona virus outbreak(surgery one week prior to outbreak). I am doing virtual dr. Follow up. I did see a Dr. in urgent care prior to outbreak due to pain. He removed my bandage and found I had blisters around knee. This knee swelled more than my left. I am venting and asking for suggestions. I do feel like a whimp.
 
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:welome: to BoneSmart. Please read the guidelines, then we're ready for specific questions.

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
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)​

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 these pages on the website

The Recovery articles:

There are also some cautionary articles here


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 a 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 history before providing advice.
 
@Little Bee, welcome to Bonesmart. Please give us the dates of your surgeries and which knees were done when. We'll add them to your signature for you. Seeing these will help us be able to advise you better.

First off, you are not a wimp. Your month old knee is still a newborn and throws fits when you do something it doesn't like. Your first replacement is only 1/4 of the way healed and now you've added a newborn to the mix!

My biggest suggestion is to rest, ice and elevate whenever you are down. Both of your knees will benefit from this. Don't worry about your not going to PT. You don't need it anyway. Many of us never took formal PT or did exercises. I am one of them. I had 11 knee surgeries, 2 of them kneecap removals before my 1 tkr. Even after those I never took formal PT. But, I didn't just sit around and do nothing. I used my knee as it was intended to be used by walking around to take care of my daily needs. As I healed I was able to do more. Icing and elevation was a huge part of my recovery.

Listen to your knee. It will tell you if you're doing too much by increased pain and swelling. When that happened to me, I found that resting, icing and elevating helped. Your knee knows how to rehab itself without being told what to do.
 
Hello @Little Bee - and :welome:

Please will you tell us the full dates of your knee replacements and which knee was done each time, so we can make a signature for you? Knowing the exact date will help us to advise you appropriately in the future.
Thank you.:flwrysmile:

I'm sorry your second nee replacement is having a harder recovery than the first one. Maybe it needed more work done on it during surgery?

Those blisters you had were called fracture blisters. They're quite common after a fracture, but they can also occur after a knee replacement, when you have a lot of swelling. I hope they've all gone by now.

As for your knee's sensitivity, doe it help at all if you use something like a crepe bandage, to stop other things touching it? You may be able to de-sensitize it by deliberately touching it with some soft material so that it gets used to being touched gently. Once it's OK with that, gradually increase the roughness of the material you use to touch it. Some of that sensitivity will decrease as your knee heals.

Don't worry about not being able to go to PT. It's not really PT that gives you your Range of Motion (ROM) - it's time. Time to recover, time for swelling and pain to settle, and time to heal. IN these early days of recovery, your knee can get all the exercise it needs just by being used in your activities of daily living, and by doing a bit of walking, first around your house and later up the street and back.
You could also do these exercises, gently
Extension: how to estimate it and ways to improve it
Heel slides and how to do them properly

You still need to be doing lots of resting, icing and elevating your knee, to try and reduce its swelling. As your swelling goes down, your ROM will increase naturally.

Are you still taking pain medication regularly? It sounds as if you need to be. If you've already come off the heavy-duty narcotics,Tylenol taken regularly can be quite effective.

The most effective way to take Tylenol is 2 x 500 mg tablets 6-hourly, to a total of 4,000 mg (4 doses) in 24 hours. You need to take it regularly, to keep up the levels in your bloodstream. If you just take the odd dose now and then, it's far less effective.
Check all other medications you're taking, to make sure there is no Tylenol/Acetaminophen/Paracetamol in them. If there is, scale back one or two of your regular doses, so you stay within that safe 24 hour limit of 4,000 mg.

If afraid sleep disturbance is a common part of this recovery. There's an article about it in the recovery guidelines that Roy Gardiner left for you.
 
Hi and welcome to Bonesmart. I wanted to jump in and let you know I also had fracture blisters after my right TKR last May. My surgeon, physical therapist, and home health nurse said that they CAN and DO happen, but they're not common....so if you get them after surgery, it's a sign of major swelling/inflammation and a sign to take it VERY easy and not push your recovery. :) All things we here at Bonesmart recommend anyway. You are NOT a wimp. Not only did you have major surgery, but those fracture blisters are your body's way of saying it REALLY REALLY didn't like the surgery and is making sure you know it. The pain will slowly get better, but I know it can take awhile, so hang in there. Don't be afraid to ask for different pain meds if you need them.

I was lucky---My surgeon already goes by the Bonesmart philosophy, but even he called my situation and fracture blisters a severe inflammatory event. Did you get the large blisters? I had 15 large, numerous ones, plus severe burning and pain that 2 Oxycodone-5's (every 4 hrs) didn't even touch. I think I cried every day, waiting to see if the pain would ever dissipate. By Day 8-9 I could finally think straight, though the pain was still a 7-8 out of ten.

I truly hope you start feeling less pain/swelling soon, and remember to be good to yourself. You just had major surgery and are definitely NOT a wimp. We're here for you.
 

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