Hello
@Little Bee - and
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.
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.