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TKR Can't sleep at night after knee replacement

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Well, as you see, I am 11 weeks out and I am still on Percocet. So far my doc has no problem with giving them to me. He knows I am not abuser and he knows how painful this can be. I think he can tell by the swelling...Maybe you went off meds too soon. Just tell him .I take them every 8 hours.. Gonna try to go every 12. I just do not see how people can stop so early on or maybe I am not able to take pain. Who knows in this yo yo world of knees.. This has been the roughest road I have ever traveled and I want to make a turn and get off!!!
I hope you can get some rest at night.....hang in there..
 
I do tramadol during the day, but nights I take hydrocodone. I have always taken two of them and usually wake up between 2 and 3 and take another two of them. Last night I cut down to one and had no problem. I even tried to get rid of my pillow wedge that I have used since day one. But I woke to painful knees. So instead of taking another pill, I put the pillow wedge back in bed and laid on my back and went right back to sleep. I think I will be having a new partner in bed with me for a long time. Can't believe I sleep so well with that wedge.
 
I know..I try to sleep some on my side,which is yhe way I used to, but I just cannot stay that way. i put a pillow between my legs, but it hurts some..so, I do sleep on my back. Wow u take 2 before bed and two in the middle of the nite??? Are they low dose..? I wake up too,bathroom break..I go back to sleep usually...A while back when I was on Prednozone I was still up at 3am...what a rollar coaster, huh???
 
Gran17, i could never sleep on prednisone(sp?) Kept me awake any time i had to be on it. Glad to say i have not had to take more than a handful of times in my life, i am not fond of it, where it can be a real life saver when you need it, it can also have some very disturbing side effects, ( it always made me feel very depressed when i had to take it.)
Kauai, i agree with the others, you may still need to be taking some painkillers, at least at night. if your os wont help you, maybe you can try your pcp, sometimes they will help you out, i have read that from a lot of bonesmarties here. Good luck I hope you get some sleep very soon.:flwrysmile:
 
I took my last bedtime Percocet at almost 3 1/2 months, and as I eliminated doses of Percocet, I replaced them with Tramadol. Since then, I've been gradually cutting back and weaning off Tramadol. At more than 4 months now, I'm taking my last 1/4 pill of Tramadol for this next week, and then I will be just on Celebrex and Tylenol. My OS believes in adequate pain control as long as needed, with a cautionary warning. Thank goodness!
 
How are you doing kauai? Have you been able to contact your doc about getting more/different pain meds?

As others have suggested, if your OS doesn't believe in giving you more pain meds, talk to your GP. You're still in early stages and it isn't unusual to still be needing pain meds, especially at night.

Hang in there! Unfortunately, it can take a while for normal sleep to return, especially if you're back to work and your knee is still in early stages.

Weezy
 
Sheryl. I was on prednozone for 12 days for my knee was so infammed due to over working me in PT.. My OS had me completely stop PT. The steroids drove me NUTS.. I get so mean on them ,no sleep and I ate myself to death. Esp at late nite when I couldnt sleep..I hate them....I see alot of people not needing meds and wonder why I still do?????? I still have pain tho I take them....
 
Hello again. I took 50mg of trazadone last night and slept a little better - but woke up about every hour or so. I've tried using the leg wedge, but couldn't fall asleep. I might ask my doc for more pain meds.
 
Knees are just plain weird I think. Some people have little pain with replacement it seems. But from this forum it seems that most of us take a long time to get past needing pain relief. I am six months out now and still in enough pain that I need something. For other health reasons I can't take NSAIDs. My GP gave me Butrans patches and that has worked like a charm for me. No ups and downs like with pills and no appetite or sleep issues either. I just feel better. Things like oxycodone knocked me out a bit but messed with the duration and quality of sleep for me. It is unfortunate that we view pain as something it is optional to treat or as though it is made up. If you went to the doctor with a rash or even abdominal pain similar to the pain from a replacement they would be paying attention. Just because they fixed your bone problems doesn't mean you are ready to do the hokey pokey yet. My OS had his knee replaced so he is more sympathetic than some of the docs out there. The US is so paranoid about drugs that they are creating a huge problem for health and well being. My doctor says you need to function so pain meds are no different than other meds if you need them.
 
Kauai- I struggled with sleep as almost everyone else. I went off of the pain meds at 2.5 weeks because I felt they were giving me insomnia and I had to return to work part time. I did call my dr and ask if he could give me something to help me with the nights. I would not say I had horrible pain- I called it very uncomfortable. I would get up 3-4 times a night and get ice packs. Usually I'd fall back to sleep while icing. My dr did prescribe me sleeping pill for 30 days and it helped a lot. With that I was able to get about 4 hours of solid sleep and drift in and out the rest of the time. I also found that wrapping my knee in an ace bandage seemed to help. I don't know why- but it did. Things do get better! I am still not sleeping great- but it's better than it was.
 
Kauai- I struggled with sleep as almost everyone else. I went off of the pain meds at 2.5 weeks because I felt they were giving me insomnia and I had to return to work part time. I did call my dr and ask if he could give me something to help me with the nights. I would not say I had horrible pain- I called it very uncomfortable. I would get up 3-4 times a night and get ice packs. Usually I'd fall back to sleep while icing. My dr did prescribe me sleeping pill for 30 days and it helped a lot. With that I was able to get about 4 hours of solid sleep and drift in and out the rest of the time. I also found that wrapping my knee in an ace bandage seemed to help. I don't know why- but it did. Things do get better! I am still not sleeping great- but it's better than it was.
 
Rosegurl - I've been thinking that if I had Ted hose or something similar it might've helped with the nighttime swelling and pain. Don't know why, but I keep thinking that it would. So wrapping with an Ace bandage is in the same vein and I may try it. Do you wrap only the knee as high & low as your scar, or more?
 
I'm three months out, and even though I have no pain to speak of, I can still struggle with sleeping through the night. This is an almost universal given for us TKR folks. It may be medication, or it may be that our systems are just reved up for healing..healing does happen at night. Makes me wonder though.
 
Hello again. My regular doctor finally prescribed Percocet, which I pick up tomorrow. Hopefully this will help for night sleeping. My physical therapy is going well - painful - but well. The issue is the back and side of my knee aches a LOT while attempting to sleep; it usually happens when the leg is in the same position for a while. Stretching it out wakes me up even more, but I have to do that or pace to get the pain down.... Sigh.

It's all good, but this is the first week back full-time to work, so a lack of sleep isn't helping much...
 
The thing that has helped me the most with sleeping at night is I use the wedge pillow so my legs stay comfortably up and not falling off of stacked pillows and I use two gel ice packs, actually three. The one I got from the hospital has a two compartment thing that fits over the top and sides of my knee and material goes around the bottom of the knee and velcros on top to keep it in place. Then I take another ice back and put it under my knee and it velcros on top. It is a little chilly at first, but I get use to it quickly and helps me be comfy. I usually wake up around 2 and I go and get replacement gel packs for the top one and do it again and sleep until around 6:30. I am thankful that sleep hasn't been too much of a problem. For awhile I did have tv on in my room and I would drift in and out, but for the most part my knee stayed feeling ok.
 
Hi Gran...glad to see you're still taking pain meds because you need them. I'm with you on how frustrating it can be to compare yourself to others who seem to be healing better/faster. I kept wondering what was wrong with me because everything seemed to be taking SOOOOOOO long....I hurt, I was swollen, I was exhausted, I was depressed and crabby, etc. etc. etc. Why wasn't I one of those people who were out dancing a few short weeks after a TKR?

I don't have any answers to the "why"....all I know is that some of us take longer to heal than others, for whatever reason. I'm not a patient person by nature, so my TKRs really tried what little patience I have because no matter how much I wanted to be one of the fast healers, my body simply wouldn't cooperate. No amount of trying worked. All I could do was rest, ice, elevate, take pain meds, do mild PT as able, and let my body heal on its own terms.

Healing after major surgery is one area where we have little control beyond making sure we are doing what we need to do (i.e., rest, etc.). That was particularly hard for me to swallow because I'm a pretty hard charger, used to being in control and just plowing through what needs to be done. Having those TKRs really hit me hard because I realized that I couldn't force myself to heal faster just because I wanted to. Bummer!

Hang in there....your body is working hard to heal and you're doing what you need to do. You'll get through it! It doesn't really matter how long it takes you to heal, what matters is that you have a wonderful new knee that will give you decades of pain free movement.

Weezy
 
Although I have not had tks'r yet, i have had several surgeries, and in general a insomniac to begin with.
Kauai i do hope the prescribed percocet helps you with pain and sleep at night. You mentioned you are taking trazadone, it took me many tries on the trazadone to get to a good amount that would help me sleep better. i am at a very hefty dose of 300 mgs a night, and sometimes that doesn't do the trick, I also take Elival, for the prevention of migraines, and other meds to help me from pain of Interstial Cystitis, Its a bladder disorder and can keep me up peeing all night long, so it take a whole lot to knock me out, and i still get up a few times a night, but easier to go back to sleep now.
Ok sorry, rambling, i was going to say that if you are still having trouble even after the added percocet, you may want to ask if you can up the trazadone to 100mgs and see if you see more benefit from that. I was started at 100mgs and worked my way up from there. Not saying you would ever need to take as much as i do, but maybe a 50 mg increase may do the trick for you. Good luck and i hope you get some rest.:flwrysmile:
 
Hope that helps you Kauai. Tracey- I see your not even a month yet. I actually wore the Ted hose for maybe a month. My dr only told me to wear them 2 weeks- I took them off in day but I still wore one on my surgical leg for probably 4 weeks. I am in FL- as I guess you are too- so at 4 weeks I tried to sleep without the hose- hot and sick of it..but I didn't like how my leg felt and I read on line about a man who said he wrapped his TKR leg in Saran Wrap(!) and that was the only way he got a good nights sleep. I decided it was more the compression that was helping him so I bought an ace bandage. Yes I only wrapped basically my knee- not mid thigh or anything. I did probably until I hit 2 months. Even now- I have a several knee braces from pre- surgery- I have been walking my dog using them this week and seems to help. I have just felt better with the compression. It might be in my head- I don't know!
 
Weezy are you having surgery on the 16th???? Wow..thanks for the post. I try no to worry too much about but I do wonder. Maybe having RA makes a difference...I am going to take it easy, do a few stretches and see. I see Os on 19th...he was talking about MUA....That scares me...I 'm not as down today as yesterday..sometimes I have a pity party. But hey....we deserve it..ths is not exactly a fun ride,is it.....let us know if you are having surgery.....have a blessed day!!!!!!
 
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