TKR Dealing with RLS after TKR<
- Thread starter Softtail
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United Kingdom
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Softtail
senior
If I wait beyond December this year, unless my right knee breaks down quicker than I would hope, I think I would shoot for fall again. As of now, leaning towards that and can play golf and walk in Florida to get knee strong again over winter.
Read it Josephine and believe me armed with all the new info from here and people ‘s experiences, no one is gonna put any pain to this knee but me and me better have a good reason for it if it happens.
Read it Josephine and believe me armed with all the new info from here and people ‘s experiences, no one is gonna put any pain to this knee but me and me better have a good reason for it if it happens.
OP
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Softtail
senior
Day 12 post surgery ,visit from home nurse. Checked me over and everything seems to be on schedule. Talked to her about a sensitive area just outside my incision dressing. If I wear shorts, the rubbing against the area causes irritation and slight redness in area. The nurse guessed it was due to my nerves in this area kicking back to life. Directly across the incision on other side of knee it’s pretty numb.
Just wondering if anyone else has had similar experience, and if a topical rubbing cream could desensitize it slightly.
Otherwise continuing with pain meds., cutting back slightly during day on oxy. Also added stool softener to my med schedule. Nurse says bowels gurgling when she listened, but it’s been 3 days since last movement so added softener, plus benefiber to my diet. See how that works.
What I love most about forum is in telling recovery story, you can get confirmation of what is happening, and/or suggestions to change your approach all with our best interests at heart.
5 days till the doc takes off bandage and removes staples, so looking forward to that.
Just wondering if anyone else has had similar experience, and if a topical rubbing cream could desensitize it slightly.
Otherwise continuing with pain meds., cutting back slightly during day on oxy. Also added stool softener to my med schedule. Nurse says bowels gurgling when she listened, but it’s been 3 days since last movement so added softener, plus benefiber to my diet. See how that works.
What I love most about forum is in telling recovery story, you can get confirmation of what is happening, and/or suggestions to change your approach all with our best interests at heart.
5 days till the doc takes off bandage and removes staples, so looking forward to that.
Oh yes, you'll have lots of different sensitive places as you go through this recovery. My PA suggestive that I let a rough towel gentle glide over my areas to desensitize them. I didn't do it much, they just went away on their own.
NavyGunns
Former BoneSmart staff member
Rhodyrhody
senior
You're a few days ahead of me, I love reading others' stories. I'm 5 days away from post op visit with OS, curious to see what it all looks like. My doc said to start with the stool softener a couple days before surgery, and they gave me Senokot in the hospital. Had success day after surgery, then not for 3 days, but regular/daily since. Am trying to reduce the oxy as well. Hopefully, it helps in that area.
I've only been wearing shorts and don't plan to change that until it either gets way too cold, or my wife makes me. Fortunately, no issues around incision, but I feel like I have a 8" x 11" area covered with Gorilla Tape, so not expecting it to get irritated by clothing. Once they remove that...we'll see what happens.
Take care!
I've only been wearing shorts and don't plan to change that until it either gets way too cold, or my wife makes me. Fortunately, no issues around incision, but I feel like I have a 8" x 11" area covered with Gorilla Tape, so not expecting it to get irritated by clothing. Once they remove that...we'll see what happens.
Take care!
Josephine
NURSE DIRECTOR EMERITA
That's normal too. Read this Numb area after TKR: how long will it last?
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Softtail
senior
Rhody I have the same huge latexlike bandage that covers a large part of incision length and width. It’s just funny that the areas around the bandage and on thigh range from numb like to bruised to sensitive, but looks like that’s gonna be part of my healing package. Could be a lot worse from things I have read that others have experienced.
OP
OP
Softtail
senior
Start of day 13, and after 3 days of trying to sleep in my bed, I finally gave up and returned to my trusty couch.
Now as my recovery continues ,for those that follow, please remember that along with my LTKR, I suffer from severe RLS. The disease is not deadly, there is no cure, but my quality of sleep is reduced, adding this to the sleep problems brought on by the operation, sleeping is definetly a challenge. So why the couch over the bed ? It restricts me from flopping around like a fish out of water while sleeping. My wife describes my sleeping pattern as someone through out night going thru epileptic fits. I can frequently have all my pillows thrown about the bed and end up twisted up in a ball. All this obviously not good for a leg that has just been reassembled. I can get on couch , get my leg elevated, and kind of wedge myself in ,and get 1to 3 hours of sleep at a crack , and wake up pretty much in the same position I set myself up in. Again I am passing this info along to any fellow recovery members , or those preoperative ,that may also suffer from RLS. Honestly it was the worry of how I would deal with the aftermath of surgery with RLS ,that kept me from pulling the trigger sooner. So far it’s been manageable, but there are some moments at night when the symptoms kick in , that push the recovery process right to edge. That said ,no regrets that I finally pulled trigger, and I will do right knee down the road, just wish I could deal with this without the RLS, but we all have our crosses to bear.
Now as my recovery continues ,for those that follow, please remember that along with my LTKR, I suffer from severe RLS. The disease is not deadly, there is no cure, but my quality of sleep is reduced, adding this to the sleep problems brought on by the operation, sleeping is definetly a challenge. So why the couch over the bed ? It restricts me from flopping around like a fish out of water while sleeping. My wife describes my sleeping pattern as someone through out night going thru epileptic fits. I can frequently have all my pillows thrown about the bed and end up twisted up in a ball. All this obviously not good for a leg that has just been reassembled. I can get on couch , get my leg elevated, and kind of wedge myself in ,and get 1to 3 hours of sleep at a crack , and wake up pretty much in the same position I set myself up in. Again I am passing this info along to any fellow recovery members , or those preoperative ,that may also suffer from RLS. Honestly it was the worry of how I would deal with the aftermath of surgery with RLS ,that kept me from pulling the trigger sooner. So far it’s been manageable, but there are some moments at night when the symptoms kick in , that push the recovery process right to edge. That said ,no regrets that I finally pulled trigger, and I will do right knee down the road, just wish I could deal with this without the RLS, but we all have our crosses to bear.
Jajakio
graduate
Sounds like about par for the course for sleeping at this stage in the recovery. I used to be the best sleeper in the world. Insomnia once or twice a year, asleep within 10 minutes of hitting the bed. Then came the pain from presurgery bad knee and waking 3 or 4 times a night. After surgery was worse. I had at least 3 months of very broken sleep and very gradual improvement. I was probably 9 months out before I was sleeping through the night without waking up most nights. It seems from reading others recovery threads here that poor sleep early on is more common than not.
I also have a custom conformis knee and at over a year out I am very satisfied. There are debates on whether one brand of knee vs another matters. All I know is, when I attended PT with a lot of other TKR people, I was the only one with conformis knee(probably because I used an out of town surgeon and most people were local) and my progress was faster than most others there. Maybe the knee, maybe my preop physical therapy, maybe luck of the draw.
But I went to PT from the day after I got home from the hospital and after the first week, it wasnt even challenging. I was prepared to say no to overdoing it, but nothing bad happened. I could do all the exercises and felt looser and more stretched afterwards. The PT asked if he could push my leg back, I said no and that was that. I certainly think you dont have to go toPT if you dont want to and you should refrain from doing things which cause a lot of swelling or pain. But we are all different. See what you can do up to the point of discomfort and keep it up steadily only increasing it as it gets easier.
I also have a custom conformis knee and at over a year out I am very satisfied. There are debates on whether one brand of knee vs another matters. All I know is, when I attended PT with a lot of other TKR people, I was the only one with conformis knee(probably because I used an out of town surgeon and most people were local) and my progress was faster than most others there. Maybe the knee, maybe my preop physical therapy, maybe luck of the draw.
But I went to PT from the day after I got home from the hospital and after the first week, it wasnt even challenging. I was prepared to say no to overdoing it, but nothing bad happened. I could do all the exercises and felt looser and more stretched afterwards. The PT asked if he could push my leg back, I said no and that was that. I certainly think you dont have to go toPT if you dont want to and you should refrain from doing things which cause a lot of swelling or pain. But we are all different. See what you can do up to the point of discomfort and keep it up steadily only increasing it as it gets easier.
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Softtail
senior
Like you Jajakio, my PT has been fairly easy. I get mostly “uncomfortable stretching feeling” from the exercises from almost all of them I do ,except one. The leg extension causes me the closest thing to actual pain. My PT guy is fabulous and agrees with the majority of opinions that PT should not bring a tear to a glass eye. His suggestion for leg extension exercise was simply lie on floor ,put book under heel and just stay that way up to 15 minutes if tolerable. No external downward pressure added.Just let gravity do its thing. Have started this andgotta tell you that even begins to be painful after a few minutes so that’s where I stop. He is guessing that is partially due to the condition of knee presurgery, indicating I was probably not fully extended then due to long time living with the arthritic leg. He noticed my right leg is in itself at about 2 or 3 degrees, presurgery, and as of now myTKR is at 8 degrees.
With time as Josephine points out, the healing process should allow leg to relax more, so will continue with rehab exercises that give me that good stretch feeling, and wait for things to heal. Oddly enough I look forward to the exercises, and when done my leg feels pretty good, but I also use my ice machine right after, and that feels good also.
With time as Josephine points out, the healing process should allow leg to relax more, so will continue with rehab exercises that give me that good stretch feeling, and wait for things to heal. Oddly enough I look forward to the exercises, and when done my leg feels pretty good, but I also use my ice machine right after, and that feels good also.
NavyGunns
Former BoneSmart staff member
@Softtail, I also looked forward to my pt sessions when I had them. One, for most part they felt good (especially the massages and icing), two, it gave me a chance to get additional input on my progress, kind of a validation, three it got me out of the house! My first couple of weeks I was still on STD, the last two weeks I was back to work.
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OP
Softtail
senior
Navy, catching up on posts and just about to start my mid-day exercises. PT tech added a few new ones yesterday that are geared towards some “strengthening” of muscles. Did them yesterday and I told him I would add them today but only to the point where they try to push across the “uncomfortable” threshold into the pain area. Nothing too rugged some ankle lifts and a very minimal short type of squat move. I am not against these, since I know pre-surgery my muscle tone over the years has definitely deteriorated but my focus is on stretch type of recovery at this point.
NavyGunns
Former BoneSmart staff member
OP
OP
Softtail
senior
This may seem like a foolish question ,and I wish I had asked it earlier, but just got to thinking if I have screwed something up. My operation was done in upstate NY, and I left the hospital with a dressing covering my incision , unlike any I have seen before. I would describe it as a central bandage strip,encased in a rubber/latex like waterproof cover With a total width of around 4 inches wide. It looks like it’s a type of bandage that definitely wasn’t meant to be changed early on. I am almost certain my instructions were to leave it on till I saw the doctor ,who would remove it and stitches 14-17 days,( which is Monday). Again this may be redundant since it just dawned on me to ask this question 2 days beforeStaple removal, but just got to thinking about it and wondered if any other new TKR recipients have this type of dressing an d were told to leave on till staple removal? I hope answer is yes , otherwise no idea whatincision will look like post removal.
On my side there is no soreness, redness, or any kind of seepage that has escaped the dressing, and my temperature is normal, so it is what it is for now, but would sure like some assurance if anyone has left hospital with similar dressing
On my side there is no soreness, redness, or any kind of seepage that has escaped the dressing, and my temperature is normal, so it is what it is for now, but would sure like some assurance if anyone has left hospital with similar dressing
Mine looked like it, too.
Same here. Mine was supposed to stay in for 2 weeks but I was back in the office before that (I can’t remember why) and my surgeon took it off early.
He actually did a very nice incision and stitching job. One of my friends said he should take up quilting!
He actually did a very nice incision and stitching job. One of my friends said he should take up quilting!
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