Hi,
@DLR (Diane),
Very sorry I have not written for awhile. Although I have been following your posts with great interest (and a number of others), I have been having such difficulty coping with the “ up-and-down” nature of this “ recovery” (I still need to put that in quotes) that I was sure whatever I wrote I was going to need to retract the next day.
One day, my knee cap stings like crazy. The next day, my shin burns madly. Two days later a painful numbness envelops the entire knee. All of these sensations are interspersed with up to twelve hours where I swear it doesn’t hurt as badly. So very confusing.... Am I getting better? Or did I just trade in my arthritic pain for a new sharper and varying burning? Were so many nerves cut that they will never “regrow” to make my knee cap feel half way normal again...or will it always feel like a mechanical object sewn inside my burning skin?
I so identified with your realization that the knee replacement is, indeed, more difficult than the hip! By this point with my hip I hardly was thinking about it, whereas my knee almost never lets me forget it!
For me, what is the most confusing is that I really can’t point to any cause when I have a particularly rough day. I swear I have had “good” (relatively) days following some PT which I thought might have pushed my limits; and I have had “good” days where I had skipped any PT. Same goes for bad days; I have done next to nothing and been in pain the next day and have done next to nothing and felt better! I do hope in this trial and error process of trying to determine my optimum approach to rehabbing this knee I succeed. But it is SO HARD to stay optimistic that you are getting better- when the minute you think that - something happens and you are in pain again.
Well, I guess now you can see why I haven’t written for a couple of weeks, my spirits are taking a pounding with the variability of this recovery and I just want the pain to STOP! Just tired of it!
Okay, there is my big whine- but I just know you understand! The best thing about this blog is that we all truly do know how this FEELS and husbands, friends, daughters might only be guessing...and sometimes can’t reach us in the way that all of the Bonesmarties can.
God love you, Diane! You help me so much with your very realistic but upbeat postings! I know deep down it will get better but I surely have realized some dark days in this recovery.
Take care. I’ll try to keep in better touch going forward.
Kathy
Canada
