fireball84
junior member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2024
- Messages
- 21
- Age
- 40
- Gender
- Female
- Country
United States
Hello everyone. After reading many of the stories here I figured I would add my own. I had total knee replacement on my left knee on August 29th at 39 years old. A little history on this wonderful knee of mine. I had ACL reconstruction on it in 2001, which recovery was fine for. I chalk that up to kids heal quickly (I was 17, and this was my second ACL reconstruction). After I graduated high school, I joined the Army and was in there for 10 years. My back ended up having issues with degenerative disc disease, so I was medically retired from the military. While trying to get back into shape after having my 3rd child, my knee popped during a 5k run. This started my journey with meniscus issues and osteoarthritis. It's been around 6 years of dealing with the pain, moving from mild to moderate to server arthritis. Then it started doing this wonderful thing where it felt like it was dislocating. At first it was very uncommon. Then it started happening more often, and then started happening at work, or picking my kid up from daycare and other random places. Then it started locking and I couldn't get it to release on my own. Nothing helped with that, not even wearing a brace. My medical care comes from the VA, and my normal ortho doc did not want to do a replacement because of my age. I was sent out to community care, and this doctor recommended knee replacement due to the massive amount of issues with the knee.
August 29th, had the surgery that I thought was going to solve all my problems. When I woke up, I couldn't lift my foot and my toes were numb. 6 weeks later, they are still numb and I still cannot lift my foot. The knee itself is doing well overall, I've been working through PT twice a week since the week after surgery. I hit 120 ROM today, which was a push and I think my PT was trying to make me feel better by kinda pushing me for it, and it's sore now(I know, not good). The main issue I'm having so far is the pain from the nerve issues. My God, that is the worst at night. They have me on gabapentin for it, but I've never found that it does much for nerve pain. I tried another one, but it made me nauseous and dizzy. I still have pain meds I take at night to try and help with the nerve pain, but honestly it doesn't really help. This has been quite the struggle, emotionally and physically. I normally have a high pain tolerance, but this has been a completely different level of pain. It's been a crazy ride. I will say the incision looks fantastic!
I figured I would post on here since I woke up with foot drop, so I could document things and maybe help others if they come across this in the future.
When I woke up, the foot just felt swollen. Pulse was fine, and it was swollen, but they said they thought the numbness was from the nerve block. They kept me another night in the hospital to see if it resolved the next day before sending me home. It did not.
The entire outside of my leg is numb from about the knee joint down. After the ACL reconstruction, I never regained the feeling on the outside of my knee, so I didn't have that to begin with so that can't be from this surgery. The numbness tends to migrate across the shin and to the inside of the knee/down the inside shin if I do too much, and then the migrating numbness goes away over night. It's weird for sure. For the foot, it started with a patch of the area under my big toe and the toe next to it, almost in a V shape. I cannot stand anything touching it other than a sock. The toes were numb on the top, with the pinky and toe next to it completely numb. I could feel the whole bottom of the foot when I got out of the hospital, but some time around week 4 the outside edge of the bottom of the foot went numb. And oddly enough the top edge of the foot (with the exception of the toes) has feeling now while the rest is still numb. I have an extensive amount of pain around the big toe at night. It ranges from feeling like a bruise to feeling like lightening to burning all at varying intensities. It feels swollen in the morning, even though it's not and has been elevated and iced. It has gotten worse since the onset, and I have not found anything that gives it any kind of relief. Around 4 weeks, I did receive a custom AFO that has allowed me to walk more normally, but it is bulky and squeezes my foot in my shoe (has to be worn in a shoe) which doesn't feel good. I have some time to wait before we will do any type of nerve study, but we will see how it goes.
August 29th, had the surgery that I thought was going to solve all my problems. When I woke up, I couldn't lift my foot and my toes were numb. 6 weeks later, they are still numb and I still cannot lift my foot. The knee itself is doing well overall, I've been working through PT twice a week since the week after surgery. I hit 120 ROM today, which was a push and I think my PT was trying to make me feel better by kinda pushing me for it, and it's sore now(I know, not good). The main issue I'm having so far is the pain from the nerve issues. My God, that is the worst at night. They have me on gabapentin for it, but I've never found that it does much for nerve pain. I tried another one, but it made me nauseous and dizzy. I still have pain meds I take at night to try and help with the nerve pain, but honestly it doesn't really help. This has been quite the struggle, emotionally and physically. I normally have a high pain tolerance, but this has been a completely different level of pain. It's been a crazy ride. I will say the incision looks fantastic!
I figured I would post on here since I woke up with foot drop, so I could document things and maybe help others if they come across this in the future.
When I woke up, the foot just felt swollen. Pulse was fine, and it was swollen, but they said they thought the numbness was from the nerve block. They kept me another night in the hospital to see if it resolved the next day before sending me home. It did not.
The entire outside of my leg is numb from about the knee joint down. After the ACL reconstruction, I never regained the feeling on the outside of my knee, so I didn't have that to begin with so that can't be from this surgery. The numbness tends to migrate across the shin and to the inside of the knee/down the inside shin if I do too much, and then the migrating numbness goes away over night. It's weird for sure. For the foot, it started with a patch of the area under my big toe and the toe next to it, almost in a V shape. I cannot stand anything touching it other than a sock. The toes were numb on the top, with the pinky and toe next to it completely numb. I could feel the whole bottom of the foot when I got out of the hospital, but some time around week 4 the outside edge of the bottom of the foot went numb. And oddly enough the top edge of the foot (with the exception of the toes) has feeling now while the rest is still numb. I have an extensive amount of pain around the big toe at night. It ranges from feeling like a bruise to feeling like lightening to burning all at varying intensities. It feels swollen in the morning, even though it's not and has been elevated and iced. It has gotten worse since the onset, and I have not found anything that gives it any kind of relief. Around 4 weeks, I did receive a custom AFO that has allowed me to walk more normally, but it is bulky and squeezes my foot in my shoe (has to be worn in a shoe) which doesn't feel good. I have some time to wait before we will do any type of nerve study, but we will see how it goes.
