bottomshollow
Former BoneSmart staff member
Take care and keep us posted. We care.
TKR gr82cu2 Hello new knee, it's great to see you!
- Thread starter gr82cu2
- Start date
Take care and keep us posted. We care.
I borrowed an ice machine from a neighbor for my first TKR. The first night home, I woke up thinking someone was screaming. It was the machine. My husband called a medical supply company the next morning and they delivered one to our house within hours. No screaming with the new one! I am at 7 weeks today and I am still using it at least 5 to 6 hours a day. Well worth the money.
Hope you stay pain free and have an uneventful recovery!
Cindy
Hope you stay pain free and have an uneventful recovery!
Cindy
tiredwife
alpha
@gr82cu2 Yes when the block wears off it is rough because they have to find the right medicine or combination of meds, and that can take awhile. Just remember when you get home to set an alarm to take your meds. They also don't elevate at our hospital, but had no problems with me doing it for him with extra pillows. Elevation is very important, have to keep the swelling at bay. That is why we used a wedge pillow under our mattress so while he was in bed it was elevated. Have a better day!
OP
OP
gr82cu2
post-grad
Hi everybody! I'm feeling much better today 
The change in meds yesterday did the trick. I'm feeling sleepy all the time but that's a whole lot better than the pain I was in yesterday, bawling like a baby and throwing a tantrum. I think I've made up with everyone and they all know I was just in a boat load of pain. I had a PT session this morning. She was very gentle and didn't push me at all. 
She measured me with what I could do on my own and I came up a 0 extension and 92 Rom! Another big improvement over yesterday's 80 
Then they gave me a big girl walker with wheels and we went for a walk where I walked to the end of the hall, around the corner and back. Then into the PT room where I tackled 2 stairs up and down like a pro.
My OS and his PA came to see me just a bit ago and looked at my incision and declared everything to be going well and looking good. There is one tiny, oozy spot at the very top of my incision but no big deal. We talked meds for home use and he's going to RX Oxycodone and Tramadol to alternate or use the Oxy when pain is bad, the Tramadol when it's more bearable. My leg is pretty swollen but surprisingly not that bruised, yet. He said it may still bruise more. We talked about doing the other knee. I'm going to see him in a month and if he feels like my progress is good and will continue for the following 2 months to where I can declare my left leg to be my good leg we will go ahead and schedule the right one for November. I want to get on the schedule because he's usually booked 6-8 weeks out and I want it done this year for financial reasons. I told him how happy I am that the arthritis pain is gone. Yes, it's very sore but it's a different pain. One that will heal and I will recover from. I thanked him and gave him a big hug.
Anyway, I need to run. The PT should be here anytime. I should be released to go home sometime around 5 eastern time. I just wanted you all to know that I'm feeling much better than yesterday. If you are in intolerable pain let them know!!!! Those that are following me because you are coming up on your surgery, please don't let my day yesterday scare you. Today is a much better day
The change in meds yesterday did the trick. I'm feeling sleepy all the time but that's a whole lot better than the pain I was in yesterday, bawling like a baby and throwing a tantrum. I think I've made up with everyone and they all know I was just in a boat load of pain. I had a PT session this morning. She was very gentle and didn't push me at all. She measured me with what I could do on my own and I came up a 0 extension and 92 Rom! Another big improvement over yesterday's 80 Then they gave me a big girl walker with wheels and we went for a walk where I walked to the end of the hall, around the corner and back. Then into the PT room where I tackled 2 stairs up and down like a pro. My OS and his PA came to see me just a bit ago and looked at my incision and declared everything to be going well and looking good. There is one tiny, oozy spot at the very top of my incision but no big deal. We talked meds for home use and he's going to RX Oxycodone and Tramadol to alternate or use the Oxy when pain is bad, the Tramadol when it's more bearable. My leg is pretty swollen but surprisingly not that bruised, yet. He said it may still bruise more. We talked about doing the other knee. I'm going to see him in a month and if he feels like my progress is good and will continue for the following 2 months to where I can declare my left leg to be my good leg we will go ahead and schedule the right one for November. I want to get on the schedule because he's usually booked 6-8 weeks out and I want it done this year for financial reasons. I told him how happy I am that the arthritis pain is gone. Yes, it's very sore but it's a different pain. One that will heal and I will recover from. I thanked him and gave him a big hug.
Anyway, I need to run. The PT should be here anytime. I should be released to go home sometime around 5 eastern time. I just wanted you all to know that I'm feeling much better than yesterday. If you are in intolerable pain let them know!!!! Those that are following me because you are coming up on your surgery, please don't let my day yesterday scare you. Today is a much better day
Last edited by a moderator:
tiredwife
alpha
madinana
post-grad
OP
OP
gr82cu2
post-grad
SO glad to hear you are having a better time today 
I think here in Sydney I am probably 12 - 14 hrs ahead so checking in first thing this morning is yr night, I am in yr tomorrow.
Fun but weird.
I prayed for you and the " recovery bump" ( my last night - yr morning) so I am so thrilled yr day was so much better.
Praying right now for a really restful restorative night's sleep for you, so maybe the time difference can work
I am booked into see GP next Thursday OS Tuesday following. From what I have learnt here if OS won't come to the party I'll go elsewhere.
We have a lovely family time away booked in for early October - all things going well I'd want RTKR after that LTKR some time next year. Thanks for asking and taking an interest
Love and prayers Lorl
I think here in Sydney I am probably 12 - 14 hrs ahead so checking in first thing this morning is yr night, I am in yr tomorrow.
Fun but weird.I prayed for you and the " recovery bump" ( my last night - yr morning) so I am so thrilled yr day was so much better.
Praying right now for a really restful restorative night's sleep for you, so maybe the time difference can work
I am booked into see GP next Thursday OS Tuesday following. From what I have learnt here if OS won't come to the party I'll go elsewhere.
We have a lovely family time away booked in for early October - all things going well I'd want RTKR after that LTKR some time next year. Thanks for asking and taking an interest
Love and prayers Lorl
I thought it was me, re things cyber techno I operate with the IQ of the average house brick So I thought the issues were just ME.
It has been v slow, cursor playing silly devils etc.
No doubt the geniuses will work it out
Now that's reassuring, does the old ego some good 
Maybe as well as becoming bone savvy I'll become techno savvy.: 2 for the price of one.
If this is not a silly question I notice people often have a feature @ then another person's ID
What is that for, how do you use it, how do you make it happen.
Gee I am learning a lot being here. And I am merrily recommending it to one and all. Essential for my husband and family, passed it onto my Feldenkrais teacher - who loved it, she sent back GIANT
Now passing it onto others i know with pesky knees and hips. My " feldie" teacher is now passing the site on to other clients with knee and hip issues.
Just spreading the LURV.
Maybe as well as becoming bone savvy I'll become techno savvy.: 2 for the price of one.
If this is not a silly question I notice people often have a feature @ then another person's ID
What is that for, how do you use it, how do you make it happen.
Gee I am learning a lot being here. And I am merrily recommending it to one and all. Essential for my husband and family, passed it onto my Feldenkrais teacher - who loved it, she sent back GIANT
Now passing it onto others i know with pesky knees and hips. My " feldie" teacher is now passing the site on to other clients with knee and hip issues.Just spreading the LURV.
marmora
post-grad
@G82cu2
Don't know if it is my iphone display, but your posts printed out one word on each line. Did scroll through and got the general message.
Hope by now the pain medication system is working for you. Your post is very informative & detailed and will provide great information for those awaiting surgery.
Take care and hope you get sleep and rest and ease of pain.
Don't know if it is my iphone display, but your posts printed out one word on each line. Did scroll through and got the general message.
Hope by now the pain medication system is working for you. Your post is very informative & detailed and will provide great information for those awaiting surgery.
Take care and hope you get sleep and rest and ease of pain.
tiredwife
alpha
@lorl the '@' right in front of the name gives us an alert that someone is talking directly to us. It is a little picky as it has to be directly in front of the name, and the name has to be spelled exactly the same as by their avatar. If done right it will be blue when you post it.
@marmora They are making changes to the forum, so there are some glitches.
@marmora They are making changes to the forum, so there are some glitches.
OP
OP
gr82cu2
post-grad
Yay!!! I'm home!!!! I'm all settled in on the sofa with my leg elevated and ice all around my knee. Between PT twice today and the hubbub of getting home it is swelled up something awful. I had to have one last row over my OS's PA unfortunately before I got out of there. I was so mad I was telling Kent to grab my stuff and I was getting my walker and we were just going to leave! Man, I can't stand that guy and I told the patient advocate that. He is soooooo rude, unhelpful, uncaring and lots of other adjectives. Unfortunately, I have to see him for my follow up appointment on the 14th. The next time I see my OS I'm going to tell him in the future I would rather not have to deal with Darrell in any capacity. My OS is just the biggest sweetheart, I can't believe he tolerates Darrell. They came in together to see me today though and Darrell was on his best behavior so maybe OS doesn't realize how he is when he's not around him. I thanked my OS today and gave him a hug and told him that even though things are kinda rough right now I know he gave me a great new knee and all will be well in the end. Think I'll save the rest for the nightly roundup.
@lorl if you put an "@" sign without the quotes in front of a user name that person will get a notification and it takes them right to where you are talking to them. Pretty cool! Thank you so much for your prayers, good thoughts and consideration. It's nice to know there are so many caring people around. You are 14 hours ahead of me. I have a friend in New Zealand who is 16 or 17 hours ahead depending on the time of year and daylight savings time. It's very hard for us to catch each other live online.
@marmora It has to be your display. Trust me I'm too drugged up to post one word lines, LOL.
@lorl if you put an "@" sign without the quotes in front of a user name that person will get a notification and it takes them right to where you are talking to them. Pretty cool! Thank you so much for your prayers, good thoughts and consideration. It's nice to know there are so many caring people around. You are 14 hours ahead of me. I have a friend in New Zealand who is 16 or 17 hours ahead depending on the time of year and daylight savings time. It's very hard for us to catch each other live online.
@marmora It has to be your display. Trust me I'm too drugged up to post one word lines, LOL.
tiredwife
alpha
@gr82cu2 Janet, so glad you are home, now maybe things will calm down for you. Hubby's knee was really swollen when he first got home too. Spend most of tonight and tomorrow elevating to get the swelling out! Sorry I hadn't been on here much, between days of a headache (which is finally gone) and the site not letting me on because of the glitches with the new format, I just wasn't on much.
I think marmora's glitch was caused by the bugs of the new forum format.
Now that you are home how is Tucker and Mini. Was your husband able to get Tucker's meds in him?
I think marmora's glitch was caused by the bugs of the new forum format.
Now that you are home how is Tucker and Mini. Was your husband able to get Tucker's meds in him?
Crow22
junior member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2013
- Messages
- 96
- Age
- 68
- Location
- Finger Lakes region of New York
- Gender
- Female
- Country
United States
@gr82cu2 So very glad that you are home. And don't worry you didn't scare us next new kneers too much!! Just kidding, So glad to hear you are doing better, and It was a good lesson for me to make sure I keep on top of the pain med schedule, and to let them know if I need something different, so thank you for that. Much healing to you and keep letting us know how you are doing.
OP
OP
gr82cu2
post-grad
Tough times don't last, tough people do" ~ Trace Adkins on Fox & Friends just now. I liked that 
Ok, let's see if we can go back to Thursday July 31st at around 6 am, two days after surgery. Not quite 48 hours later and pick back up where we left off with our little daily roundup report. I was just too beat, swollen and sore to get to it last night. I woke up Thursday in a much better place than I had been Wednesday because they got my pain under control.
6 am...Lois brought me my blood thinner, Xiralto and a delicious cup of coffee. The nurses tell me everyone loves Xiralto for a blood thinner because it doesn 't require blood draws to measure thinness/thickness. I will stay on this for another 10 days.
7 am...Shift change and I got Sheena and Tassie again which makes me very happy! They work three 12 hour shifts a week. During the night you have an RN and during the day you have an RN and a "tech". Some of the "techs" wore badges saying they were CNA's, some not. All were tremendously sweet, cheery and compassionate. Honestly, I loved Lois, Sheena and Tassie so much that I'm considering trying to find out their shift schedules in November and try to coordinate my 2nd surgery around when they will be there.
8am.....Tassie got me up to sit in the chair awhile.
8:25 am....Lois brought me 2 Percocet tabs, a stool softener and Lyrica and put me back in bed with ice, ice baby! Heaven! Room service called to see if they could bring me something to eat. I ordered the fresh fruit cup and vanilla yogurt. So yummy!
10 am.....PT with Christy again. We did some gentle exercises and measured 0 extension and 92 ROM. She got me a walker with wheels and we walked down the hall and around the corner for a ways and then returned to the PT room which was between my room and the corner in the hall. She asked how many steps to get in my home. I have 2 from the garage into the kitchen with no railing but I can reach the door frame from the floor. She taught me how to go up the stairs backwards with my walker and will show Kent later when he comes how to brace the walker once I'm up on the first step. So, I went up and then down 2 steps which was very easy for me. It is so much easier to walk with a walker with wheels too because you can walk in a more fluid manner instead of one step at a time, move the walker, step, step, move the walker. So, when they feel you are ready for a wheeled walker, go for it. It also helps to stretch out your hamstrings to take normal strides. Pain is at about a reasonable 4 or 5.
Sidenote....just before Christy came for PT the mystery doctor from yesterday came to check on me. Listened to my heart, lungs and asked about pain levels. He wanted to know if the med change the prior day had helped. YES! I think he was the one responsible for getting my meds changed on Wednesday for which I thanked him profusely. Everyone, including him (wish I had gotten his name), Christy the PT and the nurses declared me so much better, happier and in way less pain with the med change. So, if you are hurting, really hurting ask them to try something different. Different strokes for different folks, you know? I had to throw a hissy fit but there were extenuating circumstances there with my frustration with my OS's PA.
Shortly after PT my OS and his PA came by to see me, check my incision, talk meds, etc. OS was very pleased with my extension and flexion and said he would send me home with hydrocodone (Percocet minus the Tylenol) and Tramadol with Tylenol in it. He said to take the Percocet when it was bad and the Tramadol when it was more bearable or even try alternating back and forth. With either one I can take 1 or 2 tablets every 6 hours. I was also supposed to get Celebrex and Lyrica but we'll get to that later on.
Noon....Kent came and brought my e-stem unit so the PT could show me in the afternoon how to use it now, post surgery and what exercises to do while I had it going. I ordered lunch....a fabulous cheeseburger and some mac & cheese. Good thing I don't eat like this all the time! It was yummy. The food there is really very good! And if you don't call room service they call you so they make sure you eat something.
Kent and I just kinda hung out till 2:15 when Christy returned. Then he had to leave for a dentist appointment. He cracked a tooth on Tuesday eating lunch while waiting on me to come out of recovery and be put in a room. When it rains, it pours. It's painful and he hasn't been able to eat anything solid since it happened. The dentist gave him Amoxicillin and Vicodin for pain until he can pull the tooth on the 11th.
2:15 Christy showed me the exercises to do with my e-stem strapped on and how to place the electrodes. Pretty easy. Some are done during the warm up phase, some during the pause phase and some during the active stage of the e-stem. All in all, it takes about 30 minutes a session but it's slow and not forceful or particularly painful. I'm supposed to do them twice a day with e-stem and once without. I only did it the one time yesterday though because by the time I got home I was just too tired, swollen and uncomfortable. Then we walked with the walker, came back and Christy iced me up, put me in bed and I rested.
4 pm....CVS called and said they had received an Rx for Celebrex for me but my insurance won't pay for it until my OS calls and tells them why I need it. You know how they are....they have 3 lists, right? One list is meds they will always cover, one list is meds they will never cover and one list is meds they will cover if it is proven to be medically necessary and preferable over similar alternatives. So, I called Sheena in and told her I needed somehow to talk to Dr. Randolph or the dreaded Darrell and get this cleared up. She said she would call Darrell. Ok, fine? Not!! She called Darrell and I don't know if something got lost in the translation or he was just being his usual obstinate self but she reported back that he wouldn't be calling my insurance because he said, "He can't tell them to pay for my medicine." Ugh! No, you just need to tell them why I need that over say, Aleve or Ibuprofen. So Kent and I tried to explain to her what needed to be done. He wasn't going to be calling them to demand they pay for the med. He just needed to justify to them why it was preferable. It is preferable because it doesn't cause bleeding/clotting issues. Anyway, she called him back and he still refused. This is when I blew my top over Darrell again. The guy is a douche, sorry, but he is. So, I figured I'd just call my patient advocate at my insurance when I got home and leave Darrell out of it.
5 pm...The gal in charge of patient discharge comes by with all kinds of stuff. She had a worksheet of all the meds and supplements I had been taking at home, in the hospital and for after I got home. This worksheet showed when I could resume different ones, when to take them, how often, etc. So, we're going over all the meds and I see that Lyrica is missing and they had been giving me that and Celebrex while I was inpatient so I asked about the Lyrica. She disappeared and came back and said that is old protocol (I suspect she talked to Darrell) and they no longer give that. Really? Because I've been getting it here in the hospital! So, she disappeared again and came back and said "Darrell said Dr. Randolph doesn't want me to have Lyrica or Celebrex." Really????? Why did Dr. Randolph send an Rx to CVS for Celebrex for me if he didn't want me to have it? Tempers definitely flared! About this time the patient advocate showed up. I suspect she heard our raised voices. So, we quickly explained what was happening and my intense dislike of Darrell and why I dislike him so much. She asked if I wanted to lodge a formal complaint with details and we declined because frankly, I have to go to him for my followup and I'm facing another surgery with Dr. Randolph and Darrell. So, she also had two Rx's for me that can't be called in. Controlled substances, ya know? One was for Oxycodone 5mg. tabs to take 1 or 2 every six hours and another for Tramadol 37.5 with 325 Tylenol. The Xarelto blood thinner had already been sent to the pharmacy and was and had been ready for pickup along with the 5 mg. Vicodin they sent before my surgery. The Rx for the Oxy was to replace the Vicodin and Dr. Randolph wrote on it "do not dispense hydrocodone".
5:30 (or so) we finally got all my stuff packed up and got the heck out of there. By now my leg was huge and throbbing but I managed to get it in the car. (Note: Take a pillow to put under your heel of operated leg to elevate it a bit and not have your knee so bent in the car. It really helped a lot!) We stopped at CVS and dropped of the scripts and told them to take the Vicodin back and void, delete, whatever the prescription and even pointed out where Dr. Randolph wrote to not dispense it now. Kent brought me home and got me reasonably settled in and went back to pick up the Rx's. So, Kent comes home and hands me 4 bags from CVS. Four? There should only be 3. Low and behold, they had also give him the Vicodin. This shocked the heck out of me since I had the other 2 scripts for pain killers but no matter, now I'll have lots and lots of meds to get through this. I don't feel the least bit guilty because we told them. I can take the Vicodin during the day, just not at night because it keeps me awake. So I currently have the following pain prescriptions:
90 Oxycodone 5 mg. tabs
50 Toradol 37.5 tabs
50 Vicodin 5 mg. tabs with 2 refills
and the Xiralto for blood thinner
I should be all set for awhile, no? LOL!!!
Kent made me a sandwich for dinner, we fussed with my new ice machine (which was here when I got home, yay!), got all the ice packs in the freezer, set up my elevating and icing nest on the sofa, stacked my pillows for proper elevation and got me comfortable. My leg was just absolutely killing me. So swollen. The most swollen it has been by far.
9:45....I took 2 Oxycodone tabs and shortly started to freeze and shake. Not sure what that was about. We took my temperature which was 98.7, so no fever. Maybe it was just too much for one day and my body was in a bit of a revolt. I got covered up under an afghan and a blanket and settled down. I was asleep by 10:30 with an alarm set for 2:45 to take my meds.
2:00 am...I woke up having to pee so I struggled up out of my nest on my own. I got to the potty and managed to change 2 frozen water bottles in the icing machine. That's all we had frozen at that point. Kent had put a couple more in the big freezer in the garage but there was no way I was going out there in the middle of the night. If I fell he would have never heard me yelling for help. I ended up taking 2 Tramadol at around 2:30 and drank some water to quench my thirst and fell back asleep until the alarm rang again for meds at 7:00. So, not a bad night sleeping wise at all. Very pleased about that.
I wanted to write more to you all last night but I just couldn't do it. Today should be a better day. I may take a day off from PT today and let it rest some more and hope for more swelling to go down so I can use it more effectively when I do.
Over the next day or two when I feel my mind is on the clear side I'm going to compose a carefully worded email to Dr. Randolph and express my frustrations and disappoints with Darrell. And I'm going to ask him to keep my interactions with Darrell to a minimum going forward. I feel Darrell is not a truthful person and when you call him out on his contradictions he tries to spin it so he doesn't appear to be at fault. I'm not looking to get him in any sort of trouble but if he's doing these things to other patients of Dr. Randolph's and nobody speaks up, how will he know. Medical care is too important to let things slide.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to add yesterday's roundup to the diary. Have a great day everyone! Remember what Trace Adkins said, "Tough situations don't last, tough people do."
xox
Ok, let's see if we can go back to Thursday July 31st at around 6 am, two days after surgery. Not quite 48 hours later and pick back up where we left off with our little daily roundup report. I was just too beat, swollen and sore to get to it last night. I woke up Thursday in a much better place than I had been Wednesday because they got my pain under control.
6 am...Lois brought me my blood thinner, Xiralto and a delicious cup of coffee. The nurses tell me everyone loves Xiralto for a blood thinner because it doesn 't require blood draws to measure thinness/thickness. I will stay on this for another 10 days.
7 am...Shift change and I got Sheena and Tassie again which makes me very happy! They work three 12 hour shifts a week. During the night you have an RN and during the day you have an RN and a "tech". Some of the "techs" wore badges saying they were CNA's, some not. All were tremendously sweet, cheery and compassionate. Honestly, I loved Lois, Sheena and Tassie so much that I'm considering trying to find out their shift schedules in November and try to coordinate my 2nd surgery around when they will be there.
8am.....Tassie got me up to sit in the chair awhile.
8:25 am....Lois brought me 2 Percocet tabs, a stool softener and Lyrica and put me back in bed with ice, ice baby! Heaven! Room service called to see if they could bring me something to eat. I ordered the fresh fruit cup and vanilla yogurt. So yummy!
10 am.....PT with Christy again. We did some gentle exercises and measured 0 extension and 92 ROM. She got me a walker with wheels and we walked down the hall and around the corner for a ways and then returned to the PT room which was between my room and the corner in the hall. She asked how many steps to get in my home. I have 2 from the garage into the kitchen with no railing but I can reach the door frame from the floor. She taught me how to go up the stairs backwards with my walker and will show Kent later when he comes how to brace the walker once I'm up on the first step. So, I went up and then down 2 steps which was very easy for me. It is so much easier to walk with a walker with wheels too because you can walk in a more fluid manner instead of one step at a time, move the walker, step, step, move the walker. So, when they feel you are ready for a wheeled walker, go for it. It also helps to stretch out your hamstrings to take normal strides. Pain is at about a reasonable 4 or 5.
Sidenote....just before Christy came for PT the mystery doctor from yesterday came to check on me. Listened to my heart, lungs and asked about pain levels. He wanted to know if the med change the prior day had helped. YES! I think he was the one responsible for getting my meds changed on Wednesday for which I thanked him profusely. Everyone, including him (wish I had gotten his name), Christy the PT and the nurses declared me so much better, happier and in way less pain with the med change. So, if you are hurting, really hurting ask them to try something different. Different strokes for different folks, you know? I had to throw a hissy fit but there were extenuating circumstances there with my frustration with my OS's PA.
Shortly after PT my OS and his PA came by to see me, check my incision, talk meds, etc. OS was very pleased with my extension and flexion and said he would send me home with hydrocodone (Percocet minus the Tylenol) and Tramadol with Tylenol in it. He said to take the Percocet when it was bad and the Tramadol when it was more bearable or even try alternating back and forth. With either one I can take 1 or 2 tablets every 6 hours. I was also supposed to get Celebrex and Lyrica but we'll get to that later on.
Noon....Kent came and brought my e-stem unit so the PT could show me in the afternoon how to use it now, post surgery and what exercises to do while I had it going. I ordered lunch....a fabulous cheeseburger and some mac & cheese. Good thing I don't eat like this all the time! It was yummy. The food there is really very good! And if you don't call room service they call you so they make sure you eat something.
Kent and I just kinda hung out till 2:15 when Christy returned. Then he had to leave for a dentist appointment. He cracked a tooth on Tuesday eating lunch while waiting on me to come out of recovery and be put in a room. When it rains, it pours. It's painful and he hasn't been able to eat anything solid since it happened. The dentist gave him Amoxicillin and Vicodin for pain until he can pull the tooth on the 11th.
2:15 Christy showed me the exercises to do with my e-stem strapped on and how to place the electrodes. Pretty easy. Some are done during the warm up phase, some during the pause phase and some during the active stage of the e-stem. All in all, it takes about 30 minutes a session but it's slow and not forceful or particularly painful. I'm supposed to do them twice a day with e-stem and once without. I only did it the one time yesterday though because by the time I got home I was just too tired, swollen and uncomfortable. Then we walked with the walker, came back and Christy iced me up, put me in bed and I rested.
4 pm....CVS called and said they had received an Rx for Celebrex for me but my insurance won't pay for it until my OS calls and tells them why I need it. You know how they are....they have 3 lists, right? One list is meds they will always cover, one list is meds they will never cover and one list is meds they will cover if it is proven to be medically necessary and preferable over similar alternatives. So, I called Sheena in and told her I needed somehow to talk to Dr. Randolph or the dreaded Darrell and get this cleared up. She said she would call Darrell. Ok, fine? Not!! She called Darrell and I don't know if something got lost in the translation or he was just being his usual obstinate self but she reported back that he wouldn't be calling my insurance because he said, "He can't tell them to pay for my medicine." Ugh! No, you just need to tell them why I need that over say, Aleve or Ibuprofen. So Kent and I tried to explain to her what needed to be done. He wasn't going to be calling them to demand they pay for the med. He just needed to justify to them why it was preferable. It is preferable because it doesn't cause bleeding/clotting issues. Anyway, she called him back and he still refused. This is when I blew my top over Darrell again. The guy is a douche, sorry, but he is. So, I figured I'd just call my patient advocate at my insurance when I got home and leave Darrell out of it.
5 pm...The gal in charge of patient discharge comes by with all kinds of stuff. She had a worksheet of all the meds and supplements I had been taking at home, in the hospital and for after I got home. This worksheet showed when I could resume different ones, when to take them, how often, etc. So, we're going over all the meds and I see that Lyrica is missing and they had been giving me that and Celebrex while I was inpatient so I asked about the Lyrica. She disappeared and came back and said that is old protocol (I suspect she talked to Darrell) and they no longer give that. Really? Because I've been getting it here in the hospital! So, she disappeared again and came back and said "Darrell said Dr. Randolph doesn't want me to have Lyrica or Celebrex." Really????? Why did Dr. Randolph send an Rx to CVS for Celebrex for me if he didn't want me to have it? Tempers definitely flared! About this time the patient advocate showed up. I suspect she heard our raised voices. So, we quickly explained what was happening and my intense dislike of Darrell and why I dislike him so much. She asked if I wanted to lodge a formal complaint with details and we declined because frankly, I have to go to him for my followup and I'm facing another surgery with Dr. Randolph and Darrell. So, she also had two Rx's for me that can't be called in. Controlled substances, ya know? One was for Oxycodone 5mg. tabs to take 1 or 2 every six hours and another for Tramadol 37.5 with 325 Tylenol. The Xarelto blood thinner had already been sent to the pharmacy and was and had been ready for pickup along with the 5 mg. Vicodin they sent before my surgery. The Rx for the Oxy was to replace the Vicodin and Dr. Randolph wrote on it "do not dispense hydrocodone".
5:30 (or so) we finally got all my stuff packed up and got the heck out of there. By now my leg was huge and throbbing but I managed to get it in the car. (Note: Take a pillow to put under your heel of operated leg to elevate it a bit and not have your knee so bent in the car. It really helped a lot!) We stopped at CVS and dropped of the scripts and told them to take the Vicodin back and void, delete, whatever the prescription and even pointed out where Dr. Randolph wrote to not dispense it now. Kent brought me home and got me reasonably settled in and went back to pick up the Rx's. So, Kent comes home and hands me 4 bags from CVS. Four? There should only be 3. Low and behold, they had also give him the Vicodin. This shocked the heck out of me since I had the other 2 scripts for pain killers but no matter, now I'll have lots and lots of meds to get through this. I don't feel the least bit guilty because we told them. I can take the Vicodin during the day, just not at night because it keeps me awake. So I currently have the following pain prescriptions:
90 Oxycodone 5 mg. tabs
50 Toradol 37.5 tabs
50 Vicodin 5 mg. tabs with 2 refills
and the Xiralto for blood thinner
I should be all set for awhile, no? LOL!!!
Kent made me a sandwich for dinner, we fussed with my new ice machine (which was here when I got home, yay!), got all the ice packs in the freezer, set up my elevating and icing nest on the sofa, stacked my pillows for proper elevation and got me comfortable. My leg was just absolutely killing me. So swollen. The most swollen it has been by far.
9:45....I took 2 Oxycodone tabs and shortly started to freeze and shake. Not sure what that was about. We took my temperature which was 98.7, so no fever. Maybe it was just too much for one day and my body was in a bit of a revolt. I got covered up under an afghan and a blanket and settled down. I was asleep by 10:30 with an alarm set for 2:45 to take my meds.
2:00 am...I woke up having to pee so I struggled up out of my nest on my own. I got to the potty and managed to change 2 frozen water bottles in the icing machine. That's all we had frozen at that point. Kent had put a couple more in the big freezer in the garage but there was no way I was going out there in the middle of the night. If I fell he would have never heard me yelling for help. I ended up taking 2 Tramadol at around 2:30 and drank some water to quench my thirst and fell back asleep until the alarm rang again for meds at 7:00. So, not a bad night sleeping wise at all. Very pleased about that.
I wanted to write more to you all last night but I just couldn't do it. Today should be a better day. I may take a day off from PT today and let it rest some more and hope for more swelling to go down so I can use it more effectively when I do.
Over the next day or two when I feel my mind is on the clear side I'm going to compose a carefully worded email to Dr. Randolph and express my frustrations and disappoints with Darrell. And I'm going to ask him to keep my interactions with Darrell to a minimum going forward. I feel Darrell is not a truthful person and when you call him out on his contradictions he tries to spin it so he doesn't appear to be at fault. I'm not looking to get him in any sort of trouble but if he's doing these things to other patients of Dr. Randolph's and nobody speaks up, how will he know. Medical care is too important to let things slide.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to add yesterday's roundup to the diary. Have a great day everyone! Remember what Trace Adkins said, "Tough situations don't last, tough people do."
xox
