Help

[KimB]

Hi,

I am actually posting for my Mum. She had a partial knee replacment 12 days ago. She is not coping well at all (please excuse my naivety with this), the medication they have given her is making her extremly nauseous so she doesn't feel like doing any exercises. I am worried as I know that the more she does the quicker the recovery!!

What I really want to know is where should she be at 12 days??

Thanks for any help

 

[JenniferG]

Here in the US they can give something to counteract the nausea, Phengean I think. Ask her DR. Maybe she can get that or switch to a new med all together. For me I remember 12 days was lots of sleep, regular mini walks and outings to physical therapy in addition to doing my exercises at home. Hope things get better for your mom and bless you for keeping up after her.

 

[Josephine]

12 days is a very painful period. She needs pain meds so you should talk to her doctor at once and get this sorted. Phenergen is okay but makes a person sleepy which could be a good thing or not!

What meds is she on?

 

[KimB]

Thanks for your replies I feel like a worry wort. She also admitted to me that she is depressed - which I already knew.

She is on oxycontin and panadol - thats it.

 

[JenniferG]

Not sure what panadol is (now I'll have to look it up) but I'm sure Josephine does. Be sure she is taking her pain meds on a shedule, whether she thinks she needs it or not. The pain meds are a maintenance concept as opposed to spot treatments. Talking to her DR can address the depression as well. Lots of folks get some form of depression after major surgey. Add pain to the mix and she's certainly having a tough time. Let us know how she does.

 

[stwalker]

My mother-in-law broke her hip and I have never seen anyone get into a depression as bad as she did but she also got sun downers and got very confused. I think it was all the medications she was on. It took a while but she finally got through it all. Got her home Nov 30 (her birthday) she got so hard headed about using her walker or calling for help that in Feb she fell and broke her other hip and here we go again. We watched the medications this time and she did much better.

How old is your mother? Mine is 80. It takes a lot of patients with these older folks they don't bounce back as good. She went to rehab before she came home. I would not know where to begin with her at home.

She does not want to do the work. She acts very pitiful. She talks about when she is able to do those kinds of things she will and then asks me how I am getting better so fast from my RTKR. I told because I work hard at it. I want my life back to normal and she could do it too if she wanted it bad enough.

But as far as the meds go I agree with everyone. She needs her medications changed and make sure she is not taking them on an empty stomach. She may not need to take as much either, especially if she is a tiny person. Some people are more sensative to these pain meds than others.

Zoloft is good for nausea and I don't think it makes you as sleepy as Phenergan does.

Hope this helps,
Good luck with you Mom,
Sue

PS Panadol has Codeine in it and it really makes people nauseated.

 

[JenniferG]

My father always said..."Jen, it's H#ll getting old." Miss him. Sept. 3 will be 1 year since he died. Yeah, miss him.

 

[Rowdy66]

Oxycontin can make you very nauseous. When I first was placed on oxy, many years ago, I had a heck of a time. Each time they raised the dose I would go through several days of sick at my stomach plus it can make you sleepy. If she eats something she will not be so sick at her tummy. Seems her not wanting to do the exercises is a major problem and she absolutely needs to do them to get better. The longer she waits the harder it is going to be for her. You need to talk to her doctor and explain the problem. You have not said how old she is but she sounds like she may be up there in years. Us olders can be a real hand full. I am sure she appreciates your care and concern. God bless. Rowdy

 

[Linda2]

Most of my exercises started with "do ten of these". If she can't do ten, maybe she'll be willing to try five. Something is better than nothing, so working up to the reps is a fine thing to do. Heck, even if she'll just try a couple, it would still help.

 

[Josephine]

Oxycontin is a morphine derivitive and that would be more likely to be causing the nausea. Panadol is a relatively harmless 'over-the-counter' med that has little side effects. There are a lot of other meds she could be trying - diclofenac for one, and codeine phosphate, dihydrococeine. You/she should have a talk with her doctor and explain the problems. Panadol alone is not enough.n

 

[KimB]

Thanks so much for your help everyone. I will be calling her Doctor first thing in the morning.

Mum is 55 - young hey!!

She does eat when she has the tablets - which is a start I guess.

Right of to do a tiny bit of encouraging and get her into some exercises!!!

Thanks again - I will let you know how I go with her doctor.

Ok I feel sneaky - I just rang the Surgeons office and spoke to a really nice lady and she said that Mum should still be on stronger pain medication so she is getting the clinic nurse to ring her tomorrow - AND she will fax a script through to our pharmacy!! I am so relieved - I hate watching Mum in pain!!

 

[Josephine]

You are a lovely, caring daughter - she is lucky to have you.