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TKR I Feel Like the Tin Man these Days

The move to out patient is coming from the federal government.

Be sure to write about everything you experienced in your patient survey. Hospital payments are influenced by those surveys, not one for one but based on trends.

The whole patent ordering food thing is interesting. It's supposed to give you more control but I find that the nurses forget to check if you did order, help you to sit up, check to see what you ate, if anything...

I hate to say it, but you really need an advocate with you in the hospital at times.
 
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Laurenkate,
At the beginning I slept in the recliner—put “slept” in quote marks! I found I’d be up and walking around to manage the restlessness. I’d change cold gel packs and listen to music and then settle back again.

When I finally was able to be back in our bed again I’d be up at 11:30. And back out to the recliner. I told hubby to just ignore me. And he got sleep while I watched the clock. No pain but restless...

With the TKR in 2014 I had many nights of pain and up and out of bed. He woke up a lot and finally learned to ignore my up and down times.:good-bad:
 
Hi @Laurenkate - in my early days after surgery, I too could not regulate my body temperature. I would have my knee buried in ice and have a heating pad behind my back ( or sitting on it) along with a blanket; trying to keep warm. Hang in there, it does get better!
 
It's a hour long process just to get ready for bed, isn't it? Ice packs near the chair, ice machine near the bed, books and phone near the chair, computer and more books near the bed. Where to put the heating pad because my back hurts in either place? Water near the bed, water near the chair. Cane next to the chair, crutches next to the bed. Pillows everywhere! Hopefully all this will convince my husband he doesn't need to get up with me every time he hears me stirring around...sometimes it's a little spooky to go to the bathroom, come out and he's silently standing at the door.

Palrn: you're so right about the food in the hospital business. The nurse was quite proud to tell me that it was "just like room service" and then I noticed the ordering hours were between 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It was tempting to point out that if I wanted a cup of tea at 10 p.m., I was going to be out of luck so it wasn't exactly like room service. There were two different numbers to call to order - one for the patient and one for the family but I kept thinking about people who were really ill or alone or just didn't know to order. It was surprising the hospital really fell down on explaining all this because they were so good about explaining everything a year ago. There didn't seem to be any full time nurses and I just wonder if (like so many other things these days), the hospital group is trying to cut corners in a lot of areas and missing some "customer service" issues in the process.
 
That description of getting ready for bed was great!!

And I love this:
Laurenkate said:
Hopefully all this will convince my husband he doesn't need to get up with me every time he hears me stirring around...sometimes it's a little spooky to go to the bathroom, come out and he's silently standing at the door.
Click to expand...
My husband was similar.
 
I was very struck by the difference between what they called 'old school' nurses and more recently trained ones. The old school ones were so kind and observant of when I needed help. So many sensible little things they did that really helped at a bad time. The newer ones would flash in and out and leave me stranded with eg the call button or my table out of reach.
 
:flabber:Getting ready for bed in the early recovery season is like staging a battle...pillows, ice packs and towel, ice machine, meds and water...and woe to the person who gets it all set, can get into bed and then has to go to the bathroom! Or ice pack falls off the bed...

You lose energy just moving around! Doctors don’t tell you about your gymnastics you’ll be doing like that...
 
My husband just showed me the most useful thing. My back starts really aching about 4 a.m. and getting up into the chair didn't help much last night. Told him the only thing that helps is bending my left knee as close to me as possible because it takes the strain off but my foot keep slipping on the sheet. He went downstairs and brought back a piece of egg crate foam, put it under my foot and it doesn't slip! Amazing!

The other thing I re-discovered this morning while trying to take my mind off the pain - Mark Knopfler's music. Pulled out an old iPod and listened to a lot of music I hadn't listened to in years and had forgotten how much I loved his songs. Ipods are so much easier than the iphones and it's going to get a lot of use in the next few months.

Also discovered the ice machine is annoying me this time around. Absolutely loved it last time so not sure why I feel differently about it this time. Our house is small and all the plugs and wires, etc. upstairs are annoying. Can't wait to talk to the doctor's office tomorrow in hopes he'll prescribe something (like Tramadol) a little less than Oxycodone but a little more than Tylenol.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling little things are going to annoy me more than last time too. For instance, we received an email notification yesterday of the dates and times the in home physical therapist would be here in the next 3 weeks. That was all fine (blech) except that she listed 2 a.m. as the time of the appointments. It's going to be terribly tempting to become extremely sarcastic when dealing with that kind of stuff in the next couple of months. One of the joys of aging though - not being afraid to nicely, politely, and respectfully say exactly what you're thinking so hopefully i'll remember sarcasm isn't a good form of communication.
 
ARRRRGHHHH! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? My appetite is gone. I'm eating fruit, soup, choked down a some veggies last night. No snacking (yuck) and I haven't kept two or three "meals" down yet I've gained 9 lbs since the surgery on Tuesday?????????? Please tell me the new knee and swelling weigh that much?!!:gaah:
 
If I remember correctly, it takes an extra 3500 calories over what you burn off, to gain a pound. That means you'd have to have eaten an extra 31,500 calories since Tuesday to have gained 9 pounds. And we know you haven't eaten 31,500 calories in 5 days, let alone an extra 31,500 calories! Therefore, I'd have to say the gain is the extra fluid contained in your knee from the surgery (and maybe there's some still in your body from the IV's?). But for now, eat what you can, when you can, and worry about your weight way down the road if you need to.
 
The last thing I wanted to do 5 days after surgery was get on a scale!
 
Bless you lovestocook….you're right. I was so surprised because I really don't want to eat anything.

Thought if I got off the oxycodone, the insufferable headache would go away but it hasn't. My stomach is vaguely queasy - maybe because of the headache? Or lack of sleep? Don't mean to sound whiney because my knee is better than the first time around but I just feel icky. The weather here is humid and rainy which always gives me a sinus headache too but can't take my usual medicine. Today just seemed like a long day and i'm not looking forward to dealing with all the bed issues tonight.
 
InkedMarie said:
I assume 2am is a joke, right??
Click to expand...
Well, I'm assuming it's just like everything else - not paying attention to the little details but it's ridiculous. She called a little while ago and left a message that she'd be here at 10:30.
 
With both of my new knees, it took about 5 weeks for me to get back down to my "morning of surgery" weight. It's amazing how much fluid we can store in our legs. We're camels of a different sort. :)
 
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