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TKR Indieknee trying to recover

Well I’ve just come back from seeing my new pt lady. She’s so nice I feel quite uplifted.
We’ve decided to call, what is probably CRPS pain - red pain. It’s definitely different from the tkr pain. I’ve got some more gentle exercises for home work.
I don’t know whether the pt is doing any good or not, I’m still in lots of red pain.
My kindle did help me sleep last night - I fell asleep almost immediately :sleep: so I didn’t read much.
 
So what is red pain? Basically pain we don’t know the source of?
 
Red pain is just my made up name for the layer of pain which seems to be on top of the other tkr pain. It’s just my perception. The name came about because I have a very swollen red angry knee on first getting up in the morning. :hissy:
But you’re right - what is the source? Is CRPS just a label? Is pt just part of batch of trial and error treatments?
My angry knee better get itself sorted out before they destroy it. (Or it destroys them :tantrum2:)
Oh dear I’d better get to sleep - just getting my kindle.
 
:console2::console2:
Maybe you should give your poor knee a break from PT. Give it a chance to sort itself out. Many issues resolve themselves over time. Loooooots of Tiiiiiiiime.

Just do your daily activities for a while. You can always go back to the gentle stretches. Life will give you plenty of stretches without doing additional gentle ones.

When I was 4 months post op I had a major set back that lasted a couple of months. I debated getting some gentle massages because my whole leg was so tight and my rom was quite a bit reduced. Fear of not getting a gentle massage kept me from looking into it. I waited it out and just did my daily activities. Over time (months) my leg relaxed.
 
If you’re knee is angry and swollen I agree with Jockette, give it a break for a few weeks to let it settle down. Your knee will let you know what it needs and at this point it seems like ice/elevation/rest is called for.
 
My knee tends to be angry even if rested these days.
Unfortunately I can’t use ice anymore, it’s too much, but cold gel packs aren’t too bad. Trouble is my knee is very sensitive to putting anything ‘on it’ like a gel pack. I can tolerate a cold wet wash cloth but that’s no good for nighttime. A very thin soft cold pack that lasted a few hours would be wonderful but I doubt anyone makes them!
Jockette, thank you so much for the hugs :) :-) (:
 
indieknee said:
My knee tends to be angry even if rested these days.
Click to expand...
All the more reason to cut way back on your activities for a while.

A while back I made a cold pack using a wash cloth, wet it with a combination of water and rubbing alcohol. Pit it in a zip lock bag and freeze it flat. Play with the combination until you get it the way you like. You want it flexible. Water will make it freeze more, alcohol will make it more flexible.

I used to do this to ice my lower back. I couldn’t lean against anything bulky and this was very thin. Sometimes instead of a washcloth I sewed 2 layers of fleece fabric together. I cut them to fit inside the ziplock bag I used.

It wasn’t as cold as ice because it wasn’t totally frozen. It might be worth a try. If not, that’s fine, just rest and elevate.

I never really like icing my knee but I did it for about 6 months.

If I was in bed, I elevated toes above the nose. (and I still sleep that that!) But if I was sitting in the living room ( from day one) I only elevated leg on my ottoman—not quite Bonesmart approved, but my leg was happy there, and still is.

I hope your leg settles down soon. I know it already seems like forever.
 
A day or two of resting won’t make a difference and will most likely remain angry. It probably needs a few weeks of normal living with no exercise and elevation whenever possible.
 
Jockette thanks for the cold pack tip - clever idea.
KarrieB and jockette - I agree about the rest and the BoneSmartie attitude to pt but I always have to try things out for myself. If the pt for CRPS doesn’t help, then I will make sure that the pt and os know about it.
On a totally different subject - my congratulations :flwrysmile: to the systems and people who police this forum - it’s a delight not have trolls and spam all over the place.
 
It keeps us busy!
 
indieknee said:
On a totally different subject - my congratulations :flwrysmile: to the systems and people who police this forum - it’s a delight not have trolls and spam all over the place.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you. We know we can come here and it's a safe place!
 
It took me a while (and months of PT) to realize that since what I most want from my knee is walking, that’s how I should “train” it. Best thing I ever did was begin to slowly build up my walking. I hope you are able to find a solution.
 
Well I saw my os today and my knee was very well behaved but still displaying signs of CRPS .
On the whole he was pleased but suggested I had 2 months course of Gabapentin and he would see me in 6weeks.
Actually my knee felt quite good, better than the last time I saw him. But when I arrived home it became very angry with me!! Even so, I’m also going to cut down on the oxy until I’m completely off it. That’s the plan anyway. :)
 
I really can’t keep up with my knee - some days it’s good and gives me hope, other days, like today, it’s bad and gives me pain for no good reason. My os said I had turned the corner and I felt that I had. I should know better by now :nah:
 
That darn rollercoaster! Some days its like the knee rolls the dice - 6: I'll be good, 1: I'll throw in some pain.
Hopefully the knee rolls a 6 tomorrow!!
 
On the good days we tend to overdo and then have a couple of bad days. Look at your cause and effect. If you do something and your knee hurts that night or the next day, don't do it again for a few weeks. Your knee is telling you that its not ready for that yet.
 
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