TKR ITCHING ON BACK OF CALF 1 YR AFTER TKR

I also took care of myself from day 1 after returning home from my RTKR. It does take a lot of planning beforehand to make it work. I had no idea what to expect for recovery, so was pretty nervous about it. I think I was most worried about taking care of my 2 cats more than anything else! I bought all the equipment/supplies ahead of time. Got a small freezer for the garage and filled it full of enough food to last for at least a month. Set up cracker/snack baskets by the sofa and bed to help with nausea. I was driving enough after 2 weeks to make it to PT and back (14 mile round trip). Hired someone to take me to the 3 OS post-surgery appointments. I had the grocery store deliver once and I did curb-side pickup a couple of times for fresh produce, etc. til I could shop for myself.

Probably the most inconvenient thing was finding a ride to pick up pain refill RXs from the OS office, then drop off the RXs at the drug store to fill, since they would only give me several Percocet at a time, and was illegal to call them in. Then had to go back to the drugstore to pick them up once they were filled. That sucked. This whole messed up opioid phobia in this country is crazy and makes adequate pain control after major surgery very difficult. The OS wouldn't even give me the RXs for all the necessary medications before the surgery, so I could get that out of the way. That made me mad. Had to do the drugstore drive-thru on the way home from the hospital to get the pain meds! Ridiculous. It was a very painful ride home. The other major inconvenience was having to constantly make it to the freezer for ice packs since i didn't get an icing machine. That, I would do differently if I ever have to do this again. One benefit to having to do it all yourself is that you are constantly having to get up to go do, or fetch something. So that was plenty of moving around all day & night, which is good.

I was actually very surprised at how well I could fend for myself immediately. I could only do the bare minimum at first, and I'm not saying it was easy, but it was doable. So you can do it too. You just need to do plenty of planning and preparation. You can do Lyft, Uber or taxi for any appointments. Of course I would have loved to have had someone else in the house helping me through it. But it just wasn't on the radar for me.
 
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The OS wouldn't even give me the RXs for all the necessary medications before the surgery, so I could get that out of the way. That made me mad.
It's actually not a good idea to prescribe medications in advance, because pain control medications need to be adjusted quite often. Pre-prescribing speaks of a one-size-fits-all protocol, while pain control meds need to be suited to individual needs.
 
Well this may be. However, the explanation I got when I asked for the RXs the day prior to surgery was that they had people in the past that got the pain RX filled, then canceled surgery. So it was about possible drug abuse for him. Hard stance, no exceptions. I just can't imagine that happened often, but who knows? He had already told me he would be prescribing Percocet 10/325 for pain, so I already knew what I was getting. Another surgeon, from whom I'd sought a second opinion was willing to let me fill the RXs prior to surgery. But in the end, I decided to go with the first OS who performed the TKR.

A year before the TKR, I had bunion surgery - also a very painful recovery. That surgeon gave me all RXs the week prior to surgery, so I was all set when I came home. Made things so much easier.
 
Well this may be. However, the explanation I got when I asked for the RXs the day prior to surgery was that they had people in the past that got the pain RX filled, then canceled surgery. So it was about possible drug abuse for him. Hard stance, no exceptions.
A year before the TKR, I had bunion surgery - also a very painful recovery. That surgeon gave me all RXs the week prior to surgery, so I was all set when I came home. Made things so much easier.
Things have toughened up a lot lately and there is greater control over what surgeons can prescribe. They have to be a lot more careful what and how they prescribe.

Anyway, let's get back to pdlinda, becasue thsi is her thread.

@pdlinda , how are you getting on?
 

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