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TKR Made It To The Other Side

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Thanks NanaMoon....I am learning that patience is a requirement for this surgery! Had a 'pep talk' from the physical therapist yesterday...he is worth his weight in gold...got very lucky. Still not allowed to try the cane yet, still limping too much which fires up the pain in my right hip. So me and my 'walker buddy' are together for a while yet.
 
And speaking of bursitis in my right hip, its baaack. (Haven't touched the cane, honest) Hurts almost worse than the knee. And Dr insists on lowering the strength of the pain meds. I am going to give it a try, but will be calling him back if the new meds don't last their prescribed time. Almost off the Coumadin so can start the anti-inflammatory again which hopefully will help the hip.. I saw while browsing the forum where Josephine had told someone it was OK to take up to 4000mg of Tylenol? But I see she is in the UK...I am being told no other Tylenol at all because the Norco has 325mg of Tylenol in it already. Weird the difference in the countries with meds...a liver is a liver is a liver. Still having troubles getting the knee bent...I know being 'up' tightens it up but ugh, really needing to see some forward movement in my healing! Weather wise (not my knee lol) 70 deg today, will be about 38 by Thursday...we will cover 3 seasons this week I guess.
 
You'll do fine on the lower dose. And actually you'll feel better -- Norco (and all the opioids, really) do funny things to our brains, including contribute to the weepies and the sleep disruption.
4,000 mg Tylenol is the max daily dose, including whatever is in the Norco.
So sorry about the weather. We had torrential rain, flooding, high winds here, but brilliant sun today. We'll see what happens next!
 
Your ROM will come with time and I bet when you're able to start taking anti-inflammatories, they will help with your 'internal' swelling. They did for me and helped to 'unstuck' my ROM which was the same sad little number for 3 weeks. Good luck with lowering the pain meds dosage. Don't feel bad if it doesn't work. It took me many tries to be able to lessen my dosage and I had to ask for yet another Tramadol refill today. My knee has been acting up more than usual so in addition to needing to take one before bed-time, I find I'm needing the occasional one during the day too. Of course he made a big deal about 'okay, but this is the last time', but whatever. I'd just go to my GP to get them if he refused to refill it for me. Sorry about your weather, btw. Guess you don't want to hear that it's in the 80s and sunny here this week? ;-)
 
@DogLoverx3, I am hoping the anti-inflammatories will help move things along...and I really wished the docs would quit treating everybody like a raging oxy addict...I realize that is a big problem but jeez, unless you take a whole script meant to last 14 days in 3 days, can they not realize you aren't stuffing the damn things up your nose and that you legitimately need them?? GRRR. I am hoping that they won't suggest switching to Tramadol in the future....I took that for about a week after a car wreck while working...would look at my work the next day and it was like a totally different person did something wrong! And it didn't make me feel loopy or anything...scary. And @pdx I hope you are right...been having those 'teary' spells too often!
 
Hi @mtnchyld the teary, weepy spells will pass but they can take a while. You are so early in your recovery period too. They're not nice when they occur but I have this saying when they used to strike. I can only cry for so long. The tears dry up eventually and you just get on doing whatever you need to do. When you feel an attack of the blues coming on, sometimes but not always, distraction technique can help. Mine has been the form of games on my iPad, knitting, sewing pottering about sorting out an annoying drawer. You will be great eventually but this is major surgery that you have undergone only four weeks ago. In the good old days you would have been kept in hospital for at least six weeks. When you consider as well you have two broken bones that are healing as well as an artificial joint put back in, that has to settle and your muscles and tendons and nerve endings all have to recover too, it is a massive healing process.

If you are not squeamish , which I am! There is a film on YouTube that shows this operation being done. Apparently it's an eye opener. It would not be for me, my eyes would be firmly shut. A woman a my PT group had enough of relatives saying, you should be well now after six weeks, this included her husband. She got that fed up she told him to watch the op. He was so shocked and stopped all the silly comments off the relatives and friends who visited.
Anyway try and have a good day but do not overdo it. Take this advice from one who knows personally xxxxxx

Love Nana moon 27
 
Eeek, strange reaction to the Tramadol. He should absolutely not have an issue refilling your oxy for you, but he may cut you back a bit - regardless, take what you need to. I'm sure there is an equally effective step-down pain med other than the Tram when the time comes anyway - just make sure that he knows that you have a bad reaction to it.

Yes, the weepy spells are more than normal. I cried every day straight for 41 days - at least once a day. It happens to the best of us. ;-) It gets better though ..... I hope your Wednesday is off to a great start!
 
@Nana moon 27 ...I watched the video...normally not squeamish however, when I know that's what they did to me...blech! But I sent it to my husband. It definitely feels like they took hammers and saws to it and now I know why!

@DogLoverx3, I hated that the tramadol did that to me...it worked pretty good for the back spasms I was having at the time...would probably be ok if I wasn't working...but, I kinda don't want to work my cases and not remember why I took a particular action (esp. if its not correct) (more than usual :) I like my OS's staff and he is very well spoken of as far as technical abilities...however, he is not the biggest 'warm fuzzy' I have ever met. A friend of mine's husband plays golf with him and calls him a rather unflattering name, lol.
 
mtnchyld said:
I keep feeling "unwell" - will get chills, achy, headache, extremely exhausted (no fever) off and on during one day, then nothing the next.
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I had much the same---the pain meds, the surgery, everything was happening to my body and I would actually turn the damper on the woodburning stove so that the house would turn into a veritable sauna!

mtnchyld said:
I am probably impatient (really??) and feel like I should be doing more...but this forum is helping me to realize that is not the case!
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Excellent!!! When ever you get the urge to do more, do the opposite. In a TKR recovery, "less is more"!!! IT is frustrating, and it is slow, but that is the way that it is, and there is nothing you can do about it. If you do begin to work hard, you will begin to form that vicious circle---the one that is "I am working hard, but my progress is slowing down, so I must work even harder---" and then you continue down in that spiral---

Just take it easy, ice and elevate, and remember that patience is important here.
[Bonesmart.org] Made It To The Other Side

Patience, Grasshopper, Patience!
 
Thanks, @referee54, I need constant reminders to be patient! Love the Kung Fu reference! And even though I am quickly getting a case of 'chair butt', I will NOT get up and do an hour of housework or piddling. Sigh. I will get up for a few minutes, stretch, walk 5 minutes and SIT BACK DOWN! lol
 
mtnchyld said:
Thanks, @referee54, I need constant reminders to be patient! Love the Kung Fu reference! And even though I am quickly getting a case of 'chair butt', I will NOT get up and do an hour of housework or piddling. Sigh. I will get up for a few minutes, stretch, walk 5 minutes and SIT BACK DOWN! lol
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That is the attitude! The house work can wait---or somebody else can do it---right now, your primary concern is to take it easy and let that knee acclimate itself to you!
 
Well another pep talk from PT today...made me see how I am still favoring the left leg, causing the bursitis to act up in the right hip. Actually walked trying to put equal weight on both legs...felt very strange and hurt my left knee a little more but if I just have the knee to deal with I will take that. Hip not as bad tonight as last. Onward and upward. @Nana moon 27, hate to hear you had a bad day, hope tomorrow is better.
 
Yes, this is all part of the recovery and trickier than those who haven't gone through it would think.
 
Question: I am 4 and a half weeks out from TKR...this morning, twice, I have felt a weird, painful pull/pop sensation at the bottom of my incision. It stings and burns. I now have two small reddened round places right beside the incision...they are slightly raised and 'touchy'. It felt like my knee just popped open, but no drainage, bleeding, etc. The incision looks pretty healed up to me but this was kinda scary. Anyone else had this happen or know what it might be? @Josephine, it was suggested that I tag you with this - do you have any ideas? Another forum member thought it might be internal sutures popping-that they were supposed to. Thank you.
 
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Hiya Mtnchyld - I posted in my thread to you, but thought I'd pop over here as well (no pun intended). I'm guessing you had sutures and not staples, yes? I am almost positive that popping/burning is your internal sutures doing what they're supposed to. There was one place in my incision that puckered really bad and right around week 4-6 there was a 'pop' and the puckering went away because the internal suture released! :) The burning is from that as well I think - there was one area at the base of my incision where they had a suture coming up from inside and every time I would bend too far, it would pull and burn - it just takes time for those puppies to let go. Even though you can't see them from the outside, they're still doing their thing inside.
 
Thought i'd pop over after reading your post on my thread - uhm, no clue where that stamina thing is. It will come back, but it will take a while, you're jut 5 weeks, so hopefully soon you'll start to see little improvements in that, and other departments. As for your follow-up appointment and potentially being released to go back to work - tell your OS NO WAY! Tell him you need more time. Hopefully he'll listen.......
 
Got my first "oh well at 6 weeks you are almost healed up" comment today. *sigh* Had to 'phone a friend' who had TKR about a year ago for some moral support. In my head, I know that was just a general comment by someone who doesn't know anything about TKR, but my heart feels like "oh, see, you ARE a slug". I am sure that won't be the last such comment, I better put on the big girl panties and get on with it!
 
I had my surgery a day before you. I am nowhere NEAR being healed completely. It is an ongoing journey....day by day. I have my 6 week check up tomorrow and I am curious as to what he will say...Keep writing....we are all in this together!!!!
 
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