TKR My Journey as of 12/16/13 - Over 1 Year and Still Trying

[Phil75070]

Just a thought. You know that tingly little feeling you get when you really like someone.? That's common sense leaving your body.

 

[71Beetle]

Hi @DogLoverx3 - not sure why I no longer get your alerts, lots to catch on for sure!

Good luck on the date - it sounds like a good fit so far. I know a number of couples that met on line with great success. Still together and one couple married with a set of two year old twins and another on the way in October!

Sorry to hear about the stabbing pain you are experiencing. Do you think it may the nerves coming back? I get weird pangs and some sharpness at times too. Right now I have a stupid dull ache along my IT band. Cannot wait for massage on Friday!

 

[Chihuahuan]

@DogLoverx3 I'm not getting alerts either. Hope you feel better and have a lovely time on all your adventures. PS My Dad's remedy was hot lemon and whisky --lots of Vit C in an easy to take way.

 

[DogLoverx3]

Thanks all. I feel a bit like death warmed over and have spent much of today in bed. Thanks for the advice on the Vitamin C and Zinc. I went to the store at 3:30am this morning because I couldn't find any of my cold remedies from the move (I used to be so organized), so needed to restock on everything (including chicken soup - it cures all, right?).

Hmmmph, interesting that no alerts for my thread are being received. Maybe I surpassed the limit on whining and complaining and it automatically shuts off? ;-) You're funny @Phil75070 - I will always keep my feet on the ground (kind of), and try my best to hold onto my common sense.... I let it go once and that didn't work out too well.

@Chihuahuan , if only I liked whiskey! Possibly a vodka lemon drop martini would have the same health benefits?

@71Beetle , @TexasTee thinks the stabbing pains below my knee are nerves, but I don't think so. I had the horrible stabbing pains on both sides of my knee earlier on in recovery which I know were nerves coming back to life, these ones just seem different and 'deeper' if that makes any sense.

@dogwheels (no clue why I bother tagging anyone if you're not getting alerts, but oh well) I think you're headed back to your lovely other house tomorrow? So very jealous. I was saddened to read that your freezie cup let you down but so identified with Mr. Science and his 'I told you so'.... my ex is just like that. A 15 minute dissertation on why something won't work vs. just let me try it and see! Oh, and that cake looked awesome! Your daughter is indeed one smart cookie! And apparently very popular with the lads! ;-)

@hopefaith , I hope you've had a good day!

@Nana moon 27 , I will not be around much tomorrow, but you will be in my thoughts! Good luck with your procedure and hopefully your OS will take you off the morphine and you'll be able to give Tramadol another go for the pain. It really was effective for me when paired with Tylenol!

Alright all, I am headed back to bed. I hope all knees are doing well! xoxoxoxo

 

[71Beetle]

I got that alert @DogLoverx3 because you tagged me. I used to get alerts on any of the threads I was following but no more. Anyone else having that problem?

I hope you figure out what is causing the knee pain. I must be having sympathy pains. I had to cut my walk short because I had a sharp pain under my knee cap whenever I stepped with my TKR leg. It is gone now.

 

[Phil75070]

You're funny @Phil75070 - I will always keep my feet on the ground (kind of), and try my best to hold onto my common sense.... I let it go once and that didn't work out too well.

And I got an alert that you tagged me.

 

[JustJeff]

Thanks @JustJeff - it took me a good 3 months to be able to sleep in anything longer than 2 hour (tops) little increments, if at all. My sleep was finally getting better until I started taking the Gabapentin which actually seems to be helping my knee, but is preventing me from sleeping. Wouldn't you know that a drug that is well known for causing drowsiness has the opposite effect on me. I have to figure this out - I'm tired! ;-)

Thanks for all your kind words @Jozilla , @susanne , @Nana moon 27 ,@Pumpkln , @dogwheels . I love those kids and will always be there for them. C's sister (I don't like to put their names on the internet as it's not my family) is the one I take painting all the time. I just try to encourage the kids to do things they're good at and to try new things if possible. While their mother has told me (and them) that I'm a terrible influence on them, I know it's just the opposite as neither she, nor their dad, are able to look beyond themselves and put the kids first sometimes.

I was so exhausted tonight by 9:30 that I fell asleep - yey! Only to wake up at 11:15pm - boo. I now can't fall back asleep and I have a busy morning to contend with .... hope everyone is getting some good rest. Please send some my way! ;-) xoxoxo

This is the question of the day. I and I'm sure lots of us experience thesame thing.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[Ellejay]

Hi @DogLoverx3, sorry to hear about your cold, and about the stabbing pains in your knee - do you think Cupid just shot his arrows into the wrong part of your body? .
Hope you feel much better soon, xxxx Ellejay

 

[TexasTee]

I'm getting tags too - hope your cold is better today! This isn't what you are feeling now but really interesting about why you are all suffering delayed consequences when you over do it - I pulled out that one line as it especially applies to you, Ellen - I know you had no choice but it really does make sense as to why you've had a delayed time of it.

Bony Stress Pain
Perhaps the biggest surprise after surgery is the bony stress pain that patients feel for the first 3 months. A knee replacement entails removing about 6-8 mm of bone and replacing it with metal. The metal is about 100 times stiffer than the bone that it is replacing. Therefore, the knee joint has to adjust to the new stiffness of the metal replacement. Bone is constantly remodeling itself, but this is a slow process (fracture remodeling takes 3-6 months). The bone around the new knee replacement remodels according to the new stress it sees, but this process also takes a few months. Knee replacement patients feel this remodeling pain typically as a delayed activity related throbbing or achy pain deep in the knee joint. A typically example is 4 weeks after surgery, a knee replacement patient might walk for 30 - 45 minutes through a grocery store without much discomfort, but later that night they feel like their knee is pounding and they have a hard time getting to sleep. This delayed pain usually disappears by the next morning. As the bone remodels over the 3-4 months after surgery, the amount of activity required to generate the pain increases and the intensity of the pain decreases. The factors that cause the bony stress pain are typically related to the quality of the bone and the stress across the joint, but not the surgical technique. Patients with weak bones and/or heavy set patient are at greater risk for bony stress pain.

Patients who try to do too much activity too quickly are also at a greater risk.

All surgeons have some of patients that have little to no stress pain, while others have a considerable amount of stress pain. The occurrence of this stress pain is difficult to predict and explains the large variation in recovery between patients. It also makes short term comparisons between surgeons’ outcomes difficult.

 

[dogwheels]

@TexasTee

XX

 

[Phil75070]

@TexasTee Very interesting and it explains a lot!

 

[Chihuahuan]

I'm getting tags too - hope your cold is better today! This isn't what you are feeling now but really interesting about why you are all suffering delayed consequences when you over do it - I pulled out that one line as it especially applies to you, Ellen - I know you had no choice but it really does make sense as to why you've had a delayed time of it.

Bony Stress Pain
Perhaps the biggest surprise after surgery is the bony stress pain that patients feel for the first 3 months. A knee replacement entails removing about 6-8 mm of bone and replacing it with metal. The metal is about 100 times stiffer than the bone that it is replacing. Therefore, the knee joint has to adjust to the new stiffness of the metal replacement. Bone is constantly remodeling itself, but this is a slow process (fracture remodeling takes 3-6 months). The bone around the new knee replacement remodels according to the new stress it sees, but this process also takes a few months. Knee replacement patients feel this remodeling pain typically as a delayed activity related throbbing or achy pain deep in the knee joint. A typically example is 4 weeks after surgery, a knee replacement patient might walk for 30 - 45 minutes through a grocery store without much discomfort, but later that night they feel like their knee is pounding and they have a hard time getting to sleep. This delayed pain usually disappears by the next morning. As the bone remodels over the 3-4 months after surgery, the amount of activity required to generate the pain increases and the intensity of the pain decreases. The factors that cause the bony stress pain are typically related to the quality of the bone and the stress across the joint, but not the surgical technique. Patients with weak bones and/or heavy set patient are at greater risk for bony stress pain.

Patients who try to do too much activity too quickly are also at a greater risk.

All surgeons have some of patients that have little to no stress pain, while others have a considerable amount of stress pain. The occurrence of this stress pain is difficult to predict and explains the large variation in recovery between patients. It also makes short term comparisons between surgeons’ outcomes difficult.

 

[Chihuahuan]

@TexasTee This needs to be in the notes --or whatever it is called--section. J

 

[DogLoverx3]

thanks for finding and posting this @TexasTee ! Interesting article!

 

[TexasTee]

I'm glad it wasn't just I that hadn't seen that anywhere - it's just part of a hospitals prepare their patient site but it really does explain a lot! The link is below if anyone wants to see the rest of it but the rest is all things I've read other places. I also noted that this is quoted on other hospital sites but this appears to be the original.

broken link removed: https://www.ccmhonline.com/orthopedics/total-knee-replacement

 

[hopefaith]

@TexasTee So, this is in the material you are receiving in preparation? I am blown away. I never received anything of the sort.
VERY helpful information!
Also, how do you avoid all sugar and grains? (just curious)
~hopefaith

 

[Phil75070]

"Doctor, if I give up all sugar, grains, red meat and quit drinking alcohol, will I really live longer?" "No, but it will seem that way!"

 

[TexasTee]

Hi @hopefaith - no, this is not my hospital, I have been researching everyone else’s questions so that when I take my turn, hopefully I'll have come across most issues, at least once. Plus, I'm in HR and end up in endless meetings that I cannot even understand with engineers speaking about the next great widget! So I read up on TKR, instead. This came up when looking into nerve pain - my theory for Ellen is that the soft tissue nerve pain and the bone nerve pain are just different enough that they could be causing the two completely separate pain sensations but I haven't found enough to substantiate it. This was just interesting and explained so much I felt that I needed to post it here.

Grain free - it was rough at first but my motivation was saving my knee. I started several years ago when I was only bone on bone on the inside of the knee so it seemed worth the sacrifice (if it had worked) but who knows if I'd have made it this long without it? Grains are highly inflammatory - so is sugar - so I went on pretty much a whole food diet, 95% of the food I eat is unprocessed and the rest is minimally. I make nearly all of my own food but thank goodness Austin Tx is pretty weird people friendly...it's our motto, actually. "Keep Austin Weird!" so there are always options for eating out. I'm not really a sweets person so it's not so bad. I make wraps and bread like objects with chickpea flour, almond flour or coconut flour - not the same, but pretty good!

LOL @Phil75070 - I promise it's not that bad and I'd never give up wine or steak!! Kind of funny - my new husband is a near vegetarian and I eat eggs and bacon nearly every day and MY cholesterol is perfect - much better than his

 

[DogLoverx3]

@TexasTee always finds the best articles online! Thank you for always posting such helpful/informative things.

Not much sleep last night thanks to drowning in snot (sorry, TMI). This cold is horrid. My fun plans for today got cancelled so I'm going to see The Fault In Our Stars tonight with a friend at one of those dine in movie theatres with the barcalounger chairs. Between the tears and the snot, I hope I packed enough tissues!

I think I've found a new past time. One I've always hated in the past. Shoe shopping! I've always worn heels or some sort of platforms. As I've had to 'lower' my shoe standards and height since surgery, I've needed to get some new ones. I've managed to collect about 8 pairs of THE CUTEST summer sandals ever! Most are flats, a couple have tiny little heels (like less than an inch), but they're all so cute! A sparkly blue pair, a silver pair of gladiators, a pretty pink pair, a deco looking white pair..... who knew?

I am off for a day on the lake tomorrow. A bunch of friends are renting a boat and we're all going out to play. This will be my 1st big 'outing' since my surgery and although I'm a bit nervous about my stellar flailing about/dog paddle technique to swim, it should be fun. Everyone will take turns on the tube behind the boat as well, but I certainly won't. I'll just watch everyone get tossed about. I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm taking a 'noodle' with me so I can just hang onto that and kick a little to move around in the water, and everyone knows about my knee, so it should be fine. Right after the boat, I have another painting class to do with S as she'll be gone the entire month of July with one parent or the other. I'm going to be pooped!

Hope everyone is having a great day! xoxoxo

 

[Nana moon 27]

Hi @DogLoverx3 I'm sorry you had to cancel today but at least you can save some energy for tomorrow. It's sounds so much fun! I'm sorry to hear you won't have any contact for a month x they'll be mighty glad to see you after it's over. The film you're seeing has just come out over here, it sounds really good xxxx your sandals sound lovely. How about some pics? Xxxx

Anyway have a great day and please enjoy tomorrow xxxx

Love Nana Moon 27 xxxxx