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TKR My recovery story

Good for you for quitting PT! I can relate to the headaches! Yours could definitely be from the oxy...your body adjusts when you're done with that, can take a few days. I find that in times like now when I am taking quite a few analgesics I get rebound headaches, its just part of it all. They aren't excruciating, just annoying. One day this will all be but a memory! Hang in there!
 
Has anyone tried wrapping their surgical knee with Saran Wrap? I saw the video in a post (can’t remember where or how I ended up there). Anyway, I tried it last night and I slept with less interruptions and was able to resume sleep shortly upon waking to go to the bathroom or change positions. There is something about the plastic film shielding your knee and skin that helps with the nerve sensations that kept me awake and made it so hard to fall asleep again.

I’m not sure if it was just “placebo” effect or just the ups and downs of sleep, but I’m going to try it again tonight.

I wonder if anyone thinks is safe. I read somewhere that it might not good to keep your knee hot. I noticed my knee was kind of sweaty in the morning. Other than that, there were no negative effects.
 
Babushelen ~ yes, i have heard a few people on this site mention that practise of wrapping the saran wrap around the knee at night. that's great that it helped you.:flwrysmile:
 
Hello my fellow Smarties. Today I had my 6 week follow up with OS. It went well. I was nervous that he would be disappointed on my recovery. He was happy with my flexion and ROM. He understands that it takes time to recover so he is not pushing anything or any unrealistic expectations. I told him about my difficulty sleeping. He gave me a refill for Gabapentin (300 mg) and told me I can take 1 and 1/2 pills if I needed to. I was very glad about that because I had asked for a refill previously and his assistant told me he said “no” and to take ibuprofen. All in all he was pleased with where I’m at at 6 1/2 weeks post op. He did notice I was walking stiffly but he said that also will resolve itself. He encouraged me to walk without the cane if I felt safe doing so but no pressure.

I had maybe 2 hours of solid sleep last night. So maybe a nap is in the cards today.
 
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Can one of the more senior members update my signature to add my implant type? Today I found out I have a Smith and Nephew knee. Sounds like Smith and Wesson :rotfl:.
 
Babushelen said:
I wonder if anyone thinks is safe. I read somewhere that it might not good to keep your knee hot. I noticed my knee was kind of sweaty in the morning. Other than that, there were no negative effects.
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As long as your incision is completely healed, with no open areas or scabs, then it's safe to use saran wrap. Before then, it's risky, as you shouldn't be keeping your incision moist until the skin has healed completely.
 
Sounds like things are going very well. I didn't figure out stopping PT until week 8. I agree with Sistersinhim as it will take a few days for you to get all the oxy out of your system and you will have a few withdrawal symptoms. Continue listening to your knee because it will tell you what it needs.
 
Hi @Babushelen I saw your question on another post so thought I would find your post :)

Gabapentin. I take 300mg three times a day and have taken this for about 5 years now . I got all sorts of funny effects when I decided to take just one at night. So I just dropped 600mg all in one go. That wasn't the best thing to do! The trouble I have is that mine are capsules. Are yours tablets or capsules?

If I had the 100mg capsules the theory would be to reduce by say one 100mg at a time. But for a week. Then drop another 100mg for a week etc.

If you have tablets that are 300mg and can cut them into half or even quarters. Reduce the dose a bit at a time and stick to the lowered dose for a few days then drop it a bit more etc.

I do find they help with nerve pain and in fact the maximum dose per day is really high, something like 3600mg !! I wouldn't fancy taking that much though, as they do sometimes make me drowsy and doolally in the day time and that's just on 900mg a day!

Can your GP. prescribe them to you if you still experience the nerve sensations in your knee? A month isn't very long to take them.

But good luck reducing when you need to and do it gradually over some weeks.

X
 
@Suzette - Thanks for the reply. Mine are the 300 mg capsules. I take once a day at night I talked to the pharmacist today to see if she could swap the capsules for the tablets. She said they don’t have the 300 mg tablets. They only had the 100 mg or the higher dosage. She said that I probably won’t have any withdrawal effects at the lower dosage since I did not have any after stopping when I ran out earlier this month. I will set an appointment with my GP and see if she can keep me on it for a while. As of now I only have a 30 day supply. The pharmacist agreed that would be the best course of action.

Just curious as to why you have such a high dosage?

Thank you!
Helene
 
I saw your question on another thread as well so thought I would comment about it on your own thread. I was prescribed about a month of Gabapentin right after surgery and when it was time to get off @Jamie had some information for me. I tapered down, but I was taking it 3 x a day. Jamie may have some advice for you. I'm on it again to try and reset my pain nerve but that's a whole other story of this journey called TKR lol.
 
Hi
I was put on gabapentin due to the sciatic nerve pain I have down my left leg , caused by 2 disc prolapses and now disc degeneration, spinal stenosis , arthritis etc. So over the years the dose has increased but potentially it can be increased further.

As you mentioned you may not get withdrawal on 300mg a night, but if you do, you could drop one night at a time over a month until you stop completely.

I hope they work for you.
 
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Your dosage of Gabapentin is very low, so it most likely will be relatively easy for you to taper off when you're ready to do so. You would reduce the dose by one pill a day for 5 days and then continue that until you stopped completely.
 
Sounds good @Jamie. I don’t have the pills; I have the capsules so I can’t split dosages. I need to schedule an appointment with my GP and see if I can get another dosage. The 300 mg dosage is not doing much. I’ll ask for the pill form so when the time comes I can reduce the dosage until I’m completely off of it.
 
Yay!! That first rotation calls for celebration! You were smart to not over do it. You have plenty of time to ride again. There's no hurry.
 
I forced my first rotation, crying, at 3.5 weeks post op because “we all know we have to work really hard at PT after knee replacement. “ That was a Wednesday. I did several more rotations on Friday. It took all weekend to recover. I was so scared I had displaced the implant. :blackcloud:

The following Wednesday was my ill fated first pool session.

I googled stopping therapy at that point and thankfully found Bonesmart. :roseshwr:
 
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