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TKR Neesie's Recovery Thread

It’s very early in your recovery to be doing a lot of standing in a 4 hour period.
 
@Neesie I'm going to second the comment about standing. I'm only 1 week behind you, and if anything is guaranteed to bring on the pain, it's prolonged standing. I can walk more and do basic shopping in a small grocery store, but I've learned I can't stand in line to check out, or stand and talk to a friend I bump into, and can't stand too long at home cutting fruit/vegetables or cooking at the stove.

My previous orthopedic surgeon reminded me once that when standing, the rest of your body is NOT helping to distribute our weight at all. If we're moving/walking, other muscles aid us, but prolonged standing means ALL our weight is sitting on our knees. It's no wonder that is more painful.
 
Back a bit you mentioned extreme itching— I had that consistently for the first 5 weeks, I tried so hard to rub and not scratch my legs to ribbons. Its one of the things I have noticed has passed and that I am trying to recognize and be grateful for.
My ankle is not swollen, but boy does it hurt. Sometimes it aches, zings or a I get a pain in my calf that moves to my ankle, feels like its sprained! My PT thinks it might be due to my DVT (blood clot inner calf). I have no idea, but it all adds to the challenge!
And standing especially in one place—totally makes my leg a throbbing mess all night☹️
I hope tomorrow is a great day for you.
 
Thanks everyone. I will heed the advice, grit my teeth and plod along. I can sit at times at work. It’s just a once a week right now. I welcome guests to the area and answer their questions. I might also be able to sneak in a 5 min icing.
 
That would help .. maybe couple times? Also wondering if support hose might help at least for these four hours? Maybe others have some other good ideas..
 
I’m almost 12 weeks out and still plodding along lol. I do what I can for 45 minutes or so then have to rest. Sometimes my left arm (from recent pacemaker surgery) bothers worse. I probably need to be in that club as well. :sad: So many devices to keep us all going!
 
@Neesie I'm the proponent of magnesium oil for leg cramps. I have used it to great effect. Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant and by letting it absorb through the skin it gets quickly to the problem area. In my experience, magnesium capsules have less of a relaxing effect and tend to have a greater digestive effect. (Think Milk of Magnesia!)

I'm sorry you need to do so much standing. If you are just welcoming guests and answering questions, can that be done from a wheel chair? Perhaps you could borrow one for a few weeks?
 
Thanks luvcats. There are high chairs that reach the countertop I can sit in while working. My boss is very understanding and I’m sure she’ll be fine with me sitting temporarily. Many thanks for the explanation on magnesium. My stomach is still a mess from antibiotics I took in April before a root canal.
 
@luvcats : do you recommend a particular brand of Magnesium oil? I stopped in CVS but they had only the pills and didn't know anything about the oil.
 
I like a brand from Mineralife, purchased online, but I've had great results with a number of different brands. I buy mine from Amazon. If you have a favorite health food store or access to a Whole Foods, they probably carry some brand of it.
 
I'm almost afraid to say it but I have had much less pain in the last 2 days. Today is week 11 and maybe I'm finally on the road to recovery. For those of you further along and who have done exercises at home, how long did you do the exercises?
 
I am just few days ahead of you. Yes! I think I might see daylight at end of the tunnel! I too have seen improvements since first of this month, but energy still dragging. I went to restaurant this weekend to meet out of town relatives and sat for couple hours.. wow too much! So stiff I could barely walk afterwards and it’s not quite recovered so lesson learned! As far as home exercises I just do daily activities and try to walk at least 900+ steps. And always elevate on footstool at night while watching Netflix .
 
knee#2 thanks so much! I've discovered that I have to get up and walk at least every 30-60 minutes and I now automatically do foot pumps when I'm sitting in the recliner. My energy is poor too. I lost 15 lbs. and at 4'11 with hypothyroidism that's a lot of weight. We're both going to make it out of this tunnel!
 
That IS a lot weight! I lost about 10 but cheating sometimes late evenings. Yes I need to move around every hour or so as well. Daily patterns are changing somewhat but we continue to move forward slowly!
 
I had a very good day yesterday and a tougher day today. I’m currently at 11 weeks and taking 2 Tramadol per day. I’d like to stop taking them but I’m also concerned that I won’t be able to get around or sleep if I’m in pain. I’m not worried about addiction but I am worried about the side effects of taking an opioid for so long. Advice anyone?
 
Hi Neesie, I don’t think Tramadol is considered an opiate .. you might check with your dr to verify. and , if you’ve found ways to offset side effects I don’t think there’s any real harm. I’d consider the positive results from moving forward without pain if it was my situation.
 
Tramadol is on a different 'list' than the usual opioids, at least according to how my insurance handles it. I've been on it over a year and my pain specialist is not concerned about long term effects for me. She has a whole diatribe about long term NSAIDS, so if there were effects to be strongly concerned about, she would definitely have given me all the information and options. I would talk to your doctor about it before going off if you still need them.
 
Thanks knee#2 and luvcats. My surgeon is useless. I can’t get thru to him at all. At best I get a nurse and usually noncommittal info/advice. I’ve been researching online and found all kinds of contradictory info. I’m going to try reducing the Tramadol over the next few days and see how it goes.
 
I just had a crying, sobbing meltdown because I dropped an earring for the millionth time and couldn’t find it. My husband found it in less than 30 seconds which made me cry harder. Please tell me my sanity will come back some time soon
 
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