United States
All I can say is 
What a wonderful family you have! God is good!
What a wonderful family you have! God is good!
Bilateral TKR Nensi_New_Nees
- Thread starter nensi
- Start date
becticu
graduate
I had to keep looking at your picture, what an amazing setup. I love the huge window, your decorations, it's just great. It's great to have such good support. I'm glad you are home safe and resting and elevating. I like all the Pics!
knit2tog
senior
What a fantastic recovery space and a perfect nurse! So happy you are home 
OP
OP
nensi
senior
We have two cats - big boy Saber tiger sat on my lap this am - very comforting. I am so very comfortable at home now. Had gentle PT and just woke up from ice and a nap. Expecting a friend for a visit. Life feels so good.
Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
Sent from my iPhone using BoneSmart Forum
I'm a cat rescuer and at the time of my surgery had 12 to take care of. They definitely kept me busy and were all the PT I needed! They were very good to not step on my tkr, except just one time. I loud yell was all it took. None of them ever did it again.
OP
OP
nensi
senior
My days fly by. Well, yeah, with so much sleeping going on it's not hard to understand. We are settling into a routine here:
sleeping later than in the hospital, breakfast, visiting nurse to give the heparin injections, shower or sponge bath, dresssing, NAP, snack, read/mail/whatsapp, lunch, PT, looooooong NAP, dinner, NAP, read/TV, worry a bit of the night to come, nighttime routine (lenses out, makeup off, bracelet, necklace off), sleep.
Of course icing almost continuously, only out of bed to pee or feed the cats early am or replenish my ice in the night. Pain under control, but PT is very gentle. My legs are feeling very swollen and tight in the late afternoon and evening, like they are going to pop. Ice helps greatly but every once and a while I have to take a break. Even though it is the height of summer with temperatures in the high 80s, I have a fleece bathrobe on, fuzzy bedsocks and my goosedown duvet on. @SusieShoes your description of your garb at your SIL's house rang bells.
I can navigate with walker or crutches, took a shower at home with a shower bench, and can lift my legs easily. I used the CPM at home today very conservatively (only 60 right and 65 left) and will wait and see what my knees say about that tomorrow.
PT gave me exercises for other muscles - butt and hip and foot to keep them from atrophying.
This is the last day of week 1 and I feel like I am doing well.
sleeping later than in the hospital, breakfast, visiting nurse to give the heparin injections, shower or sponge bath, dresssing, NAP, snack, read/mail/whatsapp, lunch, PT, looooooong NAP, dinner, NAP, read/TV, worry a bit of the night to come, nighttime routine (lenses out, makeup off, bracelet, necklace off), sleep.
Of course icing almost continuously, only out of bed to pee or feed the cats early am or replenish my ice in the night. Pain under control, but PT is very gentle. My legs are feeling very swollen and tight in the late afternoon and evening, like they are going to pop. Ice helps greatly but every once and a while I have to take a break. Even though it is the height of summer with temperatures in the high 80s, I have a fleece bathrobe on, fuzzy bedsocks and my goosedown duvet on. @SusieShoes your description of your garb at your SIL's house rang bells.
I can navigate with walker or crutches, took a shower at home with a shower bench, and can lift my legs easily. I used the CPM at home today very conservatively (only 60 right and 65 left) and will wait and see what my knees say about that tomorrow.
PT gave me exercises for other muscles - butt and hip and foot to keep them from atrophying.
This is the last day of week 1 and I feel like I am doing well.
OP
OP
nensi
senior
Question: I keep seeing references to burning pains - when do these start ? Here in Belgium my OS did not mention any drugs to help with this. In the hospital I had fleeting burning in my heel - they suggested putting a towel under my heel but ice worked better !
Any advice ?
Any advice ?
Kare2dare
junior member
SusieShoes
Former BoneSmart staff member
I never got those burning pains people talk about. Maybe you won't, either. 
That said, if you do get them, some folks here will give you great advice on what worked for them.
That said, if you do get them, some folks here will give you great advice on what worked for them.
OP
OP
nensi
senior
Oh, @SusieShoes, that is wonderful news, I was thinking that those pains were a given. It's my nature to wonder what is around the next corner...
kmak81230
post-grad
I did not get the burning pains either Nensi - maybe some of us are lucky to not have the full TKR recovery experience. Though I expect we all have our individual aches and pains. Sounds like you are doing really well - glad your full days include lots of napping.
IT sounds as if you're doing very well, nensi. As the others said, burning pains aren't inevitable.
Pheebs52
big-cheese
Nensi, your recovery nest and nurse are simply the best! The nurse seems to really like her job and that makes such a difference. I have 3 nurses, one male human and two canines, lol. None of them let me out of their sight if they can help it, but these days I do sneak around a bit.
I had a sunburnt sensation in a fairly large area to the right of my incision where I am not numb. It was very annoying and objected strenuously to any sort of fabric touching it. That lasted a few days and then mysteriously disappeared. It came again for a few hours, perhaps a week later. Since then, nada; phew! I iced it (what else, right?) and I think it helped, but can't really say for sure. I really don't know what brought it on because I never discussed it with my OS, but I think we all feel a myriad of strange sensations.
At PT this morning, I was trying to describe how my knee has felt this week (very peculiar) and he said to expect peculiar for the next several months, as part of the ever changing *new normal.* The constant seems to be change.
I had a sunburnt sensation in a fairly large area to the right of my incision where I am not numb. It was very annoying and objected strenuously to any sort of fabric touching it. That lasted a few days and then mysteriously disappeared. It came again for a few hours, perhaps a week later. Since then, nada; phew! I iced it (what else, right?) and I think it helped, but can't really say for sure. I really don't know what brought it on because I never discussed it with my OS, but I think we all feel a myriad of strange sensations.
At PT this morning, I was trying to describe how my knee has felt this week (very peculiar) and he said to expect peculiar for the next several months, as part of the ever changing *new normal.* The constant seems to be change.
Happydale
senior
I'm so impressed with your condition, @nensi! You've worked out a great schedule and it sounds like smooth sailing. I recall dreading nights too. I seemed to be more uncomfortable in the evenings and my sister-caretaker was amazing at coming up with all the things to try. Here's some of them: Go to bed a bit later to shorten the night, get up and move around when the legs are uncomfortable or painful, save really good movies, tv shows or podcasts (Invisibilia was engrossing!) as evening distractions, use a hot water bottle on the sore thigh, and spread out the various pain pills so I could have something every two hours. I was allowed to take Tramadol, Tylenol, and ibuprofen, so we worked out a schedule of those three things to stay within the allowable daily amounts while taking something every 2 hrs. I guess each person experiments with all the recovery ideas and figures out what works best for them.
