I had a TKR (Left) on August 17, 2020 and wow did I underestimate this. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but the recovery is much harder than I expected.
Things started out very rough on the day of surgery when the nerve block wore off much earlier than expected and I woke up in intense pain in the recovery room. After that, they were just chasing the pain and it took a long, long time to get it under control.
I am 4-5 weeks out from surgery and I am still taking narcotic pain medication regularly (every 6-7 hours), plus Tylenol in-between, which doesn't seem to do much. I feel anxious about still taking so much pain medication.
My doctor is expecting me to come off the pain meds and every time I try to take less, the pain and stiffness becomes unbearable.
Sleeping has been difficult but is slowly improving. Generally I cannot sleep more than 2 hours and then I wake up. Because the knee is so stiff I have to move around a bit, do some heel slides, and walk a little before going back to bed.
I am going to PT 2-3 times a week. It was painful the first couple of weeks - I cried every time I went to a PT appointment. But after reading the advice on BoneSmart, I talked to the therapist about the therapy being too intense and she was receptive to that and backed things down.
My ROM has been slowly improving. At 2 weeks I had gotten to 90 degrees, and since then have gone to a max of 103 degrees, which I think is OK for now.
I feel very fortunate that I am recovering pretty well, but the stiffness, pain, throbbing, lack of sleep, frustration, is taking a toll and I just didn't think it would be this bad. Reading the posts on this forum has been very helpful in making me feel like I am not alone, and that I will get better someday, but it will take a while. I had both hips replaced three months apart in 2013/2014 and I did get a good result from those surgeries, so I am holding out hope for the knee.
Thanks for listening and if this resonates with you, drop me a line. Sending good wishes and support to everyone recovering from surgery
Things started out very rough on the day of surgery when the nerve block wore off much earlier than expected and I woke up in intense pain in the recovery room. After that, they were just chasing the pain and it took a long, long time to get it under control.
I am 4-5 weeks out from surgery and I am still taking narcotic pain medication regularly (every 6-7 hours), plus Tylenol in-between, which doesn't seem to do much. I feel anxious about still taking so much pain medication.
My doctor is expecting me to come off the pain meds and every time I try to take less, the pain and stiffness becomes unbearable.
Sleeping has been difficult but is slowly improving. Generally I cannot sleep more than 2 hours and then I wake up. Because the knee is so stiff I have to move around a bit, do some heel slides, and walk a little before going back to bed.
I am going to PT 2-3 times a week. It was painful the first couple of weeks - I cried every time I went to a PT appointment. But after reading the advice on BoneSmart, I talked to the therapist about the therapy being too intense and she was receptive to that and backed things down.
My ROM has been slowly improving. At 2 weeks I had gotten to 90 degrees, and since then have gone to a max of 103 degrees, which I think is OK for now.
I feel very fortunate that I am recovering pretty well, but the stiffness, pain, throbbing, lack of sleep, frustration, is taking a toll and I just didn't think it would be this bad. Reading the posts on this forum has been very helpful in making me feel like I am not alone, and that I will get better someday, but it will take a while. I had both hips replaced three months apart in 2013/2014 and I did get a good result from those surgeries, so I am holding out hope for the knee.
Thanks for listening and if this resonates with you, drop me a line. Sending good wishes and support to everyone recovering from surgery