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TKR New left knee

I bet you have been doing too much and your knee is reacting to that. Remember you are just 2½ weeks out and your knee needs very little activity. You normal activities at home taking care of yourself is all you need right now. When you do too much, your knee reacts with increased swelling and pain. Ice and elevate every time you sit or lie down. You can't do it too much at this young age of your knee. It's just an infant!
 
Hi
Well that's the very strange thing. I really haven't done anything for 2 days other than ice and elevate and heel slides yesterday but none at all today. I have moved only to visit the bathroom.
I was constantly uncomfortable last night and kept waking up to change position. Maybe I had twisted my knee during my sleep and moving about.
I will continue to rest , elevate, ice and medicate and keep my fingers crossed it eases tomorrow.
 
It’s only been a couple of weeks since you had your surgery. Unfortunately it’s going to hurt for a while yet. I don’t think you will see a big improvement from day to day.

This is where your patience is tested. But trust in time and gentle treatment of the knee and it will get better.

Moving around in bed is going to irritate the knee.

Are you elevating in bed at night? I found that to be very helpful.

Before surgery I was a side sleeper. I was sent home from the hospital with an elevating wedge. I couldn’t imagine laying on my back with my leg on the wedge all night.

But, I did adjust to the point that I liked it! It kept me in one position all night and my knee was much happier! And, at 9 months post op I still sleep on it all night, it totally relaxes my whole leg.
 
Hi
You have reminded me !!
I started the night off elevating using pillows but I managed move.... although I have no recollection of doing this.... I woke up during the night, half on my back and side with pillows all over the place. I did re position my self again but this time on my side with a pillow between my knees.
I am going to take a look at purchasing a wedge , that way I can't keep fidgetting and stay in the correct position.

Thank you again for pointing that out :)
 
You could try pinning the pillows together to stop them moving, like this:
 
Also, are you icing all night? That really helps along with the elevating. I think you'll find the wedge a lot less of an aggravation than trying to shift pillows all night! And it is way too early to try and sleep on your side. That really hurts the knee!
 
Hi

I need to get some big pins! As they definately do not stay in position.

I don't have a icing machine just ice packs and they thaw and warm up after an hour. So I don't have the facilities to keep iced all night, as no fridge freezer upstairs etc.

I will see what I can sort out tomorrow , although on a Sunday and bank hols weekend I don't hold out much hope for buying a wedge, but will try doing something with the pillows and keeping them together.

Thanks everyone
Xx
 
You might get a couple of extra ice/gel packs so that you always have some cold ones. Do you have a small picnic cooler you could keep an extra or two in so you could change out ice packs without having to go downstairs overnight?
After the first few weeks I switched from the ice machine to gel packs. I would ice right up until I went to sleep. Then when I woke up overnight I'd get a new gel pack and put the warm one in the freezer. I didn't have far to go to the kitchen.
 
Mmmm, there may be a camping cooler box somewhere. Will see if hubby can find it.

I have ordered a wedge as seen on the elevation do's and dont's page. Hopefully it will be here in a few days.

I am looking forward to testing it out!

Thanks again everyone
 
Be prepared that it might take a little getting used to. It did for me. But as I said, I love mine now!
 
Suzette said:
I have ordered a wedge as seen on the elevation do's and dont's page.
Click to expand...
I ordered this one and it was horrible! Most uncomfortable thing I ever tried!

[Bonesmart.org] New left knee


I preferred the pillow stack.
 
Oooh no. Think that's the style I ordered. Hopefully I can send it back if I don't like it.

At the moment the bed doesnt have much room for the husband as it is now covered with pillows; and bolsters to stop me moving about!

Mind you he has man flu which I really do not want to catch at the moment!

Woke up with very little pain, but with in a short period of time, after going to the loo, the pain on the inner knee hit with avengence. Yesterday it was focused in the knee cap area.

So all day elevating and icing with 4 hourly oromorph and 2 cocodamol 6hrly day and night.

This is depressing and knocked me back a bit, as I hadn't experienced this sort of pain before. Now have very little appetite. Although managing plenty of fluids. The oromorph also makes me sleep a lot, so sleeping pattern is also all over the place.

Am putting it down to all the healing going on inside , I hope. No noticeable swelling on the outside, slightly stiff. Knee doesn't like heel slides anymore either.

I am a bit worried that I haven't moved about the house much at all the last few days either. Maybe the TEDS need to go back on again for a while.

Am hoping the knee has settled a bit more by tomorrow.

No idea how my 93 yr dad gets about on his arthritic knees and the pain he gets in them daily, it must be horrendous!
 
Sleep is very good for you, sleep when and where ever you can!

Skip the heel slides if you knee doesn’t like them.

Remember, the knee is in charge! Keep it happy.

A while back I read on here, if you push the knee, the knee will push back, and the knee will always win.

You might like that wedge, we are all different. My uncle used to say,”that’s why there’s chocolate and vanilla “! If not I would think you could return it.
 
Thanks Jockette, I definitely stopped the heel slides once I realised the pain was triggered again quite quickly. I will also give the wedge a go too. I like your uncles saying.

Have been doing a lot of thinking (!!) The brain is a complex thing, it knows that lying down when you can and sleeping when you can is the way to go, but it still experiences the guilt of not actually doing anything. There's a lot of brain retraining going on too. Also exhausting.

Have a very Happy New Year x
 
@Suzette, I have that very same leg lift and I love it! I believe you will find more that like it than don't. I hope you are one of the ones that like it.
 
Suzette, I went through some of what you are experiencing my first three weeks and it felt endless. But, I finally learned to just let it go and to be honest, I ended up binge watching all the seasons of "Downton Abbey" on my iPad. ;) Took my mind right off the pain for a while.

I was on Tramadol and tylenol (325 mg x 2) and so was pretty sleepy anyway.

DO keep on the resting, icing, elevating, etc. It will get better, and yes, it's possible to "overthink" these things. I sure did. ;) That's when I decided to visit with the Granthams for a while. ;)
 
Hi Space knee
Thanks for that. I think I am starting week 3, I am losing track of the days of the week!

I am on another day of elevating icing and medicating. I had a tearful moment yesterday, which is all part of the course and today i am getting fed up! Another part of the course.

Yesterday I managed to watch 3 movies in between falling asleep and today I seem to be watching absolutely anything, including judge judy and watching sea fishing programmes !

I am getting back ache now and the sciatica has started up and even my replacement hips are aching. So I am constantly trying to find a comfortable position to keep everything happy.

I too take gabapentin 300mg three times a day so need to make sure I keep on top of that.

I feel another long movie coming on, to distract again me again and a new ice pack.

Thanks for letting me know it's part of the TKR curve and I need to go with all the flows.

Xx
 
Suzette said:
Yesterday I managed to watch 3 movies in between falling asleep and today I seem to be watching absolutely anything, including judge judy and watching sea fishing programmes !
Click to expand...
It's amazing what you will watch/nap to during this recovery. :heehee: I would doze off and have to restart the dvd from that last point I remembered.
 
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