Hi All,
It's been so long since I've updated. 2 weeks post op today. In fact right around this time I was getting ready to transfer from recovery to my room.
I'm doing better now, but the first week home was really hellish. I told people that as easy as the hip was, that is how hard the knee has been. My pain was not controlled at all. I think maybe I had built a tolerance to the oxycodone since I used it after hip surgery and was never 100% off it. I didn't use it much, but did use it at night a few times a week before going in for my knee. At the PTs urging, I called the OS last week. She was concerned that I was in so much a pain and really couldn't do any exercises.
First time I have been unhappy with my care. I talked to the receptionist. She asked what I wanted did I want a new med. I told her "I don't know, I want to know what I can do to help with the pain". She put me on hold and then she came back on and said, "well, pain after surgery is to be expected. Take your meds, ice and elevate. You have an appointment Monday. We can figure it out then". I was so upset by this. If I had been myself, I would have let her have it. I was in so much pain and so discouraged that I just hung up and cried. I have had over 2 dozen surgeries before this and have had many orthopedic issues. I know pain and usually handle it well. My husband was bothered too. He is not usually very expressive about things, but he was concerned. I burst in to tears several times through out the day doing simple things like getting dressed. It just hurt so much. Probably an 8 many times and never below a 5. He has seen me through many recoveries and agrees that this was not like me.
Monday, I went to get my staples out. I was all ready doing better pain wise and was starting to wean down a little bit. I wasn't counting the minutes until my next dose was due as I had done the week before. Surgeon was happy with the incision and was happy with the X-rays. He was not happy with how much narcotic I was taking nor with the lack of bend that day. I wasn't concerned with the bend. I had PT that morning and then ridden 30+ minutes to his office and then waited forever to see him. I knew my knee was just swollen and stiff because I had not iced or elevated for hours at that point.
Anyway, he switched me to dilaudid. For the most part, my pain does seem better. I don't know if it was the dilaudid, or if enough time had gone by that the pain was reducing. Either way, I'll take it. Tuesday, I was able to be be up and wrapping presents for a couple hours. I got 2 thirds of the wrapping done. I was also finally with it enough to finish the online shopping. I had organized everything for the kids in spreadsheets etc so my husband could take over, but he has been overwhelmed. I was glad to finally be able to do it. Hopefully everything gets here in time.
My dilaudid prescription is 4mg every 4 hours. I feel like that's a lot. I have gone over a few times today though and now I am in pain and trying to catch up. I won't set an alarm to take it overnight if I sleep through the next dose, but I do think I will try to stay more on schedule tomorrow during the day.
Hope everyone else is doing well.
@jaymo, how is your hip?
@Medfordart, how are you?
@Miss Muffet thanks for checking in on me.
United Kingdom
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