Is it early days?? I feel like a whole month and I'm going backwards... Seems all I do is take a pain pill and sleep, wake up, take another pain pill and so it goes.
Yes, it is still early days. You are where you need to be right now. Recovery takes a full year and you're doing what you should be doing for this stage of recovery.
In addition, at only a month out, you're still right in the days when your tissues are still wounded and angry. It's a hard time, because (as you know so well) you feel as if you should be a whole lot better, but you aren't yet. We sometimes call these the Dark Days of recovery.
I'll be starting out patient PT soon and they will help me regain the feeling and show me what I'm doing wrong. I'm so discouraged and all consumed by this, I don't remember any of this kind of pain with my last one. My husband can't understand why I'm not my usual cheerful self, he tries so hard to be supportive and patient while I go into meltdown mode.
You aren't doing anything wrong. Just ease off the exercises, as Josephine advised you and let your knee heal. that should help reduce some of your pain, too. Don't be misled into doing too much exercise when you do start out patient PT, either, because you don't have to work hard to rehab a TKR.
The feeling should gradually come back into that numb area of your knee, although it can sometimes take ages. I gave you this article before, but I'll post it again for you:
Numb area after TKR: how long will it last?
Do you remember reading this article from the reading list you were given?
Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
That's what is happening to you now. This surgery takes a lot out of you. Most of your energy is being directed towards healing your knee and your emotions are all over the place. Sudden tears and anger are all part of the deal unfortunately, but it will pass. Hang in there. You'll feel a lot better in a few more weeks.
The funny thing about the pain we feel after a TKR is that, like childbirth, we tend to forget a lot of it once it has passed. That could be why you don't remember your first knee hurting so much. It could also be because this second knee was in a worse state before surgery than your first one was. No two knee recoveries are ever exactly the same, even for people who have both knees done at once.
It's normal to worry, but try not to let the worry get on top of you. You're doing OK.
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