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TKR One year after surgery

My husband and I decided to compromise on the stocking business. The hospital issued white one stays on the bad leg and my groovy tie dyed knee high (comfortable) compression stocking is on my good leg.

Physical therapist came this morning and most of this afternoon was spent elevating, icing and dozing. I went downstairs for dinner, everything was fine and then bam! the sharp shooting pains came out of nowhere. For some reason, I thought the pain would be more gradual and would grow the closer it came time to take more medication.

Does your pain come on slowly or just as a surprise? Or both? Also, my upper thigh is so tight I could bounce quarters off of it. Ok to use a heating pad on it?




 
The pain can come and go on specific schedule that's why it's important to take your medication as it is prescribed around the clock. You are probably having some muscle spasms in your upper thigh. You can call your OS and see if they will prescribe something for that. Heat right now so soon after your surgery is not a good idea.
 
sometimes the pain comes gradually and other times it's OMG!!. good luck with those socks. i'm on 81 mg of aspirin and move about quite a bit.
 
Last night was interesting. Decided to not wear the stockings and I took another oxycodone in the middle of the night which I haven't done before. After that pill, I dreamed I was a girl living on the beach in California and surfed everyday with Matthew McConaughey . :loveshwr: But then I saw my reflection in the water and realized I was really a dolphin. Definitely going to continue taking those in the middle of the night because 4 a day probably aren't really enough, right?

Anyway, when I woke up, the swelling was really down; my leg almost looked normal. Got up, took a shower, went downstairs, had breakfast and within the hour the swelling was back in a big way. My surgery was only 11 days ago so perhaps that's to be expected?

Kayjay, the only medication I'm taking is 325 mg of aspirin twice a day and the oxycodone every 4 hours. How much do you move around and how is your swelling?

Obviously I don't have much to add to these discussions but am getting cranky because I'm at the point where I'm not really "sick" but I don't have much energy to do much either. Walking half a block up and down the street wipes me out for the afternoon.
 
Patience, girl! This recovery takes a long time.

Yes, it's quite normal for your leg to swell when you're up and about.

I think that you are walking too far for this early stage of your recovery. Just walking around the house and garden is all you need right now.
Have another look at thsi article, to check your activity level:
Activity progression for TKRs

The energy drain is going to be with you for a long, long time, so be prepared for that. right now, almost all your energy is being directed towards healing your knee and there is not much left for anything else.:
Energy drain for TKRs
 
I agree with Celle, this is a long recovery and you will need patience to let your knee heal. What you are experiencing is normal. Spend as much time as you can icing and elevating, your knee will swell for awhile when you are up, that will resolve with time.
You are very very early in recovery, your soft tissue was very disturbed and irritated during surgery, and need to let it heal before doing too much.
Again patience.
Go back and read the recovery articles, you are doing great.

Glad you got good results with out the stockings. Maybe wear one on your TKR during the day for the swelling when you are up?
 
Is it wrong not to feel guilty about telling the physical therapist a little white lie? Mine was here today and asked if I was exercising 3 times a day - and when she says "exercising", she means doing all that stuff my knee doesn't want to do quite yet. So I smile, say "yes" and move along. I am doing the stretches and trying to pull it back with my good leg and so far, she seems happy with my progress. The flexion or whatever it's called is at 75 which isn't too bad 12 days out of surgery.

My husband started gently massaging my leg by moving the fluid up toward my thigh and that seems to be helping as much as the dreaded stockings or exercise. Overall, this seems to be going a little better than I initially expected which makes me nervous - probably a big surprise right around the corner!
 
No, it's not wrong. Just smile sweetly and say "I'm doing my best."
Since you're making good progress, your therapist should be happy.
 
I was told two weeks and you should be able to lift your leg from floor to bed by yourself. I got there fully by about day 12. It does come. I watched as I could lift a little more roughly each day. It hurt like hell to go higher than I was ready to go when I tried. Like everything, it take time and eventually you get it.

I used zofran and Narco causes it. I had a lot in the hospital, almost didn't eat day one at all because of it. Lots of crackers. Still get nausea here and there, surprising had a few bad days lately, but Zofran makes the difference.

I had stockings but didn't wear them much after a few days at home. Then got worried about clots because of that huge pain when trying to weight bear. Put them back on and then thought it was cutting off my circulation, so ditched them. Stayed on my xarelto and aspirin and lots of ankle pumps in bed and tried to get up and move more. Still fairly anxious when I didn't need to be.


Right TKR 27 December 2016
 
This is interesting. I haven't worn the stockings for the past two days and the swelling in my leg has gone down 1/2" each day. Also elevated a bit more yesterday than the day before which also obviously helped. Finally able to lift it by itself too! Yay! It still gets "stuck" (usually at the end of the day) but it's a big help to move on its own. Now if I could just talk my husband into staying in bed instead of trying to help me when I get up at night. The poor man is going to wear himself out.

One thing which is starting to be a worry -and that's my "good" knee. Obviously a lot of pressure has been put on it in the past few months and it's starting to feel achy and this morning, it felt like something had twisted inside of it. Is it possible to put so much pressure on it that it eventually has to be replaced too?


 
It's possible that your good knee is taking the brunt of the work right now. If you already had OA in that knee it can be feeling the effects of being the good knee. But sometimes once the TKR is healed the good knee bounces back.
 
KarriB, hope you're right! So far, this experience hasn't been too bad but I don't want to go through it again anytime soon.
 
I've been putting mine off for a year or two, so I totally understand.
 
Once your new knee starts to recover your good knee will have less and less pressure on it and will usually start to feel better.
 
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It's been two weeks since my surgery and all in all, so far, the recovery has been better than expected. However, today I realized I was starting to feel "flat" or vaguely depressed. There isn't any particular reason for this although the lack of sleep probably contributes to it. The other thing which has been bothering me is that, suddenly, the light seems very dim in my house. Weird, huh? I jokingly asked my husband if he switched all the light bulbs out to 40 watt bulbs because that's what it looks like.

Could this be the result of taking the pain medication and should I start easing off? Only take 5 mg of oxycodone every 4 hours and usually take just 1 (if that) between 8 pm and 8 am. Occasionally take a Tylenol between those doses if I've been up a little longer than usual.

As usual, thanks again for all the suggestions and support....
 
Sorry to hear you are feeling a little depressed we are only a day apart my ltkr was jan 26 and seems no matter what I've tried I have not had a good nights sleep. The constant achiness and stiffness is mainly what bothers me.
 
I've never heard of the light seeming dim as a side effect of the medication.

My husband used to complain of the poor lighting when he had cataracts. He had them fixed and suddenly the light was bright enough again.
 
Two weeks is really the dark days of recovery. Still stuck in the house, not doing very much and not sleeping much. This will pass. Open those windows, step outside for a few minutes every once in a while and try watching a funny movie. It helped me to have a short visit with a friend at that point too.

Two weeks is early to wean off your meds. It's best to naturally wean off, forgetting a dose here or there means to need less.
 
I have just passed three weeks and I have many ups and down. I often feel that I am not progressing and need hubby to remind me you couldn't do this a week ago or you couldn't do that and that it is such a long journey. I am sure there will be more to come. One day all the bad will become a distant memory.
 
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