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Bilateral TKR Pain on the insides of my knees<

@AnnieC - you will see that I have moved your post from jakeleg's thread to your own thread.

By putting the above posts in her recovery thread, you were disrupting her thread, which should be about her own recovery.
Forum etiquette: being polite when posting

Please post any updates or questions about your recovery in your own thread. We will see them there, as someone checks all the new posts every day.
If you need an urgent response to a question, just tag a member of staff.
How to tag another member; how to answer when someone tags you

If you prefer a different thread title, just post what you want and we'll get it changed for you.

Just in case you couldn't find your thread, here are the instructions on finding your thread,
How can I find my threads and posts? . Many members bookmark their thread, so they can find it when they log on.
 
Well, seems these old knees don’t even want to walk 500 meters .... I came downstairs yesterday (not hard to do since I learnt about walking backward ;). Went for a 500m slow walk with both crutches. Came back, elevated and iced while watching a bit of rubbish tv, came back upstairs (difficult still). Took my pain meds but still woke up in the middle of the night in EXCRUCIATING pain. Why? What gives? I’m at halfway through week 4 and even this little bit of activity makes me want to die???? Most dispirited this morning .....


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
Well, my tkr’s are acting like spoilt brats who will do nothing, nada, niks and they throw hissy-fits like it’s nobody’s problem [emoji29]


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
Hi Annie; your two posts describe exactly what one might expect, I'm afraid. Your knees have been seriously (I mean, seriously!) assaulted and need much time to heal. I am actually amazed you could walk 500m, this is not a 'little bit' of activity at this stage of the game.

You know that rubbish TV? That's your fate for a while. I was so smashed I found daytime telly too intellectually challenging.

On activity. Try walking up your driveway or something in the morning, do the telly thing over lunch, try again in the afternoon. Your knees may well say 'No way, baby'. Always make teeny, tiny increments to doing things.

4 weeks out is about the worst time, too. Healing is frantically under way but has far to go, reaction (swelling etc) is possibly at a maximum. But the cure is easy - just wait.
 
You sound so reasonable, Roy! Just reading what you’re saying gives me hope that I may turn that longed for corner soon. I was FIT and strong before this operation!? Who stole my fit and strong?


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
Annie, did you expect to have a quick recovery?
You have had major,major surgery on both your knees. That caused a lot of trauma and it will take time for your knees to heal. In fact, complete recovery takes as long as a full year. You will be able to do most things by about 3 months, but you will probably still need to "baby" your knees.

At only 4 weeks from surgery, your wounded knees are still inflamed and upset. They need time and gentle treatment, so they can heal. You are expecting too much, too soon, of them.
recovery from a knee replacement (and even more so from a bilateral) is a marathon, not a sprint.

Gather up all the patience you can find, because you're going to need it.

Re-read this article, to see what you should be doing at this stage of recovery:
Activity progression for TKRs
and then read this:
TKR: Where are you in recovery?

Try not to think of resting as "lying around, doing nothing." Instead, think of it as working hard, to give your knee the best possible chance of healing well.
In other words, when you are icing and elevating and watching TV, you are not 'lazing around' - you are "engaging in a carefully considered, proactively designed, heuristically programmed, dynamically structured recovery programme".
 
AnnieC said:
You sound so reasonable, Roy!
Click to expand...
I like to think so, though some in this world might differ (I'm OK saying that because she, I mean they don't read this forum).
AnnieC said:
I was FIT and strong before this operation!? Who stole my fit and strong?
Click to expand...
It was a geezer with knives and hammers and saws what done it.

I am fitter and stronger than I was before surgery, even though I'm 6 years older. You will be too. What's happening now is that the body is taking ALL the available resources to heal, you have no say in it. This is a good thing. Roll with the punch, relax, read, watch telly. Whilst there is no 'corner', recovery will speed up as time passes. Imagine taking down a wall of 10,000 bricks one at a time. You can work for ages and ages and there are still thousands, but as you get towards the end each successive brick is a bigger and bigger proportion of the remainder.
 
For some reason I’ve had a tough night and day and I’m incredibly tense and anxious [emoji17] UGH


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
Absolutely understandable. But you WILL be fine, repeat after me 'I will be fine'. Poor sleep + BTKR = not so good today. But OK later!
 
My left knee doesn’t LOOK much more swollen than the right, but it is still very tight. Of course no 2 knees are the same, even on the same person, but I really wish it could get with the system!
Still can’t walk much and this sedentary life is booooring


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
Annie, stop trying to rush this recovery. You had extremely major surgery less than a month ago. You had both knees done, so you have double the Energy drain for TKRs
Almost all of your body's energy is being directed towards healing your knees, so there's not much left for anything else.

You were fit and well before your surgeries - apart from two shot knees - and you will be fit and well again, given time. But first your knees and your body need to heal. While sitting around may feel boring, it is what your knees need, so they can heal.

Complete recovery from a knee replacement takes a full year, although you will be able to do most things long before that. There's nothing you can do to speed up that healing process, but trying to do too much, too soon, can slow it down.

[Bonesmart.org] Pain on the insides of my knees<
[Bonesmart.org] Pain on the insides of my knees<
Patience, Grasshopper!
 
No, not impatient, just wondering about the big difference in the two knees on the same person.


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
Ok, so here’s another question that will frustrate the oldies on the forum. How long does the worst of the pain last? I had bilateral hip replacements 18 months ago and that was a walk in the park compared to the knees. The instability and lack of ROM are all things I can totally understand, but the extreme pain has me flummoxed. When does it abate? am I going to be taking pain meds for a year?


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
It takes a lot longer to recover from knee replacements than it does from hip replacements. That's because the knee is a much more complex joint than the hip. It takes a lot more surgical work to replace a knee joint.

That means that pain will linger for longer and it will take longer to regain full range of motion and mobility.
This article helps to explain:
TKR or THR: which is more difficult surgery for recovery?

No, you won't be taking pain meds for a year, but you will probably need to take them for longer than you did after your hip replacements.

At just under a month from surgery, you are still in the very early days of recovery.
You can help decrease your pain by resting, icing and elevating your legs, and taking your pain meds on a regular schedule.
Check your activity against this article, to make sure you aren't doing too much.
Activity progression for TKRs

PS: I do hope you'd realised that the writing in blue provides links to the articles.
 
As Celle says, at 4 weeks you are at possibly the worst time; the reaction to trauma has been rising but healing is yet to catch up. But now the reaction will decline and healing will continue. In another 4 weeks you won't know yourself. Take a look at my recovery thread (sig, below) to see how it might work.
 
My left knee is definitely unhappier than my right. I can FEEL the swelling inside. So, if it doesn’t wanna, I say ‘so then we don’t’ Only thing I still struggle with is sitting down and getting up, stairs and sitting at long dinners. Today having been Christmas, my legs were the extra ‘guests’ at the table. My girls have been SO wonderfully protective and supportive. I can’t thank them enough.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
AnnieC said:
Only thing I still struggle with is sitting down and getting up, stairs and sitting at long dinners.
Click to expand...
It's too early to be worrying about those. It can take as long a 4 months before you can do stairs normally. And sitting on a hard chair at the table should still only be for very short periods.
 
Been struggling badly with anxiety. I normally do, but particularly bad now. Whether it’s the season or the surgery is hard to tell, but very tough to deal with; especially when hubby doesn’t understand or try to.


Bilateral Total Knee Replacement 27 November 2017
 
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