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TKR Papas new knee<

Well still waiting on that s l e e p . I get about 2 - 3 hours a night then up for about 2 then if lucky back asleep for 2 more. I have this cream to put on. Will be trying it today and tonight. I have noticed the knees don't seem as " tight" as they were. So maybe the anti- inflammatory is starting to work. I still need a nap around 1 in afternoon. Just can't make it without sleeping. Once again it's only for and hour or two. Today could be rain . It seems to mess with me some. Hoping for a better night tonight.
 
Yes, it does get frustrating at times. The thing I tried to look at was how I was just out of surgery or a few weeks ago and then how I was at the moment. Celebrating those little milestones can help.
 
@kneeper I try to think that to but lack of sleep begins to wear. I have been napping more and it helps that. Just the pain and stiffness makes it hard to move. On Saturday and Sunday it is easier on me. I love football and can watch it and helps keep my butt in recliner. I could do that during week but I can only watch so much tv. I don't read much I work from home some but that makes me tired seeing what goes on there. Stress levels continue to rise as well. The right knee at least appears to be getting back down to normal. The left has a long way to go. This new cream seems to help some but still stiff. I don't want to run out of pain meds but will Monday so I need to call O S on Monday for more. The majority of my time today has been inside and walking. Going out for breakfast in morning it is my treat to wife. The pain has radiated down my leg at times. That bothers me. Enough fir now I am looking to stay up very long till 10 or so then try bed for most of night. I will take my restless pills and my pain pills to help with sleep. Then we will see. I also plan a hot shower and more cream. :beg:
 
Feel better! :SUNsmile:
(Though I know you will be feeling much better soon, just need more healing time.)
 
Hi @Trppr1231,
I just discovered your thread and read through it... I had many of the same issues as you early on, and still have 1 issue left. I also have the swelling in my knee that's preventing good extension, and my OS also threatened me with the dreaded MUA, too. I also had bad insomnia like you have.
So, what worked for me in terms of remedying the poor pain control and lack of sleep was not taking OxyContin in the evening or night. Instead they prescribed a muscle relaxer that I only take as I'm going to bed, and Tramadol that I take with the muscle relaxer. Nothing has given me much stomach trouble, except for a week or so of getting the stool softener and medicines timed right with that med. and with my favorite: stewed prunes. My grandmother lived with us as a kid and she had them every morning. To me they were what cool older grow ups ate!
I finally began sleeping better with that combo.
But, I do have the ice machine on all night, around my knee and it is elevated way high on a foam slant-thing they sent me home with....
I have an appointment with the OS on Thursday coming up and I'm not yet at 100 flexion and 0 degrees extension so I know he's going to insist I "need" the MUA. I think it's way too soon, that this is a knee that had a poor start on pain and swelling control, that my ROM will emerge as the swelling shrinks! I don't want to offend him, as I want him to do my other one perhaps next year, but I think it's way too soon for an MUA as I don't think these are adhesions, just a swollen baby knee!
If you can elevate it and ice at night, might it be worth trying? That has really helped me sleep much better. And if I wake up, I pop over here to see who else is up!
Take care, and I'll follow your posts
 
@BBCG Thanks for that info. I am up again but have stayed in bed till now. Knees have alternated in pain through out the night. Seems like the right one was worse tonight. I have wondered about getting something more than 2-3 pillows. So I just may see what I can come up with. I don't use the ice machine now but probably will break one out. You know that if it wasn't for this forum I would have gone crazy! You and the rest on here have been nothing short of great and extremely helpful. I guess what concerns me is the right one more. It seemed good till about 3 weeks ago now. I thought it was past and going to be ok. But the latest issue seems the feeling of a vice wrapped around knee. I believe in my O S he is great. The left knee I kind of get it hurting some but every single day ? I will be up for sometime but may try bed again. If not I will sleep in this recliner have many times.
 
It could be that your right knee is protesting about the extra load it took on after you had the left knee done. After all, your right knee was less than 3 months into its recovery when you had the left knee done.
Treat both knees as babies or toddlers, with lots of TLC, and be kind to both of them.
 
Ok @Celle I will. It's not like I beat it up. :rofsign: But I know what you mean. I am stubborn and will do what I want no matter what my body says for awhile. That's my whole problem. I don't know how to relax slow down or wait. I feel like I can make myself do anything. I have never been a "benchwarmers" per say. I make things happen. I don't sit by. That's why I hurt. I know it is but changing all of that after 58 years is hard. My dad said " never put off tomorrow what you can do today ". So that's how it started with me. He expected you to work unless you were sick and dying. He wasn't hard just old school. Now I feel I am.
 
I also have a hard time just sitting around, but it really is helping. Good that you have football to watch now! I had a hard time watching TV a lot.... couldn't stand to stay on the sofa for long periods of time and I don't watch much of it. But I promise you, if you can make yourself do it a little longer, you'll be better able to handle some little "projects" one at a time. I think those of us who are "old school" have the hardest time. If it were my sons having this surgery, they would be delighted to sit around and play video games all day!
 
@birdwatchr yes I have found out just that this morning. I just realized even though I was up earlier and it hurt some through out the night that I did sit a lot later day. I took a nap from 1-3. Then sit mostly watching tv. It is helping I feel the difference now. I know it will be a little easier today to sit some. I have sooooo many " little" projects I want done but I always feel time is slipping by. So that's when I over do it. Yes Birdwatchr I understand that the younger people have NO problem laying around. But I am sure my dad found fault in things I didn't do. I remember coming home after work and he would call or be at my home ready to do " something" . " You just do understand I have been here waiting for you bored all day " he would tell me. So I must have some of that in me.
 
Lol!! Whenever my parents would come to visit, I always had to have some projects available for my father! One year he put up curtain rods for me while I was gone. I had reminded him to pay attention to the brackets and which one went with which rod. He said I know, I know. I came home to every single one done wrong! But he tried so hard to help out I just waited til after he left and fixed them. He did make me pretty self sufficient!
 
So, my turn to be up early... @Trppr1231, I'm like you in tending to want to be busy, but lots of my "projects" involve computers, so I've been getting some mileage records, bookkeeping, etc. caught up, once I found a comfortable way to work in my recliner. i've let those kinds of sorting, getting stuff ready to donate, etc. together so I'm not too bored. Got some learn-to-read books to gave here for when I'm caring for my 5 year-old granddaughter, since she's a high-energy kiddo, and I did some research on the computer to see what to look for... I'm trying to go somewhere she can run off energy alternating with quieter activities, for the days she's with us each week, so my knee won't protest so much on the day after. But, I don't get the sense computer on lap work is your thing, though! I sense you're more physical project directed?

I got similar "don't sit around doing nothing" lessons from my dad, too, though later in his life, he did really enjoy sitting watching the sunset..he'd say to me, "Hmmm...guess I made it another day, huh?" and chuckle. He lived to be 104! He didn't live with me though, so when I'd visit him, I'd go out to his shop to find out what he was up to and help. He would get into trouble, sometimes though, forgetting he ought not be climbing on ladders on the roof in his 90s!

My hunch, suggested by @Celle is that your right knee was still needing TLC when you had the left done, expecting it to be put to work as the new "baby knee" healed. Mine's not 3 months old yet, but my right one, which also eventually needs doing, is complaining about getting the added load put on it since my left knee surgery, so I can imagine a new baby knee, not quite healed, might do likewise... I watched a cool video of what the surgeons did to our knees and it really added to the respect I give it now, and to my understanding that all of these soft parts that got pulled, tweaked, cut, man-handled, etc. really need lots of time to recover. As a friend and fellow TKRer noticed, these surgeons are kinda "buff" fellows: this joint replacement work is quite physical and they get a kind of "workout" done whilst working on us patients!

Yes, this forum was a life-saver for me, too! Still is, since inevitably, I find someone here has dealt with what I'm concerned about and I find multiple ideas for resolving questions here!

Hope you can have a kind-to-knee day that's not too boring! Here comes my cat to snuggle before it gets light out today...
 
Might it help to reset the way you look at sitting and resting? I'm sure all of your life sitting and resting has been leisure activity, enjoying an occasional football game, or a rare chance to just daydream or read a book. But right now sitting and resting is your job. It's work. And for you, it's quite hard work. Your tissues need this right now, and rest has priority. Tell yourself, this is hard for me, I dislike doing this, but for now, this is my job, and if I have to grit my teeth to rest and heal, then that's what I will do. In bureaucratspeak, rest, ice and elevate are your performance requirements, and if you find yourself up and moving too much, you are not meeting your goals and objectives.
 
You look at all your little projects that you want to do, but the biggest one is right there, right now. Your most immediate project should be letting your knees heal. That is your most important job! Once this job is completed, you can go on to the others. If you don't complete this big, most important job first, the other little ones will suffer. Just give yourself the time your knees need. You are not being lazy. Rest is necessary for a correct, timely healing!
 
You have a free pass to watch football all weekend. It's a vacation for your knees. :)
 
:loveshwr:@greatlakes @sistersinhim @kneeper To all of you a GREAT BIG thanks!! I have slept in afternoon,watched more football than I have in awhile. Knees both a little sore but not bad. If I do nothing that means since 12:30 today I have either been in bed or the recliner. I will take hot hot shower tonight. Then pain meds and going to bed. We will see. If I make it or not. If I don't I will be on here. You guys are a great team I love it and won't forget it!
 
I'm glad you relaxed today and allowed your knees rest, hopefully you can get some sleep tonight!!
 
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