TKR Puffin is soaring into the sky

[new knee in June]

Puffin,
How are you are you o.k.i hope your pain is better.
Please post when you are able
I'm thinking of you..& wishing you only the best...
Diana

 

[RestAssured]

puffin

Oh where has our Puffin gone
Oh where oh could she be
She once was lost........

 

[My way]

Hello puffin Is everything alright?

 

[puffin]

Been having a tough week as the shin pain is still bad and hampering my attempts to walk. Although I am 5½ weeks out I still am totally dependent of my walker for everything - I cannot do the stairs by myself, I cannot carry a cup of tea - I cannot even manage the 10 steps to the bathroom without it. It is depressing that I was walking better on the totally destroyed knee with no knee ligaments than

I am now. I don't think I have a cracked bone as nothing showed up on the x-ray taken before I went home - alhough obviously by leg bones were injured on the inside by the drilling and support stems being hammered in.

I am supposed to have a check up next week back at the hospital - although they have not sent me a time yet so perhaps I need to chase it up. I'm wondering whether I should contact my physio for help?

I am also struggling to manage the pain now that I have stepped down to the Tramadol - and I have pain in other joints that suggests a Fibromyalgia attack is possibly on the way

Well rant over - hope everyone else is doing OK

 

[new knee in June]

Dear puffin,
So good to hear from you I do wish you were feeling better please call your doctor
& get back on the stronger meds.
You shouldn't be in so much pain.
I you find some relief.
Hugs,
Diana

 

[bottomshollow]

puffin, I'm sure at the moment it seems that things will never get better. And being told that all this is going to take a lot of TIME & PATIENCE just makes you want to throw stones at us---and I wouldn't blame you. Walkers are a pain---they're always in the way and keep you from doing really simple things. And being in pain that is not well controlled only adds to the misery. Wish I could fast forward you through the next 5 1/2 weeks when I suspect that things will be much improved over where you are right now.

Just want you to know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. I'm sending all the positive healing vibes your way that I can muster up. Please take care of yourself and keep us posted. We care.

 

[HorseyLady]

Sending you lots of virtual hugs ((((())))). I know how frustrated you must feel with your progress. My surgeon said a post traumatic TKR takes a lot longer to recover from due to previous surgeries and scar tissue. He stressed that I (and you!) must not compare ourselves to others and must be patient. I know how hard this is but we have to appreciate our little baby steps of progress and accept this is not a level playing field.

I am on Tramadol too and I don't find it that good for bad pain - see if you can get back on your stronger meds.
Thinking of you

 

[My way]

there is nothing more I can add to the wishes from all your friends .

 

[new knee in June]

Dear puffin,
How are you today did you get back on your stronger meds? Wishing you a relaxing, pain-free
Weekend
Thinking of you always
Diana

 

[My way]

Dearest Puffin I hope you are feeling better today.
Thinking of you
Wanda

 

[puffin]

Grrrr the hospital admin have messed up (AGAIN) my follow up appointment. I rang yesterday as I still didn't have a time for my 6 week check up and found that I was supposed to have a special 6 week appointment because of the complexity of my surgery with both OS and PT - however because this was not the norm noone knew who was going to organize it (both admin and PT assumed the other would set it up) so basically nobody did However when I called I found out that yesterday was my OS's last working day for several weeks so I won't get an appointment until mid-August However later in the afternoon the PT called me at home and she wants to see me in Tuesday even though the OS will not be there

At the moment I am having a lot of trouble with my "good" knee - it is absolute agony trying to stand up and sit down as I get a sharp stabbing pain in the front of my right knee just below the kneecap. It has taken so much strain for so long now - especially in the first weeks post-op when I was not able to bear weight at all on the operated knee (and not to forget the previous 2½ years). So I am icing the right knee as much as the left. In my previous X-rays there was no sign of osteo in that knee - so I don't know what I have done to it.
Josephine - have you any idea what this might be or what I should do about it?

 

[RestAssured]

I am sorry that you are having all these issues! Especially being a revision knee, the OS office should have made sure he saw you BEFORE going on holiday! I find even though I have 2 replaced knees, since I am having kneecap issues with the revised one, I tend to overcompensate and the left one gets upset. Kind of like "Listen, you have two knees now, have my buddy share the load!"

 

[Josephine]

Sonja is right - it's not at all unusual for the other knee to get tendinitis all over the place. You need the usual - you know, rest, elevate, ice and pain meds! For both knees!

 

[new knee in June]

Dear puffin,
Did you get back on stronger meds. Sorry your doc. App. Got messed up. I'm
Glad. They will see you on Tuesday.
Tell them you need stronger meds
I'm so sorry about your other knee.....you've been through so much....
I hope you find some relief..
Hugs coming your way
Diana

 

[puffin]

Well just to make my life complete the kneecap on my TKR knee has swollen up like a balloon today - it looks very strange as the scar runs through the kneecap - on one side I have "normal" swelling and the other side is 1-2cm/½-1 inch higher. I am not sure what I have done as I didn't even get to leave the house yesterday because my husband got called into work unexpectedly. The only things I can think of is that I might be putting more weight on it because of the problem with the good knee - or perhaps it was the exercise to stretch out the back of my knee. I have spent the whole day resting, elevating and icing

I am wondering whether to try the morphine again for a few days to get the pain under control. I realised that I had stopped them a week early because my husband had left ½ a box in another room so I thought I had run out

Will I ever be able to walk? It is sooooooo slow Currently I will probably need to go in a wheelchair to my hospital appointment as I doubt I can walk the 400m from the main entrance to the orthopaedic clinic

 

[My way]

I'm sure you'll walk again. I can understand your frustration though. Oh dear it's always something. I would take the morphine if I was in pain and I wouldn't think twice about using the wheelchair for the appointment. Why do the places we Orthopedic patients have to get to have to be so far away? When I had to see my OS it was a very long walk to his clinic.
Wanda

 

[new knee in June]

Dear puffin,
good luck at your appointment.
Thinking of you,
Hugs,
Diana

 

[Lmarshall]

Good Luck with your appointment tomorrow Puffin. I am just catching up on your thread and you have been through so much! HUGS to you!! Luisa

 

[puffin]

Went to bed last night with icepacks on both knees and took 50mg of the morphine tablets this morning instead of the Tramadol. I have done less walking and not attempted the stairs for 2 days - the pain levels and swelling are noticeably less today so it seems to be working.

Tomorrow I go to the physio and see what she says

 

[bottomshollow]