TKR Puffin is soaring into the sky

[My way]

Good morning! Well it's morning here. I hope your first night home wasn't too bad. I always find the trip home is exhausting for a few days but it's so good to get there. At least at home you can work on your own schedule .You can rest when you want and exercise when can. I have no suggestions on the icing issue but I suppose there is some cooling even if you can't feel it.
take care
Wanda

 

[kneeper]

(((puffin)))

 

[puffin]

I had a very up and down night - seemed to have the hyperwakefulness again combined with a need to wee so poor husband was helping me up and down to the toilet every 40-60 minutes between 9pm and 4am :rolleyes:

Today I am very very stiff and I think that the tourniquet bruises and coming up which are making it hard to get up and down. I had no drain so there is a lot of swelling

I am also under strict instructions not to touch my dressing - I think there is concern about the infection and bleeding risks after the bleeding in the first 24 hours so the bubble wrap and staples have to stay in place until earliest June 24th which seems a long time

 

[Josephine]

Ugh! I can't imagine going through the first few days without the comfort of that nice cool ice! Poor you! But I can understand it if you had so much oozing and everything.

 

[puffin]

My OS gave me some before and after x-ray photos yesterday showing the destroyed joint being pushed sideways and then my nice shiny straight leg

 

[Titianlady]

My goodness, that is some implant!! Looks like you will have a nice stable knee Puffin!!!!

 

[My way]

Wow! What Toni said !!!!

 

[HorseyLady]

Oh Puffin, just found this post and was so sorry to hear of all your traumas at the hospital! Glad you are home safely and being looked after by your husband. I am supposed to be getting long stems and augments on my implant too due to avascular necrosis (Thursday ! ) so I was really interested in your xray - thanks for posting.

Sending you lots of ((((()))))) and really hope you start to feel better soon

 

[puffin]

I have a very stable knee now with my support stems . nice not to wear a knee support everywhere - the OS was shocked just how unstable it was when he opened it up. Even though I had been telling the OS about the stability problems part of his brain was telling him that it could not be so bad if I was walking/training on it. I think he was feeling a bit bad for making me wait. Certainly felt very strange watching hime hammer the support stems in place

It seems very very strange to sit with my leg flat on the bed how - have not been able to do this for almost 3 years because of the dislocation risks and i am feeling the stretch in my back and butt muscles

PT is very relaxed - I was measured yesterday before I left the hospital and that is it for 6 weeks

My muscles are very achy today as I did so many steps yesterday - I just wish I could sleep a whole night

 

[Morgaine]

Another suggestion for lifting and moving your leg is to fold a flat sheet long ways, then hold both ends and toss the center part around the bottom of your foot. Then you can move it up, down, or sideways using your arms. I found it worked better than the dog leash and was much longer and easier to use than a towel. Plus I could slip it a bit under my heel and give me more support when moving my leg.

 

[puffin]

Wow the energy drain seems to have hit me today with a vengence - I feel totally wiped out The lack of sleep is not helping either - I don't sleep at all until around 3am and then just manage to doze 1-1½ hours at a time though until 7-8am

My knee is a lot more swollen today as well - I think there is a haematoma under the skin where the tourniquet stopped the blood flow during surgery

The staples are driving me nuts as well as the bubble wrap - yet I still have over 2 weeks to go with my staples

 

[leejaa]

Don't forget to elevate even though the icing does not reach your knee, the elevation will help. I would try to ice around the plastic even and try getting ice above and and under the knee- it will still cool the wrapping some but elevate so that the swelling does not get worse. It will get better with the sleeping but it takes a while so remember to let yourself nap whenever the body wants to.

 

[new knee in June]

Puffin,
Is your ice machine broken? If so use a frozen bag of vegetables I believe you should be feeling the coldness. It feels great I will check back with you later You just rest Get some cold on that knee !
Sincerely,
Diana

 

[skigirl]

Don't try to only sleep at night. Really, you should be lying down about 80% of the time with your leg propped up with three pillows. I was lucky in that whenever I took an Oxycodone, I would drop off to sleep!! At night, I would position myself with pillows until I was comfortable. i slept in my own bed from day one. My husband claims that I would sleep through a train wreck! But, think of it as when your kids were first born---get any sleep you can at any time!!

 

[puffin]

Puffin,
Is your ice machine broken? If so use a frozen bag of vegetables I believe you should be feeling the coldness. It feels great I will check back with you later You just rest Get some cold on that knee !

I don't have an ice machine - it is nothing that they really seem to use here - although I did discover that they had a cryo-cuff on the ward but it was so seldom used most of the staff had no idea how to fill it. It worked very well on the ward but since I came home it has been harder to get the cool into the knee. I have some re-freezable koolpaks which are OK but do not chill as well as the cryocuff. The knee has also swollen up and I have a very large lump under the skin which may be a haematoma. The packs and even peas seem to get hot very quickly

I am going to get my husband to call district PT tomorrow to see if I can rent a cryocuff

 

[Morgaine]

Puffin, I hope you get to feeling better much sooner, and that you can resolve your icing difficulty. I had ice machine that I got after my first surgery, then after this second surgery, the hospital sent me home with another. Wish there was a way to share.

 

[puffin]

skigirl
I am trying to sleep whenever I can but do not have the ability to just drop off at the moment - if I do manage to drop off I seem to wake with a huge start/jump around 10 minutes later which is very painful for the knee

It may be some strange side effect to the slow release morphine that I am taking - they had to take me off the Oxycontin on day 2 because of the nasty side-effects

 

[My way]

The only suggestion I have is to try the homemade ice bags. The recipe is in the library but I used a a cup and 1/2 of 99% rubbing alcohol to 4 cups of water and double bagged it in freezer zip lock bags. It stays cold for a long time and are reusable.
You must be very happy to have a straight, stable leg after so many years! Just think how wonderful it's going to be when you get past the next little while and everything settles down!

 

[Phoenixx29]

You've finally made it . It must be a relief to have the surgery finally over with after your long wait. I'm sorry to read that you had such a hard time at the hospital. I was lucky that they actually sent me home with 2 Cryocuffs which they filled up with water in the hospital -I keep them in the fridge and they are lovely and cool. Unfortunately I have no suggestion on how to ice through that bubble wrap bandage of yours.... I do sympathise about the staples - mine started to itch about a week after surgery and I could not wait to get rid of them! Try to get sleep when you can - even a few minutes at a time add up. Hope you'll feel better soon!

 

[1ELISEA]

Aye, the tourniquet bruise and pain is awful!

I can understand about not touching the bandage. The morning after my TKR the dr removed the bandage to examine it. My first instinct was to reach down and touch it. His first words as he saw my hand going towards the incision was "nooooooooo, don't touch it" followed be several minutes of infection statistics.