TKR SpaceDust in Recovery

Spacedust

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North of Seattle, WA, USA
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Hi, all! Doing okay so far.
Let's start some basic timeline info:
My surgery took place around 10 am, and I was in recovery and awake by 12:15 pm. I was wheeled over to my room by a few minutes after 1 pm. Lunch was served at 2, and my first PT was at 3:45.

I was given a spinal and light general anesthesia for the surgery, rather than twilight, since I am notorious from waking enough to be aware with twilight. I came out from the anesthesia very quickly after surgery was done, and didn't have the grogginess I get from the heavy stuff, so it was just fine. I got an adductor canal nerve block as well.

More to come later. For now, I've had dinner and it's time for a nap!
 
Welcome to Recovery!

I will leave you our Recovery Guidelines. Each article is short but very informative. Following these guidelines will help you have a less painful recovery.

Knee Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary
2. Control discomfort:
rest
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)​

3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you​
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.​


4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these

5. At week 4 and after you should follow this

6. Access to these pages on the website

The Recovery articles:
The importance of managing pain after a TKR and the pain chart
Swollen and stiff knee: what causes it?
Energy drain for TKRs
Elevation is the key
Ice to control pain and swelling
Heel slides and how to do them properly
Chart representation of TKR recovery
Healing: how long does it take?

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

There are also some cautionary articles here
Myth busting: no pain, no gain
Myth busting: the "window of opportunity" in TKR
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds

We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.

While members may create as many threads as they like in the majority of BoneSmart’s forums, we ask that each member have only One Recovery Thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review the member’s history before providing advice, so please post any updates or questions you have right here in this thread.
 
Congratulations on your shiny new knee. I hope your night will be peaceful and you get to go home soon. For me there was no place like home.
 
I am so thrilled that the surgery process went so well for you! Congrats on getting through that part!!. I hope your getting sleep right now!! :hugzz:
 
How have you been feeling today?
 
Yay you did it! ☺️ A friend who had horrendous back pain after just told me she used those salon-pas kind of lidocaine patches and that really helped her!
 
Checking in to see how your feeling?
 
From my experience the first week is the worst after you get home. It gets better but do not push it or it will push back. Glad your surgery went well. Hope you continue to do well.
 
So here we are a week later. First few days were rough, but not as bad as I thought. How are you? I feel sorry for my husband, he has been waiting on me day and night. Tomorrow I am going to try to be more independent.
 
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I'm making forward progress, and the pain has been manageable in general - like you, I expected worse than it has been. I'm to the point that I can walk from the bed to the bathroom without any assistive device (it's truly only a dozen steps). I use the walker as a "security blanket" if I'm moving very far, but otherwise generally use a cane around the house. I don't, however, do stairs by myself just yet. I am sure I *could* if needed, but I feel safer if my husband is there in case there's some instability.

I still need to use my foot strap (or my human footstrap, the hubs :P) to get the baby knee into bed, but I can get out of the bed just fine without it. I'm fine for most anything with the downstairs recliners!

Oh, and I love my ice machine. It helps keep my sensation of pain quite low, and seems to have some effect when it comes to the general swelling. I think any sort of ice would work fine, but the machine is just so convenient and doesn't require changing out ice more than every 6 hours or so, since we're using ice blocks like you'd use in a cooler.
 
Checking in to see how your feeling?
Hey, Cococay! I'm doing pretty well, actually. I'm getting more sleep than I thought I might, also, though I *do* wake up every couple of hours. In general, I'm probably getting around 6-7 hours of sleep most days, although it might be spread out a bit.

Mostly, the pain has stayed under a 6, and most of the time closer to 4, so definitely manageable! I'm still taking oxycodone along with an arthritis strength Tylenol, but for the most part, it's 5mg, only 10mg right before going to sleep.

Oh, and TMI alert, but today marks the resumption of normal bowel movement, so there's that, as well.

How are you doing with your planning for your surgery?
 
JGlow here,
checking on you sounds like you are doing well I had BTKR SURGERY on September 29 Ittakes awhile but it does get better I’m walking with a cane but don’t really need it Went to OS today Told me I can start driving I am so much better than I was prior to surgery Hang in there
 
That sounds so much better than it was that first day after surgery- I’m so happy. I’ve been thinking about you——
and 10 steps may seem small but the fact you can make it without any assistive devices- that’s huge. I can’t do that now without grabbing on to things!
:chuckmarch:
 
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I'm making forward progress, and the pain has been manageable in general - like you, I expected worse than it has been. I'm to the point that I can walk from the bed to the bathroom without any assistive device (it's truly only a dozen steps). I use the walker as a "security blanket" if I'm moving very far, but otherwise generally use a cane around the house. I don't, however, do stairs by myself just yet. I am sure I *could* if needed, but I feel safer if my husband is there in case there's some instability.

I still need to use my foot strap (or my human footstrap, the hubs :P) to get the baby knee into bed, but I can get out of the bed just fine without it. I'm fine for most anything with the downstairs recliners!

Oh, and I love my ice machine. It helps keep my sensation of pain quite low, and seems to have some effect when it comes to the general swelling. I think any sort of ice would work fine, but the machine is just so convenient and doesn't require changing out ice more than every 6 hours or so, since we're using ice blocks like you'd use in a cooler.
Sounds like we are doing about the same. Initially I did not use the footstrap, and because of a high bed I pulled a muscle in my thigh trying to get it up. This makes doing the exercises more difficult. I am having nightmares from the Oxycontin. I plan to post and see if others are having the same issue.
 
Yes, I'm hanging in there, although I admit I'm not having a great day. The healing itch has commenced, with a side dish of nerve pain.

This, too, shall pass.
 

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