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Bilateral TKR Surgery 06/21 - Road to Recovery

It's so wonderful that you are feeling so good...I also have to remind myself to bend the knee when I walk, I'm getting better at it, it had been so many years that I was unable to bend it that I had to re-teach myself. Enjoy your time in Georgia.
 
5 weeks today!! Was out and about today and enjoyed it immensely. I began icing at night and it works great!! Still have problems sleeping due to twitches in my legs. No relief from Flexiril, so hoping it goes away soon.

There is light at the end of this tunnel!! Wishing all the best during recovery.

Kay
 
Great that you were able to get out and enjoy yourself! Every new step after this surgery is a win! Those baby steps add up!
 
Hello all. I am slightly panicked this evening. I will be 6 weeks on Tuesday and made my first trip to church today since surgery and thought I wouldn't make it through the service because I was so uncomfortable. I am not sure if it was the seat, the way I was sitting or just the normal "recovering from knee replacement."

I am due to return to work next week and am terrified I won't be able to make it. I am fortunate that I am a student and only work part-time in a lab and am free to move around as I need, but that is not helping my fear. I just want to stay in the comfort of my recliner and stay close to my ice machines. I guess part of my frustration is that no one I work with knows that I had surgery and I had planned to keep it to myself - which seems impossible now.

An added stress is my lack of sleep. The muscle spasms are driving me crazy. I am taking Baclofen, which seems to help a little, but will be asking the doctor for something else tomorrow. If I take Benadryl or Tylenol PM, I sleep wonderfully, but can't shake the cobwebs out of my head for the rest of the following day.

So, I am finished whining for this evening. Thanks for listening.

Kay
 
Usually we recommend people return to work after 12 weeks, with a Phased return to work.
You will need to let your boss and co-workers know you had BTKR, other wise they will wonder what is going on with you, and probably think you have something much worse than a BTKR going on.

Others have returned to work this early and coped with having ice packs on hand, and the ability to elevate from time to time.
You can expect to see your recovery slowed with the increased activity.

Spend the next week following the Manta, Rest, Ice, Elevate, and Medicate on schedule as prescribed. Give you knee a chance to further heal.

@Roy Gardiner had BTKR and may have some suggestions.
 
I returned to church after about a month, but I had to sit across the pew with my leg elevated on pillows for at least two Sundays. Sometimes, even now, I have to pull my leg on the pew with my foot handing off. This gives me the bend I need. Good luck to you! And I agree, you have to tell your boss and coworkers what's going on with you. You can't hide your discomfort!
 
Almost 9 weeks out. Working 1/2 days; still taking Tramadol and icing regularly. My major problem is spasms. I cannot sleep at night for them. The OS has prescribed soma and still very little relief. Anyone have the same problem. I have tried heat, cold, rest, prescription and still no relief. I really need some sleep!

Kay
 
What is helping me is 2 Tramadol and 2 Tylenol 2 times a night. Maybe you can try that. My doctor doesn't want me to take more than 4 a day, so I have chosen to take them at night because I need to sleep, too!
 
@KaseyDoodl are you able to rest, elevate and ice the rest of your day? You may be experiencing the spasms because your knees don't like being vertical for so long. Even at 3 months my leg would swell and be painful if I even sat with my foot on the floor. I know with a bilateral it may be difficult, but try to get those legs up as much as possible. Like @sistersinhim I has to prop my leg up when I first went back to church at 10 weeks.
 
I've been propping up both knees for at least 20 years. Even now, after 11 weeks out I have to prop up. I keep a cane with me all the time and if I get stuck sitting somewhere, I have it to prop up on! I'm counting on not having to prop up this right one after a while!
 
Is it a muscle spasm or is it really restless leg syndrome? While soma is prescribed for muscle spasms or cramping there are different meds to control restless leg syndrome. There is an article in the library about restless legs.
 
You know, I hadn't thought about restless leg syndrome. It seems odd that it would start after having surgery, doesn't it? The cramping is only in the right knee and it is the muscles at the back of the knee. Perhaps I am not icing during the day like I should. I will have to do better next week, because I hate being awake all night!
 
I have been having problems with leg cramps on both legs before my TKR, it wakes me up, and it has been very hard to find relief, sometimes is on the bottom of my foot, on the side of the calf, either a in the front or back of the calf, I finally found something that works for me, I purchased an essential oil from Edens Garden, Muscle Relief, I mix 3 drops with unscented body lotion and massage my the affected area, it's magical, the pain goes away immediately ,,,
 
Hi Kay! I was just wondering how you are doing with the spasms now. I am 7 weeks post-op from a LTKR and the spasms are my biggest problem and are keeping me from sleeping. They've been happening for about 2 weeks, only at night and never during the day. About an hour or two after going to bed the muscle at the back of the knee will violently start spasming and it throws me around the bed. Like something out of The Exorcist. I have to get up and head to the recliner and do more ice and maybe a Percocet if it has been long enough since my pre-bedtime one. The other thing that helps is to sit in a hard, uncushioned chair like a kitchen chair for an hour or so. I keep telling myself it'll go away with time, but I'm starting to wonder how MUCH time. I'm trying to do lots of icing but I admit I don't remember it as often as I should. I returned to work 3 weeks ago, but I work from home at a desk job and I make it a point to get up and walk around fairly often and I have been doing fine with that.

I love your report on your bilateral TKR, btw, and I'm so glad it's worked out well for you. My first OS suggested I do a bilateral, then when I went to another doctor to get a 2nd opinion he said he would never, ever do or recommend a bilateral. I finally talked to a 3rd doctor who hemmed and hawed and finally said bilaterals are do-able but the recovery is pretty brutal. That made me decide to do one at a time. So I did the left one in September and plan to do the right one in the spring, after a long-planned family cruise (I've got my priorities straight! :SUNsmile:). The first couple of weeks after surgery I was glad I only did one, but now that I'm farther into the recovery I can see the appeal of having done both. But it's done and I'm fine with my decision to do them separately. Now if I could just get a full night of sleep I would be one happy camper!

So any advice from you or other BoneSmarters on dealing with spasms would be appreciated. I did mention it to my OS at my 6-week checkup and he just asked if I had restless leg syndrome before the surgery (the answer is no) and that was it. I suppose I could call and specifically ask if they could prescribe something. ...sigh...
 
Hello all! I am 4 months out and feeling wonderful. I took my first 1.5 mile walk at the beginning of the week and was held back only by my 58-year old, out-of-shape cardiovascular system, my knees were great! I still have some very minor discomfort at the outside of both knees when I get rise from a low chair or sit for long periods of time.

@cslasor - Boy, do I get it. The spasms were miserable. I had to call my OS on several occasions and demand (nicely at the beginning) something to treat them. I started with Flexiril (I think that was the name of it) and after trying that and another prescription I ended up on Soma, which is apparently quite strong. My OS would only prescribe it for a short time but that was enough to get me through. At about 12 weeks, the spasms stopped and now the only problem I have is the muscles at the back of my left knee tightening up and going into spasms when I stand still for any length of time. I also found that icing before bed and using a heating pad when I went to bed helped, but the spasms did not resolve to the point that I could sleep until I took the Soma.

Of course, being 4 months out, I am happy that I did bilateral although my husband disagrees vehemently!! I could not get up from any chair in my house, get in or out of my bed, take a shower, etc., etc. without help for at least two weeks and I was really wobbly for a full month. He thought I was crazy for doing both before I did it and even more so after serving as my caregiver. Of course, I am happy they are both done now, but I can see where having been more prepared would have helped so much. I would make sure I had a lift chair that I could both sit and sleep in. That would have been a real lifesaver! So, I can certainly see the mobility advantage to doing them one at a time as well as the time-saving advantage to doing bilateral.

Good luck to all in recovery!

Kay
 
Roy, I would classify my recovery as pretty brutal. I suppose it is different for everyone. Of course, I don't know what it would have been like to have surgery on one knee at a time, so that recovery may have been brutal for me as well.

Kay
 
After surviving BTKR I can say My biggest issues were sleep and spasms at night, but that might have been the case even if I had done one knee only-the spasms were in 1 leg only-not both. I hated night times-at 6 months out from surgery I am very happily back to good sleep at night! I would not classify my recovery as brutal but I was miserable sleeping for awhile but yes it's so different for each person isn't it.
 
With just one tkr I was miserable at night and despised seeing the sun go down.
 
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