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TKR The adventure begins

Oh good about the icing. It will help a lot!
 
Oh I am so so tired of sleeping on my back! And so not ready or able to sleep on my side. I accidentally rolled over sideways in bed last night and the pain woke me up all the way. I've tried the pilow between the knees, etc but it just plain hurts too bad to sleep on my side. How long before I can get off my back? The last few nights have been rough. I'm entirely off the oxy , just taking tylenol, and waking up more at night. Pain isn't that much worse, but sleeplessness is. But then again it's been bad ever since the surgery. I know it's normal but I am so tired of not getting a good night's sleep.
 
I was able to begin sleeping on my side for a few hours a night around week 4. Laying on my right side I gently placed my left leg over my RTKR. After a few hours I woke up and went to my back, but it was wonderful for a few hours.
 
Something to look forward to Karri B. Ive tried it both ways with operated knee on top or on bottom and with and without a pillow and it hurts badly right off. I hope I advance to that point soon.
 
This sounds crazy, but I laid on my operated size and put my new knee on a pillow and swung my old leg way over the new leg. Keeping the new knee up helped for a little while. I wasn't able to do it long, but any break from off the back was a blessing!
 
I do all kinds of rotisserie turnng and contortions to sleep in my side. I prob slept on my back longer w knee #1 but I was over it by knee #2 and was trying to get on my side by week 2/3. Lots of pillows and flipping once all the parts start complaining. I still sleep w my ice cuff on, too. That helps w the pain.
 
Okay, that's official, I may not be in the slow benders club but I'm in the slow sleepers club. I'm just over a month and I can't sleep on my side for 30 seconds. I just hurts tremendously.
 
Well, I did it. First job since surgery. I'm a real estate appraiser and went out this morning to do a repossessed house. Half hour drive to job, one hour inspection, measuring and photos and half hour ride home. I took my 16 year old son. He has gone with me frequently this last year and knows that drill. We work together well. Extra money for him and help for me with my bad knee this whole last year. I drove both ways but he was ready if I didn't want to. I did pretty well. I'm on the couch now elevated and iced and I'll probably take a nap. No swelling yet and I feel pretty good. I need to rest up for some kind of technology meeting at the high school this evening reguarding the new laptops the kids are getting this year. I think I'm going to be okay. I worked so long in absolute pain presurgery and I'm finally getting to the point where walking and stairs are no worse than they were before the surgery. Tendency to swell is worse of course and that's why I'm going to spend the next few hours down with an ice pack.
 
Jajakio said:
Okay, that's official, I may not be in the slow benders club but I'm in the slow sleepers club. I'm just over a month and I can't sleep on my side for 30 seconds. I just hurts tremendously.
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Bummer! :console2:I could at least lay on my side for about 10-15 minutes at first with a system of pillows. Hopefully it will get better soon. Just keep trying different ways and one of these days it will work.
 
I think I can declare first days work a success. I got home about 1 pm and iced and napped all afternoon. Here I am at 6pm, very slightly more swollen than normal, pain no worse than usual. The final test will be how well I sleep tonight. But nights are frequently not great anyway. I used to be the world's best sleeper, insomnia maybe once a year. Then my knee started getting bad and the last year or more has been waking up with pain at night a couple of times. Since surgery, it is slowly improving. I honestly sleep better since got all the oxy out of my system. It has been a week or so since I've had anything but tylenol. I know lots of people do quite well on it, but even with taking it only full time a little better than 2 weeks and another week of only evenings/nights, I still had a hard time giving it up. The first three nights without it were rough, then things got a lot better. Now I wake up once some nights, twice other nights every once in a while a worse night. I can generally ice, take a tylenol and get back to sleep within a few minutes. Looking forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep one of these days.
 
I will be 5 weeks out in a couple of days. Yesterday I did my first job, only an hour long and did pretty well. A bit swollen by end of day but not too bad. Iced and elevated all afternoon. It started out to be a bad night. I went to bed about 11:00 and still hadn't fallen asleep by 12:30 and was pretty restless so got up and went to couch so my husband might be able to get some sleep. He says it doesn't matter but I can see he's tired the next day when I have a really rough night. I suprised myself by sleeping uninterrupted from 1 to 6 am, half waking twice when the boy left for school and the husband left on a job and sleeping on the couch until 8:30 this morning. A decent amount of sleep all in all. Now I need to put in 3 hours on the computer over the course of the day if I'm going to stay on track with my one quarter of usual return to work. So far so good.
 
Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since surgery.

I know I'm spoiled but this is the first day I've spent entirely on my own since the surgery. We have our own business and do 3/4 of our work at home so husband is rarely gone for more than a few hours. Plus my son has been off high school for the summer. Well the husband went to Nashville for an all day class and wont be back until 7pm I dropped my son off at school a little after 7am, then went on to the grocery. Pushed around a regular cart quite well and unloaded 3 trips of groceries from car to house. I sat down and had a second cup of coffee and am now resting and icing for at least 30 minutes. Then I will probably go downstairs to the computer and work on my appraisal report for a couple of hours. Probably nap, ice and elevate for a while after lunch. Then do my home PT and ride my recumbent bike for 10 minutes. The kid rides the bus home so I may not have to go out again today unless he needs more lumber for his table project. If I'm too wiped out maybe his dad will take him tomorrow.

Im not unhappy with my progress if only I could sleep better. Still sleeping on my back. Rough night again last night. Pain is a little worse than daytime but not awful. Its more like hardcore insomnia which ive never had in my life until now I took Tylenol pm and melatonin before bed and only slept until 12:30, got up, tried to sleep on couch, slept poorly until 4am, got up and got more tylenol and dozed on and off until 6 am. I try to keep tylenol on schedule and ice much of the night but nothing seems to help. Oh well, this will probably pass eventually. Everyone promises me I will be able to sleep on my side again someday.
 
Except for the sleep, it sounds like you're getting back into a normal rhythm. Feels great, right? I have no answers about the sleep and am not looking forward to that aspect of getting off pain meds.
 
I'm a side-sleeper and it took me until this week--three months--to get off my back and onto sleeping on my side again. I had both knees done, and the left one was the cause of my being unable to side sleep. The right knee was happy on the side at 6 weeks. The left... just caught up. Which is to say it depends on your knee and when it thinks it's ready. Until then, all you'll get for trying is a painful knee.

You're recovering really well! It takes time to get back to completely normal, and your knee will be setting that schedule.
 
Thanks, Susie. I was beginning to think everyone else could sleep on their side by 4 weeks. I guess I just need to be patient. It's got to happen sooner or later, right?
 
Susie is correct -- you'll get there - probably in a just a few short weeks. :tantrum: I was not able to side sleep comfortably until about 8 weeks (on one side only) and just in the past week on the other side for a few hours. I still need a thin pillow but am able to sleep for several hours at a time - until the inevitable middle of the night bathroom break. I remember at about 6 weeks it was the thing that was bugging me the most - now it is the stiffness. "It's always something" - at least for a few more months. Hang in there.
 
I was beginning to think it would never happen! I'd sigh at night and stare at the ceiling in resignation. Just can't force these things.
 
@Jajakio, I am in week 7 and just beginning to sleep on my side a little bit. Nighttime is still a beast. As soon as the lights go out, I'm wide awake. I try every position available and nothing works for more than a few minutes. At some point I wear myself out and sleep until daybreak. As soon as those first grey glimmers come through the window, I head for the recliner. I might sleep for another hour or just read this forum until the husband gets up.

At least I don't toss the *entire * night anymore :yes!:
 
I would sleep pretty well for a few hours, get up for an hour or two until I felt ready to sleep again and then go back to bed.
 
A nurse friend told me nights are worse because our minds have no distractions and we notice every little pain, twitch, twinge, etc. and we obsess over them. Have you tried taking something to help you sleep? Maybe Melatonin? Or even Benedryl?
 
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