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TKR The Knees and Me - staged

@knit2tog, I am working on an Orenburg shawl called Tamara (it's on Ravelry). These start out with a long lace ribbon on which the rest of the shawl is built. I had hoped to make a lot of progress during my hospital stay, but...nope. The fog-brain effect of the anesthesia is not a myth!
 
The brain fog is very real! My lasted about 5 weeks or more. I hated it, but did get to sleep a lot!
 
5 weeks? Yipes! I still nap out at the oddest times, usually with no advance notice. Guess I'll just go with it :smile2:
 
I tried to go back to teaching Sunday School and worked on the lesson preparation and could not get my brain to work. I had to bow out and get my back up to do it. That was at 5 weeks. I went back at 6 weeks.
 
Hi Rubyyarn
I too still nap at the oddest times. Yesterday morning around 10 am for instance, I changed the sheets and felt a bit tired so said to self, just rest on bed for a bit and fell promptly asleep. When phone rang at 11 or so I woke up with a startle.
Today at 5 pm I started to read on my phone and woke up 2 hours later when the neighbours drove in. This has been this way for 3 weeks now. And am so glad I set alarms for important things or I might miss them due to erratic naps.
 
I love those unexpected naps! And remember, they are good for you. When you sleep, you're healing even more! Go for the zzzzzs!
 
@knit2tog, that's it! It will be the most involved Orenburg I have tried to date. Don't have the nerve to try cobweb yet. My yarn is 28/2 which is quite thin enough for me, and I am using #1 needles. I figure I'll have it well underway by the time my knee is healed :egypdance:
 
Hi, all!

I woke up to a major case of the blues yesterday and figured a progress report might be a bad idea. Imagine, if you will, a two year old with the sound turned off and that's what my report would have been like :blackcloud:

I replaced a Percocet dose with 1000mg of Tylenol yesterday afternoon. It worked for about 3 hours before I had to go back to the Percocet. Guess I'm not ready for that yet. In spite of all that, I got some pretty decent sleep. Tried some of those leg swinging exercises today, at least until the arthritic knee started grumbling.

Did a lot of restless walking around the house. My husband kept asking "What do you need?" The truth would have sounded snarky "I wanna be well!" so I just said "I dunno..."

I hope everyone has a good day, full of naps and stretches where life isn't a great big Knee!
 
Aaaah, Rubyyarn, we've all been there and will probably visit again. Hope today is a brighter one for you.:console2:
 
@rubyyarn, have you tried Tramadol as a step down from Percocet? I found with Josephine's schedule, it worked great.
The first is for 4-hourly doses and the second for 6-hourly:
[Bonesmart.org] The Knees and Me - staged
 
@sistersinhim, thank you for the Tramadol charts. From what I could Google, Tramadol is an opiate, just like Percocet, and that other drug is acetaminophen, like Tylenol. The advantage I can see is that the opiate and the acetaminophen are contained in their own pill, not combined like in Percocet.

For now I think I will stick with the Percocet and add a Tylenol now and then if things get too rough. I tried replacing a Percocet dose with a 1000mg Tylenol dose and could only do 3 hours. I guess I am not far enough along to get away with cutting down on the Percocet.

I do forget a dose now and then, so there is hope :smile2:
 
rubyyarn said:
From what I could Google, Tramadol is an opiate, just like Percocet, and that other drug is acetaminophen, like Tylenol. The advantage I can see is that the opiate and the acetaminophen are contained in their own pill, not combined like in Percocet.
Click to expand...
Tramadol is a synthetic opiate, but it is milder that the opiate in Percocet. That's why it's a useful step-down drug from the heavy-duty narcotics.

And yes, Acetaminophen is the correct name for Tylenol.
 
@Celle, that is good to know. I see the doc again in August. I'll ask him about the Tramadol/Tylenol routine if the time between Percocet doses hasn't expanded beyond 5 hours.
 
@rubyyarn Looks like we have the same op date--and I hear you about the blues. I suspect it's a 4 week thing--mind ready to go but the body isn't. I too am trying to back off the pain meds with mixed results but am trying to pay attention to what the knee needs--and often feeling like a cranky two yo.
 
I'm going to chime in on what @gertie said. It could well be a 4 week thing. You're still juggling pain meds, and expectations, and limitations, and the knee is still doing major healing. A lot of people--me among them--noticed that things improved around the 6 week mark. That might not be the case for everyone, but hang in there. It does get better, significantly, just a little further down the road.
 
I am so sorry to hear about the blues. We have all been there. I second what SusieShoes said. It does get better. I felt a turn at 5-6 weeks.
 
Looks like I am into the 5th week of this adventure. I really appreciate all the encouragement I have gotten here, especially about the blues. It does help to know that they will be a temporary thing. Looked at the depression thread and most of those posts are what I've been feeling.

PT this afternoon and I'm not looking forward to it. Don't know if it helps my new knee, but it definitely irritates the old one. I hate telling that perky young therapist that, no, I didn't exercise much this weekend. Just stuff around the house and a walk or two outside. And trying to get comfortable in the bed at night...all that sitting up and down, tossing and flopping, should count as exercise, yes?
 
Yes. Trying to get comfortable at night is heavy duty PT for sure! This morning is 10 day mark for me and I was up all night. 4 times out of bed but a dozen or more sit ups, two dozen wriggling into a different position. Ask your PT if you should be concerned about exercising too much!
 
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