Revision TKR Third and final surgery all done

[liam2015]

hi kayow11 ~ i'm loving your positive attitude and i'm thrilled that your leg is finally straight. you're very much like my husband, who is also goal oriented and just yesterday he said that he felt bad he hadn't accomplished much due to unbillable tasks he had to take care of! i agree with @Jockette who suggested writing "rest" on your to-do list.

i know how annoying it can be trying to sleep on your side when your legs are aching. i still have some of that, even with no previous strenuous activity and i'm a little embarrassed to say i still go to sleep with my "lounge doctor" and even use it as a prop when finally sleeping on my side. i can't imagine what it would be like to have had both knees replaced plus a revision as you have had. i think you are doing terrific. continue to do what you're doing and focus on your priority of healing. i look forward to reading about your progress in the coming months.

 

[Jockette]

i'm a little embarrassed to say i still go to sleep with my "lounge doctor"

I still sleep every night with my wedge and I’m not the least embarrassed about it. At 13 months post op my leg always hurts laying down without the wedge, either on my back or side. I have to take my wedge with me if I travel. (which takes up a lot of space in the car!)

 

[kayow11]

@Jockette, that is a great idea! I will do that, and in the meantime, try to wrap my head around it as a good accomplishment for the day. I think that will work. If I gain greater ROM, then that task will prove itself as valuable
There are always things I can do while "resting" such as reading Bonesmart, reading some informative article, or watching a movie

 

[kayow11]

I think using a wedge or the lounge doctor is a wonderful and a good tool. I would never feel bad about using it for months or years. It does take stress off your back too.
I am surprise more of you have not had back issues with all this laying down stuff. But then again, I have been at this for almost a year with three surgeries, so I probably have had to lay down more than most of you.

@liam2015 , Thanks for your following and encouragement on my situation and progress. I am glad to know some others are either helping me, or gleaning some information from my situation.

 

[SusieShoes]

I think using a wedge or the lounge doctor is a wonderful and a good tool. I would never feel bad about using it for months or years. It does take stress off your back too.

My back was happier when I slept legs up on my Lounge Doctor, too. I just prefer side-sleeping, but it took me months to get back to that. My knees were cranky with any position but being propped up on their ginormous wedge, and would wake me at night unless they were so situated. Now that I sleep on my side again, my knees are all right about it, but I sometimes get a cranky hip. That never happened on the Lounge Doctor, either.

Mr. Shoes calls it the Lounge Lizard. One thing for certain, my knees loved to lounge!

 

[Celle]

And, to quote Roy Gardiner, one of our Forum Advisers - I think he got it from Star Wars -

"When you are icing and elevating and watching TV, you are not 'lazing around' - you are "engaging in a carefully considered, proactively designed, heuristically programmed, dynamically structured recovery programme"."

 

[sistersinhim]

There are always things I can do while "resting" such as reading Bonesmart

In my first weeks after surgery, I slept only about an hour at a time. I would be in bed and wake up and go in the den where my laptop is. No matter what the time was, I always found someone on Bonesmart to 'talk' with. The wee hours of the morning were the loneliest, but someone on here always cared. What a huge difference it made in my attitude, someone out in the world actually cared about what I was going through! What a God-send this site has been for me and for thousands of others!

The wedge was also a great way to get the 'toes above nose' while sleeping! Even while sitting in a chair it gets the knees above your hips, which is also a good thing!

 

[kayow11]

Personally, I really look forward to seeing any responses that I get on this forum. You all have much to say and it really helps me out and I look forward to reading every post. It has been wonderful in my recovery.

 

[kayow11]

I am five weeks out now, and doing OK. Just done with Oxycodone now.
Every time I go to PT which is one time every two weeks, I always get flared up for a couple days afterwards. Does this make any sense to keep going, even occasionally? I guess I keep going due to fear of not being able to bend my knee. I know that sounds stupid. My flexion is so bad.
Also, I wonder if this is normal because of all of my surgeries, to feel like I can hardly wake up every morning, and about four hours after being awake, feeling like I am so tired and dragging again?
Is this energy drain or just my body not caught up, since I just had three big surgeries in a short time? It seems excessive to me to feel like this all the time. Every day.
Looking back, I think it was a mistake having my first two surgeries so close together. But I did that because of my work situation and my short-term disability.
Anyway, I still lost my job because there is no way I could have returned, and of course I needed a revision too. It is going to work out OK for us though, since I am 63 years old and getting long-term disability now.
I know most of you have not had three big surgeries like this so close together, but I suppose any surgery could cause one to feel dragged out for many months afterwards. It makes me feel like I am always going to be in this sluggish condition and not able to be even halfway normal In my future.

 

[Celle]

Every time I go to PT which is one time every two weeks, I always get flared up for a couple days afterwards. Does this make any sense to keep going, even occasionally?

No. It doesn't make sense to keep going to PT. I'd stop going. Many of us here have made good recoveries by just letting our activities of daily living (ADLs) be our exercise therapy. walking is the best exercise of all.

Just in case you feel you have to keep going, read this:
Saying no to therapy - am I allowed to?

Also, I wonder if this is normal because of all of my surgeries, to feel like I can hardly wake up every morning, and about four hours after being awake, feeling like I am so tired and dragging again?
Is this energy drain or just my body not caught up, since I just had three big surgeries in a short time?

Yes, it's normal. It's the energy drain and you have a triple dose of it, because of your three surgeries. It can take a long time to go away.
Energy drain for TKRs

I know most of you have not had three big surgeries like this so close together, but I suppose any surgery could cause one to feel dragged out for many months afterwards. It makes me feel like I am always going to be in this sluggish condition and not able to be even halfway normal In my future.

You will get back to normal, but you have to allow yourself time.

 

[kayow11]

Thanks @Celle, for your quick and always comforting response. I need to practice my own advice that I give others about PT. I likely will just quit totally. Sometimes we talk ourselves into thinking a certain way and it's not sensible thinking. Maybe check it in three months to see how I'm going with flexion. Otherwise, just do my own thing.
It makes sense that my fatigue and constant dragging and tiredness would be from these three surgeries, but it kind of has scared me into thinking I have some underlying disease that is trying to take a hold on me because of how I feel.
Every day I look forward to getting some caffeine in me just to wake up for three or four hours. Then I feel the same way not long afterwards. Every day is the same. I suppose I can expect up to another year of this?

 

[Jockette]

I would think you’ll feel better before a year. I only had one surgery and I was still exhausted at 5 weeks and swelling easily with over activity.

 

[mlwreader]

@kayow11 I think at five weeks out after three major surgeries over a one year period that I 'd be wondering about you if you weren't tired. What you have been through is exhausting. And you only had your revision barely a month ago. I used to run smack into a wall halfway through a meal - I'd seriously have to quit eating and lie down. And I still sometimes get so sleepy I have to go nod off for a power nap. I had a bilateral, and that's like two whammy's for the price of one. And you've had three.

And I agree with Jockette. This intense tiredness will not last for a year. I am nowhere near as tired as I was at 5 weeks. I just still need to pace myself.

I hope you are eating good, nutritious foods, lots of protein to aid your healing. As a complete layman with no medical experience, but who has experience in the trenches with bilateral TKR, I say you are right on schedule. Give it some more time, see where you are in a month. And don't compare yourself to others. I have a tendency to do that. And hang out on this forum as much as possible, its the best place to be.

 

[kayow11]

I am eating well, and generally feel happy. I am glad to hear that this extreme fatigue is normal, and I just have to wait it out.
Hopefully each month will show some improvement with this, and that my bending will eventually get to at least 100 degrees.
I just don't think my body likes knee replacements!

 

[sistersinhim]

I just don't think my body likes knee replacements!

And you have had 3 in less than a year. No wonder your body is tired and hates knee replacements! Your poor body needs lots of TLC to recoup. Be patient with her!

 

[Jockette]

On another thread you talked about asking questions about how many revisions and success when talking to a second opinion surgeon.

I asked my current surgeon’s office how many Patellofemoral replacements he does a year. I got several different answers as it took several conversations to clarify my question. It wasn’t a hard question.

But they must not want me to know because they would not address it. They said he does 200 partials a year. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that. Delaware is a tiny little state with a small population. I can’t believe there are that many people in this area that need partials, or, being only 90 minutes from either Baltimore or Philadelphia, people are coming from far and wide to my surgeon.

Besides, I didn’t ask how many partials, I asked specifically about Patellofemoral. I don’t trust people who won’t answer a straight question. They must have something to hide.

I know it’s an important question but I’m leary of asking this kind of question to an office that hasn’t treated me yet. I’m not sure they will be honest with me.

 

[kayow11]

@Jockette,
I agree that when they don't want answer your question, and go off on another tangent or even read the original question, that I don't trust them either.
And yes, I could have had that same situation. But fortunately I felt good about their answers to my questions, and I did ask a few other people about this surgeon.
One was a former coworker whose husband had a serious hip infection from another surgery, and needed an emergency surgery done to clean it out and save his life. My revision surgeon was one of those doctors that helped her husband.
The whole situation is tricky, and you can never be sure I guess.
I asked the surgeon himself, and made sure my questions and concerns were clear, and he gave me a satisfactory answer straight from his own lips.

 

[Jockette]

I should clarify, I asked how many Patellofemorals my surgeon does when I was at my one year check up. Mine is not going well and I wanted to know how much experience my surgeon has with this procedure. So I’d been seen by his office many times throughout the year. I wasn’t just someone calling on the phone, which will be the case in seeking a second opinion.

 

[kayow11]

@Jockette,
Sorry for the typos in the first couple sentences of my last post. You would think I was still on drugs, but it's this energy drain and fatigue that keeps me foggy in the brain. I even forget many times to proofread my post before I send it.
What I meant to say was, when they don't specifically answer your question, or avoid it and go off on another tangent........

 

[Jockette]

I didn’t notice any typos! I must have read over them and got your point anyway! I miss my own many times!