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TKR This has been the worst, most painful, most careless surgery ever

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Hey Satsu , hang in there. You are so fortunate to have found bonesmart. Its such a great and super helpful forum.I was fortunate to have found this forum 3 months prior to my surgery. So needless to say i was as prepared as one can get. I had every gizmo , home care apparatus , ice machine, tens unit , miralax, prune juice just to name a few to make my recovery easier. However the most important was to take my meds on time , all the time and to properly elevate and ice my knee for 16 hours a day. It worked , as for my meds , i got by rather well with tramadol, celebrex and tylenol and once a day Zarelto for two weeks. In fact i was also prescribed oxycontin but stopped taking them after 6 days. Too many bad dreams plus my GF thought i was gonna overdose. So the elevation and ice really played a big role for my rather uneventful recovery. The first couple of weeks are the twilight zone time. Resist the temptation to overdo any activity. You will get through this but i guarantee it will be worth it. Im 7 months from my surgery and there is absolutely nothing i cant do with my new knee. Plus theres no pain at all. A occasional tightness sometimes from over activity as i use my knee like a rented mule. Hang in there!! Best wishes Iceman
 
icep707, yeah, the dreams are a bit much! I'm glad a couple people, like you, have reminded me that the first 2 weeks are like the twilight zone. That's where I feel I have been, and still am. I think my confusion about what is expected of me at this point post-op, has gotten me into a little trouble. The OS and the people at the hospital have made me feel like I should have been able to run a marathon the next day with no pain or problems. Then I read other actual patient's stories on here, and I think maybe I'm pushing things way too hard trying to meet my OS's expectations. I think I need to read more from this website, and out of my book to know what I should expect from myself at this stage. Thanks for your input. Helps to get a reality check!
 
@Satsu.....I left some questions for you in a previous post. If you can provide the information I may be able to help you keep your pain down below that 7 level that you reported. Or....maybe it already is better if you are scaling back your activity.
 
Thanks for the info, Cheryl. I will ask about the Dilaudid possibly causing the muscle spasms. It would help a lot to stop them, because they cause a lot of bone and joint pain, as I'm sure you know. You sound like you're doing very well after your surgery! So glad to hear!
 
One last question, over the last couple of days, I've felt mildly feverish (the highest temp being 99.1 axially (under arm), taken with a battery-operated digital thermometer.) I'm afraid to take anything to relieve the fever, because of the meds I'm already taking. They did give me a flu shot while I was in the hospital. Should I just keep an eye on it, take something to bring it down, or ???
 
It is normal to run a slight fever as you're healing. You could take some Tylenol for it, but it's not necessary if it's not bothering you that much. Normally surgeons would want to know about any fever that went over 101. At 99 degrees, you're well in the normal range.
 
Jamie said:
@Satsu.....I left some questions for you in a previous post. If you can provide the information I may be able to help you keep your pain down below that 7 level that you reported. Or....maybe it already is better if you are scaling back your activity.
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Jamie, I thought I had answered all of them. Let me look again.
 
Jamie said:
It is normal to run a slight fever as you're healing. You could take some Tylenol for it, but it's not necessary if it's not bothering you that much. Normally surgeons would want to know about any fever that went over 101. At 99 degrees, you're well in the normal range.
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Thank you!

Jamie, I answered these questions somewhere last night. I also gave my meds info. I'm getting a bit tired now, so I'll try to find out where I sent these answers to, and past them in to my answers here. In a nutshell, I think it said my activities include the CPM, going to and from potty, walk around my small house once several times a day, ankle pumping. I'll try to find it in the morning.

Thank you.
 
Sounds like things are starting to look up. My reading indicates that as soon as you are able to get up and move your own leg that CPM becomes superfluous. It can become a problem if it aggravates swelling and pain. I didnt have any CPM for my first knee, and maybe 20 minutes or so for my second knee. Also, remember that you have the right to refuse any treatment or procedure. Don't let anyone bully you. Excellent plan to read up here and elsewhere so you can make informed decisions.

In addition to running a slight temp, you will notice your knee will feel hot. That's normal too unless there's redness, foul drainage and such indicating infection. And many of us had spectacular bruising--that's also par for the course.

As regards less activity bringing better results: I was very gung ho for my first knee, with daily outpatient PT beginning at day 1, did exercises religiously at home, made an excellent recovery. This time around I waited a week before starting PT, only went 3x week, and except for some heel slides did NO exercises whatsoever at home. I've made even better progress and have more ROM than the first knee had at the same number of days after surgery, and I feel better and have needed less pain meds. So, move around a little, rest a lot, give the knee what it needs, it will heal..
 
I started with the slight temperatures around when I got home from the hospital. It stopped after ten days, longer than I expected!
 
The questions are in post #36. It has to do with your pain level and the dosing instructions on your medications.
 
@Satsu- My pain was uncontrolled, too, with the Dilaudid they sent me home with. After 4 or so days in constant pain and a pain level consistently above a 6+, I rooted around in my cabinets and found some painkillers left over from my hip replacement surgeries. I put myself on Norco, 2 tablets over 5 hours and that seemed to work. I found the Dialudid to be fast acting, but fast ending which put me on a never-ending pain cycle. Most of my pain was coming from the crazy swelling I experienced. My husband said he has never seen anyone's leg as swollen as mine was. I finally sat down and got serious w/ my thinking and decided to ice like crazy, elevate like mad, and take my pain meds on the clock. Once I did those things, my swelling decreased and my pain decreased.

Everyone's right about the CPM machine. Even my PT says the rate of recovery of those who didn't use one is about the same if not higher than those who did use one. My surgeon doesn't use them and I am okay. 17 days post surgery and my ROM is 115 degrees.

We believe you about the crappy hospital care you received. I, too, was the victim of lackadaisical care. In fact, the hospitalist doctor discharged me with the wrong amount of Dilaudid which left me very short on a weekend.

Hang in there....it will get better.

Robyn
 
@Satsu Hope you are feeling better. Remember if you take your temp under your arm add a degree to it. So if it was 99 then it really is 100, still within normal range of healing from TKR.
 
Hey Satsu , its me again. Ironically with all the information i had from bonesmart prior to my surgery. I went into my surgery thinking that my ortho and therapist were out to hurt me and that they were gonna break my leg with force trying to bend my knee. Needless to say i was a little defensive and ready to swat ones hands from inflicting pain and i was ready to quote Josephine and Referee, with bonesmart mantras at the ready. It never happened. I had the best ortho ever. Remember i said to you resist over doing it. I say that from experience. And who told me to slow down !? My ortho and therapist. After the twiligt stage comes the what do i do now stage. Having been cooped up for weeks and spring was coming in California. I rode my bicycle, tanned at a local park. Push ups , sit ups and get this , RUN up stairs !!! RUN up stairs !! Only to tell my ortho the great news and for him to say slow it down. Rest ! Rest ! Rest !. The reality in recovery is that over doing it can be detrimental particularly very early on. This recovery is a marathon not a sprint . Best wishes Iceman
 
While I understand MoTownGirl's frustration with unmanaged pain, it never is a good idea to find old prescriptions and use them without first notifying at least your GP. No pain medication is a benign drug and some interactions can be quite serious. So, for all you who might read this thread and be tempted to use old meds you have around the house....please don't without some coordination with your doctors!
 
So right, Jamie. Much better if a pain med isn't working or causing trouble to call your doc and ask for something else. I was lucky that oxycodone (percocet) in the first week or two taken round the clock and then hydrocodone (norco) [as a step down] worked well for me. My OS had a great nurse that I could be in contact with about refills and I'm sure would have been very responsive if I had pain control or other issues.
 
Don't worry about your mild fever. I ran a mild one for weeks!! I just kept an eye on it and took tylenol for fever and for pain. Recovered on tylenol after bilateral replacement. :flwrysmile:
 
Good to know, Jean. With all the spasming goin on, I'm very leery of "cranking on my knee in PT. The CNA came out and helped get me cleaned up today. Sure is nice to be clean! Have two more doctors appointments tomorrow; one with my GP (who today emailed me and told me to keep taking the stomach injections!), and the other is with the pharmacist up at the VA to go over my blood clotting meds.
 
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