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PKR Tired of pain

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@Jaime I was down to 1/2 Vicodin morning and night. Initially I was prescribed Diladid which I refused to take (prior bad experience), Oxycodone which I took once and it made me feel weird and I took the Vicodin 5 mg every three hours and was fine. My knee buckling event of last night has caused the pain to increase so I have increased my meds. Figured I could do court fine on 1/2 Vicodin.


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Are you using canes or crutches? If not, you should be as your knees are still weak from the surgery. At only 2 weeks out, they are likely to keep behaving like that for another 6 or even 8 weeks yet. Take a tip from one who knows - use canes! Yes, two of them! That's unless you want to end up flat on the floor in front of a client!
 
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Walker when out and about. Cane around house. After the knee buckling I am paranoid of the cane while just yesterday I was roaring to go.


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One of the problems we see with partial replacements is that doctors tell the patient that they are much easier to recover from than a full TKR. However, on this forum, we do not see that to be a proven truth. Most people with a PKR have the same difficult first month or two as the TKR patients.

So--why does the knee buckle. Two reasons, one is the one you have already heard, weak muscles. After surgery, the muscles have been moved around and separated so that you doc could see your knee. They are weakened by all of that.

Second, pain would cause your knee to buckle. It is really your knee's way of telling you that you are asking too much of the poor joint and it is not up to that. I am sure you are still swollen as well, so the knee is not bending as it will later when the swelling goes down.

Right now, you need rest---anytime you are not working try to rest with your knee elevated--which will also help with preventing blood clots. Are you taking aspirin or some sort of blood thinner?
Elevating your leg to control swelling and pain
Using ice

You are going to have to recognize that you have had a major surgery and you need to rest to heal. It will take several weeks to get your energy back, for one thing---it sounds like you are active, and therefore, I doubt that you need to worry about doing heel slides three times a day. Instead recognize that all the running around is exercise and instead rest when you have some time at home.
 
ghoffman0102 said:
My knee buckling event of last night has caused the pain to increase so I have increased my meds.
Click to expand...
Now I know that you're taking Vicodin, and it was prescribed at 1 every 3 hours initially. But you didn't tell me what you are increasing it back up to from the 1/2 pill twice a day.
 
@Jaime I've probably taken 1 1/2 Vicodin so far today and pain is manageable. Thinking of taking another 1/2 prior to sleep but worry I'll have trouble waking up.

Am taking aspirin.

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I switched to Tramadol when I wanted to be awake and pain free. It is a mild synthetic pain reliever. I also used Tylenol 3 to get some pain relief when I would not be woozy!!
 
My docs are two hours away. Not sure how I'd get a script. Plus I'm so leary of meds. I'll give them a call. Thank you


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Please, please don't be afraid to take the medication you need to control your pain. This is such major surgery and you need to do the proper things to have a good recovery. One of those is not to push too hard too fast. At two weeks out, you should be resting, icing, and elevating that knee most of the day. I think you need to re-evaluate what you're doing in terms of work (it's too soon for that!), running errands (too soon for that too) and exercise (3 times a day for exercises other than gentle bends and stretches is too much for your tender knee).

The problem now is that you've really irritated those tender tissues and it's going to take more than a few days for them to recover from that in addition to trying to heal from surgery. This surgery is not a walk in the park by any means! If you're planning on having a second surgery here anytime soon, all this is even more important.

Use your walker both in the house and if you must go out. You need the support for stability for a while. For reference, I used my walker inside for about 4 weeks with my TKRs. I could have walked without it, but using it allowed me to work on getting my gait longer and stronger. When I went out, I would use a cane, but the walker was my tool to learn to walk well faster than if I would have tried to push on without it.
 
They can mail you the script if it's for a narcotic. For everything else, they can call or fax it to your pharmacy.

You need to keep your pain managed so you can do everything else. Having to work is far less than ideal, but that's your reality, so balancing the needs of your knee and the needs of your job are paramount for now. Everything else needs to wait or be done by someone else.

Do you have any kind of support system available to you or are you truly on your own?

It sounds like your walker is your friend for now. Support stockings may be helpful as well for when you have to be on your feet. Minimize other activities and accept as much help as possible in every aspect of your life possible for the next couple of months.

Deep breath. Exhale. You got this. Ask your questions. We'll do our best to help you navigate.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
Again, I don't have any personal experience here. But if you scan the threads you'll find many other people who had their knees done one after the other. I don't recall anyone getting one knee done 6 weeks after the other. There are several active Bonesmarties who are about to have their second knees done, but I think they waited several weeks or months longer than you are. Other Bonesmarties had their knees done one after the other -- both within a few days or a week of each other.

Is your left knee really bad? Or are you able to wait for three or six months before having the second procedure done? I'm really worried you'll end up in the Over-Did It Club (ODIC) with your surgeries so close together. There are a lot of variables you can't control in courtroom work and litigation in general. Plus, you've got to contend without the experienced secretarial support you're used to. Seems like a lot to deal with.

On the other hand, Dearjr is a pediatrician who went back to work at 4 weeks. You might want to check out his thread. https://bonesmart.org/forum/threads/dearjrs-new-knee.32219/

BTW, are you getting a partial knee replacement in the other knee?
 
My OS's preference is to have at least six weeks between knees, so that approach makes sense to me. My schedule wouldn't let me do it that way, but the doc would have done it.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
By the time your first new knee is 6 weeks old, it should be capable of helping out your newest knee. You'll be using a walker anyway, so there won't be a problem with buckling. Don't try to move from a walker to sticks or crutches too soon. The whole point of the walker is to give you the support you need and there are no prizes for progressing too soon to a less supportive walking aid. The most important thing is not to try to do too much, too soon.

There have been people here who have both knees replaced on the same day and others who have the second knee done anything from a couple of days apart, to weeks or months apart.

Were you one of those unfortunate people who were given the impression that recovery from a PKR would be quicker than it is from a TKR? There are a few, fortunate people who have made quick recoveries, but most find that they need just as long a recovery as those who have a TKR.
I had a PKR initially and my recovery took months, not days or weeks, which was also true of my TKR recoveries.

Don't be afraid of taking the prescribed medications to relieve your pain. You've had major surgery and you need the pain relief. If you take them as prescribed, you are most unlikely to become addicted. This article may help to explain:
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds

If it's at all possible, ease back on your activities. Your knee will recover better if you aren't expecting too much of it in these early days.
 
I know that many people prefer a walker---but I hated it and never used one. I always used crutches. I prefer to be standing upright and felt bent over with the walker which I tried in pt and rejected.

So, the second knee---six weeks is a very short split if you are planning on working right away again. If you need to work---not WANT to work, then I suggest you consider putting off the second knee until 12 weeks out. That will give you some extra time for the first knee to heal and become stable.

The main reason the knee buckles is weak quads---your quads are weak from the surgery and need some time to heal. If you are not able to stay off your feet for a few weeks so that they can heal, then you will need to be very careful that the weak quad does not protest again and buckle. If you are on crutches, the buckling is less traumatic since you will have double support.

If you are set on having the second knee done at six weeks, then I think that you must face the fact that you will have to take at least a few weeks off work. I don't know what type of law you practice, but can some of your work be done at home? If not, then again, I urge you to postpone the second surgery for another month so that the injured quad can begin to fire (contract) again and hold up your knee.
 
Oh, I wanted to add that I did wear support hose and they did help with the swelling when I returned to work. I cut the feet out of my ted hose from the hospital and wore them under slacks. Then, I was able to get some from Discount Surgical Stockings.com that had no feet in them which looked like tights--they were black--and were less of a fashion don't!!
 
Has no one else had problems with the knee buckling? My recovery has been smooth (3 weeks out) except for the knee buckling bad the other night and the feeling it will buckle. I can walk with cane but now scared of the buckling. The fear is holding me back now.


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There are people go have had problems with the knee buckling or, more commonly, feeling as if it will. I don't recall who, but it is a relatively common experience. As others have mentioned, as you get further along in the healing process, it will happen less often. Your quads are weak because they are still healing from the trauma of surgery. That's not the same as being weak from being out of shape, so heavy exercise at this point won't help. Rest, ice, elevation, and gentle stretching will.


Jean

LTKR (Stryker Triathlon): 21 April 2015
Right Knee Arthroscopy: 25 July 2006
Left Knee Arthroscopy: 10 February 2005
 
It doesn't seem like anyone else is experiencing the buckling. This has made me over cautious


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ghoffman0102 said:
It doesn't seem like anyone else is experiencing the buckling.
Click to expand...
That's not correct. We have had a number of folks report this problem in varying degrees.

When you say you are overly cautious, what exactly do you mean? If it means you're using your walker until you gain a bit more strength and doing less activity and pushing, then I'd say your caution is very wise. But if it means that you are staying in bed and not moving about much at all, then I'd say you're not doing the right thing.

Please try not to worry too much about all this. Things will improve. You just need to scale back and listen to your body for a few weeks to get back on track.
 
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