TKR TKR June 6,2018 right leg numb little toe

Try very hard to shake off what the GP said. She is not an orthopedic specialist. It’s like having a dentist comment on your knee situation. But I know how hard it is to get comments from others out of our heads. :console2:
 
@DLR hi Dianne yes that ITband pain really hinders progress. Still doing the massage with my bAll thingy but it’s still really painful. Hope your issues with the same pain are diminishing.
@Jockette well I’ve tried to put the doctors comments on a back burner but got appointment to see Consultant through post today. 5 November so not long to wait.
Knee still swollen and hot still no bend past about 85/90. Still very stiff and painful.
I wasn’t sure why I needed to bend further but realised I needed extra bendiness when I was pulling my boots on. Now that was not only painful but I struggled as well.
I don’t know what the consultant will advise or suggest I’m just hoping all’s ok and there’s no complications. It’s still painful and I’m not sure if I should be continuing to go up and down steps foot over foot or if it’s the ITband that’s causing all the pain.
So very frustrated heart sick depressed and bogged off!
 
To add to the above the numbness in my toe has not gone away but had it so long now I sometimes forget about it.
 
I hope the consultant has something to help you. :console2:
 
Is your knee actually hot or is it pretty warm?
 
Hi Kazmeraz. With all due respect to your GP, she is not trained in orthopedics. Your OS should be the one determining if something is "not right". At four months, my band was only 90°. It wasn't till 5- 6 months that it started improving. I was at my GP last week at 6.5 months and she says there is still swelling but my OS was pleased with the progress.
I know how discouraging but it does get much better. Look for the small victories. Focus on what is going well.
By the way amitriptyline is used to treat depression and anxiety but also used to treat pain from fibromyalgia. I've had it prescribed a few times but never found it very helpful. But then, I'm not that keen on taking any kind of meds.
Take care, one day at a time.
 
@sistersinhim no it’s not hot really but it is warmer than the left knee. GP was concerned about it which transmitted to me. I wasn’t that concerned tbh as it is still swelled and thought the two were connected. I think @Jockette is right in the comments to try shake off GPs view but going to see consultant just to check over.
@Marguette thank you for your comments you are so right to take the positives but they are so very far apart it’s easy to forget there has been a great improvement throughout these 5 months.
The amitriptyline really helps with that low feeling and I take it every night as I could easily slump back into ‘what’s the point of being here’ moods. But it hasn’t been an effective painkiller for me. I should take naproxen during the day but I have so many other pills and potions to take my system jyst can’t cope so I do without.
I really do appreciate all your comments and support. I think my family feel it’s been long enough now and I should be up and at it. So I don’t really discuss how difficult this still is with them.
I don’t know who I would’ve off loaded to without my BS friends. Thank you
 
@Marguette thank you for your comments you are so right to take the positives but they are so very far apart it’s easy to forget there has been a great improvement throughout these 5 months.
You are so right, improvements can be so very far apart!

Hugs to you as you continue on. :console2:
 
Glad to hear you have an appointment with an OS. A GP can assess to the best of their ability, but they don’t have the training. That’s not to say to dismiss them utterly, but do try not to read much into it just yet. An orthopedic specialist will know what to look for or what something means, and that is why it’s good you’re seeing one.

Knees can take a long time to cool off. One of mine was warm for five months. Not hot. Just warmer than its twin. It cooled off soon after. And you’re right: the swelling and the warmth are related. Swelling and heat are both products of inflammation. You need an OS to assess what’s going on in there. It could be healing. Some knees just take longer to finish up the job. If it’s something more, though, its better to find out.

Your family sees only the amount of time that passes, and if they haven’t been through a TKR recovery before, they have nothing to compare it to but the kinds of recoveries that put people back close to normal in a few weeks. That’s most surgeries. This one can’t be compared to any of those, but... your family has nothing else. Try to be patient with them.
 
@Kazmeraz as I read your posts, I understand the depression that comes with this surgery. I’m so sorry you’re still experiencing this nasty side effect of knee replacement. Until I started reading BoneSmart posts I didn’t understand what was happening to me. My second week was really bad, I couldn’t sleep and just cried for over a week non stop.

My surgery was September 10, 2018 and it’s been an uphill battle on a daily basis. I too had the numb foot, which would not allow me to sleep because it couldn’t touch anything without a weird sensation. That has finally gone but now have a numbness and sometimes painful hip and groin pain. :what: This morning the numbness has spread to my inner groin and makes it difficult to lift my right leg.

I have finally gotten 2 solid nights of sleep. I have been taking gabapentin 300 mg before sleep with a 325 mg aspirin. Not sure if that’s what’s letting me sleep, I’m just grateful. I had become grouchy, spacy, and totally out of sorts. I now take 100mg gabapentin 2 times daily, with a short nap after. Have you tried gabapentin? It’s specifically for nerve pain

I hope things get better for you. I know it’s a rough road to recovery. I had no idea about all the changes we go through after surgery. I’m a radiographer and have assisted in many TKR and THR. I should have known after seeing these procedures that the body takes a long time to heal. It’s brutal to see what’s done during these surgeries.:yikes:

I have an appointment with my orthopedic doc on November 12 and should be released for full duty. Very scary thought!

Things will turn around for you. It’s always seems that it’s 1 step forward and 5 steps backwards. But everyone on this forum eventually returns to normal. I know my knee pain is gone after surgery. I too have the tight band but now it’s in the middle, it seems to move every couple of weeks.

Wishing you well ! :puppysmooze:
 
no it’s not hot really but it is warmer than the left knee.
Being warmer than the other knee is normal and a sign that your knee is still healing. I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets hot. With activity it will probably get even a little warmer, but not hot. It's good that you're going to get it checked out. I still swelled some even after a year. Sometimes it just takes longer for some of us to completely heal.
 
@Kazmeraz my it band issues are almost all resolved my pt did dry needling which really helped and accupressure massage, hurts like crazy while she does it but great results.
Hope you can get relief soon
 
Hi Kazmeraz
Hope you are feeling better today. Thought I would share this poem I found today and it that it brings a smile. Hope you dont mind.

...on old age.

"There's nothing whatever the matter with me; I'm just as healthy as I can be.

I have arthritis in both my knees;
And when I walk, I talk with a wheeze.

My pulse is weak, and my blood is thin,
But I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in.
Arch supports I have for my feet,
Or I wouldn't be able to walk on the street.

Sleep is denied me night after night,
And every morning I look a sight.
My memory is failing; my head's in a spin.
But I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in.

The moral is, as this tale we unfold,
That for you and for me who are growing old,
It is better to say, "I'm fine," with a grin,
Than to let them know the shape we're in.

Old age is golden, or so I've heard said,
But sometimes I wonder, as I crawl into bed,
With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup,
My eyes on the table until i wake up.
As sleep dims my vision, i say to myself:
Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?

When I was young, my slippers were red;
I could pick up my heals right over my head.
When I was older my slippers were blue,
But still I could dance the whole night through.

Now I am older, my slippers are black.
I huffed to the store and puff my way back.
I get up each morning and dust off my wits,
Open the paper, and read the 'Obits'.
If I'm not there, I know I'm not dead."
Author unknown.

Hope you get a good night sleep!
 
@Marguette thanks for the poem it has really cheered me up. So thoughtful of you.
Whilst it is very witty funny and apt it is also a wake up call for me to live fully the life I have left and be very thankful I’m not in the obits, yet!
Hope things are steadily improving for you. I’m still struggling but hoping it’s just the swelling which hasn’t really gone down. It’s so tight and painful on the bend. It’s stiff and gets stiffer the more I walk and standing from a sitting position well I’m nearly doing the splits.
But there’s so many other things which I can be grateful for and the poem reminds me I’m not done yet.
I’m sleeping better and even managed to sleep IN bed last night instead of on top of it with stacked pillows. Now that’s an improvement I’ll take albeit a small one.
Warning myself off the amitriptoline cos they wipe me out for the next day and that impacts on my job.
Just hope the low moods keep their distance but with my BS colleagues and seeing occasional glimpses of light I’m hopeful.
My life has been a rollercoaster from divorces and debt and tragic deaths but I escaped depression throughout these dark times. But this knee has taken me to the brink. I know that sounds dramatic but it’s the only way to express jyst how much of a punch in the face this has been. I feel battered. My friends both personal and work are struggling to reconcile the before new knee me to me now.
So fingers crossed and the poem in mind I really am going to try be more positive regardless of the bad knee days ahead.
Stay strong my fellow BS friends we will endure.
 
But this knee has taken me to the brink. I know that sounds dramatic but it’s the only way to express jyst how much of a punch in the face this has been. I feel battered.
I feel the same way! My personal opinion is that even though consciously we have no memory of the surgery, I think our mind and body does remember it.

I am not the same person I was before surgery. I’m not as trusting as I was. I don’t get together with friends as much as before, and I’m very disappointed with my outcome, which makes me cranky at times.

I try to remember there are lots of people with lots more physical issues, but the pity parties still come.
 
Hi Kazmeraz
Glad you enjoyed the poem. I thought you might. Life is sure full of knocks, for you and for me, and I'm sure for many others. We don't get to this stage of life without having lived a few things. In time, the pain of events dims and we go on. I'm sure it us true of this knee surgery as well. I remember in childbirth, telling out "...never again". Ah! I know it takes longer with knee surgery but I'm confident we will get there. @ Jockette, I hear you... I feel so vulnerable since my surgery. Only, I'm not sure if it's because of the knee or a function of aging and the knee was just a trigger. Either way, it sucks. We just don't bounce back like we used to. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Just a different stage of life.
 
Hi Kazmeraz
Hope you are feeling well today. Just wanting to say hi and hang in there. Cheers
 
Well, saw the consultant yesterday. He did numerous xrays and he was extremely congratulatory about how the implant was looking. He did lots and lots of manipulation and concluded my problem is swelling. I think we all on this forum knew that anyway.

12-18 months he said it could take for me to see any benefits. Slight difference from his original 6 weeks.

@Marguette thanks for your thoughts and encouragement hope you are still making strides haha get it! in your recovery.

@Jockette your comments about GP not being orthopaedic surgeon were bang on and what he also said.

@Josephine he also concurred the pain is most likely IT band. So spot on again.

He did put my mind at rest to be honest. He pushed and pulled and bent and extended and said this knee ‘will see you out’ good job really. Said kneecap was fine and just keep pushing through the pain. I nodded and thanked him with no intention whatsoever of pushing through anything.

Got physio Monday and going to ask to be discharged. I’m not getting anything positive from these sessions except harder exercises. No way can I do a bridge with my good leg in the air balanced on my TKR leg. Just going to try carry on walking although the stiffness and gripping around the knee can be very uncomfortable after a few minutes.
Depression swirls around me but so far so good it’s not taken over and I’m still not in the obits.
 
and concluded my problem is swelling. I think we all on this forum knew that anyway.
Amazing!
hope you are still making strides haha get it! in your recovery.
I love this! :loll:
I nodded and thanked him with no intention whatsoever of pushing through anything.
Exactly!
12-18 months he said it could take for me to see any benefits. Slight difference from his original 6 weeks.
If they would just be honest about this in the beginning it would save us a lot of stress!
Depression swirls around me but so far so good it’s not taken over
I feel the same way.

You have a great attitude and sense of humor, you’re going to be fine! :console2:
 
@Kazmeraz , not sure if this is helpful or you already do but i am 7 weeks post op and most of the time wear a support compression band around my knee. Both in the daytime while active and often in bed at night. Helps knee with any movements in the night - knee is then not achey on waking. Decided will continue as long as I feel better with it on. I take off occasionally in house but knee (more soft tissue) feels better supported
 

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