Thank you for all of your responses. I’m new at this forum/thread format & I appreciate you all stepping in to group my conversations & provide links for me to read to help me follow protocol.
My set backs were related to my intolerance of pain meds. Day of hospital discharge was a day of chaos for the nursing staff. For unexplained reasons I was not given the prescribed hydrocodone for more than 9 hours. PT session was required for 1 hour prior to discharge.
As my pain level was quite high in PT, the decision was made to administer oxycodone. This is what my doctor was advised to discharge me with. It proved to be too powerful of a drug for me. I was taking one every four hours beginning on 9/12, Thursday and throughout the weekend.
My surgeon recommends no exercise over the initial weekend, just elevate & ice which is all I really could do. The oxy drug heavily sedated me.
PT was slated for Monday 9/16. I was so heavily sedated it was difficult to function at capacity in PT. Discussed with PT & doctor & was suggested I space them further apart. During my 1st week of PT (30 minutes Monday, Wednesday & Friday) I would take prior to PT & then every 8 hours.
Still considerable issues... heart spasms, woozy feelings, lightheaded, no energy. Exercising at home wasn’t top of mind with me. Did a little bit of exercise, but not much. Discussed how I was feeling at end of 1st week of PT with the Joint Replacement Center’s head RN.
Asked if I should be switched over to hydrocodone. She suggested that I stay on the Oxy drug but just cut them in half spacing them apart 8 hours. I tried this over the weekend & still had severe weakness - almost fainting after exerting myself to get showered.
During the 2nd week of PT I had the bandage removed by the doctor. During this visit, I became very lightheaded & almost fainted. Again, just walking into the doctor’s office & him moving my knee around created the situation. They ended up having to summon a wheelchair to get me to my vehicle.
During this week I did do more exercises, but was not of the mind set to challenge myself. It was after all these episodes I made the decision to cold turkey the oxy drug during my 3rd week of PT on Wednesday 10/3. My last 1/2 pill was taken after PT on Wednesday.
Unfortunately & unbeknownst to me, I began detox .... the most terrible pitiful feeling I’ve ever gone through. Severe diarrhea started Wednesday late night & continued through Saturday night. Overall feeling of the flu, chills, nausea, no appetite.
By Friday I could hardly pull myself up on my walker so I missed Friday’s PT. After searching the computer I realized the 3 weeks of regularly scheduled meds had created an addiction in my body & now I was going through withdrawals & had probably had 72 hours to ride it out. Finally by Sunday morning I knew I would be alright.
So finally this my 3rd week of PT. I can think clearly & more importantly challenge myself. The consequence of this ordeal is a very stiff puffy knee that does not have much ROM & a thigh muscle that has difficulty firing.
The head PT dude said that my doctor is expecting my ROM to be closer to 100 on 10/14 my follow up visit next Monday. I am still on a walker. The notes I took during TKR class said that typically the walker would not be needed after week 3.
I am taking extra strength Tylenol for pain. In order to help me do my best here at home, I ordered a terrific ROM glider from Amazon. It was invented by the 2 PT guys on You Tube. I have also purchased a bolster.
Prior to the surgery I was a very active 66 year old. We spend most of our time on our vacation ranch & my lifestyle is a very active “cowgirl” , riding horses, walking more than 10,000 steps a day with just regular daily ranch activities.
My lifestyle slowed down in March of this year due to complications associated with CPPD (Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Disease) in both knees.
I am a medical mystery, as CPPD typically only affects one joint once in a lifetime. I had it twice in both knees from March,2019 to July,2019. Once we got the symptoms of CPDD settled down, the decision was made to perform TKR, as CPPD breaks down cartilage in Osteoarthritis knees. My thigh muscles had begun to atrophy due to my inability to use them during bouts of CPPD.
So I hope this provides you all some insight to my situation. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.