Revision TKR Woohoo I'm starting to feel better!

[DogLoverx3]

Your day sounds like it was a lovely one! I'm so happy to hear it! xoxoxoxo

 

[Nana moon 27]

Hi all. I cannot grumble today. My sleep pattern, although still naps is improving. I think the fact that I'm off the steroids now has helped. The naps are for a couple of hours at a time and closer together. I haven't got out of bed yet so I don't know how my knee is. It doesn't seem to feel as bad this morning. Normally when I wake up I'm in uncomfortable pain. This morning it's barely even an ache. I am praying that maybe now it is my turn to improve greatly. I'm not holding my breath on that one though. If I can resist the urge to do normal stuff and be sensible maybe I can be even better tomorrow.

 

[Karringtyn]

Good Morning Ann! Waking up with barely an ache? Woohoo! Fingers are crossed for you with that one!!!! xoxoxoxo

 

[Nana moon 27]

Thanks @Karringtyn hope you're ok too x x x

 

[Jozilla]

Hi Nana Moon 27 - I think you will start to feel a big difference in how you feel. Weeks 9 until 13 for me I am amazed at how tightness and twinges are disappearing.

You also shocked me when you said you were awake during surgery!!! I was terrified of that possibility before surgery and thankfully do not remember a thing! I would have passed out!!! Was there any reason for this? Did the happy juice not work? You must tell us more about that story.

Will catch up with you later. Hope you have a restful day! Xoxoxo

 

[yiayia3]

I was also awake during my surgery,remember everything drills hammering someone singing,,but was not the least bit worried so must have had enough happy juice,but not enough to sleep Terri

 

[Jozilla]

Oh my God @YiaYia !!! I was so totally assured this could not happen. I wonder how common it is. I still have to have my other knee done later this year! I might as well start worrying now. Lol.

 

[Nana moon 27]

Hi @Jozilla

I was awake by choice not because the anaesthetic didn't work. So please stop worrying x x x

Due to the fact that I am asthmatic, I really did not want to go under general anaesthetic. The risks from general anaesthetic are more increased for this condition. I was given a relaxant. And then I think it was five injections in the spine which actually didn't hurt as such, just a slight sting and pressure. @yiayia3 might remember how many! All I remember was chatting to the nurses making them laugh and being quite chilled about the whole thing really. The only part I really remember was the jolt and thinking to myself, that's the new knee going in, not long now!!! Oh and I heard a noise like an angle grinder and thought there go the bones and had to get my thoughts away quick. The people working on my knee were deep in conversation but I couldn't hear above the construction site noise.

I felt nothing other than that in the entire surgery. It was a good experience, I was scared at first but I would have that kind of anaesthetic again.

Love Nana moon 27 x x x x

 

[Jozilla]

That is amazingly brave thing to do! I am glad to hear it was your choice though and we are lucky to have these choices. I am thrilled I had a spinal but do not remember anything not even the operating room! I still cannot watch it on you tube but will someday.

 

[saltyal]

Anything that stimulates the brain has to cause insomnia

I agree ... my own experience with late-night computer use sure bears that out! ... it seems to keep my feeble brain in gear when really it should be idling in neutral and coasting into Dreamland
Cheers, Al

 

[Karringtyn]

Computer/phone usage does indeed cause insomnia.....Unfortunately it's my connection to the outside world...so I need that right now....I hope I don't jinx myself...but I haven't had a problem with sleep. I actually think I sleep too much.

I guess I was thinking pudding...like yummy thick.....cold....hmmm can't wait to see a picture!!!!

 

[chestnc]

@Nana moon 27, Hi.. I don't think you are sleeping too much. Sleep will probably get better once you go back to work as you will be tired. At least you can rest during the day at this point so I would not worry too much about it now. I would wake up at odd times when I was out on disability, but I would get rest during today. What in the world am I doing up now when I should be asleep, and have an early morning meeting in the am as well. I will catch up tomorrow. Hope you have a great day today. and the knee is feeling better and better. Being on the computer usually makes me sleepy, but I had a long nap this evening. Take good care of yourself.

 

[Nana moon 27]

It's 7.15 am here. No I'm not sleeping great. I keep waking up in a bit of pain in the night, so i don't think that I am taking quite the right level of pain meds. I will sort that out tonight. I hope you sleep well too Christine. Good luck,with the meeting in the morning. Night night to you x Take care love Ann x x x

 

[yiayia3]

@Nana moon 27 so sorry your still not well I hope your G.P can sort you out you must be so fed up with it all,I've not been sleeping well,but not been taking any pain meds at night and I think I still need them I have bad anxiety at the moment and I think it could be from stopping the meds not a good idea, hope you have a nice quiet dayx

 

[Nana moon 27]

Hello,everyone. Thank you for your posts. I'm going to read them properly in a minute, I'm just going to post this first. I'm a bit upset but I'm okay.

I lost my breath while I was talking to the doc. He was very concerned about this. He has prescribed me an extra inhaler to go with the two I already take and the tablet.

He examined my knee, he touched certain points around it and I nearly hit the ceiling with the pain. I have to ice and elevate the knee. Immediately I thought of Dogwheels OS!

As regards the morphine, he asked how much morphine I'd taken. He asked why I'd reduced it so low when I was clearly in pain. I said because I need to come off it, so I can drive and get some sort of normality and that I was so fed up and then I burst in to tears embarrassingly, I sobbed about it. He said like before I cannot get normal until I get well.

I asked if it might be making my asthma worse and he said that was highly unlikely. He said that he was absolutely convinced I wasn't hooked on the morphine because of the fact that I can reduce it and go to him begging to come off it. Needless to say he discussed why the other options were not going to work for me. I just have to accept that this is it until I get outta this pain. He also mentioned about the fact that i cannot take anti inflammatories and this will slow things a bit. I have to do as I'm told. Worse still my husband said I told you so. I think most men can be a bit ... You know.

I have to go back on 28th March @ 8.40 am.

Love Nana moon 27 x x x x

 

[dogwheels]

Hi All - especially @Nana moon 27 - because let's face it folks, we all come on here for a chat, a laugh, a catch up and a whinge but it is HER thread!!!!

Oh Ann I am so sorry that your GP is just making you get back on the same roundabout again - it must be so deeply frustrating. I'm whingeing about having to do nothing, minimal exercises and rest, and yet you are having to do all that, plus contend with your asthma problems and have to take meds that make you feel horrid and you don't want to be taking. I just don't know what to say .........
Then you come online here being lovely to everyone when they are down and experiencing only a smidgeon of what you are having to put up with. You always manage to say the right thing to cheer them up and feel better about their situation. You take pleasure in people's successes and cheer them on when they are pain free and getting back to normal - you never begrudge them their triumphs, even when perhaps you sometimes feel you are not progressing as fast as you would like. You're a legend, there's not a selfish bone in your body, and we've all said it before - you just do not deserve this!
Didn't want to embarrass you with that little outburst - but I'm sure we all think it. Well now I've said it - so there!

In my ideal world, all of us that chat here would meet up. We could put the required number of digits in the air and say 'to heck with that' - to the TKR; the meds; the doctors; the PTs; the ROM meter and the exercises'. Then get sublimely and paralytically sozzled. I bet we would then walk without limping and pain free, bend and straighten perfectly and sleep really well!!

Talk later
X

 

[Chihuahuan]

Hi @Nana moon 27: I feel your frustration.
Maybe it's time to create a place upstairs as a mini-sitting room and kitchen--recruit someone to help set things up.I had thought of a port-a-potty downstairs …..those darn mars bars, and lemonade, just keep popping into my mind.
Perhaps purchase an ice-cooling device for your knee and be 100% committed to healing the way that works for your body and medication conditions. You are unique in this TKR adventure.
I suffer from panic disorder and take an anti-anxiety/depressant med. Perhaps you need something like it until you are well again. There is nothing wrong with getting assistance with emotional health --it is not a "weakness' just how our bodies biochemically respond.

 

[Nana moon 27]

Hi @Chihuahuan a couple of months before I went in for surgery, I had to come off Prozac (fluoxetine). This is an antidepressant. And like you say it was masking the pain because once it was finally out of my system, oh the pain. At that point I became immune to all sorts of painkillers so the decision was made to put me on morphine because nothing worked. I still went to work every single day until the Christmas holidays when the whole College broke up.

You are right about making the upstairs more amenable. I'm going to have a serious look at all that in the morning.

In two weeks time my caravan site will be open and I can go there for a couple of weeks (if I'm not back at work) as everything is on one level and most of the site is flat. If not, maybe a couple of weekends if I am back. I am going to pay ball with the meds now and you know what? If I end up addicted, then the doctors got to sort that out too. I can't imagine being addicted to this stuff it's horrid and I have said this right since November.

I will try and do 100% what my body needs and hope to goodness then I start to improve. Thanks ever so much for your suggestions, they're really helpful and do make sense x x x x love Nana moon27 xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

 

[Nana moon 27]

Hi @dogwheels thank you for your lovely comments I do appreciate them. It's true I do not begrudge anyone a speedy recovery because it could've just as easily been me. Unfortunately not so. I am a great believer in fate and I honestly think there is a reason behind all this slowing me down. Prior to the op, despite being on a stick I still went to work everyday, even when I was on morphine, when I shouldn't have. I lived life at 90 miles an hour, hyperactive, lively and juggling two jobs and home. Then there was all the lesson planning (which I am obsessional about being perfect), the marking and everything else that most teachers/lecturers have to do at home. I was the hub of the household, a live wire, social ant, always in control and organising everything and everybody around me. Now I'm slow, I'm starting to feel a bit old and past it, I don't like how I look any more, despite having my hair done, I'm getting flabby where I've never been flabby before and as for my knee not only is it ugly but the scar has hair! Right down the full length of it like soft dark, baby hair yuk!!!Ha ha seriously, yes hair, right from the top of it, at the top of my knee where I have never had hair before. All it needs now is it's horns lol. For the devil this thing is.

I'm going off track. Anyway I think it's made slow down and reflect, realise what is important and less important. The reason for all this will not be apparent until it is all over and then I'll reflect and work it out.

I am so immensely grateful to you and everyone here who supports me. I am ok. I am feeling sorry for myself but I'll lick these wounds and bounce back like I always do.

If I cheer people up and make them feel good then that is brilliant. That is lovely to know. We all need help and support when going through this. All we are giving is a bit of our time to help others and you cannot put a price on that. I like helping others, it gives me a sense of purpose, I like people, with all their diverse ways and quirks. It livens life up.

I will catch you later and thanks once again for your lovely support x x x I do hope that you are feeling better x x x x even just a modicum x x x x love Nana moon 27 xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

 

[Pumpkin]

Asthma, me too, yikes it is no fun. I do pretty well with it, but take a load of medications to control it.
Glad your meds are being adjusted for pain and for your asthma. Worst triggers for me are smoke and belly laughing . Puff, Puff, then I can .
(I pre treat if people start to tell funny stories).
Now go Rest, Ice, Elevate, and Medicate on Schedule!!!!!