Posted , 11 users are following.
It APPEARS that wearing compression bandages or compression stockings is NOT accepted practice at night/ overnight.
Instructions say to REMOVE THEM before going to sleep at night.
A week ago NOTHING, I mean NOTHING was relieving my swelling, and the swelling was SUBSTANTIAL!!!
( I am five weeks out from my Total Knee Replacement.)
I decided, "What the heck...I need to do SOMETHING! I got out the bandages from my surgery. I had washed them, dried them and thought I would keep them handy for my NEXT surgery on my other knee a few months from now.
My plans changed when I started handling them.
OK...so I TRY to follow rules. I TRY to do what I am TOLD to do by package instructions and by doctors.
However, there comes a time when desperate situations require desperate measures.
I put on those compression bandages and WENT TO BED.
(I have to be honest...I stayed awake WAITING and EXPECTING something BAD to happen.
Guess what?
I drifted off to sleep, slept through the normal time for my pain medication, AND I woke up with FAR LESS SWELLING than I had had in many days!
Yes, you read that correctly...FAR LESS SWELLING!
I have been wearing the compression bandages at night for a week. Each morning my knee AND my whole leg feels better.
I am able to move more, am able to take less pain medication, and at PT sessions my lessened swelling has helped me do a much more successful session achieving more bend and more straightening.
All of these things have helped me be able and feel confident walking around in the house and even out in the yard WITHOUT. my CANE.
I wanted to post this because I think that sometimes you just have to take a risk. I did, and IT REALLY HELPED ME!
(I also have faulty valves in my veins due to bad varicose veins. My aches from THAT have also lessened greatly.)
I hope this helps others. Pain and swelling are NASTY THINGS! I am hoping to find ways to GET RID OF THESE NASTY THINGS!
1 like, 33 replies
donna4434 cheryl90571
Posted
cheryl90571 donna4434
Posted
You make some great points! Sometimes you just have to GO FOR IT!
Oldfatguy1 cheryl90571
Posted
cheryl90571 Oldfatguy1
Posted
You have gone through SO MUCH! It must have been an incredible challenge!
Have you always been such a strong and determined person? You probably have. You contribute so much to this site. Thank you for your experience, your WISDOM, and your sincerity. I have learned a great deal from you already, and I know MANY OTHERS have, too.
Thank you!
Oldfatguy1 cheryl90571
Posted
While in college I worked in a state run mental facility. One of the wards I was assigned to for a long time was the medical surgical unit. While there I met a girl about my own age who had attemptedd suicide twice, once causing her to be admitted and the 2nd time while a patient. She was a plain girl in every sense. Never wore makeup, hair just sort of chopped off and hanging. There is the old saying that the eyes are the Windows to the soul and this would be the person they used for coming up with that adage. No smile, no life. At night when the work was done I would spend a little time visiting with her as she was confined to bed with both legs and ankles shattered. She had tried to jump from a 3rd. Story stair case but only made it one and half floors before hitting the railing and bouncing around finally hitting a banister and marble landing. As it turned out, both parents were high school teachers so involved with there careers they had no time for her. They had her in school year round and at age 17 she had completed high school and almost 2 years at the largest state university. Never had a date or even been out with a boy socially and frankly as smart as she was had absolutely no social skills. She began to trust me and ask a million questions about life. Of course at 20 and rarely been out of my home state I was a real fountain of misinformation. Her parents were prohibited from visiting her as they bullied her every time They came. But the long and short of all this, I discovered just being there for someone so they could open up a bit was the most gratifying thing I had ever done. I was engaged and going to get married after the semester and change jobs so I had to be very open and honest with her so she didn't think she was being run out on by her only friend and did succeed in helping her learn how to communicate. Her broken bones healed and she was transferred to another ward so I lost contact. I came away learning far more tan did she.....I alwYs asked the Lord, when it came time for kids, thAt he would give me the wisdom to k ow the difference between guiding my kids and bullying them through life. As it turned out the best thing that happened to them was I wound up traveling for a living and was gone from home a lot an they were fortunate enough to have a mother that was a genuine blessing and they didn't have to grow up surviving all my misguided blunders. Like I've always said, my kids turned out pretty darn good in spite of me.
cheryl90571 Oldfatguy1
Posted
Funny how things turn out. My mother was a bully and made my life difficult. I always was spiritually strong as YOU are, and in many ways I am a better person BECAUSE I had to learn how to bob and weave very early in my life. I also had the most amazing dad who got bullied right along with me. We became very close as together we dodged many salvos launched by Mom. He taught me how to never retaliate but to try to understand that every bully is SCARED TO DEATH that someone will find out that they are really very WEAK.
I'm glad things worked out well for you, your wife, and your children. Again, God's plans are PERFECT yet rarely understood by us. He knows ALL the parts. We only know about a few.
Our trials are merely God's tests. I'd say you are passing YOUR tests with flying colors!
mandy35295 cheryl90571
Posted
kathryn42410 mandy35295
Posted
Oldfatguy1 kathryn42410
Posted
yviemx cheryl90571
Posted
cheryl90571 yviemx
Posted
She did this a second time later in the week.
On the second week home she took out my staples. After that I was without any bandages, and my incision was left open to get air.
I was fortunate to not have any oozing or infection or pus. There WAS one stray STAPLE that ALL of us had missed that the Home Care Supervisor found eleven days after the other staples had been removed. She had me call my surgeon, and he removed the staple that next day.
There was no mention of wearing any stockings or bandages, so I just washed them and put them away. I figured that since my incision was now closed, staples OUT, and scabs were in tact that I should just go about my day bandage/stocking free.
I have had vein ablation on that same leg two years before (laser surgery to remove the saphenous (sp.) vein) with subsequent shots to eliminate spider veins. I wore very tight thigh-high stockings for several days after each of those procedures.
I guess the big issue is avoiding blood clots. If you are bedbound like right after surgery in the recovery room they want to avoid those blood clots while you aren't moving.
After you are awake, moving a bit, the stockings and bandages play their part to protect your incision and also help with circulation.
As we move more to walk around, do exercises in bed, HEAD TO THE BATHROOM every half hour(!), etc. I guess WE are providing the movement to increase circulation.
That is my understanding about things.
The swelling issue is a strange one. Rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE) seems to be the magic formula. Sometimes these helped. Sometimes they didn't. I just kept rotating between them.
Just yesterday I heard from my Physical Therapist that you WANT some swelling as you heal BECAUSE it is the body's natural protection from the injuries and trauma caused by surgery.
I think there is SO MUCH going on while we heal from all this! There are so many things to have to be concerned with as well. It is like having a new FULL-TIME JOB!!!! I had no idea how much effort it would take! I have had three abdominal surgeries (two C-sections and a Myomectomy which is removal of a uterine fibroid) I was back to doing pretty much everything as usual after about five days, and two of those surgeries came with BABIES BEING DELIVERED! I guess I just was NOT expecting so much recovery time/recovery issues etc. with THIS surgery.
sharon52158 cheryl90571
Posted
linda04825 cheryl90571
Posted
cheryl90571 linda04825
Posted
I know what you mean about the stiffness.
Yes, there is discomfort following surgery, but the PAIN is different...more manageable somehow.
Yesterday every part of my body ached due to my arthritis EXCEPT my new knee!
veronica91735 cheryl90571
Posted
irish_linda veronica91735
Posted
irish_linda veronica91735
Posted
mandy35295 irish_linda
Posted
Join this discussion or start a new one?
New discussion Reply